page 2, January 26, 1977 - North Shere News

As seasoned hikers are aware, the best friend

you can take with you on a

‘boots, worth every penny of the seventy dollars or

more that they cost. But you can’t just buy the
boots and take off on a hike—if they’re not broken
‘in slowly the result is blisters and agony. Like
many other things in my. life, that’s one I learned

the hard way.

So this time | Ive been
walking around the North
Shore. breaking in my new
boots, and Saturday being
such a grand and -giorious
day I got them on and headed
west, with my grocery list
and my shopping bag rolled

up in my shoulder sack, a_
pair of bandaids in my pocket —

for emergencies, nothing
special to do and the whole
day to do it in. Kind of a nice
space, that.

On Friday I realized that I
had nothing planned for
Saturday. My first reaction
_was panic, but then | thought
**Why not?"’ I always seem
to be able to amuse myself, I
reassured myself, so why
didn't I just wait and spend
Saturday doing. what came
naturally. Os

It was natural to walk up
Twentieth - ‘Street, in West
Vancouver, _where I lived for
about a year” when I. was
seven years old: There’s a.
cedar tree standing in front
of the green house we used to

live in, and as i regarded it it —

eceurred to me that the, tree

- looked about the same height |

to me now as when I first
climbed it. That's impossible
—thirty years have elapsed.
_ Then I realized that both of
us have grown in that thirty
years, not just the tree.
**Rooms, like burly uncles,
shrivel as we. grow—’’ the
rug, out in the rubbish bin,
once was a plateau" sass te
poem—but rooms don turow
like trees.

TIME MACHINE

I snipped a few’ plumes
from the end of a branch of
the cedar. The sweet scent
when I crushed it in my
fingers brought me back like

time machine, and sud-

a
denly 1 could ramoambar mu
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first tree climb, with my-

fingers sticky from the sap of
that cedar. I remember being
both thrilled with my new
freedom and afraid that my
mother would see me and
come out on the porch and
yell at me.

Down the street is a
moss-covered rock wall, a
marvel of cunningly fitted
granite, and I can remember
sitting on the grass watching
an old man build it, an old
man. who had time to. build
rock walls. and talk to
children. I don't remember
much about him, except that
he told me that the wall
would probably be
longer than he would, and he

was right. It looks as if it will.

be there longer than I will,
too.

People don't know what to
make of a man on _ foot,

especially if he wears blue:
jeans . and suspenders and
_carries-a shoulder bag: It's
not that thev're unused to

seeing people pass _ their
homes. on foot,
don't have a- dog on-a leash

or else wear a. jogging suit”
you seem to be outside the |

usual realm of experience for
most West Vancouverites.
However. most people will
still smile back if you smile at
them, and quite a few add
their appreciation of the day

to their smiles.

Ever westward, the sun
warm on my face. I walked to
27th and then down the hill,

‘across the BCR tracks, past a

cottage not much larger than
mine that has plants in every
window and the general
appearance of being a place
that someone enjoys.

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North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an

independent

community newspaper
registered under Part

and

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Paragraph 111 of the Customs and Excise Act,
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Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every
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ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1977 NORTH
SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All rights reserved.

hike is a good pair of

around, pulled her away by

- where we lived after we left
20th Street, and then my heel

to a man that’s been on the

_a vanilla milkshake is thirst-
quenching and only slightly

there the bright sunshine stream-

ing in the windows of the

every sip, while the cool air

but, if you.
in. my ‘flash book when a
‘couple of ladies of advanced

“Shire Tables”’
_ taped to the fridge. so | did.

-felt, out loud, that it was the

‘down | to

John

| by Peter Speck .

.

I scrambled down the short
trail to the beach, taking in
big breaths of that special
smell of seaweed and drift-
wood. A_ girl going by

stopped to shar ine glory of - |

the moment with me, until
her dog, impatient with the
con, orsation when there was

acm . ob Be oe ee

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+ + wenll
opie FR EOR ERY iNteresiung smcius

the leash.

walkeddown the beach to
Dundarave, past a house

signalled me that it was time
to take a break from the new
boots. I walked up to Libby’s
Dundarave Pharmacy—the
coffee shop has a charming
Sign that reads ‘Walk
Through—Enjoy. the View,”’
and that's exactly what I did.

It’s kind of a nice surprise

wagon for a few months that
sinful. I sat with my back to

coffee shop, and loosened my
boots. It was hot in there.
The waitress showed me how

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in the louvers of the window
next to me, and | drank my
milkshake slowly, enjoying

from outside dried off my
sweat. .

-.1 was making some notes

years joined me. ‘Please

Says a sign
The lady sitting closest to me

wrong time of the year to
have the window open but I
left it open and went on
writing. My first reaction
was to close it (‘being
considerate’), but my second
was to think to myself that I
was there first, and ‘being
considerate’ applies just as
much to me as to her.

So I finished my milk-
shake, walked out of the
store after greeting some
friends that I hadn’t seen in a
long time, and then walked
the seawall and
along it and various paths to
Lawson. Park. It was
crowded on the path, and
many people passed . me
going the other way. I
cavesdropped, catching a
few fragments of conversa-
tion.

Maybe it was just coinci-
dence, but over half of the
conversations that I picked
up scraps of concerned the
word ‘mortgage.’ T haven't
the faintest idea what that
signifies. if anything, but it

_did happen, honest.

From John Lawson to
some of the nice stores in the
1400 block and 1500 block of
Marine Drive, a little shop-
ping, and then I trudged up
the hill with my groceries,
salculating that the blister on
my heel would be bothering
me alo jus about the time I
unlocked the door, And so it
was,

What does all the above
signify? [don't know. But J
enjoyed it, and maybe you

“have, too.

a

eee cc cc ae eR NE I hE HT NE EN NRE TT, GUN EGE I CO IOS I IT A

Hayden Stewart will be speaking and leading
discussion on the topic of

some love principles

six basic principles for living in universal love express the
core truths of all great religions in secular language:

3) Be the change you want to see happen (instead of trying to
change cveryone else).

4) Provide others, with the opportunity to give.
©) Consciously create your own reality.

6) Have no expectations, but rather, abundant expectancy.

. 1) Receive all people as beautiful exactly where they are.
i Bring this list of love principles to help you follow the discussion.

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2) Perceive problems as opportunities. |
I
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l

ome

Plaza

International

Hotel

Marine Drive at Capilano Road, N.V. 3 p- ° |

free admission

there will be no charge at the door but a collection will be taken

sponsored by North Shore News |
and Plaza International Hotel : a

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