They left early in the morning and didn’t stop until they got to Boyds, a small community of mostly tidy section houses, each with their own white picket fence. Luckily, there was a service station where they could get gas and there was a nice field on the outside of town where they had lunch and let Champ have a run. The road to the border was well used and although it was narrow, most of it was well looked after. They arrived in Grand Forks at five and although it lacked the systematic layout of the streets and trees in Boyds, it did have a peaceful and somewhat sleepy look that Nell thought quite attractive. They thought they took the road into town, but before they knew it, they were on the outskirts and headed north.
“There’s a big farm up ahead, Bert,” Nell said, “You can turn around there in the driveway.” A sign on the fence read Astafoorof. “I don’t know if that’s the name of the farm or the owner, but look, there’s another sign advertising home baking and eggs. I’d love to have some fresh eggs and homemade bread, Bert. Let’s drive in and see what they have.” The gate was open so they could drive about halfway to a large home that was so big and grand, it looked more like a hotel than a house. There were many out buildings, each one as well kept as the main one, and some of the surrounding fields were freshly harvested, while others were green with a second crop, creating a colourful landscape.
An area had been cleared for cars or buggies to turn around and a farmer gave Bert a signal where to park. Then he came up to the car and asked Bert what he wanted. He had such a strong accent that Bert had trouble understanding him, so he said, “We are just on our way to Vancouver and are going to camp around here tonight. We saw your.....”
The fellow cut him off, “No, no camp here! You go.”
Nell gave it a try. “We don’t want to camp. We only want to buy eggs and bread,” she said pointing to the stall nearby. He still didn’t understand, and they thought they would have to go without the food, but then a young girl who was in the stall, came out and over to the car.
When Nell told her what they wanted, the girl laughed and told the farmer who laughed back and then asked the girl to apologize for him which she did. Then he told them all to get out and come and see what they had in the stall. He also gave Champ permission to run out in the fields and it wasn’t long before he and Bert were getting along as though they knew what each other was saying. Besides eggs, there was a good variety of vegetables in the stall along with fresh baked bread and berry pies.
The two girls that were there could speak English well enough, so Nell had no trouble talking to them, so she told them where they were going and that they were looking for a place to camp. One of them said to go back to where they came into town and take the road south and there was a campsite about a mile down that road. They did as she said and left with what they had bought and a gallon of fresh milk as a gift. When Nell first saw the girls, she knew they were Doukhobors by the way they were dressed. She had heard about them before, although not favourably, but if they were all like these three she had just met at Grand Forks, she couldn’t see any reason for faulting them.
The rest of their journey was uneventful compared to the first two months, but it was very enjoyable. They had to drive most of the way through Washington before they reached their destination, but the roads were mostly in good repair and the campgrounds were clean. If they had waited another year, they could have driven right from Calgary to Vancouver without going into the States, but that didn’t bother Bert who told Nell, “Now we shall have that to look forward to.” But as much as she had enjoyed the life of a nomad, the thought of living in a tent for another three months didn’t appeal to Nell in the least and she made up her mind that if they went back to Calgary it would be by train.
They arrived on the outskirts of Vancouver on September tenth and the first thing Nell did was to buy a map of the city. They had no idea where they were going, but Bert intended to find a place near the water. Nell thought that if they stayed on Granville Street, she was certain they would find the ocean, and besides, there were such beautiful mansions along the route that she wanted to see them all. “If this is what Vancouver is like, I’m going to love it,” she declared. Bruce and Marion picked up on her enthusiasm, especially when Bert told them they were going to see the ocean in a few minutes. They asked Nell to tell them what streets they could help her look for.
“Well, it seems if we just stay on Granville Street we’ll soon cross over the Granville Street Bridge. Then if we keep on the same street until we come to Hastings Street, I think we will be close to the water. I’m not sure where we go from there, so if you keep an eye out for Hastings Street, we shouldn’t get lost and hopefully we can find a campsite.” Bruce drew the name in big letters on a piece of paper and showed it to Marion who showed it to Kenneth and then they all looked at every sign they passed.
Bruce called out the streets as they went along and the other two echoed them. “Drake, Davie, Helmcken, Nelson, Smythe, Robson, Georgia,” Nell knew there was only one more street before Hastings, but she didn’t want to spoil their fun, so she waited.
“There it is, Mom, Hastings,” Bruce shouted
“I saw it first,” Marion insisted.
“Turn left, Bert, for one block, then turn right and we should be at the CPR depot. Someone in there should know where we can camp.”
“Oh, look Marion,” Bruce exclaimed, “there’s the water and look at the big ship! Can we go see it, Dad, can we, please?”
“Soon,” Bert answered as he parked the car in front of the depot and told everyone to get out. “Now, everyone breathe in. Can you smell that?”
“Someone tooted and it wasn’t me,” Marion said scrunching up her nose.
“That, my dears, is the wonderful smell of salt air,” Bert declared. “Chris, doesn’t that smell like home?” Chris nodded and Bert said, “Close your eyes and you can imagine we are back on the beach in Sandwich.” Every time Bert said the name of his hometown in England, the children couldn’t help but giggle and Nell had to give them one of her ‘that’s enough’ looks. However, she welcomed the smell of the salt air too and pleased Bert by telling him so.
“Wait here, Nell, I shan’t be long,” Bert said, and then before she could ask him where he was going, he ran off. She thought he must have had to go to the bathroom in a hurry, but when a half hour passed and he didn’t return, she began to worry and asked Chris to go and see if he could find him. Chris had an idea where Bert went, but to get there he would have to climb down a bank, cross over a lot of railway tracks and through some brush—not something he wanted to do, especially since he thought Bert was being silly. But Nell had asked him to, and he always tried to please her. He got down the bank and over the tracks just in time to miss getting run over by a freight train and was deciding where he would enter the brush when Bert called to him.
Bert was sitting on the tracks a few hundred feet from Chris putting on his socks and shoes. He had found a trail down to the water and was now on his way back. When they returned to the car, Nell was angry until he said, “I’m sorry, Nellie, but I had to put my feet in the water. Now I can say I’ve explored Canada and have stood in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It’s a great day, Nell. Now I feel completely Canadian. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Nell, who was always happy to hear positive remarks about the country, couldn’t argue, and replied, “I hope you will always feel that way. Now we had better find a place to camp so we had better go and see if we can get directions to a campground.”
The depot building was large and when they entered, they were surprised how many offices were inside. The signs over the doors gave the letter of each pier and there were four, A, B, C and D. Not seeing an information desk, they thought they may as well leave and were on their way out when a man who was also leaving opened the door for them. “Find what you were looking for?” he asked.
“Afraid not,” Bert replied, “We were trying to find someone to ask where we could camp.”
“From out of town?”
“We’ve driven out from Calgary and plan on settling down here when I find a job.”
“Well, Vancouver is not the friendly place it used to be. My father said they used to camp wherever they wanted to, but not anymore. Now you have to go miles out in the country to find a good campsite.” As he was talking, they were walking back to the car and when he saw Chris, the children and all the camping equipment in the car, he smiled, held out his hand and said his name was Stan.
Bert shook it and introduced himself. Stan wore his long black hair tied back with a leather lace that was beaded on the ends. He had a dark complexion and although Bert could tell he was an Indian, his features were quite different than those of the Chippewa men that Bert had met in Saskatchewan. He was carrying a backpack and Bert was trying to guess where he worked.
Stan seemed to read his mind, “I work on that freighter,” he said, pointing to a freighter in pier D. “We go up north with freight. I’ll be home for three weeks, then I go again. Good money if you’re looking for a job.”
“I hope to find work in a garage and eventually have my own but going up north sounds tempting.”
“If you’re going over on the same ferry as me, I know a good place for you to camp.”
Nell had been listening and she couldn’t help but say, “I’m not going to camp in the woods Bert.”
Evidently, Marion was listening too and before Nell could stop her, she said, “There were two bad men—one had a gun and they made us take whisky and they took Bruce and Uncle Chrissie.” Nell was shocked! She had no idea that Marion knew what was in the boxes they took across the border. Before she could stop her, Marion continued, “But it all turned out okay and we didn’t have to go to jail.” The stranger laughed, but thankfully, didn’t ask any questions.
“It’s not in the woods, Mrs. You can stay on our reservation. It’s beside the river and the ocean and it’s right in town. It’s good. Our village is close, so you’ll be safe. If you give me a ride when we get off the ferry, I’ll take you there.” He looked at his watch. “It’ll be leaving soon, so we’ll have to go now ok?”
The kids clapped their hands and Marion said, “Hooray, we are going on a real boat!”
Bruce was just as excited, but he did his best to hide it. “Are we really going on a ship, Dad?”
“I think so. What do you say, Nell?” Nell had envisioned arriving at Vancouver and moving into a real house with all the amenities, so camping on a reservation was a little disappointing, but looking at the children, she decided that one more adventure wouldn’t hurt.
They managed to squeeze Stan in and drove a short distance to the car depot. The union boat was big enough so they could get out of the car, up on the passenger deck and outside to have a good view of the water and harbour. The children were thrilled, and the seagulls kept them entertained. Even Lloyd waved and gurgled at the gulls. They all felt the trip was too short and were disappointed when they were told to go down and get in the car.
Driving off the ferry onto the long pier and up Longsdale Avenue was exciting too, because they passed so many people waiting to get on the ferry. People with suitcases, dogs, bicycles and boxes, all chatting away and laughing. There was a mixture of cars and horses, some pulling buggies and some pulling covered wagons. Nell thought it was delightful and Bert nodded and smiled at everyone they passed. Following their newfound friend’s directions they went up the hill a little and then turned west. A lot of the way to the campground was down near the water but there were some wooded areas too.
They stopped at a store and bought some fresh milk, butter, bread and bacon before they came to the reservation. The fellow was right when he said it was a good place. He didn’t seem in a hurry to leave and was kind enough to pick out the best place for them to put up the tent. Then, pointing across the water over to Stanley Park, he said, “If you had come a little sooner, you could have gone there to see the two totem poles raised not far from Aunt Sally’s house.”
“Was she your aunt?” Nell asked.
“No, everybody just called her that. The park’s board tried to get her to move, but Aunt Sally said she had lived there for ninety years and wasn’t going to budge. They were going to evict her like they did to all the others, but she didn’t give them a chance. She died in her home last year. Now they plan to build a native village and name it ‘The Mannalillaculla Indian Village’ as a show place. The two totem poles are going to be at the entrance.”
“How do you feel about that?” Nell asked. He just shrugged his shoulders, and Nell, who could usually tell how a person felt by the expression on their face, had no idea whether he approved of the plan or not. She began to understand that, although he had befriended them, it might be a long time before he would share his personal feelings, and if he ever did, it would be with Bert and not her. She thanked him for the information and said she intended to go over and see the park as soon as they were settled in.
Before he left, he showed them a path they could take to walk to the shops in West Vancouver and said it wasn’t far. He said he would be by the next day to see how they were doing and if anyone told them they should leave, they should say that he had given them permission to be there. After he left, Bert and Chris set up the tent while Nell made supper. Once she had put Lloyd and Kenneth to bed, she, Bert, Bruce and Marion went for a short walk down the river to the ocean.
“We’ve stayed in some jolly nice places, Nellie, but I’d say this one is truly a camper’s paradise,” Bert said as he put his arm around her. “What do you say, kids?” They were so enthralled watching a big freighter being guided past them by a little tugboat on its way into port that they didn’t realize he was talking to them.
“We should have put our tent up out here, Dad,” Bruce said. “Look there’s another ship anchored out further. And we can see the lights of Vancouver from here better than we can from where we are camped.”
“You might not like it so much when the tide comes in and you find yourself being washed out to sea in your bed,” Bert replied.
“I could take a paddle to bed,” Marion suggested.
“Silly! A bed wouldn’t float,” Bruce snapped back.
“I know,” Marion answered, glaring at her brother who she thought could be such a smart alec. A minute later she smiled and asked, “Can we come here every night, Mom?”
“I don’t see why not,” Nell said, “but I hope we won’t be here many more nights.” The children whined and said they didn’t want to ever go to another campsite. “Don’t worry, the next time we move it’s going to be into a house. What do you think about that?”
“I guess it’ll be ok, but I hope we get to stay here for about a year,” Marion replied.
“Good heavens! I’m not going to wait that long. We’re going to start looking for a place tomorrow, right, Bert?”
Bert agreed with Marion, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen, so he shrugged and said, “I better find a job first, Nell, so we know where we want to live.”
Nell was cooking bacon and eggs the next morning while the men and the children were exploring the river. Lloyd was crawling and had begun to pull himself up on things so she couldn’t put him down on a blanket and leave him anymore and Bert had to take him with him. She was just about to call them for breakfast when she noticed that she had an audience. Since they hadn’t made a sound, she had no idea how long the two little boys, at least that’s what she thought they were, had been watching her. They were both still as statues and their eyes never blinked. Nell smiled and said, “Hello there.” That’s all it took; like two frightened deer, they turned and ran, jumping over logs, into the bushes and out of sight, leaving Nell to wonder if they had even been there.
She didn’t have to call the family for breakfast. They had smelled the bacon and as much as they were enjoying the river, their hunger brought them back to the tent. After breakfast, they all went in the car to investigate. There was plenty of room without the suitcases and the camping equipment. Champ was left behind tethered in the shade beside the tent with a pail of water. Although he was gentle with the family, they were certain that he was also a good watch dog and would growl if anyone tried to rob them.
The shops were all at the bottom of the hill along with a few houses, but most homes were on the streets above and all had a good view of the water. There was a lovely scenic road called Marine Drive and after driving along it, they had lunch on the porch of a cafe that overlooked the water. It was the second time they had hamburgers and they found them just as tasty as the first time. They only found one garage and the owner said he had plenty of help and advised Bert to look in Vancouver. On one of the streets there was a church, and some men were busy putting a sign on the lawn. “Oh look, Bert. ‘The United Church of Canada.’ That’s the name of our church now. The Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian churches all rolled into one. It’s about time. It says the first United Church service will be this coming Sunday. Chris, if you don’t mind looking after the kids, I think we should go.” Bert had missed the music and said that was a jolly good idea.
When they returned to the camp, the same two children were there, but this time they were with Stan. He was sitting in one of the fold up chairs and the boys were petting Champ. “Champ the mighty watch dog!” Bert said as they drove in. That wasn’t the only surprise. Walt had a fire going in the fire pit and was cooking a salmon in a rack over the embers.
“Get yourselves some plates,” he ordered. “You don’t get salmon any fresher than this, I just caught it and there’s some corn shucked and ready to go in the pot when you get that Coleman stove going.”
Nell was overwhelmed. She didn’t know whether to be pleased because he was cooking their dinner, or angry because he had intruded on their space. The smell of the fish cooking made up her mind and she didn’t waste time getting a pot of water boiling for the corn. The two little boys both had long black hair and that was what made Nell undecided as to their gender, but now she realized that they were twin boys. “Is your wife coming to eat with us?” she asked.
He laughed and said, “No, I’m not cooking this for us. It’s for you. I thought because you lived in Calgary, you’d enjoy some fresh salmon.”
Bert thanked him and then said he should bring his wife to meet Nell and have tea. Stan smiled, but didn’t answer. The kids had gone down by the river with the twins, causing Nell to feel anxious, so she asked Chris to go and keep an eye on them. Stan told her not to worry, “My boys, they go fishing there by themselves. They swim like seals.”
“That’s lovely, but my children swim like rocks,” Nell said. It sounded like a joke, and he started to laugh but then noticed she was serious and changed his mind. After he finished cooking the fish, he called the boys and they left. The dinner was scrumptious, and Nell said, “I wish there was some way to repay him.”
“He said he had a car, but it wasn’t running, so maybe I could fix it for him.” It took two days to repair Stan’s car, but Bert was glad he had a chance to get even.
Saturday, Nell hunted through the suitcases until she found Bert’s suit and her good coat and hat. They were quite wrinkled, so she hung them up all night and they weren’t too wrinkled in the morning. Lloyd was at an awkward age. He wasn’t walking yet but he was pulling himself up on things and could crawl as fast as the others could walk. Nell wouldn’t have left him with Chris if Marion wasn’t such a good help. She was very patient with both Kenneth and Lloyd and would play with them for hours, so she and Bert went to church.
It was a good-sized building and had a large congregation, perhaps because this was the first service since the amalgamation. There were a lot of families there which made Nell wish she had brought the kids. Bert couldn’t hold back, and he sang the hymns so heartily that everyone, including the minster remarked on how they enjoyed it. As they were leaving, Bert recognized a man he had known in Calgary. The man’s name was Tom Morton and he was with his wife and children. When Bert introduced them to Nell, she couldn’t help but compliment them on the good behaviour of their children. This led to a more lengthy conversation and an invitation to dinner the next day.
The Mortons had eight children, so Bruce, Marion and Kenneth all had someone to play with when they went there to visit. Their house had a porch all around it and the older children slept out there during the summer. Even Chris liked visiting the Mortons. Then, when Bruce, Marion and Kenneth were invited to spend a night on the porch with the Morton kids, they were so excited Nell didn’t have the heart to say no. This was the first time she had been apart from them, and although she still had Lloyd to look after, she felt their absence profoundly. Surprisingly, Bert missed them too. Chris grumbled that it would be nice to have some peace and quiet for a change, but he looked away when he said it and Nell suspected his face would show he felt differently. The Mortons enjoyed visiting the White’s too and the kids had a wonderful time playing in the sand.