It’s

the last waltz in

the old Big Creek Hall

BIG CREEK — You can’t
go home again, they say.

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

Well, you can try. They will try
here on Sept. 8 when the last
dance is held in the Big Creek
Hall. One last graceful waltz.
They’re going to tear the old
building down and the ghosts wha
hang around the place will have tc
go somewhere else.

Invitations have gone out to
just about everybody who was
ever associated with Big Creek.
Even if you only twisted an ankle
here while going to the outhouse
in the dark, you’ll get a
mimeographed invitation if your
address can be found.

The form letter is topped with
an ancient photo of 10 cowboys
on horses, all wearing 1920-style
hats. Some of them are the
Seallion boys whose father, an
[rish nationalist, hid them from
the conscription men of the First
World War.

“Gus, Ed, Felix and the boys
invite you to join us..."’ All of
them now long dead, preserved
from war but hunted down by the
old gentleman with the scythe.

When that picture was taken

Pa

Bie Creek was as remote from the
cities of Britivh Columbia as is
one of the smaller islands of the
Hawaii group.

In winters, some people baked
the mail in the oven when it arriv-
ed because the community had
been free of colds and it was
thought that the virus could travel
on paper.

Here people lived, worked, had
babies, got sick and got well,
made their own music and dane-
ed, all of it on their own ground.
Usually it was the ground on
which they were born. Isolated,
idiosyncratic but also graceful.

The old-timers are aimost all
now gone, some to retirement,
some, like old H.E. Church and
Frank Witte, buried on their own
property.

When H.E.'s son Dick died and
was buried at Williams Lake, they
put his cowboy hat on the coffin
so that a thousand years from
now, archaeologists could find
him. Dick and the coffin might be
gone, but that hat, the oldest and
toughest hat in all of Canada, will
still be there.

WESTERN AUCTION 3 P.M.
SHARP

Sharp, did you say? Sharp on
time? In Chilcotin!

Well, change must come and
that includes summoning people
to come to the beat of the super
accurate quartz watches of the
1990s. They will be auctioning
brass topped hames, sad irons, a
hay knife and Hattie Witte’s
treadle sewing machine.

Hattie, yes, dead of course, was
hospitable, gracious and wildly,
incurably optimistic, the three
prime virtues of a ranch wife.

The Last Dance is to have a
Floor Manager, as did the dances
of long ago. He will announce
each number and urge each gen-
tleman to select his partner.

There will be no canned music.
A group called the Old-Time Fid-
dlers, including Billy Hutch,
whose father had The Old Hutch

SAVE TIME!
SAVE MONEY!

Now that you’ve shopped the P.N.E.
See us First!!

We'll Beat ANY PNE Price!

‘(UP TO"
|S0% OFF
(Limited Stock)

* Factory Seconds

SALE HELD OVER 1 WEEK ONLY!

(Sale ends Sept. 10/90)

or by appt.

Place, and Levi Perjue from
Nmiah Valley, will make the
music.

There will be no drinking inside
the community hall. Drinkers will
be expected to sit outside in the
front seats of their pickups, taking
the stuff out of a brown paper
package in the aditional manner.

ft was also the tradition that
profanity and fighting were done
outdoors so that the ladies and the
babies wrapped in blankets and
sleeping in the cloakroom, would
not be disturbed.

BRANDWALK AT 8 PLM.
HORSESHOE PITCHING
STOCK DOG DEMONSTRA-
TION

HOME MADE DINNER, 6 P.M.,
$7 A PLATE, CHILDREN $4.

Also, supper in the dance hall,
late at night, served by the ladies,
none of your modern buffet-style
lineups.

Coffee will be boiled in billy
cans over an outdoor fire.

Yet time and chance have
worked their will on this little
community.

The big change came after the
Second World War, with better
roads and, later, hydro power.
Half of the marriages broke up, a
statistic from which sociologists
may make what they will.

Loggers came, making money at
arate beyond the fondest dreams
of the ranchers who settle here.
The store closed, The post office
closed. Williams Lake came to be
within commuting distance.

Of the families who lived here
for the first 75 years of the 20th
century, not one member remains
who owns or controls a working
ranch or has a horse trained to
dance the quadrille.

Ah well. Here's to the LAST
DANCE IN THE BIG CREEK
HALL. May it last past the dawn.
May people forget the saying that
no man can stand twice in the
same river.

Paday. September 7, 1990 - North Shore News - 9

BOOK NOW!

The Lodge will remain open this
year until Thanksgiving: §
allowing vou the opportunity to B
enjoy the spectacular colours of
tall ino an alpine wilderness
setting, fiike miles of trails or fish
for troutin any one of tive lakes |
al trom the comfort of a full
service resort, The meals alone
are worth the trip.

Wen

LAKES RESORT

B.C.’ Mast Wunue
Hink County Aduexdure

Por reservations please call Joan or Bill (604) 499-5848
Or Write: RLR. #1, Cawston, B.C. VOX ICO

MAKERS OF THE FAMOUS

SIMMONS
Beatityrest

ALL SIZES IN STOCK QUEEN $1799 (we piece)
NOW $899

MATTRESSES

FREE SET UP AND WE WILL
SELL OR TAKE AWAY YOUR

OLD BED.

North Vancouver.
's. 986.1232

it Bavarian Fest |

=

Saturday
s==> September 8
\12 NOON to 6:00 p.m.

MAIN EVENTS

* Al Pichler and the Alpiners
* The Schuplattier Dance Crew
® Traditional Bavarian food

® Beer Tents

© Sidewalk Sale

A day for the whole
family to enjoy

Sponsored by
_jEdgemont Village Merchants
Association