INSIDE
Beautiful memories, beautiful bay

by Alare Burr Ramos

It was in the summer of 1926 when I spent my first summer at my grandmother’s cottage at Boundary Bay. I was three months old. From then until 1955 when my grandmother passed on, I would look forward to summers at the Bay.

The sands of time have slowly drifted away. For then we walked across the narrow road right onto a wide sandy beach which sloped gradually down to the water. Now there is an eight-foot drop from the top of the breakwater with no beach at all when the tide is high. It was 1935 when Bayview Drive was widened and the first breakwater was built. Even then, there was ample sandy beach left.

As children, my cousins and I would gather driftwood for a bonfire. In the evening, our elders would sing the old songs, while we roasted marshmallows. How beautiful it was to watch the moon rise over Mt. Baker speaking its golden path to the shore.

Boundary Bay was certainly the place to be on those summer days. On Sundays, especially, there were cars parked on both sides of Bayview Drive so with nowhere else to go, people would park on the side roads to picnic on the beach. There were bicycles with balloon tires and rowboats to rent.

The roller rink was in full swing. Behind the rink, there were covered picnic tables where Sunday school picnics were often held each summer.

Waters Store (the middle store) had a good size dance hall with a four to six piece orchestra playing there on weekends. Edgar Dunning, local historian, recalls being a member of that orchestra called the Melody Boys.

The Maples and the Whalens sold everything from groceries to clothing and pottery, and there were nickel slot machines and punch boards.

One summer night around 1935, Waters Store burned to the ground. It was a terrible loss for the Burns family, as Emma lost her life that night in the fire.

Whalens had a pier in front of the store. When the tide was in, swimming lessons were provided for the children, with awards given at seasons end.

The Burch family held Sunday school under the maple trees on Whalen farm. Some evenings the Burches would show movies and lantern slides under the maple trees. During the day there would be sandcastle competitions on the sandbars. At season’s end, each of us was given a Japanese lantern and at dusk we would light the lantern and parade down Bayview Drive singing the songs that we had learned. Mr. and Mrs. Burch later became missionaries in Africa.

As time passed, my cousin became skate-boy at the roller rink while I worked in the grocery department at Whalen’s Store. Rosemary Whalen was famous for those wonderful milkshakes. They cost 20 cents each and 25 cents if you wanted a malted milkshake. The Whalen family was very much a part of the Bay then.

University students had archeological digs in the middens on the Whalen farm. Then part of the farm was turned into a race track for the sulky races. It was said that the track had too many soft spots.

Part of the track then became the trailer park of today while many new cottages were built on the southeast side of the farm on the middens.

Later a movie would be filmed using the Whalen’s farm house as the home of Huckleberry Finn.

I think now how many things have changed since we were children at Boundary Bay.

Many friends and relatives who loved the Bay have now passed on. Bonfires no longer line the shore to greet the rising moon. Grandmother’s cottage has changed hands several times. Sometimes when no one is around I peek in the window of the old cottage to see if Gran’s rocking chair is still there. It is! Now I remember how beautiful it all was when we were young at Boundary Bay.