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March 1995 WESTVANCOUVERHISTORICALSOCIETY Page 9 A MEMBER CONTRIBUTION My Early Roots in West Vancouver By: Naomi (Peggy Cornish) GiUison Editor's Note: Naomi sent us this contribution in the Spring of 1993 and we have had difficulty in finding a slot for it due to all the Museum activity. We apologise for the delay Naomi and will try to be more prompt in the future. We would like to remind readers that these contributions from the past are personal memories and as such may differ in detail from the recollections of others. We are always pleased to print a different point of view or add further details on a subject without passing judgement. Does this story ring a few bells somewhere? Did it for you? Please keep your contributions coming, Contributions Editor Barbara Johnson My family arrived in West Vancouver in 1921. My parents were Clifford and Mary Cornish. My two brothers were Jim and Geoffrey and myself Peggy (Naomi). We first lived in a cottage in East Beach. My parents owned the little cottage but the land belonged to a Mr. Ginsberger - a Swiss from whom they rented the land. We had come to the coast because of my Mother’s health but my Father continued to teach in Winnipeg for some years after. He conunuted back and forth by train in the holidays., My Mother, who was only 4’ 10" in height, all by herself built a fireplace in the beach cottage from the beach stones outside. I believe it proved quite hard to pull down when all the cottages were destroyed some years later. In 1926 we moved to 17th and Gordon into a house built by Mr. Wallace Partington. The Parkingtons, who were rdatives of the pioneer Yates family, had three daughters - Alma, Margaret and Lois - and one son, Charlie. After selling the 17th Street home to my parents, the Parkingtons moved to a new house built by Mr. Parkington on the south east comer of 15 th and (Jordon. While we were still living in “The Beach” electricity was brought to West Vancouver and I remember my brothers and I climbing on to the roof of the cottage to watch the street lights being switched on for the first time. That was 1923 I think. Another interesting memory and link with the old times was an old Indian who claimed to be one hundred years old. He used to appear at our back door from time to time. My Mother would always give him a hot meal and a bit of money. We called him “Captain Jack” because of the tattered uniform he wore. He claimed that his parents remembered the arrival of Captain Vancouver. This could very well have been tme. If he was 100 when I knew him, which he could have been, he would have been bom about 30 years after Captain Vancouver's visit.. Quite often during the winter the old Slough (now the Duck Pond) would flood and cut off the cottages on the Beach. We youngsters thought it very exciting to have to wade across to 13th Street to go to school. Another memory is of the beautiful chestnut trees being planted on 17th Street - in commemoration of the Silver Jubilee of King (Jeorge V. They were planted by the Scouts but paid for by individual West Vancouverites. Individuals who bought a tree had their names on metal plaques fastened to their tree. These did not take long to disappear as I remember. You mention in a previous number of “History-onics” the Reid family - and the boys Andrew, Robert and James. We knew them well. At one time they kept goats who were real characters. As I remember it the roof at the back of their house came lower than the front and the goats would jump up there and prance all over the roof. Real Alpinists they were. Does anyone else remember the old Chinese Laundry Man “John” who lived on 18th Street. He used to call all white men “Jim” which rather startled my husband the first time he ran into “John” delivering the laundry, as my husband's first name was Jim. By the way they used to say that “Old John, the Laundry-man” sent Christmas hampers every year to needy families - quite anonymously. Then there was the barber on 14th Street, Mr. Overington, who attended every one of the local churches on strict rotation because as he said he had customers in each of them and he didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings? ‘A Perfect Time’ - Continued from Page 3 Crossing through the vacant field, where now stands the Safeway Store, were the abandoned and neglected old crab trees of the Lawsons and where also were stored the large stone blocks that later went into the building of Gertrude Lawson’s home at 17th and Esquimalt - now the Museum. Across from the old field, near the railway tracks and facing 17th Street, was the John Lawson house and behind it, another orchard. I can still remember Mr. Lawson’s granddaughter, Gertrude, sharing with me the big juicy pears. Nearby stood the Hollybum Pavilion, now the site of the West Vancouver post office. Oh, how I loved that place! Here we spent memorable hours two-stepping and waltzing about the roller rink that Nick Williamson ran. My brothers were all skate-boys, and I helped in the cloakroom and at the refreshment counter to earn our admittance. Later the Pavilion was a dance hall and that also claimed much of our growing up time. Time passed. There was my marriage to my great love. Jack Mitchell. We have a son and daughter, Sandra and Bill, and grandchildren, Stephen and Alexandra. To date it’s a wonderfiil 56 years with a loving husband, caring children and the joy I have from my painting. Now 70 years have passed since childhood and I treat myself occasionally. I sit on a log at Ambleside Beach...There’s solitude ...The sun is glinting on the water where the anchored raft used to be...There is a continual lapping of the seai at the water’s edge...And for a brief, fleeting moment, I am a little girl again, nine years old.