there was always some brave soul who jumped in right away...

The great old Cultus Lake Tower.........click to enlarge

click to enlarge


This is Patten's old place now about 55 years later...I just snapped these pics on march 1, 2008

Growing up in Chilliwack.............1951

In grades 7 ,8 and 9 we had a show at Patten's place for a while...that is Bob and Don Patten...they lived on the corner of Nowell and Princess, I lived around the corner on Fletcher Street and Bill Maxwell lived east of town on Mcnaught road....anyway in those days before cars and girls, we spent a lot of time at Patten's.....There is a car garage and a driveway that we used as a basketball court...it was not hard to get 4 to 6 kids for a game of basketball....Dr. Patten put the hoop up on the garage for us and it certainly did get lots of use....there was a open lot across the road that we used to play ball on at times ..but the road seemed like as good a place as any ....the yard at the back (beside the basketball court) was large, plenty of room to horse around in.....For a while we had a great thing going on the driveway with marble races....we built a tapered raceway out of plywood and boards and whatever came to mind...with obstacles like nails ,holes, runways, pipes ...it was as much fun building the course as it was racing the marbles...this thing would end up 16-18 feet long...we would bet pennies on the outcome..hey, that was great fun...when the weather was not cooperating we headed indoors....for awhile there was a great railway set up...it used a whole room...Doc. Patten and the boys set it up....wow that was something....it was later taken down and a ping pong table took it's place in that main room ....while a couple played ping pong, two others would play chess in the living room...yep chess..we played lots of that....for a while Patten's seemed to be the place to go after school and Saturdays....of course we were not there all the time...We had Cultus in the summer and either rode our bikes, took a bus, or most of the time hitch hiked to the lake.....We had paper routes ...and often went to the lake twice a day....or got them done as soon as possible then away we go.....The Paramount Theatre was just over there....one short block....we could see the tall sign from Patten's house ....and we took in lots of movies. Hitch hiking the 9 miles to Cultus lake started with a walk to the city gates...that's where OK Tire is now...we had a towel and bathing suit under our arms........most days it did not take long to get a ride at least part way...it usually took a few vehicles to get there and it was cool when some driver was going all the way to the lake....Quite often that would be some teenager who had done his share of hitching before having a car to drive.........When we got to the lake we would head for the public restrooms near the rink and change...they were kept surprisingly clean and it worked well for us.....then off to the lake.....there was always some brave soul who just jumped in right away...there were various ways ,slow torture down a ladder...or start off on the diving tower or slide....that great diving tower was not always there....when I first learned to swim at 6 or 7 there were just a square of logs off the boathouse, and a 3 meter tower on floats that you had to swim too..(another story)..... The big tower was 10 meters...what a beaut......... 2 dive boards on the deck.....then steps up the tower... 3 meters..... now a board on one side and jump off on the other ....up the steps to the 5 meter.....another platform (hey its lookin a long ways down)....ok up another 5 meters to the top...it was absolutely scary up there the first time....you could see all over...it was worth the climb just to look....well all the kids paced themselves on the various heights and could they dive off or jump off and it got quite competitive.....flinging ones self off the top took many many days or years of careful decision making....rag tag was played ...a little dangerous because of slipping....the lifeguards were busy slowing us down and keeping the game in the water.........after swimming and climbing we were tired ...pooped....we would lay down on the hot wharf or a towel and peer through the cracks at the water slapping the undersides, the sun warming our backs and taking the shivers away.....what a great place to grow up......

This is Christies .....famous hot dog stand. It was gone by the time we were hitch hiking to the lake.....but I can remember Dad taking Mum, Faye and I to Christie's for a foot long hot dog.......the city gates were just in front of that car on the right......I think it the hot dog stand closed just after the war....maybe on the same trip he would drive us to the railway station so we could watch the locomotive come in....that was a pastime that was done many times....Those big steam trains were something to see....there were always some people boarding or disembarking...the conductor called out after he put the foot stool back in..then the chugging would start......some kids put pennys on the track...I never did

I just remembered a time when I was about 12 and lived on School Street.....I was with Jim Edwards (14 years old) and his little brother 5 years and 2 sisters, about 9 and 10....We had hitched to the lake ,spent the day....and had a really tough time getting a ride home....nobody would pick us up..just too many kids.........we sat on the bridge for an hour ..so we decided to walk....after half way through the mountain road, cars seemed in short supply, and it was getting late....so that called for desperate measures...we finally heard a car,so we hid in the woods and put 5 year old Tracey out on the road with his thumb out...well, this model A Ford 4 door stops...he is bewildered...but he caught on when 4 more kids pile in with Tracey....I can even remember the guys name...Mr. Bumgartner...my dad fixed his car for him....Mr. Bum made a fuss for a while but he had no trouble with our prank..he thought it was funny...he would surely have picked us up anyway........we had a great ride in that old car and he took us all the way to our corner...