Northern correspondence: The goober pea situation seen from Clearwater Lake KLEENA KLEENE. If you go to Clearwater lake, which is near One Fye Lake, which is near nowhere, you may find the answer to a secret that baffled generations of bar-room drinkers. You will discover how to salt peanuts without taking them out of their shells. This, if you stop to think about it, is pretty much like putting on your pants over your head or go- ing into a revolving door behind another man and coming out in front of him. Only in Chilcotin do people ; come up with solutions to puzzles such as these. The man who learned to make roasted, salted unshelled peanuts for bar rooms is Stan Williamson, builder, designer and owner of the big Clearwater Lake Lodge and its nearby airstrip. Here, he invents such devices as a two-metre high heater for the main living room of the lodge that can digest four-foot sticks uncut. He holds a few patents, one for almost indestructible outdoor maps printed on plastic. Our airmen were issued them during the Second World War to help them escape through Europe if they were shot down, but in peacetime they were forgotten un- til Mr, Williamson reinvented them for the benefit of people who spill beer and hot dog mustard on their marine charts. Years ago, he was Stan Williamson Plumbing and Heating of New Westminster. As he edged away from sheet metal work and into great forward leaps of the imagination, he called it Stan Williamson Manufacturing. He flew his own plane. He tied his own fishing flies. He had some of the characteristics of a whittl- ing man, a tinkering man, but he whittled and tinkered on a grand scale. He is blessed with some of the natural and abundant curiousity of children who ask such ques- tions as ‘‘Why do people pick Waterfront Park holds service NORTH Shore residents can share in an early-morning Easter service at Waterfront Park on Sunday, March 31 from 8 to 8:30 a.m. The service will include a selec- tion of music, songs and reflec- tions about the meaning of Easter. Pastor Ross Norris of the North Shore Christian Centre will lead the sunrise service at the park, which is located south of the BC rail track in the 200-block of Esplanade West in North Van- couver City. Following the service, Lonsdale Quay’s east food court will be open for people who want refreshments. For more information cali 988- 2422. PARNTPACHON ) | * Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES their noses at traffic lights?’’ and ‘*Where does time go when it’s all used up?’’ He was never happier than when the Pine Tree Nut company approached him some years ago and asked if he could salt peanuts in their shells. “The first and most important thing was that a peanut shell is fairly porous, so I figured I should be able to force a brine in- side.’’ Using a vast steel container that he had scrounged from some other and unrelated source (he is never happier than when scroung- ing and adapting) he made it strong enough to contain the pressure of 100 pounds per square inch. The peanuts were placed in the pressure tank together with water with a saturated solution of salt. ‘‘Having got them full of brine, the next thing I had to do was get the water out. I did this with a big centrifuge which spun the water out of the shells and left salt crystals inside. “‘They had to be dried more, but that was combined with the roasting process. It operated something like a highway depart- ment asphalt plant. Hoi air was pushed into a tower at about 225 Fahrenheit. That roasted them.” The next thing was to cool them out rapidly and package them. They were cooled by being poked into a cooling tower that extended from one storey of the building to the next, Inside this, cool air wafted the goobers aloft. By a great deal of experimen- ting, the air velocity was finally adjusted to the point where the kinetic force operating on the peanuts was exhausted just at the level where the packaging machines were standing by to stuff them into plastic bags. The result of ali this was that people in Western Canada didn’t care all that much whether pea- nuts came salted in their shelis or not. When a man is half-looped and has a fixation on the cocktail waitress he isn't apt to notice whether he’s taking his peanuts from a glass bowl, a paper cup or the original shell. Those who did notice probably thought that the peanut farms must havs been located some- where on the coastal beaches below high tide mark. Thus is a man without honor in his own country. However, on the Eastern Seaboard of Canada and the United States, the secretly salted peanuts turned out to be Yuppy ‘food, like Perrier water. Stan’s machine was moved back there and there it presumably still whirls and puffs away for the Pine Tree Nut company. Stanley Williamson still works for himself. He is only 70 and has some more ideas he wants to unlimber. EL 3; From For ond Wide Visitors come ta Shecimbleside Inn Right ix the heart of West Uaucouwer Enjoy fine contiventel cuisine ot reasonable prices. Dine & Dauce Even Friday & Saturday Hight to the aft ntusic of The Awbteside un kas excellent facilities to cePebrote Weddings — Anniversaries — Retirement Parties and ther sccasioxs. We con acconmtodate up to 160 questo. Dow’t iss cur popufor Sunday Bubjet Buck TOOpme to 2put. Lunch Tue-Fri. frente 1:30an. Diauer Tue-Sat prone 5:00pue Wheelchain hacilities © Ain conditioned. 922-0101 {495 Worine Diise. West Uancouven Conner of [Ste ond WHorine (upstairs) Friday, March 29, 1991 - North Shore News - 9 Dr. Peter Kearney Dr. Katrin Turu - are pleased to -— WEST VAN DENTAL announce thai | GROUP Dr. Clive Jones has joined our practice at Park Royal Shopping Centre 755 Park Royal North West Vancouver, B.C. 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