someone said watch out

Growing up in Chilliwack.................1948......Fraser River Flood

Anyone from that era will remember the 1948 flood...we were lucky the water never came into Chilliwack..but it got close...Sardis was high and dry as well...but it was coming up quickly the day Dad took us to "Chinatown"( a name given to an area just west of the dyke ...I guess at one time there was more than a few chinese living there).... We went to see how far the water was rising...there were about a hundred people gathered, curious as to the water height....we were walking on the right side of the road ...It was quiet with people talking in groups discussing the complications of the flood ...a loud motor noise started up..it alarmed me....someone said watch out for...and for some reason I ran across the road and right into the path of an accelerating motorcycle...wow..everything was spinning ..I heard someone screaming....it was probably me.....then this shape heading for me ....oh my.... black out time...only for a short while....then I realized Faye was carrying me and there was cries of concern from mum and dad as She rushed me off to the car...I ended up with some skookum cuts and bruises, also a black eye where the handle landed..but I reckon other than a good shaking and my pants torn off...It was a matter of waiting for the cuts and scrapes to heal up...after a night in the hospital.... Dad sent us off to West Vancouver to stay at their friends place..(this had two purposes....a place to recuperate and a safe haven from the flood threat...their friends had immigrated from Manitoba about the same time...and had been very successful...they had no kids and lived in a very posh house in West Vancouver...man, he had a pool table.....and you could look over all of Vancouver from the large patio......... Ozzie and Helen Ashhall were their names...he took us for rides in his big Buick...and I had my own room...it was like the movies..I could hang out on the patio and scan the harbor with binoculars.....man wot a view.....that would keep me fascinated for hours...all the boats and stuff to look at..so my memories of the flood are mostly of that incident and West Vancouver...although I can remember Dad coming home tired from driving a truck. He worked with many voulunteers keeping the dikes built up..It was a tense time and this year the river won and cut Chilliwack off from the west. Many of my friends spent time filling sandbags at the last of the fight ..When the dyke broke, cutting access to Vancouver and the people just waited it out. The river soon crested and went back to its course ..leaving a real mess ...but as most big deals, people worked hard and cleaned up and rebuilt, soon it faded away to just become a memory.
I remember the poor guy I ran in front of...his name was Willard Webb..he worked for my dad at Main Street Motors...(now Liquidation World)..He felt aufull about the accident..awkward huh...my fault, but you can imagine...well, it ended up okay...the cuts heal.
That old Garage had an upstairs ..it was HUGE...and nothing in it except a few old motors and stuff to good to throw away...there was also a room at the front with a window...we figured it must have been a club like the Lions or Kinsmen.. there were playing cards and papers and calendars in cracks and behind walls ..anyway we had a great hiding place..there was a long set of steps up the back..dad gave me a key..very cool for me and my pals' we had a special clubhouse.
We had a slogan in Chilliwack...Lets skate in 48...our own ice arena..well, that didn't happen ....it was started ....and nibbled away at...and finally became a fact in 1958.....now that era is also past and there is a parking lot on that location...a parking lot for a huge new ice arena....