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Page 4 West Vancouver Historical Society January 2006 The Pantry (era late 1920’s - early 1930’s) The Pantry was situated at 1415 Marine Drive and was owned and operated by grandmother Eliza Ross. She operated not only as a restaurant, but also as a working bakery. My memory goes back to the day her stove was delivered â€"a huge woodburning one with and extremely big oven. Someone suggested it was big enough for my brother Mack and me for fun to see if we would fit. I would say we were about three or four at the time so we weren’t too big. We fit. My granny (as we called her) had started to shut the oven door while saying, “I’ve got you now me lovelies” in a witch’s voice. You can imagine the noise that Mack and I made. I’m sure if anyone were around they would have wondered if we really were being baked. We didn’t think it was funny at the time. Granny was always up at the crack of dawn and had the stove fired up. It always amazed me how she could tell if the oven was just right just by putting her hand in, sometimes by putting another stick of firewood in, or just waiting a little bit. She baked bread every day plus cookies, currant squares, pies, jelly rolls, powdered biscuits and Christmas cakes at Christmas. Mr. Alfred Chisholmâ€"Alma, Hazel and Sonny’s dadâ€"used to come down and fancy-iced them by putting on hard icing and marzipan, and generally adding beautiful designs. The part I liked the most was the help I gave mixing them for granny (in those days there were no electric beaters) so she used to let me mix the butter for the Christmas cakes. I had to scrub my hands with a brush, and was warned not to lick my fingers while doing so. (If I remember she wasn’t always looking.) First she would soften the butter, then she would add the brown sugar, then the eggs, then I’d beat my heart out. She took over once that was done. Before this whole operation was begun she would put the raisins and currents on trays when she would wash and dry them. I had to pick off the stems that were missed; granny would say my tiny fingers were just right for the job, which I can’t say was my favourite. I used to have to pit the dates as they came in their big boxes. I guess my tiny fingers were just right for that job too! Eliza Ross, Norma (Minions) Hamilton’s grandmother Operator of The Pantry