Seasonal song Six White Boomers sparks memories

Playing piano for two 2-hour shows a day as I’m currently doing at the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular can be daunting. If you take your mind off what you’re doing for a millisecond you could find yourself scrambling to refocus. This is the sixth year I’ve been a member of the band backing the production and it’s been made additionally enjoyable using a newly acquired digital piano. 

Last month my wife Pat and I were in the Long & McQuade music store in Nanaimo. Pat needed to purchase some Christmas music for some of her piano students. While waiting for her to dig through the bins of sheet music, I kept entertained by noodling my way through the piano department. 

Trying out a number of the digital pianos on display, I came across a Roland FP-7F keyboard and after playing just a few chords I instantly fell in love with the instrument. No digital I’d played before sounded and felt so close to an acoustic piano as this one did. Later at home I couldn’t get the instrument’s superior sound out of my mind and thought I’d check for reviews of the piano on the Internet. I soon learned the sampled sound chip in the unit had been prepared using a Hamburg Steinway D Grand piano. Sound sampling is a way of converting real sounds into a form that a computer can store and replay.

Pat could see how taken I was with the piano and the following day said to me that if I liked that much, she’d give it to me for Christmas. I was of course delighted. However, the piano had been listed in the music store as used so I needed to know its history. It turned out the instrument had been rented to the Chemainus Festival Theatre for one of their musicals. The result was a substantial discount off the list price. Picking up the piano just a day after first playing it, I’ve had an incredible time performing on the instrument from the Yellowpoint show’s very first rehearsal.  

(Above) - The Roland FP-7F keyboard - my Christmas present from Pat.

This year the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular has over 50 songs programmed. Playing through the production, many of the tunes have sparked personal memories of Christmases past. One song in particular called Six White Boomers took me back to a seasonal show I performed over 40 years ago with an entertainer by the name of Rolf Harris. 

Rolf Harris was an Australian entertainer who showed up in Vancouver on the maiden voyage of the cruise ship Oriana in the spring of 1961 to play a short gig at a venue called the Arctic Club on Pender Street. His big hit in Australia was an infectious tune called Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport that had caught on worldwide. Harris was such a smash hit in Vancouver that he ended up playing two shows a night, six days a week for 31 straight weeks before the Arctic Club burned to the ground on New Year’s Eve 1961. He was so popular the legendary Cave Theatre Restaurant on Hornby Street extended his stay. 

Rolf Harris ultimately built a secure career in England but still continued to make regular visits to Vancouver. It was one of these periodic visits during the Christmas season that a local Alberni Valley radio station (CJAV) booked Harris to do some concerts on Vancouver Island. Somehow his Vancouver booking agent got my name and phoned to ask if I could put together a trio to back the entertainer up. 

Photo above: My jazz trio is seen backing up Rolf Harris at the old Athletic Hall in Port Alberni. Rolf is shown with his wobble board singing his principal hit, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. Ernie De Montigny played bass and my brother-in-law Dave Auld (unseen at right) was on drums.

The first show was to be a matinee in Port Alberni and a rehearsal was arranged for my band to learn the music. However, when Harris showed up after travelling over from the mainland he apologized that the airline had lost all his musical arrangements in transit. Even his mammoth didgeridoo (a long, wooden wind instrument used traditionally by the aboriginal people of Northern Australia) had gone astray. However, Rolf was happy to learn that I could read chord symbol shorthand as he’d spent his travel time on the ferry scribbling out the chord structure of his compositions on sheets of hotel stationary. 

And that’s what we ended up doing, playing the entire show from these scrap pieces of paper scotch-taped to the piano. To imitate the strange sounds of a didgeridoo, Rolf blew into one end of a cardboard centre core used to wrap newsprint at the local paper mill. However, eventually his backup band scores did arrive and later shows were definitely superior. 

Over time, Rolf Harris became one of Britain's best-loved entertainers. A very talented artist, a large segment of his act on stage incorporated sketching cartoons and portraits on huge sheets of paper. In 2005 Harris was commissioned to paint a portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II for her 80th birthday. Harris was appointed an MBE in 1968 and an OBE in 1977and received a CBE from the Princess Royal in 2006.

(Photo above): Rolf Harris painting a portrait of the Queen for her 80^th birthday celebration at a sitting in Buckingham Palace.

(Photo above): Dancers at the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular. The production plays out its final week starting tonight with six performances through Saturday. Tickets available through the Port Theatre in Nanaimo at www.porttheatre.com.

A busy concert weekend

On the west side of the hump in Port Alberni my wife Patricia is conducting the Timbre! Choir for its annual Christmas presentation. Soloists will be Michelle Weckesser and Elizabeth Grenon. Vancouver pianist Sarah Hagen is the accompanist. Performances - Sat, Dec 15 at 7:30 pm & Sun, Dec 26 at 2:30 pm.

On the east side of the hump I continue my gig at the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular this weekend with six performances thru Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets can be purchased online from the Nanaimo’s Port Theatre website at www.porttheatre.com. The production has just returned from a one-night performance at the Sid Williams Theatre in Courtenay with a sellout of 500 seats.

Seating configuration in ADSS Theatre in Port Alberni 

will be new to valley audiences

The design of the new ADSS theatre in Port Alberni is very different from the community’s old auditorium on Burde Street with its rows of plywood seats, and like driving a new car or installing a modern HDTV set in your home, there will be an adjustment for some patrons attending events in the new facility. 

The seating style in the 455-seat theatre is what’s known as Continental Seating. It’s not a new concept, an early example being Wagner’s opera house in Bayreuth, Germany which was built in 1876.  

Today across North America there are scores of theatres using the design. Three in Canada that I’ve attended concerts in are the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Farquhar Auditorium at the University of Victoria and the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg. 

The concept behind not using an aisle to break the rows is to allow for maximum seating in front of the stage. To do this the aisle of the seats is made wider to allow for easier movement. Last week at the official opening my wife Patricia and I sat in the exact centre of the theatre’s second row. Due to an afternoon performance of the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular that I’m playing piano for, we had to leave a few minutes before the ceremony had finished. We had no problem reaching the side aisle. In fact the students seated in our row didn’t even need to stand up to let us pass.  

Another benefit of the new theatre is the generous slope giving from every seat, a direct line of vision to the stage.

The theatre is truly a remarkable achievement for the Alberni Valley considering the economic challenges faced in recent years.  For School District #70 (Alberni), a standing ovation is in order. 

New ADSS Theatre opens in Port Alberni

Friday morning my wife Patricia and myself entered the freshly finished ADSS Theatre in Port Alberni as invited guests at the Official Grand Opening of the community’s new high school. As a retired member of the school’s staff and having been a member of Alberni Valley Performing Arts Committee in 2008, it was an exhilarating moment. 

The performing arts committee was created following the Alberni School District #70’s success, after years of lobbying trying to convince the provincial government that the community’s high school needed to be drastically upgraded or replaced. However, a crisis for the performing arts community ensued when it was decided the new school would be built on property many blocks north of where the old school had stood since the mid-1950s. Attached to the school was a 1000-seat auditorium. The concern being, would it be torn down along with the rest of the old school buildings?

The committee, which was made up of representatives of local performing arts user groups, the city council and the school board, set a mandate to determine if any community agency was willing to take on the responsibility for preserving, upgrading and maintaining the existing auditorium as a stand-alone facility. To the arts community members it wasn’t rocket science to conclude that it would take someone with very deep pockets to upgrade and maintain such a large aging facility. 

The committee’s second mandate was to determine if community support could be generated to construct a new performing arts centre, either as a stand-alone facility or in conjunction with the new ADSS school. With help from theatre consultant Sandra Thompson, who had been involved with the construction of Nanaimo’s 800-seat Port Theatre, it soon became clear that building a similar facility in Port Alberni would cost well in excess of ten million dollars.

The Alberni Valley had, over the years with taxpayer support, constructed wonderful sport facilities. However, with the downturn in the forest industry we realized a city referendum for a performance theatre, akin to one that had seen a new hockey rink recently constructed, would have little chance of success. I recall writing on my blog at the time a quote from Peter Gzowski’s hockey book The Game of Our Lives in which a chapter was dedicated to the unique talents of Wayne Gretsky. Gzowski wrote, “the joy of it all is that we have found him, that the game is so much a part of our lives that when a Wayne Gretzky is born we will find him. The sorrow is that there may also be Wayne Gretzkys of the piano or the paintbrush who, because we expose our young to hockey so much more than to the arts, we will never hear about.” I digress.

I was at this point becoming quite discouraged. It was becoming clear I had to accept the inevitable. The community would lose the old auditorium that had served the valley performing arts so well for over 50-years and likely it would be replaced in the new school with a multi purpose classroom. 

Suddenly a ray of sunshine appeared. At one of the committee meetings the school board representative brought the news that funds expected from the sale of the property on which the old school stood could be earmarked towards a theatre in the new school. Although one or two citizens urged me in letters-to-the-editor to the AV Times not to abandon my original hopes that the ADSS Auditorium be saved, I’d come to the conclusion that the costs of preserving the old structure were obviously prohibitive and with no local arts group willing to own and run the original auditorium independently, a compromise was offered as a way forward. Taking into account available funds and some creative planning by the architect, a 500-seat configuration was affordable. 

Decreasing the number of seats from a 700 or 800 configuration meant it would be unprofitable for a national or international star with high fees to play the theatre. However, the majority of committee members felt that the benefits of having a fitting performance venue for student and community productions plus the potential visiting professional groups who would book a 500-seat theatre, far outweighed not having a proper theatre with a raked floor as part of the new school.

In my opinion supporting a 500-seater under the circumstances was not only the right choice, but, the only choice. Port Alberni now has a state-of-the-art theatre that will serve the school and the local artistic community and their audiences for years to come. For all those involved in pursuing the goal that a proper theatre be part of the new school, I suggest a standing ovation is in order, to celebrate this wonderful achievement.

Unfortunately we had to leave at the end of the ceremony and missed the luncheon. I had to scoot back over the hump to play an afternoon performance of the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular and Pat had a number of piano students waiting for her return. More on our Christmas concerts in my next blog.  

Photos from the Open House:

Photo above: The new ADSS Theatre chamber has comfortable soft seating with wide access to seats, a large stage area with an extensive apron, sizeable dressing rooms plus state-of-the-art lighting and digital sound system. My personal preference would have been an open sound booth at the back as it will be difficult for those running the equipment to hear exactly what the audience is hearing. Currently there is only one sliding window in the booth and consideration will need to be given to, at the very least, getting the other two windows to slide open as well.

The ADSS stage band under the direction of Sarah Falls tunes up before the official opening on Friday. The large screen in front of the band drops down for video and movie presentations. 

The ADSS Dance Team performs “Make You Pop”.

Timbre! goes Hollywood at the Capitol Theatre

Port Alberni’s community choir Timbre! and musical director Patricia Miller will be performing the first concert of their 40^th season with two shows, the first on Saturday evening, Nov. 3rd  at 7:30 and the second on Sunday afternoon, Nov 4th at 2:30. 

With the closing of the old ADSS Auditorium on Burde Street and the delay in the completion of the new ADSS Theatre, Timbre! needed to change the venue for their opening show. With a concert entitled CINEMAGIC – A Tribute to the Music of Hollywood, performing the show in Port Alberni’s heritage-designated Capitol Theatre seemed a natural segue. With the cooperation of the Portal Players Dramatic Society who now own and operate the old movie house as a live theatre venue, Timbre! was able to book a weekend time slot.

The first movie I recollect seeing as a child was at the Capitol Theatre on Argyle Street. My father had taken me to see Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Being the war years I recall Disney had included a trailer that had the dwarfs promoting the sale of Victory War Bonds as they marched off through the woods singing Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s off to Work We Go.

Next week Timbre! will rehearse in the theatre for the first time in order to get used to the acoustics of the building. With the Port Alberni Orchestra & Chorus’ grand piano in storage awaiting the opening of the new high school theatre, plus the fact the instrument is too large for the Capitol stage after factoring in the numbers of choir members and musicians, I’m using my compact electric piano as a stand-in. Joining me in the orchestra will be Port Alberni’s Dave Auld (drums), with Nanaimo instrumentalist Andrew Cullen (bass) and Karl Rainer (Violin). 

Long before movies could talk, they still had the power to tell a story – with music. In the silent era, Charlie Chaplin not only acted in and directed his own films, he also wrote music for them. In tribute to the era, opening Cinemagic will feature a special guest appearance by Qualicum actor Gary Brown who will perform the role of Chaplin Chaplin accompanied by two of Chaplin’s best-known compositions - Limelight and Smile.

Some of the greatest scores in film history are the product of a shared vision between directors and composers. When he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, Steven Spielberg hired long-time collaborator John Williams to score the film before even one frame had been shot. 

Sadly today film scores generally comprise a very small portion of a film’s budget and are often commissioned so close to a release date that demands on composers can be brutal. When I was attending music college in Los Angeles in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, film studios still used large orchestras employing hundreds of musicians to record movie soundtracks. Today with such budget and time constraints and the convenience of electronic music, live scoring is fast becoming a lost art.

However, Cinemagic will take you back to the golden age of Hollywood, when the music composed for a movie meant more than a sound track littered with explosions and car crashes. 

Tickets are now on sale at Rollin Centre, Echo Centre, Somass Drugs and Salmonberry’s. You are encouraged to purchase your ticket in advance.  Due to the increased costs involved with 2 performances and reduced seating, Timbre! is unable to offer Season’s Passes this year. However, the price of Senior and Student tickets have been lowered to $10 and a Child 12 & under to $5. Adult tickets remain at a reasonable $15.

Qualicum based actor Gary Brown takes on the role of legendary film actor and director Charlie Chaplin at the Timbre! choir’s tribute to the music of Hollywood playing the weekend of Nov 3^rd & 4^th  at the Capitol Theatre.  Brown is co-founder of the Bard To Broadway Theatre in Oceanside and continues to act and direct for the well-known company.

Timbre! Choir starting 40th Season

The Community Choir Timbre! of Port Alberni is celebrating their 40th performance season. 

Timbre! encourages all singers who would like to join a group dedicated to producing a fine choral sound to contact them. We especially welcome teenagers who are interested in learning about and being exposed to fine choral singing. The choir is a four-part ensemble and welcomes choristers of all voice types - soprano, alto, tenor and bass. 

To try out for Timbre! or if you have any questions, please phone Karen Sparrow at 1-250-724-5244 (Port Alberni) or the musical director Patricia Miller at 1-250-390-7508 (Nanaimo). My wife Pat will set up a time with you to meet privately in order to determine your range, pitch and tonal control. Be prepared to sing a short solo of your choosing. It doesn't need to be elaborate - anything from O Canada to Silent Night will do and the conductor will even sing with you if you prefer. 

Pat and I spent two days in Vancouver at reading sessions put on by Northwest Music and Long & McQuade music stores choosing new choral publications for the fall. Timbre!’s first concert will be called Cinemagic and will feature music from the movies. As those blog readers in Port Alberni are aware, a new community theatre will be opening soon as part of the high school. However, the theatre will not be ready until later in November. Consequently, Timbre!’s fall performance will be held in the Capitol Theatre, which, being an old movie house, will fit in perfectly with the Cinemagic theme. There will be two performances, Saturday, November 3rd at 7:30 pm and Sunday, Nov 4th at 2:30 pm. More details on this concert later blogs.

On Labour Day I loaded my bicycle aboard the morning train to McLean Mill and rode back into town via Kitsuksis Road. Stopping at the Salmon Festival at Clutesi Marina, I lunched on a plate of delicious salmon at the Kiwanis Club Bar- B-Q. There was no line up to speak of at noon, not like the evening before when we went as a family and cued for over an hour. The salmon is so good that any waiting time is worth it. Retrieving my car at the E&N Station, I drove past the new high school. The front door was open so I had a peek inside. 

The common area inside the entrance is stunning. What a magnificent building.  Yes I know, so many of us were quite attached to the old school on Burde. However, it really was time to move on and the new facility can only be classed as one of the finest secondary school buildings in the province. Photos below:

 

PHOTO GALLERY - LABOUR DAY WEEKEND AT MCLEAN MILL (Port Alberni)

(Two photos above): The only operating steam donkey engine in Canada demonstrates the high-lead (pronounced leed) method of yarding in fallen logs to a landing by a series of cables and blocks suspended in the air from a spar-tree. The logs were then loaded on to a log truck.

(Left) The Alberni Pacific Railway loading passengers at the E&N Station in downtown Port Alberni for the trip out to McLean.

(Left) Visitors to McLean Mill get a close up view of high-lead logging powered by the only operating steam donkey engine in Canada

(Left) On the weekend I rode my bike on to the new floating dock at Harbour Quay in Port Alberni. The impressive $8.2 million dock stretches more than 400 feet out into the Alberni Inlet.

Sizzling in the city

My wife Pat had decided not to take on any piano adjudicating trips this summer and stay put at Sproat Lake. That idea took a quick U-Turn with the Toronto Conservatory of Music needing emergency coverage on a Vancouver contract that an examiner from Ontario couldn’t fulfill. Need I say more? Being the dedicated musician she is, Pat agreed to cover the contract. As I so as often do, I went along to play tourist. After all, living in a 1^st-class hotel in downtown Vancouver is not an onerous task. With stunning summer weather and the annual Vancouver MusicFest still going on I knew there’d be plenty to keep me occupied.  

Whenever Pat does an adjudication gig on the lower mainland I usually take along my bike. The last time I biked the streets around Vancouver it wasn’t for the faint of heart. There were times I felt like a piece of meat about to be sandwiched between a bus on one side of me and a heavy delivery truck on the other. Automobile drivers who would unexpectedly change lanes without signaling were another hazard.

The cruise ship Radiance of the Seas readying for its weekly summer departure from Vancouver to Alaska. A few years ago when the vessel made a stopover in Victoria our son Brock gave us a tour through the ship. He was working aboard as a musician.

   

The Hornby Street bike corridor is part of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s new network of separated bicycle lanes in downtown Vancouver. This photo shows bicyclists crossing at Hornby and Georgia Streets.

However, that’s all changed with the construction of a network of separated bike lanes in downtown Vancouver, an initiative by the city’s Mayor Gregor Robertson. I understand he’s taken a fair amount of heat over the multi-million dollar project from everyone from downtown business owners, who’ve lost some parking capacity in front of their stores, through to commuting car drivers who don’t like bicycles sharing their lane space to begin with. From my perspective as a visitor I think the separated bike lanes are fantastic. The Hornby Street bike path went right by the front door of our hotel and I could get to anywhere in the downtown core in just minutes. Connecting to the waterfront bike route, it only took me 15 minutes to reach the seawall path around Stanley Park. 

The cycling path around the perimeter of Stanley park presents a kaleidoscope of unsurpassed scenery.

Mayor Robertson’s bike path initiative is about to be expanded even further. The program will involve rental bikes which can be used for short trips around the downtown as an extension of the transit system. The plan is to have 1,500 bikes at 125 stations around the city. However, unlike other jurisdictions around the world that already have the program, Vancouver will need to have helmets available to satisfy our provincial laws. This complicates the plan. Many Vancouverites habitually walk aboard Sky Train without paying, although that’s about to change with turnstiles now being installed. However, how the city will get some of these same dishonest types to return their helmets to an unsupervised bike-rental station is beyond me. Additionally, who wants to stick a sweaty helmet on their head when they are returned.

The False Creek bike path passes through the Olympic Village.

Traveling in Switzerland with my brother Terry in the spring I was struck by the large numbers of people who use bicycles to get to work. Thanks to Mayor Robertson cycling is definitely on a roll in Vancouver. As The Province newspaper columnist Jon Ferry recently wrote – “It’s goodbye, dour-faced Rain City. And hello happy Vancouverhagen -- with a nod to the chic Danish capital of Copenhagen where more than a third of all citizens reportedly commute to work by bike.”

Two photos above show dolphins leaping in unison and two children entranced by fish on display at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Cruising through Stanley Park by bike last week I was stopped and approached by two German tourists who wanted to know where the Vancouver Aquarium was located. After giving them directions I realized I hadn’t visited the facility since our children were very young and decided on the spot it was time I did. The upgrades that have come about through some major funding from the federal and provincial governments during the last several years are certainly impressive. I particularly enjoyed the Canadian Arctic gallery. Anyone who believes that global warming is some sort of hoax only need to view the aquarium’s prominently displayed satellite photos taken of the arctic over the past 10 to 15 years. It’s quite shocking to see how far the summer sea ice has retreated within that time frame. The Northwest Passage north of Canada and Alaska and the European and Siberian Northern Sea Route are becoming more easily navigated each year. Satellite images of the drastic surface thaw of Greenland’s permafrost, show icebergs “twice the size of Manhattan” disconnecting from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier. The way things are going we’ll be growing oranges in the Fraser Valley in the not too distant future.

Jazz pianist Mark Eisenman shows young musicians how to “groove in time” at an adjudication lecture held before a large crowd at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver.

I mentioned that Musicfest Vancouver was underway during our stay on the mainland. One afternoon I attended a lecture/adjudication held at Christ Church Cathedral by the New York born and Toronto based jazz pianist Mark Eisenman. Starting off the session, Eisenman listened to two jazz piano students from Capilano University (formerly known as Capilano College) perform while backed by a bass and drummer from the same institution. I couldn’t help but squirm in my chair, wondering if Eisenman was going to stop it all before the students embarrassed themselves further. He finally stopped them but did so as diplomatically as he could. In all fairness to the students it was a high-pressure situation before a large audience and the young players must have been sweating bricks. Eisenman touched on many points of jazz performance and finally zeroed in (very discreetly) on a weakness I also find in young rhythm section players these days, especially drummers. To my ears, today’s rhythm section players are so busy adding extra soli stuff to their accompaniments in a combo setting that “grooving time” has almost completely been eliminated from their jazz performances. 

After the adjudication session I went to Mark Eisenman’s website through my iPhone to learn more about him. I loved a quote he’d copied from a book called "Knowing the Score-Notes on Film Music" by Irwin Bazelon. The quote arms the musician with some verbal ammunition on how to answer those who think that you as a musician should perform gigs for free because “really, isn’t it just for fun?” The quote was: "The practice of music is historically linked with the idea of selling one's talent... rather than selling one's labor in its congealed form, as a commodity; and through the ages the musician, like the actor, has been regarded as closely akin to the lackey, the jester, or the prostitute. Although musical performance presupposes the most exacting labor, the fact that the artist appears in person, and the coincidence between his existence and his achievement, together can create the illusion that he does it for fun, that he earns his living without honest labor, and this very illusion is readily exploited."

The New York Singers, in their 25th year as a group, thrilled the audience at a Musicfest Vancouver concert held at VanDusen Gardens.  

The PNE opened when we were in Vancouver. I hadn’t attended the iconic summer event for many years so I took the opportunity to scoot out to the fair grounds on Opening Day Saturday. I arrived just before the gates opened. No wonder the PNE has been concerned the last few years about keeping attendance up. Not one of the hired help manning the ticket booths knew how to run the credit card machines. They were frantically being trained as hundreds of people were lining up. I tried to pay cash but this didn’t speed things up a bit as the young fellow in my line couldn’t get his computer to produce a ticket with a bar code. Finally his stubborn PC spit out a ducat that I took to the gate entrance where a scanner was refusing to recognize ticket bar codes which opened the turnstiles. Compounding the crush was the arrival of families who expected their children to be admitted free on opening day. This has been a tradition at the PNE for generations. However, for some unexplained reason, free day this year had been switched to Monday. Many parents vigorously argued the point with the gatekeeper manager to no avail. Talk about a public relations disaster.

However, going to the fair early had its advantages, as I was able to breeze through everything I wanted to see devoid of any long lineups. The Star Trek exhibition was excellent – displaying items used in the films and TV series such as props, costumes, set components and full-scale replicas of the Enterprise bridge. Other comprehensive features of the exhibit included a complete time line showing major events in the Star Trek Universe and how all of the various series and movies relate to one another chronologically.  I had my photo taken while sitting in Captain Kirk’s chair on the bridge of the Enterprise but decided not to cough up the 20 bucks they wanted for a computer made copy. 

 I enjoyed a two-hour concert by the Dal Richards Big Band. The legendary Vancouver bandleader is over 90 and his band of decidedly younger players still pumps out a great sound. I could stand corrected, but I believe Dal said this was his 73^rd year performing at the PNE. Unbelievable.

Photos above of the PNE Prize Home that I plan to win this coming weekend.  The luxurious home will be located in the Alpine Village at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops. Time to get my skis waxed.


Photos below: Returning from a bike ride to North Vancouver via the SeaBus passenger ferry across Burrard Inlet, I came across a weird costume contest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. I have no idea  what the event represented. No one I talked to seemed to know. Perhaps the summer heat had something to do with the behavior of these outlandish cast of characters.

Above: This character thought he was Spiderman

Coming home to Sproat Lake Pat and I worked for one blazing hot day on the Alberni Pacific Railway. The following day the first rainfall seen in weeks sent us scurrying indoors from our deck Bar-B-Q. The annual Alberni Valley Salmon Festival goes this weekend so I’m hoping for a fall filled with sunshine.

Ride the Alberni Pacific Railway to one of the biggest antique truck shows in the Pacific Northwest being held this weekend at McLeans Mill. 

Reservations always recommended. Call 250-723-1376.

Port Alberni 100 this year

Port Alberni is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. The main attraction of the city’s centennial celebrations was a homecoming held on the August long weekend. The event brought together residents of the Valley and those no longer living in the community. Although my wife Pat and I moved to Nanaimo from Port Alberni ten years ago, we still feel deBinitely attached to the Alberni Valley. We take pleasure in our summer home at Sproat Lake and Pat continues to direct the community choir Timbre! who this year will celebrate their 40th anniversary season. And of course ourtwo grandchildren live in Port Alberni, which warrants scores of drives over the hump year round.

For those readers interested in the history of the Alberni Valley a new publication titled The Albernis – Then and Now (1912 to 2012) was unveiled as part of the celebrations by the Port Alberni Centennial Committee. The book compares photo images of the city of a century ago with the city of today and can be ordered from the Alberni Valley Museum, 4255 Wallace St., Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 3Y6. The B&W photos I scanned from the book for this blog are part of the Alberni Valley Museum’s photography collection. With so much of my life being tied to the Alberni Valley I could probably write my own tome about my 60-­‐plus years living there. However, these particular photos triggered a few memories of my childhood.

As a youngster, the Birst time I ventured out on the waters of the Alberni Inlet I was about 12 years old. A school chum and myself had spiked together a raft made from railway ties that we’d found laying alongside the logging railway tracks at the log dump just west of Polly’s Point. Our plan was to see if we could paddle our way across the inlet to explore the west shore. The day we attempted our venture we were fortunate not to have been run down by a deep-­‐sea freighter that was groping its way at a snail's pace through the morning mist to berth at the harbour’s assembly wharf.

Over 6 decades later, the memories of that event came Blowing back as I sailed on the Alberni Inlet with our grandchildren Nathan and Matthew in the Puddle Duck boat races that were being held as part of the Port Alberni Centennial Celebrations. The racing was far from swift due to a lack of a steady breeze.

However, we did pretty well and maintain bragging rights for the next year by winning Birst place. What is a Puddle Duck you might ask? Put simply, it’s a one design-­‐racing sailboat that is basically a plywood box with a curved bottom. The straightforward hull can be made from 3 sheets of plywood, a can of glue, and a bit of house paint. The sail is made from a common plastic tarp cover.

Although I skippered the boat in the race at Harbour Quay, building the Puddle Duck was a family project by our son Cory, daughter-­‐in-­‐law Dorianne and our grandchildren Nathan and Matthew. Grandma Pat also contributed, driving over the hump from Nanaimo to help paint the hull. I was asked to skipper in the races when Cory was unable to do so.

Local sailing enthusiasts David and Pam Whitworth were the driving force behind the event in which 18 boats took part. The race drew a huge crowd to the Port Alberni waterfront and the organizers are hopeful that others will consider building the small inexpensive boats over the winter months, making for an expanded Bleet for next summer’s race. Will I be back next year to defend our victory? Absolutely, if I’m asked to be the skipper. 

Kind of Blue launches into H2O for the first time at Sproat Lake. 

There was just enough breeze for a maiden shakedown sail. The Mars Blying tanker can be seen in the distance.

Ken Crowshaw presents the trophy he dedicated to his parents and donated for the winner of the annual Puddle Duck race. Members of the Crowshaw family have lived in the Alberni Valley for more than 100 years.

L to R – Yours truly, Nathan, Pam Whitworth and Dave Whitworth with Matthew in front pose with the crystal trophy called the Crowshaw Cup.

How the Millers came to live in the Albernis

My parents, Dr. AP Miller and Evelyn Jones met in the City of Victoria. My father, who grew up in Winnipeg, was Binishing his internship at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in BC’s capital city where my mother was a nurse. Married on November 8, 1934 in Penticton where my mother’s family lived, they came immediately without a honeymoon to Port Alberni. Dad had been told the growing west coast twin communities of Alberni & Port Alberni had much potential and would be a prime place to open a medical practice. His Birst doctor’s ofBice was on the second Bloor of the Carmoor Block at Argyle and Kingsway streets, moving later to the Croll Block at Argyle St. and Third Ave. After an extended rental above MacDonald’s Pharmacy across 3rd Ave from the Croll Block, his Binal ofBice space before retirement was the Credit Union Building at 4th Ave and Angus Street.

The newlywed’s Birst home was located on Mar Street, a block east of 3rd Ave where Woodward’s Store would eventually be built. The property Woodward’s built on had been occupied by the home and park-­‐like gardens of Dr. Hilton, a pioneer valley doctor. Before I was born, my parents built a beautiful large family home at South Crescent and 7th Ave which my younger brother Terry and I would eventually grow up in. I even remember our telephone number -­‐ 530. You didn’t dial out in those days -­‐ one picked up the phone receiver and asked the operator (who was located in the BC Telephone exchange building on Argyle Street across from the Capital Theatre) to place the call to the person you wanted to talk to. 

Photo above: My father’s Birst doctor’s ofBice was on the second Bloor of the Carmoor Block across the street from the E&N Train Station.

Photos abov: The Miller family home on South Crescent – The property included a second lot bordering Montrose Street which was cleared and worked up as a gorgeous garden of rose trellises and a kidney shaped Bish pond with a tumbling waterfall. Years later Pat & I had master builder Lothar Haack build our Birst home on the property.

Photo above: In early April of 1938 my mother boarded the morning train from Port Alberni’s E&N station to travel to Victoria to have me. I was born later that month at the Royal Jubilee, the same hospital where my parents had met. In letters to my father, who had remained in Port Alberni to look after his patients, my mother describes the bumping and lurching train ride to Victoria. I believe this must be where my interest in trains originated. 

I attended 8th Ave Elementary School in South Port Alberni. In my Grade 6 year I recall getting the strap almost on a weekly basis for speaking out of turn. One winter I received several strappings from Principal Murray for throwing snowballs too close to the main entrance of the school. For generations, whacking a child on the hand with a leather strap for violating certain school rules was considered an acceptable form of discipline in the B.C. public school system. The practice was still going on when I became a teacher in the mid-­‐1960’s at EJ Dunn, although parents andeducators were beginning to question whether using physical violence to get students to "behave" was appropriate. The barbaric practice was Binally abolished by the BC legislature in 1973, 24 years too late for me!

My Birst year of high school was taken in a cluster of army camp H-­‐Huts that had been constructed to house soldiers being trained to Bight World War II. The camp was located at the north end of 10th Ave. One building, now known as Glenwood Centre, is one of the few camp buildings remaining. It had served as the Army Camp’s drill hall. My remaining high school years were spent in a brand new school, which opened the following year on Burde Street. We had an extra month of summer holidays waiting for the construction to be complete.

The years at Alberni District High School set the path my life would take. Although I can’t say I was an academic student by any stretch of the imagination, I reveled in the music and drama programs offered inthe curriculum. Several dedicated teachers introduced me to the world of jazz and musical theatre, something for which I’m eternally grateful. So much so that years later after studying music in Los Angeles, California, I returned to teach instrumental music in the Alberni school system. First at EJ Dunn Secondary School and later at ADSS, I had the privilege of introducing several more generations to the joy and importance of the performing arts to one’s life.

Now in this 100th year of Port Alberni, our grandson Nathan will attend a brand new high school set to open in September. My only regret is the music building I fought so hard for and had built in the old high school along with the 1000 seat auditorium that I performed in for over 50 years, will be knocked down. However, time doesn’t stand still and Pat and I are excited about the possibility of performing some concerts with Timbre! Choir in the new 500-­‐seat community theatre that will be part of the new high school complex. 

PHOTO ABOVE: This section of the Somass Hotel that faced the E&N train station was still in operation when I was a youngster. I recall having many family Sunday dinners in the hotel’s elegant dining room that led off from the balcony that can be seen at the top of the stairs coming up from the street. This part of the hotel burned to the ground in 1947. 

PHOTO (Above): This photo shows the Birst Port Alberni community band. My guess it was taken in front of the wooden band stand that stood between the E&N train station and the Somass Hotel at the foot of Arygle Street. As a youngster, my Birst awareness of brass band music came from watching the Elks Band perform in the May Day parades of the 1940’s. 

Dexter Wallbank who taught private piano and violin lessons in the valley directed the band. In parades the ensemble didn’t march but usually rode atop the Blat deck of a Tom’s Bros Moving Co. truck. I remember a common decoration on parade Bloats in those days was Blowering Scotch Broom. These days island communities stage an annual war against the obnoxious weed that was brought to Vancouver Island from Europe in 1850 by a Captain Grant who planted it on his farm near Victoria.

During the mid-­‐1950’s school orchestras and bands were introduced into the curriculum in BC schools and soon after the Elks Club Band disbanded, donating many of their instruments to the ADHS music program. Happily, the last few years have seen a community band re-­‐formed. It was Birst known as the Rubber Band, a handle I’m thankful to say has been changed to the Alberni Valley Community Band. The ensemble is currently directed by Cory Miller and is a member of the Port Alberni Orchestra and Chorus Society. New members are always welcome.

Happy 100th Birthday Port Alberni