“When he was not working on the tipple, dad was always out in the bush chopping wood or hunting. There was always a big pile of wood and a deer in the coal shed! It seemed that all the miners had to pit-lamp and poach to feed their families, so I am sure the game warden knew.

“It was hard for a large family to make it on a miner’s wage but we did not dwell on the fact that we were poor. Everyone was poor so everyone was equal and there was a lot for kids to do free. No movies or anything like that, we traded comic books, and played games. Viola Ganderton was everybody’s Auntie and she taught the kids how to play Canasta. We were even allowed out after dark. We would all meet at the street light by the store and play games. There was no television, just the radio. There was the hockey game on every Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada, and Walter Winchell every Sunday night, like it or not!

“One time, dad went to the dump and got parts to build a bike. One bike for eight kids! One day I was mad at the world, I do not know why, and I took the bike and rode all the way to Puntledge and back. Boy was I in trouble when I got home! It was always safe to go anywhere, but you did not go anywhere without telling mum.

“Life in a company town was different from other towns; everyone’s dad worked for the same company and life revolved around the mine. Everyone worked together and played together paid dues into the Community Club social fund. There were good Halloween parties, Christmas parties, and weddings. On Halloween we all went to the party and then we got two hours to go around to the houses. Afterwards, we all met at the bonfire. It was all homemade treats: Mrs. Sinclair made popcorn balls, somebody always made candy apples, mum made fudge. Before Christmas, Dee Dee Hoffman came around with a list for Santa. At the party, Joe Knowles played Santa and every kid got a gift, and the mums would get up and do skits. The whole town went to a wedding; everybody was welcome, nobody was left out.

“Bevan was rather isolated which was great, most of the time, but if you waited too long when you were having a baby, you would be calling a neighbour to midwife! You would not make it to Cumberland if you did not plan it right. The Bevan-Cumberland road was terrible. I guess Canadian Collieries did not feel it was important to upgrade it! Because of the distance to Cumberland, the bad road and lack of transportation, a person would not run to the doctor for every little thing, although I had to be rushed in one day. I was running home from the ball field and I jumped over a log and landed on a broken beer bottle. It cut me from the bottom of my foot all the way up the side. It took stitches and Dr. Hicks did not give me any freezing, either!

“There was no fire department, just a hose on reels. One time, our neighbours had a chimney fire, so the men pulled out the hose, turned on the water, and it was all full of holes! They had to set up a brigade with buckets but it was not too bad and they got it out.

“There was a store in Bevan and we had orders brought out to our house by the Leungs but we got milk and eggs from the Domovich family; they had a little mini-farm. When it was my turn to go, I would hide down the road for a while, then go back and say nobody was home. mum would have to send one of the braver kids because I was afraid of the cows!

“I remember Norman Leung and his dad coming into Bevan with the groceries and vegetables. You did not buy packages of things you bought sacks. Margarine came in a plastic pack with a bubble of food colouring in it. It was white like lard, and you had to knead it to mix the colour in. One day, I do not know which one of us did it, but somebody poked the pack full of holes with a fork. When mum went to knead it, it all came out in these little white worms. Boy was she mad. She lined us all up against the wall to find out who did it, but nobody would tell on the other, so we stood there for a long time!

“We moved into Courtenay around 1955, after the mine closed and dad went back into logging up around Sayward. Bevan was such a safe and happy place. We were far from rich and times were tough, but if I could go back in time to that little coal mining town I would, and I would take all my kids and grandkids with me!”