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February 2001 West Vancouver Historical Society Page 3 Many thanks our readers who have written to us. We are delighted to share so many memories with you. "I was interested in reading Carmen (Johnston) Anderson's memories on the back page of the November History-Onics. I notice that Carmen (whom I remember quite well) has mixed up two lighthouses, which is forgiveable in view of the fact that I think she left West Vanocuver quite a number of years ago. The lighthouse she was talking about, which she thought "might have been called Point Atkinson", was acmally the Capilano L ighthouse. I think she was right about the name Capt. Dickinson, who was there for some years - perhaps he was the last light-keeper, but I am not positive about that. Prior to his tenure, there was a man named Harris, whose daughter married a man named Harrop. They, in turn, had a daughter named Dorothy, who at one time lived around 23rd and Nelson or Ottawa. Regarding Point Atkinson Lighthouse, by the time Audrey (Joan Skipper's sister) was old enough to go out there, the keeper was indeed named Dawes but, for many years before that it was the Grafton family - three generations of them, I think. I knew Joan, Audrey and Angela Luke from the time they were very little girls and I was probably in my early teens. I recall that Joan wat at Miss Phillip's kindergarten. Alton Grafton was in my class at school in Grade 5 at Pauline Johnson when our teacher. Miss Jackman, took us on a hike up to the Hollybum Lodge, including a side trip to the Old Mill, where the late Geraldine Johnson fell in the pond! Fortunately it was a warm day and she did not come to any harm. This probably would have been in the spring of 1927. Alton invited some of us to see the Point Atkinson Lighthouse, where his older brothers, Gordon and Lawrence, showed us around. In those days, in order to get to school, the brothers rowed over to Skunk cove, now known as Caulfeild Cove, from where they caught a school bus. That bus would start at Horseshoe Bay, where it picked up Betty and Beverlly Barr, Walter ?, and some others, whose names elude me. I recall that one of those boys wore bluejeans to school, which was practically unheard of in those days! The bus would then stop at Sherman to pick up Japanese children from the Great Northern Cannery -Takanri Okada, Aichee and Shingo Homma and others, such as Sheila Edwards (who was such a pretty little girl) and Dorothy Chappell and their younger siblings, and so on until it finally reached Pauline Johnson, by which time it was practically full to overflowing. There was another Japanese boy in our room, named Haro Furakawa, but he did not live at the Cannery with the others but at the top of 25th or 26th Street. I recall him because he had such a great sense of humour!" (From Lucy E Smith) And two letters from Jeremy Dalton: "On Saturday, November 25,1949 the Marine Drive bridge across the Capilano River was washed out. Except for ferry service out of Ambleside, V/est Vancouver was cut off from Vancouver until the following Saturday when a Bailey Bridge was installed. A portable hospital was set up in the West Vancouver Medical-Dental Building, as access to North Vancouver General Hospital was of course also cut off. Actually pedestrians could still cross the old Keith Road bridge, but not cars. I remember as a young boy standing on the river bank with my family watching the army install the temporary bridge. Park Royal, as we know it today, was a lake! The legacy, or at least one of them, of the flood was the construction of the Cleveland Dam. Perhaps readers could be invited to send in stories of the flood of '49? It certainly stands out in my mind." Jeremy says that he is "now a North Van resident. I managed to cross the river!" On another subject: "Park Royal Shopping Centre turned 50 this year. I remember returning from summeer holidays in 1950, and looking down from the family home on Sentinel Hill at this "instant" shopping mall. Where did it come from? I opened an account at the Royal Bank, number 113. That was my bank and my account for many years, until I moved to North Van. Your newsletter is always enjoyable!" So how about taking up Jeremy's challenge? regarding your memories of the flood of '49. We would love to hear from you - photographs would be especially welcome. More letters on page 5.