Here’s
can clean up

AS THE North Shore has
lost its Eco-Warrior from
the cabinet’s Environment
Ministry, it becomes a re-
sponsibility for this column
to snuggle into the tiny
shoes that have been
vacated.

In this context, a worthy
challenge for 1991 would be to get
the endless parade of unsightly
blue containers — overflowing
with crinkled old newspapers, off
every doorstep. For some odd
reason, the lawns, gardens, hedges
and houscs looked better without
these permanent ornaments.

Once this task is accomplished,
we must prevent a recurrence of
1,000 automobiles belching
monoxide as motorists patiently
wait to hand over a box full of
used chemicals.

We then must urge all
businesses — particularly liquor
stores — to cut up cardboard
boxes into memo pads, now that
we have discovered the joy of
writing on recycled refuse.

Municipai works crews should
paint weaving white lines through
intersections as a guide for bicy-
cles to follow. This would make it
possible for the rest of us to zig
while the bicyclists zag.

These worthy tasks are just for
openers.

eee

Wandering around in the
various Christmas-New Yeax’s
sortees, the route took me many
times past the corner of Taylor
Way and Marine Drive in West
Vancouver. At each transit, as I
viewed the fancy new soon-to-
be-opened super service station on
the northeast corner, 1 burst into
a smile.

Many years ago, at the same
spot, we stopped for gas as usual
at John Bardon’s Esso station.
The lessee was glum that day.
Imperial Oi! had just advised him
that the station was to be closed.
He protested that his business was
making good money for the com-
pany, for himself and for his
staff. His customers were happy.

But big business knows best.
They told him that the land was
far, far too valuable for a gas
pump. Glorious things were likely
to happen as soon as it was put
up for sale.

Within days of John’s depar-

CATHRINE

Cathrine McCulloch, vocalist, recording artist, and
single mother of Dustin and Cyrene

(Ad sponsored by the North Shore Pro-Life Society)

Gary
Bannerman

OPEN LINES

ture, heavy equipment arrived to
remove the pumps, board up the
little building and dig out the
enormous underground storage
tanks. A ‘‘For Sale’ sign was
erected.

That was almost 10 years ago.
it has been an abandoned eyesore
ever since. The site has been stud-
ied to death. The experts have fi-
nally determined the perfect use
for the property.

A gz" Station.

eos

As is frequently the case, me-
anderings took me over to David
Ingram's CEN-TA office at
Capilano Mall. As the tax whiz
and your humble reporter were
weightily discussing the merits of
various coffee mugs, a bearded,
rumpled apparition emerged. The
inimitable Geordie Tocher popped
in to advise that he was soon off
to Palm Springs.

Tocher once navigated a
massive Haida war canoe all the
way to Hawaii — or so he claim-
ed. A lady friend went along with
him. It was a major promotion in
its day and he was armed with a
VHS radio by which to communi-
cate reports with passing Cana-
dian Pacific aircraft.

The captains never could raise
much except static. There were
doubts about the veracity of
Tocher’s reports. What is known
is that the canoe and crew popped
in several west coast ports and did
arrive in Honolulu.

This recent day, with Ingram,
Tocher announced that it was the
advent of the holiest day in the

“| had an abortion at 15. At 18 I became pregnant
again, and this time my doctor persuaded me not to
have an abortion, saying I would regret it. When I had
my son, Dustin, the reality of abortion suddenly hit me.”

its act

year. This confused us until he
explained that he was a Druid and
that Dec. 21 — the shortest day
— was big stuff for his flock.

When ? asked if Palm Springs
was not too ritzy for his style,
Tocher of Stonehenge replied that
they park their motor home at
North Palm Springs, but spend
the days at a nearby Best Western.
Apparentiy, if you buy a drink,
you can use the pool. ‘*For a
dollar fifty a day, you can’t beat
it,’’ he said.

eee

We celebrated New Year's with
Larry and Marcia Belt, among
others. After discussing the
diminishing prospects of the
Hydro chairman becoming Man-
of-the-Year on Bowen Island,
Mrs. Bell forthrightly asked me if
I knew anything about organ
donations.

“T certainly do,’’ I replied.
“Wurlitzers, Hammonds, Lowrys,
Yamahas and so on.”’

Stay tuned. I promised her a

plug for the real cause.
eee

On another evening, the invita-
tion to the Tadema’s (Roger and
Liz) spectacular new house on the
West Vancouver waterfront was to
drop in between 6 and 9 p.m.
After sipping with several
luminaries from the local political
scene and the other guests, admir-
ing a tasteful edifice designed and
built by the hosts, the clock struck
nine.

As Roger Tadema said farewell,
I commented: ‘‘We must leave
punctually. At resorts like this
they probably have another group
booked to follow immediately.”’

eoe

On Boxing Day we arrived at
Peter and Elizabeth Toigo’s hum-
ble abode on English Bluff Road
in Tsawwassen. Greeted at the
door by the patriarch of a grow-
ing food empire in Canada and
the United States, I enquired: ‘‘Is
this house affiliated with one of
those chains — like Weston,
Hilton and so on?”

Toigo just chuckled.

When the Toigos were married,
home was a small apartment
above a garage in Powell River.
And they lived modestly
throughout their lives. Only in re-
cent times have they paused to
add a few of life's extravagances.

The new house — more correct-
ly described as a mansion — is
19,000 square feet. When we saw
the underground parking garage,
despite accommodating half a
dozen vehicles and a hundred as
yet to be located large plants, two
of the grandchildren were enjoy-
ing a wide-ranging game of floor
hockey on roller skates.

Curiously, Peter Toigo's ac-
quistory business travels leave very
few days for Vancouver. The
house is a centre for the family,
from his mother in Powell River,
through a long list of more distant
relatives, children and grandchil-
dren.

eee

One whose success and pro-
minence has a longer history than
the Toigo’s — Jim Pattison —
could advise everyone on both the
pleasures and pitfalls of notoriety.
When we bumped into him at
Peppi's a few days after the terri-
fying family kidnapping, he said
that he has had eight previous
ransom incidents, but involving
the children was a chilling new
twist.

But like the seasoned police of-
ficer or surgeon who saves sanity
only through deliberate detach-
ment, Jimmy had time to be
grateful over Christmas and to rap
out a wee tune for us with Al
Carmichael at the Peppi's piano.

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Sunday. January 6, 1991 - North Shore News - 9

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