4 - Wednesday, July 31, 1985 - North Shore News Revisiting a battleground NOW THAT even the beach at Deep Cove is considered safe for swimming again, and Mike Harcourt has dragged his poor Kid into the ques- tionable waters of English Say, let us ponder, for a moment, the importance uf beaches. Without beaches, who would we be? What would we be? Would life be possi- ble? And, if possitle, worth it? _My family hauled me over to Parksville on Vancouver Istand recently to sit around on the beach for three days, making sand castles, ‘‘pud- dling’’, wandering out to the end of the tide flats. Of course, the view Iook- ing eastward from Parksville is a triumph of planetary design. The. pale blue Coast Mountains straggle like a herd of infinitely-slow behemoths across the far side of Georgia Strait. With the tide out at least a mile and a half and a heat wave shimmering on the horizon, it seems as you walk across the wet, warm- bread sand that (a) you could walk all the way to the mountains without drown- ing, and (b) all that distant rock really is moving in a mysterious, epochal proces- sion. . It just takes a while to slow down enough to notice. But it is the’ beach, finally, that calls, more so by far than the mountains. Moun- tains are something to ’ maybe climb some day, but a beach is the place where you came from. ‘Presuming there is any sense to the theory of evolu- tion at all (the world might : indeed have been invented at the snap of a cosmic finger, for all 1 know), the truth would seem to be that we did begin our sojourn as air- breathers because legions of kamikaze squads of polyps, or fish, or whatever, got washed up on a beach, and eventually got the hang of breathing. To go to.a beach is to revisit an incredibly ancient biological battleground. The simple act of slipping into the ocean is like somebody hitting the rewind button on a video of ‘evolution’s most dramatic moment (barring, one supposes, the original appearance of ‘anything at all). A GOOD JOB? Personalized Job Search Services Including: © CAREER INFORMATION « BASIC TOOLS & RESUME * SKILL & INTEREST ASSESSMENT * LONG TERM COUNSELLING ONLY °99 tnciusive For Information Write- I-CAN INFO CAREER ACTION NETWORK BOX 6743 This Paper eo e What has over 300,000 Canadian children gasping for breath? Asthma. 7o find out more, cali your Lung Association. THE LUNG ASSOCIATION strictly personal by Bob Hunter" To spend time on the beach is not merely to go back to one’s roots. It is to go back to one’s fins and gills. No wonder zillions of human beings risk death by skin cancer routinely to get a tan. It isn’t the tan they’re really after. It is the experi- ence of being a mindless sal- amander, dumped by a wave onto the warm sand, starting to cook under the sun, thinking about inventing sun tan lotion. And look, they actually change color! Normally, I shun the sun because it’s uncomfortable. Also, my body isn't really something that a photographer, looking for a Sunshine Boy model, would immediately gyrate toward. But this Parksville trip forced me out onto the tideflats, where, naturally, | re-discovered the awesome complexity, beauty and just plain therapeutic value of a beach. We had sand castle contests, walked, splish- 250 LOCATIONS WORLDWIDE splashed, baked, turned in circles, taking in the enor- mous vista, sniffed the salt air, and got really mindless. Sometimes, if you break words down and play with them, they turn into new meanings that are really the original old meaning coming back again. Beach becomes Be Each. Be each yourself, On the beach, you do become aware of being alone in a vast, vast place, even if there are thousands of other people out there. Beach. It is the between, I guess. Between the moun- tains. Between the sea and the land. A completely dif- ferent zone that changes from desert to ocean to des- ert... A beach is an incredibly Vancouver City Savings lonely space. As lonely, let us say, as a birth canal. [t is an excelient way to be together with a lot of people yet still be all by yourself. I watched the tide go out one morning. As it retreated tovwerds the distant moun- tains of the mainland, a migration of human beings occurred, with a few dogs and the rare horse. Drawn - § by the sea and sun, they ad- vanced steadily in a thin, ragged line behind the ebb- ing tide. And many hours later, when the tide moved back toward Parksville, the humans came back in like flotsam. Primitive? Beaches bring out the lizard in one, don't they? e aneetnig Ary Credit Union North Vancouver Community Branch For all your financial needs 984-0628 VanCity Insurance Services Dye Smith Pasman Falcon Travels Complete Travel Service The Travel Professionals 986. * . Pem erton Plaza. 129 | Coming 901, WEST 16TH: Insurance at competitive rates 984-9628 Ceftified General Accountants 985-8262 Soon...exciting new morning fitness classes!! VANRCITS NORTH. VANCOUVER. North Shore People m it was exactly one year ago key production people from the m@ Walt Disney Studios in Hollywood along with several top local technicians gathered at the mouth of the Capilano River to begin shooting a unique new movie. It was the kickoff * of Telecom Canada’s feature, Portraits of Canada, a Ba sories of stories that will be shot in various locations across fi] § the country depicting the typical Canadian theme. The $1 ff & , 6 million-plus film will be shown in the Telecom Canada Pavilion’s ; + 360-degree wrap-around theatre, the total cost of which Is # rumored to be in the neighborhood fo $14 million, during Ex- po '86. The Capilano river operation involved a 90-foot crane fig 8 lowering nine waterproofed cameras into the mouth of the river 4B ta film the phenomena of the salmon returning to their birthplace to spawn and die. Several curious onlookers were attracted BI to the scene to watch the activity including tourists from Mon- treal, Wyoming, New Orleans and Switzerland. One B Ontarlo couple approached PR MAN, Jim Peacock of # i MacFarlane Morris & Peacock, and asked what was go ing on with the huge crane. “Ch, well,” said Jim smoothly, § “you've probably heard the stories of how large our B.C. salmon m crow. Well, we're here fishing.” ........ Groundbreaking for § Telecom Canada's multi-million dollar theatre took place dur- @ ing a pleasant luncheon Monday at the Expo site. Nice touch was the release by TC officials of hundreds of colorful balloons, #F ff B20 of which contained 3 day passes to the World's Fair... i # Speaking of Expo, the tumout for the McDonald §& wt Hestaurants’ participation announcement broke all expec: § i tations, according to North Shore's Pat Parker, McDonald's cherubic Vice-president and Ren Langan, their public reia- tions director. It was less of a stiff, formal corporate deal and § more of a fun event — a very McHappy day. Pat tells me § Mm that, while the 300 or so quests were munching on Chicken § @ McNuggets, Quarter Pounders, chery and apple pies & fas well as pop and julce, McD crews set up five different loca- J H tions to also feed the 1132 constriction workers on theExpo I grounds ... Between bites of a Big Mac, managed to ask Bi ¥ A our man Jimmy Pattision about the construction work B B going on at his Eyremount home. Seems he purchased the i § house and poo! next door ($300,000 plus), bulldozed itdown and:Is expanding his present home and adding a huge new & pool. That puts to rest the rumors that it was either a massive A @ § garage for his newly-acquired super. car, the »sychedelically- « painted Rolls Royce that belonged to the iate John Len- . non which J.P. picked up for a paltry $2,090,000 or anextra large closet for Jimmy's ultra-suede jackets ... Socred MLA & dohn Reynolds, whose son, Paul married lovely Nicole § f Ryan at Holy Trinity July 20 with a lavish rc zeption follow- 1 ing at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, also loses son, Rob, within the week. Rob, who has won a football scholar. ship to Perdue Untverstty in Indiana, received a telly from 8 the head coach advising him to be at Perdue U by noon Aug. 9 and that “all those in excallent shape will be running the mile # BE at6a.m. Aug. 10”... Popular Connie Williams, formerly with the Four Seasons, and now Sales Director with m £.’Hermitage in Beverley Hills, came up to Vancouver & 3 to marry fiance and computer expert, Aeron Jansen, ina & mM pretty wedding at the Sundowner Restaurant at Sunset [ Beach Saturday. She and her new spouse are horzymoon- # i B ingin the splendiforous Four Seasons ... Speaking of the Four @ # Seasons, West Van's Moira Fitzpatrick, PR gal for the BB hotel, advises they'l be offering their Italian Food Festival & starting Aug. 7 ... Hosting a pleasant afternoon reception to BE M introduce new items on Bud Kanke’s 9th Ave. Seafood ¢ Mm Grill menu was General Manager and West Van resident, Rod & Forsythe ... Longtime N.V. actor and businessman, Mark Howard, back from six months in California, has started § a company called All West Video Services, avideocom: § @ pany with a difference. For your wedding, birthday, roast or fj fundraiser, he'll write, direct and produce a This is Your Life type of show, and put it on tape. He produced several while ME in the States and hopes to find a market here. He's also just & & been named P.R. for BC Fabricare ... happy retirement § A to veteran Sussex realtor, Lew (Screwy Lewie) Davies who's been with the company, according to Allan Taylor, “for at least 109 years”, Lew and wile, Kit, have bought a home 8 in Qualicum where the sun always shines and the golf course jf grass is always green. They make the big move tomorrow... i Y And finally, when that weird poll came out last week showing | 7 CJOR open-liner, Dave Barrett, the sexiest man in Van- & couver — can you believe it? Station boss, Harvey Gold, & walked over to Barrett, rubbed Dave's ample tummy and quip- ® ped, “Sex pot!” ... Cheersf...... Need the latest on the North Shore Real Estate Market? Call your Community Specialists... Sussex Realty 984-9711