I did something over the past weekend that I haven’t since I sold my car way back in 1986 — drove over to Vancouver Island. Technically I wasn’t driving, as Jeff did that. We ventured over Saturday morning and returned Sunday afternoon, heading to sunny Duncan via Nanaimo and Departure Bay. Strangely, we picked what was probably the hottest day of the year to visit, noteworthy only in that it has not been hot this year at all.
Once we had arrived in my hometown, I dragged Jeff around various old haunts and took a picture of the giant hockey stick at the Cowichan Community Island Savings Centre. This stick — the world’s largest — came to Duncan after I had moved away. Ironically, I first saw it at Expo 86 after moving to Vancouver and away from Duncan. We noted, with some curiosity, that the big swimming pool/slide area adjacent to the centre was apparently only opened for two hours in the morning on Saturdays. Indeed, an inspection through its darkened windows revealed it was abandoned. Maybe they want people to go muck about in the river or something in the summer.
Giant hockey stick:
Speaking of abandoned, a walk around Cowichan Senior Secondary School proved depressing. Although the small sign out front exhorted everyone to enjoy summer, the school grounds looked not merely empty but desolate. The track had weeds popping up through its surface, the creaking wooden bleachers nearly blasted free of paint, the buildings were faded, paint peeling from their walls. The bus area looked like it had not seen a bus in years; likewise the teacher parking lot. The grassy areas between buildings were unattended and wild, though the fields appeared to have been cut sometime this year. The main photo on the school’s website seems to be from the 1920s* when a horse livery was situated next door. The buildings are actually the same color today. Maybe the school lets things go fallow, so to speak, during the summer months as a cost-saving measure.
This abandoned/depressing theme continued at nearby Kinsmen Park where the monster slide I remembered from my youth had been replaced by a community garden. No kids is going to face the risk of breaking his neck in a community garden. Bah. The jumbo swing set was likewise gone, replaced by a little sissy set in a new kiddie play area. Despite being the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon the park was pretty much empty.
We crossed over behind the community centre to what we thought might be the rumored new high school building. It had a certain scholarly aspect to it and indeed it turned out to be the new Island University campus. Signs on the doors revealed it had a lien on it, so good luck to getting in come September, students!
None of this is to suggest that Duncan itself is deserted. Far from it, the island highway was choked with traffic as usual, the city streets hardly affording a chance to just toodle around without someone tailgating you. We made our way to my mom’s place and I suggested ice cream so we hit the Dairy Queen and it was good.
After a supper at Romeo’s we went for a walk along the river dike with Sophie the wonder dog in tow (you wonder what she finds so fascinating about every blade of grass she stops to sniff).
Here we see mom and Jeff looking over a li’l foot bridge at the many minnows darting about in the water below:
There were a decent number of people frolicking about in the Cowichan River. Some had dammed off a section of it to make a wading pool while others chose to park their chairs square in the middle of it just because.
While at the river I got bitten by something, which has been my unofficial theme for the summer (“I’m delicious, suck my blood!”) and the bite became as itchy and annoying as all the others I’ve dealt with the last few months. Today — four days later — it’s finally pretty much gone. Stupid bugs.
It was still a nice walk and would make a decent place to jog, provided you slathered yourself in bug repellent or ran inside a plastic ball like hamsters do.
We ended the evening with two games of Yahtzee. To my surprise Jeff had never played before. This meant he won both games, of course.
Before leaving the island we got one more gift — a cold. I’m just starting to get over mine now after days of a scratchy throat, sneezing and sundry related cold symptoms. I suspect the ferry was the vector for this. The ferry, or as I call it, that big floaty thing where kids scream for 90 minutes solid.
Anyway, it was a fun little trip, even if the high school looked like it hadn’t been touched since I graduated a hundred years ago.
* slight exaggeration, though if you look carefully, it’s probably safe to peg the photo circa the 1950s
