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Crescent Beach pennant - 1973
photo by Styrous®
Early in 1973 I fell in love and in May of that year decided to ride up on my Beemer to be with my paramour who lived in Crescent Beach south of Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada.
Crescent Beach pennant detail - 1973
detail photo by Styrous®
When
I got there I helped out in a beach side fast food stand at the end of
Beacher Street, the main drag of the town. People from Vancouver
would come for the weekend. The town was the summer vacation spot for
them, so, the stand was open seven days a week (no days off).
It was an eye opening experience for me as
I'd only lived in a big city my whole life. Before the summer season actually started, the weekends would have a
couple of thousand people a day from the city but during the week the population of the
town was a couple of hundred people. I discovered everybody knew everybody and everybody knew what everybody was doing with/to whom.
At that time, there was a general store, a few shops and not much more, not even a gas station; we'd have to drive into White Rock
for gas, so, our food stand was the major game in town where people would hang out and there was a delightful and amazing array of personalities that did.
A
kid who was still in high school would come by everyday for his
hamburger, fries (more about them later) and shake, then he'd sit
in front and smoke his joint while he ate and we would talk. I don't think I ever saw him
straight; he was constantly out of sync with everything and his eyes
were permanently bloodshot. He was a sweet guy, though.
Then
there was the village Romeo, a hunk! He would come by with his girlfriend from
time to time to eat, chat, hang out, 'n smoke (I discovered everyone in town
either smoked or drank something). He'd come up to the window, which was
a couple of feet higher
than
people so they had to look up to place their order, and he'd say, "Hey,
Tits!"
I worked out and, in addition, scooping frozen, rock-hard ice cream for a
couple of hundred ice cream cones a day (I came to hate ice cream) guaranteed I had decent arms and pecs . . .
. . . BUT, that was the last thing I ever
expected to hear from a straight guy. There were many other folks with many stories, some bizarre, some not.
I
had to go to the food stand at 6 each morning to peel the potatoes for
the fries for the day and get other stuff ready. About that potato
peeler! It and I had a very special relationship. We hated each other! It was a huge metal
barrel that rotated the potatoes inside for the purpose of peeling off
the skins. However, as I had to get other things ready while
they were tumbling around in the barrel, I'd forget about them; what started out as 2
by 6 inch russet potatoes ended up ground down to 1 inch balls. Have no idea HOW many times I did that. Kind of
rough on the profit margin.
The
thing I will always cherish the best, though, are the mornings when I would
wake up before dawn. Before going to the shack to get everything ready for the day and peel the potatoes to
be made into French fries . . .
. . . I'd walk down to the beach. The village was on the edge of a
pine forest on Boundary Bay so I could smell the scent of the bay and the fragrance of the forest. I will never forget that magic combination of aromas.
photographer unknown
Boundary Bay is actually very far from the ocean so there are almost never
any waves; mostly the water just laps at the beach. When the tide goes
in or out the beach slowly fills or empties like a bathtub; I've never
seen anything like it. I have photos I took but it was pre-digital and they are packed in a box somewhere with thousands of others I've taken in my life.
Crescent Beach has been a summer destination for centuries.
In pre-colonial times, it was the location of a significant temporary
summer camp for area aboriginals. The tidal mudflats were a good clam
digging area. Wild berries, especially cranberries, and a weir site were located at nearby Nicomekl River and Serpentine River areas. The area was part of Snokomish territory until a smallpox epidemic in 1850 forced the survivors and their lands to be amalgamated into the Semiahmoo First Nation. Musqueam bands also travelled to use the lands seasonally.
photographer unknown
Artifacts
such as arrowheads and jade have been found on the beach in the modern
era. First Nations' burial sites were uncovered in 1970 by sewer
excavation.
However, it seems since that time almost fifty years ago, Crescent Beach has grown up with condos, hotels, stores, etc. (What to see . . link below). In 2012, Beach House Theatre began annual production of Shakespeare plays in August in open-ended tents similar to the Bard on the Beach festival in Vancouver. In 2015, Beach House Theatre began performing plays other than Shakespeare, starting with The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde. It's come a long way!
And,
as they say, "Shit" happens. From May I was trapped in a three room shack with
four room mates for five months and the flame of love blew out (Vietnam link below). Need I say more? The romance/fantasy only lasted until September when I hopped on my bike and headed back to San Francisco.
But while it was
happening, it was terrific and I'll always have fond memories of my
summer affair in Crescent Beach!!!
Viewfinder link:
Crescent Beach pennant detail - 1973
detail photo by Styrous®
Oh, Canada!
Styrous® ~ Thursday, May 20, 2021
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