pve IS a CO!

E’D GONE for a family
vak out Ona country road,
as far from the madding
crowd as we could get.

Our nine-year-old daughter

Emily had her bike with her, and [

had mine. Through an odd twist
of fate, our 14-year-old son
docsn’t know how to ride, so my
wife and 1 were busy trying to
teach him, using my bike.

We're undoubtedly hyper-
protective parents.

The reason Will doesn’t know
how to ride a bike in the first
‘ place is because we used to live on
a road in Anmore which was the
only straight stretch leading up to
Buntzen Lake.

Drunken louts heading back
from the lake tended to speed up

"on the straight stretch, with the
result that at feast one local kid
. had been killed. :
We decided, when will was’
“smali, that we just didn’t want to
get him a bike, lest he be killed
too...
The house was (and thankfi uly”
still is) strikingly isolated, so it
wasn’t a matter of him riding off

_ to hang out with his friends. It
~ was all steeply uphill one way, and

'. downhill the other. Basically, we

" were dependent on the car to get

. him’ and ourselves, around.

.. Somehow, the bike-riding issue

’. faded into the background. He .

'. never expressed any interest, and:
we were too busy with other. 7"
things to fret about it much.

-So here we were, umpteen years
‘Jater,’ belatedly teaching him to
“ride? Because he’s big now, and |
‘easily embarrassed by this unusual ,
nability, we had‘sought out an
solated stretch of road.’
Inthe meantime, Emily, his lit-/
tle sister, who grew up.mainly in :
“Suburbia; and has been riding a
’* pike for. several months, surged:
- ahead down the lonely’ road o

;

“Thad told her very plainly.¢ at.

“the start of our family trek that it’ -

was OK for her to ride ahead, but
he had to keep looking over her
houlder, and the moment she
couldn’t see us any longer,’ ‘she
was. to turn around and come
back. I didn’t just tell her. this

‘plainly, I stressed it..° 3/7 -

- We are living temporarily, you
-.-see; in Toronto, where’ children

- have been known to disappear i ina

moment, their bodies turning up
2 Jater.in ‘everything from dumpsters
_to landfill sites,

“As parents, we may be para.
-noid, but our view is if you ‘re not,
paranoid, you’ Te not paying at-
tention. |

I know that statistically the’
‘odds of our kids being grabbed
” by a pervert are long: I also know:
: that I don’t want my kids to

STRICTLY PERSONAL

become a long-odds statistic. So,
if we're paranoid, c’est Ja vie.

So there we were, Emily having
sped ahead, totally forgetting to
look back, as promised, and sud-
denly I looked up from our
endeavors to teach Will to ride,
and noticed that his little sister
had disappeared around a bend in
the road ahead.

1 grabbed my bike and sped
after her.

It was amazing how quickly she
managed to graba commanding
lead. [ was soon sweating, huffing
and puffing, and still] couldn't
see her.

1 was not just fretting, I was
starting to get furious.

: Damn it, I’d told her! Although

: t sensed just how small a consola-
‘tion that would be if she had been

.- grabbed by a weirdo and whisked
off somewhere.

Finally, after a couple of bends
in the road. | spotted her: at least
half a mile ahead and trundling
along, oblivious to her frantic,
puffing father so far behind,
struggling to catch up. At least she
- was in view now. ~

1 yelled her name repeatedly,
but she was wearing her safety
helmet, aind what with the wind.
whistling past her ears, and the
thrill of freedom pumping through
her brain, ‘she was oblivious.

The worst part was, I
understood exactly how much she
must be enjoying her liberty.

Yet. couldn’t keep the images
out of my mind of all the children
who have disappeared, snatched

. by murderers driving by in cars,

or hauled from playgrounds and
parking lots, grabbed i in hallways
of apartments. :

Clifford Olsen’s loathesome '
face flashed before my cyes, and |
peddled harder, not because I was
more panic-stricken than a few
minutes before — at least I could
see her now — but because she -
had disobeyed my prudent fatherly
instructions.

I knew 1 was going to have.o

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‘6 large target greens
13 target pin positions
Night lights — heated stalls
Featuring Top Flite range balls -
Multi level teaching program -

7 OPEN MON.-FRI. 9:30 AM - 10 PM
SAT. & SUN. 8:00 AM - 10 PM DAILY

| 87-8630 .
315 Seymour Bivd., North Vancouver
"(off Mt. Seymour Parkway — just east of 2nd Narrows

plex beast

punish her. | hate punishing my

children, But every once ina rare
while it has to be done, like it or
not.

Sure enough, the moment came.
P caught up to her just as she
reached our van, which we'd left
behind on the side of the road,
she saw me pulling up and smiled,
so pleased with herself for being
so independent.

“Daddy, a nice man told me my
legs were going so fast he thought
they'd fly off...”

There were several other cars
parked nearby, with people getting
in and out of them.

All they saw, of course, was a
puffing, red-faced, middle-aged
bicycle rider screeching (to a halt
beside a little girl, leaping off his
bike, and smacking the kid on her |
buttocks — hard — not once, but
twice, snatching her bike away,
ripping open the van door, and
shoving her inside, while yeliing at’
her, telling her that she was
grounded for a week.

She shrieked hysterically, of
course.

And I was totally embarrassed,
finding myself glaring defiantly at

the onlookers.

J can’t stand it myself when J
see other people ‘‘abusing”’
children, and here I was, doing
what looked like exactly the same
thing. They all looked away.

What a miserable ending for a
family outing!

And then, that night, as we

-were going to bed, unprompted,
’ Emily — with whom I had not

exchanged a single word since the
incident —- came along and gave
me.a long, serious hug, and said:

' “Thank you, Daddy, for caring.”’

Love is a complicated thing; eh?

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You Are Invited |
tothe
' Semish Park:
Redevelopment
Ceremony!

Saturday, September 1 Ith, sage |
10:00 am- 12:00pm.

To commemorate

the redevelopment of Semish Park. .

A joint project between The City of North Vancouver

and the British Columbia

Housing Management Commission.

Ronald McDonalde
_ will be attending from
‘lo: 00am - 11:00 am!

Face painters!
provided by
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