Chilliwack Airport pie attracts visitor

click enlarge

The pope blew in the other day to check out the world's best pie....he also wanted a picture taken with a Flat Earth member in good standing....this will have to do until we find one.....

wise ones

clik to engorge


more pix of flat earthers at the coffee shop....man being interviewed was unqualified as well as the guy in jail (past photos)...they are just a little to slick lookin.

embearassing

clik pix to enlarge

Here is a cool story.... yesterday a friend of mine sent me this email with the pictures ...no photo fooling here....these are legit...

--------------------------------------------------------------

Who says you have to go into the wilderness to see bears? The pictures were taken from Kevin's patio door at his residence in Maple Ridge. Hank is the dog and, at last report, is still alive. Interesting that this is a densely populated residential area.

This fellow was in our backyard and wouldn't leave. I kicked a soccer ball at him and hit him twice; he wasn't bothered. Alex opened the sliding door and Hank charged up the hill (stupid move; he said he forgot; we had some words after). We were screaming at Hank to get down. He only listened when the bear went after him. The bear was bringing garbage from our neighbours yard to eat in ours.

Chilliwack Airport

clik pix to enlarge


I reckon I will show off our illustrious group...most all members of the flat earth society except the guy in jail...he has not qualified

Chilliwack Airport Coffee Shop

A couple of pictures from the Chilliwack Airport where I regularly attend a daily coffee break....It is a well know fact that great
knowledge is spread from many scholars therefore creating a wonderful school of learning.

often come down from Cheam mountain

This is the Airport in Chilliwack.....Jon, a Co-owner of the Airport Coffee Shop is seen confronting a moose at the front of the building....These creatures often come down from Cheam mountain and make a nusance of themselves.....Jon tried in vain keep the animal away......eventually it was removed by the RCMP who have a detachment close by.


There is a possibility this story is not true.

up the creek

..."A Pike" she said..what? ..a pike..a Jackfish...

clik to enlarge

1944


Dad decided to go back to La Riviere.....A small town in south Manitoba..(that is the area he is from,10 miles or so from mums town of Crystal City)..anyway he took Faye and I with him..wow very exciting...A TRAIN...2 days and 2 nights....the trains were something in those days...they carried lots of passengers.....a regular choo choo...steam engine...that time was probably close to the last of them...the cars were quite posh...thick upholstery, carpet floor.......they were passenger cars ...built to keep lots of travellers happy....Conductors....guys shouting " All Aboard"...Newsies (selling newspapers and treats) waving candy bars and comics books at the kids... the kids making life miserable for parents who did not respond...oh boy...Faye and I were excited that day....g'bye mum ...waving out the window , we could hear..CHUG...then another CHUG....then another, only faster..until it was full steam ahead and we were ripping up the track at 50 miles an hour...there goes Chilliwack...there goes fields and cows..there goes Rosedale...uncle, aunt and cousins live on a farm there...(Johnsons)..away we go...ok where do we sleep..oh right here..ok that works for me...don't even have to get undressed...some people had berths...that's kind of a bedroom ..only lots of people in it ...beds with curtains on them...they cost more...we stayed in our seats..they were just fine...cushioned..rent a pillow from the newsy...... 2 days later,educated to the ways of a train and lots of scenery stored in our heads, we reach Winnipeg....We stayed at relatives who drove us to La Riviere....(100 miles)...That's where I met Grama Legg (her remarried name)...she looked about 100 years old and had a Hardware store in town...the hardware,cafe and bus stop was the town,only a block away to her house...it was warm summer , with lots of hills, trees, and a river...it was called the Pembina river...Grama liked to fish...and she took me fishing...that was so cool...she had an extra pole for me...we walked lots more than a few blocks to the river..through the nice countryside...I plastered her with questions cuz I was syked to go fishing...like bursting...this is where this whole fishing thing started...our poles were long bamboo canes..probably 14 feet...they had a line of pre determined length (braided nylon) tied to the hook...that was it....ok... she pulled out a jar of pickled minnows ,took one out and showed me how to thread it on the hook...now..watch me cast she said...and held the pole back with the line dangling and some laying on the grass...ok gently just swing it out there..and away it goes..whoa..that's cool...ok my turn...oh man ..hey I did it..oh gawd this is cool...But think it. don't say it to loud...cuz gawd could get me a bar of soap in the mouth from that old gal..fishing is what she liked best after religion...I learned the soap thing on another occasion.....
Wow we are fishing...The river is like, very slow, kind of a tea brown color,high bushy banks..except her fishing spot was grassy with no bush in the way for about 100 feet...well as luck would have it ...my fate was sealed when my pole jerked down and I hollered I got one....lord have mercy (Quietly)...this is oogly boogly time , look at him splash..."Go back, go back, go back ..and I did..dragging the prize up onto the grass..Grama kicking at it to get it higher on the bank..oh boy that's a beauty..and she was excited too..a smile I will not forget..."A Pike" she said..what? ..a pike..a Jackfish...its 3 or 4 lbs ..it's a pike....oh this was better than she expected...apparently she rarely got em that big at that place...oh gawd..oops..gosh.....I was going nuts......
Well a couple of happy fishers walked home that afternoon and we announced to everyone we seen of the great deed performed that day....My aunt did the cooking at Gramas home..She lived there...and I followed her all around the big kitchen while she prepared the great fish for supper....
I guess that was it for me...if all I ever had to do in my life was fish..that would be fine...and we could go fishing again tomorrow...


That Aunt Emma...just as lone tribute ...could make the best donuts in the world...and holes too..she just didn't make some she made lots...a big brown crock full.

Cheam Mountain

clik to enlarge

Cheam mountain along with everything else has experianced tremendous growth ......for many thousands of years it remained in an inactive period but since the first settlers and especialy since I was a youngster it has participated in the same progress as the rest of this fast growing community and valley.....Cheam stands at the eastern entrance to the interior of British Columbia and the start of the Journey to the Atlantic Ocean.

har de har





Free Counter

easy traffic day

only memories

click pix to enlarge

These pictures are bit of a stretch when the British Columbia Electric Rail Passenger Station was built...(about 1910) through to the late fortys when the Bus Building replaced it ...up until the 80s and 90s....then the whole area was covered over with The Rhombus Hotel, Salish Park and pond , a road and large shopping area. There only memories of the former.

you shoulda flipped a penny

clik pix to enlarge

Growing up in chilliwack

We finished our newly discovered pomogrants , we let Tippy lick the last of them and then ran to the back of the post office and chucked the rinds in one of the animal pens at the auction barns ...that took only a few seconds ...Okay ...a few doors down and into the Hardware.....Hey Gary...my mom is in here...Hi mom....were here to sell our whiskey bottles.....yeah mom....where are you going....hmmm....okay, see you.....I guess she is in a hurry, Gary...yeah ...anyway the clerk counted out the bottles and gave me 16 cents. I asked for 2 nickles and six pennies so I could give Gary his half plus 2 cents for the pomogrant...Okay, but Im short 1 cent...naw, half a cent Gary....okay, but how do we do that....I asked the clerk ...he thought about that then said he was busy....Okay .....out we go...Tippy is waiting patiently at the door, drooling on the glass.....Well, if I give you a penny then I am short....well ya.... that's okay....o sure it is...naw, we can flip for it......what's that....flip ...flip.....if its heads I win and the other side you win.....win what.......who gets the extra penny ......oh.....when you are in grade two you get to know this stuff......right now I have the penny....but it cost me a nickle ...I know but I gave you 2 cents ...I know that...it's not enough.....ohh here, you take the penny ......okay ,that sounds more like it, now lets flip.......oh boy, okay.......I toss a nickle up and when it lands it rolls along the sidewalk ....we are not far behind it when it falls off and into a drain by the bike stand...... we are on our knees, looking at it ... not far down , but a grate covers the drain....you shoulda flipped a penny......hmmm, yeah, I guess.......Gary , you and Tippy stay here ...I am going to find something to get that 5 cents with. I took off down between the Post office and The Progress building and quickly checked all the garbage cans I could see along behind the stores.....no luck at first until I got to the U and I cafe....there was a couple of chopsticks in with their stuff....I got a brainstorm and lit off back to my pals......ok......hey,... it worked ...easy too...just pinched the sticks over that nickle and I was reasonably wealthy again.......I was so relieved I just gave the penny to gary....then we talked about what we were going to buy today.........

we have to sell our bottles

click pix to enlarge

Growing up in Chilliwack 1945

One bright sunny Saturday morning ...I was just finishing breakfast of hot coco and a bowl of bread with milk and sugar on it......Mum asked me where I was going....Over to get Gary Hogg...we have to sell our bottles......In the last few days we had collected some bottles after school and it was time to sell them and divy the money....That was okay with mom...she knew we would be busy doing something on a nice Saturday morning......I go out the back door and into the attached shed,I say to Hi to my dog Tippy ,..he is dancing about and trying to lick my face , he seems to know we are going on an some adventure....
I grab my wagon and I pull the cargo out to the front gate......yoicks, the road had just been tarred .....they used to do that to keep the dust down......a truck with a pot load of hot tar oil would spray the gravel roads.....oh man, that fresh stuff is sticky....we'll have to walk on the path sidewalk to the town road and back down the other side to Gary's place...but that was only a short block ...anyway that's what we did.....Gary is at his front door and saying bye to his mum.....Next door to Gary's place is Johnson Palmer Motors .....I wave to my dad through the big side door as we pass, ...he is working over the fender of a new 1942 dodge (there were no cars made in 43, 44 and 45) We head down to Kenny's at the Orchard Park....that is another block on the sidewalk alongside the paved town road, its called Yale road...and we cross at the end of Fletcher St....so we don't have to walk on that sticky tarred road.....we have 12 beer bottles and 9 pop bottles and Kenny cheefully gave us 38 cents ....He is laughing and says...I guess you two Garys will have to take the whiskey bottles to the hardware....yep Mr. Wilkenson....we know that ...they sell turpentine in them.....we have collected 16 bottles and were gonna take em to Marshel Wells .... we only get 1 cent each for them, but we've got enough now to make it worthwhile....We say "so long" to Kenny ....Gary says....not bad.. eh, Gary .... thats 17 cents each so far, and we head back down town yaking back and forth... pulling my wagon and Tippy running along with us... We pass Johnston Palmer Garage , cross Nowell st. and stop at On Lees Vegetable market.... hey Gary .... what are those roundy things in that bin.....I dunno....so I ask the old Chinese man and he says.... Pomogrants.... Pomogrants, Gary.....wanna try one? Very good, very good and On Lee hands me one.....5 cents, ok.....We shrugg, ok...why not.....He takes the nickle from Gary and goes to the till table and cuts the fruit in half for us.....Hey, thanks a lot and we clumsily work on those until we get to the Post office where we got comfortable sitting on the middle steps to the outside letter slot....That was a great place to watch the people go by and the parade of cars that stop at the angle parking for a quick run to the post office. Tippy sat at drooled at us while we dug away at the pomogrants with our jacknives. Marshell Wells hardware is just a couple of stores away... towards 5 corners...

her nose was nearly touching the tire

Chilliwack, British Columbia is a city of 70,000 located 60 miles inland from Vancouver, in the Fraser valley on the banks of that same famous salmon river. Snow capped mountains, the Vedder River and Cultus Lake are some of a few things that enhance this rural agricltural area......less expensive housing and outdoor activities as well as proximity to the city contribute to this areas fast growth.

1957

I had a job working at Butchart Motors....I am the lot guy ....I clean up the used cars so they look clean and bright for resale.....Jobs are tough to get but when the last lot man quit my dad got me on at Butchart's working with him....Dad fixed the used cars up and got them running properly...he was very good at this and could use his bag of tricks to keep those old cars in shape..... I worked there in the fall of 57 and spring 58.....There was a separate garage at the back of the Plymouth dealership to work on the used cars....One day in Feb...58 this little female Labrador like dog shows up...just a pup.....maybe 6-9 months old......I really take a shine to this mutt..she looks just like a lab but only half the size .....so I make a fuss and we make friends right away.....We leave after work and the dog is still there...oh well...she will go home now...somebody must be worried about a good dog like that.....Back to work the next day and after a short while guess who shows up....Hey... you rascal...you still here....what's with you....she is excited to see us and I am starting to think dog....I like this dog....hmmm what is going to happen here? I get the feeling I am going to own a dog....she hangs around all day and follows me everywhere....I take her home that night (I am living at home ...with mum and dad)...the little black lab passes inspection with my mum......But it is your dog and you will have to look after it...you know...that stuff...Okay mum..thanks .....that is great.....but let's not get to positive on this, that little pooch could run home tomorrow..........but...... she did not....I took her to work everyday ...nothing ...I heard nothing...I turned off the radio and listened for ads...nope...nothing...hey I owned a dog....and a fine dog she was.....she had 1 litter before I had her spay.......I was as excited as an expectant father.....that was sure fun......she was with us 11 years....what a great pal...the kids were born and grew up with "Pepper"...she went everywhere with me.......even to work.......When I apprenticed at a sign shop on kingsway Street in Vancouver I often left her in the building overnight....she was okay with that and seemed to know that was her job....she always looked for me out the front door, on busy Kingsway......one morning I came around to the door ,but decided to go to the hangout coffee shop across the road.....I seen out of the corner of my eye that she had watched me cross....just then a co worker, Max, went into the sign shop.......I was across the road ...there were cars, lots of cars swishing by on the wet pavment ...Oh gawd...I seen her bolt out of the door when Max opened it.....to follow me.....then a big car came to a sliding screeching halt...that was it...I had lost her......my god...the traffic stopped...I ran over to the front of that car and she was flat on the ground ...like flat, with her head between her paws...her nose was nearly touching the tire.......she did not move....like she was frozen....I reached down and picked her up.....she was not touched...not even a bit.....I could not believe the luck....Wow, I thanked the shook up young man driving and carried her back to the shop.....a close call.....she had an extra life that day.....she was a knowing little mutt.....
We were fishing hundreds of times...she would cross the river anywhere....If I lost track of Pepper out on the river ...she would go back to where the car was parked or head to the Riverside Coffee Shop...other fishermen friends would pick her up and take her to the store....that was one of her bad points ..she loved to wander on the river....she knew she would get in trouble but she wandered anyway....but it did not worry me too much, she always returned to either the car or coffee shop....she probably did that one out of 10 trips....she learned quickly and loved to please...........I could tell a lot of Pepper stories...It was a very sad day when she was too sick to go on....My friend Lew took care of the "arrangements"..I could not do it....and Lew had a pretty tough time too.

late with my post

this do fer a while....

the old post office

click pix to enlarge

When I was 8 years old we lived very close to town...practically in town I guess...the garage where my dad worked was only a 3 house block away....It was where the post office is now......but I wanted to talk about the old post office, vintage 1911.....another great building ...and in hindsight I am sure that some people wish it were still there.....It was a fine red brick building , as you can see.....but somehow in the name of progress was torn down in the seventies and replaced with another structure...(people got a heck of a deal on red bricks and I bought a wooden beam about 16' x 4"x 12" for 2 bucks).....well that is spilt milk I reckon, but I have good memories of that building. Every time we (my pals) went downtown we would usually hop up the steps and go in and see what was doing...read the wanted posters on the wall and check things out ...the floors were white tile and people clip clopped about...it was cool to look at the glass windowed mailboxes..... there were hundreds of them..... I liked run errands for the mail and open the numbered mailbox with a key....of course we could always see if there was mail because of the glass.....actually you could look right through and see the workers on the other side...then out the other door and hop down those steps....or maybe take a run at the outside steps and give the brass letter slot box a flip...I dunno why we did that but there was something about looking in that thing.

quite a story

click pix to enlarge

Chilliwack's first businesses were located at Chilliwack Landing, located at the foot of Wellington Avenue on the Fraser River. Beginning in 1858, at the time of the Fraser River gold rush, Chilliwack Landing was where the riverboats landed and served a small farming community growing nearby. It just was not a big enough area.....so about 1890 they moved a church from the top end of Harrison lake (Port Douglas) and then plopped it down where the Landing road connected with the new Yale road.
Now that must be quite a story.....I have to find out more about that, but I have read somewhere that it was moved on large canoes and pushed and pulled it to Five Corners.... okay....40 miles down the Harrison Lake ....across the Fraser River and then about 5 miles overland.....wow.....this became St. Thomas' Church. Soon after, a blacksmith shop, public school, several houses, a flourmill, a general store and McKeever's Hotel clustered around the church. This section of Chilliwack remains the commercial heart of the community....Five Corners.

In 1909 it was then moved about 4 blocks to its present location...Gore and Princess Ave.

The new court house is at Five Corners now.

The new Yale road to the interior shut down the water route up the Harrison Lake and Port Douglas became a ghost town , apparently there no signs of a town there at all now.

A Building To Be Proud Of

click to enlarge

The old Chilliwack City Hall still stands proud after almost 100 years...I reckon us locals take it for granted but it must be a fine site to newcomers as it graces the western entrance to the main part of the city.

This building is now a fine museum. http://chilliwack.museum.bc.ca/

--------------------------------------------------------

5 corners

click to enlarge

aw' well

Geeze what a scary team too root for........

the Hart building

Click pix for large view

The Hart building was built in 1910 one of a few cool accomplishments at this time ....It was the key building situated at our famous five corners...

The building was taken down about 15 tears ago and a parking lot awaited the construction of the new court house...It was completed in may 2002

These pictures show some changes over the years. yup

Cawley's Grocery

Cawley's Cash Groceries was located where the trees are in the top picture, which I took today.


Cawley's Grocery was only a half block from our house in 1945.....I went in there often to buy treats or run erands for mum or the next door neighbours.....this picture does not indicate any activity ....Cawley's was probably empty at the time it was taken....that looks like a for sale sign in the window....anyway, when I was a kid it was a
rural store that was coming to the end of it's time....Mr. Cauley stocked all the essentials in there.....like a general store I reckon....it was kind of dark in there with the black oil floors and goods stacked up all over the place....there was a old pleasant food, feed odor that was part of the atmosphere of the place ....... Spenser's and Overwaitea were the main suppliers in 1945 .... soon to be followed by Safeway and Super Valu...... At one time I suppose Cauley's store was the main attraction for groceries and feed supplies in this area...... It was on the eastern side of the cattle auction barn property.