Finding freedom .

in the wilds of
the North Shore

COMING TO live on the

North Shore in 1948 was for
“me the equivalent ofa per-
sonal declaration of indepen-
dence. ™

By Eleanor Godley
Contributing Writer

Chad by this lime been five years
in Vancouver and I simply couldn't
“adjust myself to city. surroundings.
I'd come from the bush, you see.
lived there till 1 was 25, and I con-
~ Stantly — and secretly —. mourned
the lack of wild space, the multiplic-
“ity of rules and barriers, the noise
and the din. For my husband it wis
home, where he'd been born and

“where he'd always lived. What could

be wrong with it?
* Atthe time of which | speak we
were in a pleasant neighborhood of .
“Serious youngish people like our-
> Selves; whase lives had been subject
to the vagaries of the war years. [~
kept my trap shut but | longed for
“the sticks. It tumed out my salvation
owas waiting for me in Capilano
‘Highlands, where I made my stand,”
' probably: the first independent deci-,
: sion of my life, and 1-30 vears old. ;
x It was tHe advertisement, in the
? daily paper | describing the opening’
of this beautiful slope to dwellings:,
‘that undid me. It Sounded exactly:
ke the place 1 longed for, not city.
Streets but-the bush | that Tunder-
“stood, with birds and little streams
“and paths and wild flowers and no ,
~ strect-cars.-1 calied the real estate:
agent, scooped up the three- year-old
and without a word to my husband,

hard at'work in the city, E rushed off,

“in happy anticipation of the joys to

ih

il

ii
Hl

‘ta

be revealed. All E knew then about
Noth Vancouver was shat it was
across the Inlet’). .
I} was enchanted. Real backwoods.
There was a bridge now but, ia any
use, | wasn’ t-really concerned about
iV access. When the ‘gent stopped
und said “here res” there
“as really litle to see excepr trees,
We were on the one muddy road
where the real estate office was
parked, and there was asruull cafe
aver yonder and a block beyond was
a veritable general store, What fun.
The roads were gravelled, there were
no sidewalks, you could count the
number of houses on your fingers and
none of those houses had telephones
in them. Here was paradise.
~ My husband had a different stan-
dard of paradise and as | described it

to him he visibly pated. The North - :

_ Shore ~~ he'd never.get to his office

"on Kingsway in the mornings. lt

would snow all the time. There were

bound to be bears: Think of our tittle ;

chitd i in danger of the wild.
~ Well it took a while; but eventu-,
ally he consented to have a.look at

“ityand by the end of July we had

moved in and he had discovered he
could get to Kingsway and Tenth
“faster from the Highlands than he
could from Arbutus. So the child and
A setabout exploring the logging

- roads and creeks and the neighbors
“who were few and far between.

. We were free, we could sing at”
the tops of our voices and feed the

» squirrels and pick huckleberries and
. enjoy. And i myself-set about
“becoming my own person, at last.

‘making my own style of life for our.’
little family without reference to:

’ See Roots page 54.

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