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Page 5 One day he and Phil took it out in the Narrows, where they got caught in a riptide. Fortunately, they did get back to the safety of the Slough. I also remember the slough freezing over and being taken along Bellevue to watch people skate, but this was in the 1930's. There were also smelt runs that came in to Ambleside Beach. Everyone would head down there with buckets to gather them up. Many were used for fertilizer, but since it was still the "Dirty Thirties", I imagine many of us used them to supplement our diets! Phil also remembers Mom sending him out to pick dandelion greens to cook like spinach. It is now known that they are very nutritious. In 1933 Mom was six months behind in the rent. We were on the verge of eviction with nowhere to go. The owner of the house had been very kind in letting us stay that long, but the rental from the house was his livlihood. I had always thought that at this time Claire Downing of the Kiwanis Club was acting as Harry and Phil's Big Brother, but Phil thinks it was later, when we lived at 14th Street and Lawson Avenue. If this was the case, then perhaps he was a member of St. Stephen's Church. The Kiwanis Club proposed building us a house. Mom had somehow managed to pay the few pennies to keep up insurance policies on the three eldest children. These she cashed in and was able to buy a tax-sale lot at 1435 (late To the right is a photo of Harry Aldred August, 1945, HOME! changed to 1427) Lawson Avenue for $37.00. Mr. Downing owned the plumbing firm of Alcock, Downing and Wright, and he supplied all of our plumbing needs. A Mr. Crawford built the natural stone fireplace. In later years his son Pete had a cabin on Hollyburn, as did my husband. Chester Reynolds, who would later live near 14th and Kings Avenue, was another volunteer. There were 16 volunteers altogether, but I was only 6 at the time and both my brothers settled in England after the war and memories have faded. As far as we know, all the materials were donated. The outside of the house was rough board and batten. The living room was finished in smooth board and batten, and rest of the rooms were finished in gypsum board. There was no basement, no insulation and no front steps. The lumber was green and it shrank. We moved in in November 1933, and we all became sick, but we had a roof over our headsI This is when brother Phil thinks Mr. Downing became their Big Brother. They would like to go up to Blue Gentian on Hollyburn. It is now in the watershed area. He would take them to posh Kiwanis dinners in Vancouver, where they would learn the niceties of correct table manners.