Things were about to change

Here it began and things changed quickly. Skipping school and hanging with Laurie Goyette building his 66 Charger led us to two young ladies attending a local High School. Later Trish and I would meet Chris Malone who led us to Paul Yates Pete Turner Big Wheel and a plethora of assorted characters.

4 Ever

The engine out of the old Park Lane that was the T-Bird 390 I installed after a day of drinking and flying the car resulted in loss of oil and subsequently the bearings ended up in the 53 Mercury Pickup. Not long after I bought the T-Bird 390 for $200 and installed it Ron Richter borrowed and totaled my Park Lane. That was August of 79 and I was living on Rockland Avenue. Chris and Pete had already moved to Banff and Wayne Trish Sherri and I were soon to make our trek east in the M-100.

By 1981 or so Chris was driving the Econoline he got from Danny Norris. This was the old Banff something Van Electric maybe? Eitherway it had a good stereo in it. Learjet. Chris always had good sound systems.

Pete and Carols Blue Econoline. I woke up early one morning and it came upon me that I could go and have that van running if I went "now" which I did. That was about 6Am and aby 7:20 I had that old Econopile running after not running for a couple years. The 302 had spun a rod bearing on a trip between Banff and Canmore. The trans downshift lever was stuck in downshift and therefore eccessive rpm and spun a bearing on what was a fairly new and clean 302 and C4.

`I left the Van in Banff over the winter when I went back to coast. In spring I made my way back to Canmore where I stayed with Chris Gord and Lea Ann while I fixed the crank and trans. A big black ball paid for that trip.

While sleeping in the nice room downstairs I dreamt about my van breaking down but I forgot about it as I was sleeping. Two weeks later or so I am driving the blue Van thru the Rockies and as I round a corner the dream comes back, I am to break down a mile up the road. Checking all my gauges and having no problems this first 150 miles or so I carried on aware. Sure enough a mile down the road the transmission pukes its fluid and I am stuck above a river.

fluid is fluid is fluid is fluid I thought, gee I'm thirsty. No I didn't. I walked down to the river and collected some river water which I poured into my transmission to use as hydraulic fluid. This worked until I got to Armstrong BC where it finally packed for good and I was catching a ride with John. Long John Sliver we used to call him.

1983 saw me back in the mountains and in desperate need of a rescue. One of the few "miracles" in my life. One night I thought I was confined indefinitely to my hell in Kananaskis Doug showed up with Shelly and Bear and Shadow to ski.

We loaded my camper on his 4x4 (we had built earlier in Cordova Bay at the property Don Giles owned whom I got the Park Lane from) I released myself from my job and headed back to Banff. A train took me back to the island. Gord Egles had already driven the truck down to the island the fall before. 16 qts of oil.

I had been at the Cave on Cave visiting Big Wheel Pete T etc. Lefty had his green 50 Chev on the hill with one of KC's Pontiacs up behind the house. I didn't have the best traction on gravel I suppose and while moving up or down the hill amongst all the vehicles (Fairlanes DogHouses Cougars Ponchs etc) my fender grazed the rear fender extension on Pete T's newly painted to very shiny black Cougar peeling a small piece of the very edge of the metal.

Well Pete and I were already long at odds over a girl and I felt little remorse but I was never happy I had marked his car. Just the way it went.

Tenish years later I am walking Cougar acres in Sooke BC 1000 miles from where the scraping incident happened and I happened to stop and look at this rusted out old Cougar that had been there a long while. I had seen it before but this day I stopped and noticed it was a yellow car painted to black now rusted completely out and completely gutted. Only a shell was left and the paint was dull. Everywhere. Everywhere except this one rear fender extension when I realized here was the car I had grazed years earlier.

Eventually I acquired several parts and pieces from that Cougar but that's skipping far ahead.

Late in 84 I met a woman who would indelibly mark my life.

1985 saw vehicular transitional period as my Van and Fairlane are both under construction. One blue and white other white and blue.

Rish and I began camping in Royal Oak after a failed go at living indoors in 1987. I had previously lived in my Van for several months in a restaurant parking lot my buddy Bill owned while I worked ten 60hr workweeks trying to earn enough hours and cash so I could go home to Rish in BC for the winter and collect UI. UI reworked my earnings to a 40 hr workweek basically reducing my income by 50%. In spring I found I could no longer afford to live indoors and we gave up Starling Lane.

1988 1989 saw us here at Hornby living in the white van building George Washington's lamp for $3 an hour if you only count half your time.

This was the view Rish and I enjoyed at Starling Lane previous to making the move to living in the trailer park.

I now live off to the left of the pale blue water. That's James Island which is right out back of my place now.

Used to build half million dollar yachts for the not so wealthily challenged.