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_ RESTAURANT & DELICATESSEN
15th & Lonsdale North Van.

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We hope vou have enjoyed the
programs this year.

Register now for all winter © |
programs at the following facilities. © \yxssemsmom a 4

NORTH VANCOUVER _ KAREN MAGNUSSEN

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RECREATION CENTRE - ARENA | .

123 E. 23rd Street. ' 937 Lynn Vailey Road
. 988-6166 5 | 984-9341. °°
Swim, Skate, Area & oa,
Community Centre Skate Programs

Recreation & Fitness:
Programs

—__________. | _ By VALERIE HEMINGWAY
; BON ANDREWS POOL WILLIAM GRIFFIN I 7
| 920-5333 851 W. Queens Road - As Christmas 1977 finds us
Swim Programs & _ 986-2256 - = | preparing for yet another —
Health Club Swim & Fitness Programs | family gathering, our minds

often. wander back to our
‘strange but rather delightful:
“Christmas of 1974.”’ 7

North Vancouver
Recreation Commission

f oo . Three years ago this week
7 : | | found us—my husband Brian
‘and myself, plus five-year-
old daughter Dori and
‘two-year-old son Ki—rather
.wearily travelling in a VW
camper across the  sun-
parched desert country of
‘Tunisia and Central Algeria,
i bound for the Atlantic coast,
of Morocco. This country was

. " 2 | “= | countries we'd visited before

eT
tanh
aa
aig
tae

ain F et

i's

Wm. Knigh

o- ‘ . ‘

po FROM st Thank.

|. JULIE BUTLER ||| patro

1 an

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The

| Sewing —
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‘

1485 Rupert St.
North Vancouver

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11717 LONSDALE, NORTH VANCOUVER. 988-5822

Knightline mM

arene
RES

; TRYING TO EXPLAIN to a yeung Moroccan the curious custem of Christmas trees! |

car, on the sea voyage home
to Canada. 2

After ‘“‘resting’’ in Marra-
kesh we continued | like

lemmings southwest across

the lower reaches of ‘the

Middle Atlas mountain range
toward Agadir. Since it was
now about the i5th of
December; it dawned on us

that what would soon be
needed was a ‘‘Christmas
Tree’’ and these mountains,

arid as they were, would be

‘our last opportunity before

the coast, to find a tree. We

spent the ensuing hours.

gazing around every curve at
every oncoming slope for

'to be the last of some 18 something that resembled

the ‘‘tree’’ shape we knew so

embarking, complete with well—the children being

ou for your
age in 1977

From the management
and staff at

\yflower
Van & Storage Ltd.

980-6056

’

we

insisted on interrupting -
Brian in the midst of topping,
or a Stunted pine-like tree. He
Finally Dori spotted a took the knife in his hands.

definitely the most ardent .of
look-outs.

mediately pulled over on the job... © ce Me

deserted mountain road, ee
instructed me to stay with With great delight he

the van (locked) and he handed us the seven-foot

proceeded with the children 'ength of green. Brian

and our only knife of any thanked him and proceeded |
consequence (our carving to cut another foot or so off

knife) to fell our Christmas the base. Again Mohammed

Tree. They no sooner. disa- took the knife and finished

ppeared over the nearest the job—but then. grabbed

ridge, then to my astonish- the bulk. of the tree: and,

ment someone garbed in

é | much to our surprise, tossed
traditional jalabah sauntered it down the adjacent gorge.
down the road. (It seemed

He handed us the 12-inch
that no matter how remote stump and grinned at us with
our location—miles from the ”

sheer joy. |
nearest settlement—we

could always be sure of being
visited). | ;

likely candidate. Brian im-. ~2%4 proceeded to finish the

We all laughed and tried to

os _ explain our custom, and
Brian climbed down the
gorge and .retrieved our
Christmas Tree. After saying
thanks and farewell to our

Moroccan friend we contin-|
ued on our journey to Agadir.

Our visitor turned out to be
a 17-year-old Moroccan boy -
with the inevitable crossed
eyes and large heart. Despite
our language problems it was
evident that he wished to
heip us cut down a tree. He

avery
erry Christmas

to our customers from the staff of |

1804 Lonsdale, North Vancouver. |

Y

‘flowers eloquently express _
the feeling of the season....."

It’s.as easy as dialing —

987-9351

1

ERTIES