Blast From The Past

Last Updated: May 3, 2009 @ 08.40

When I was at dad's during our Feb 2008 trip, we went through a bunch of his old pictures and found these jems. It's amazing, but even though I'm much younger (about 10 years ago for the oldest) I still remember most of them. I have been slowly touching some of them up, so some of them are now better than the original. If you have any pictures that you think would fit in, please email them along, and as long as I don't look too bad, I'll join them in.

19_0's

Here is a really old one of my Aunt Joyce and Shirley on Douglas Street (Lower Town) in Revelstoke. I'm sure that the houses are most likely still there, but there will definately be a lot more traffic on the roads. Damn the iron horse! I'm not sure when this was taken (and I'm sure Joyce won't want to tell), so we'll say this was from the 1950's.

And, here's the same street in present day. I would have expected it to have changed more, as the houses seem very similar. Sure, now there's a paved road and cars, but other than that, the feel seems the same.

1970's

Here's dad in his hockey kit. Dad played D for the Revelstoke Oldtimers. You'll see dad later in the team photos, as he was their coach for a number of years.

I'm betting this is about 1971-2. I don't recognize the house. Could this be our old house on the west side?

I don't remember that room or couch, so I'm guessing it is in our old trailer. The sofa is dark brown like the one above, so that fits together. That would make it about 1972.

I look quite young in this picture, so I'm betting it's around 1971, before we got the new trailer in Southside.

The one nice thing about Revelstoke is, since it's a small city, you get your neighbours looking out for you. Here you have dad (maybe dad - we can only see a hat) trying to shovel from the door to the street. We also see some kind neighbour has tried to help out, and has cleared part of the path with their snow blower.

Yes - I was right. It was dad trying to make it from the door to the road. You can now see the trailer and even the side of the car. Only another 2 feet of snow to take off the car, and then it will all be done.

Here is the house across the way from dad's. As you can tell, they haven't shovelled out their path yet either. Maybe they have enough food to last the winter. That's not true actually - they mainly used the side door which is just off this picture.

1973 - The great thing about Revelstoke snow, is it's ability to support a grown 4 year old. And, you can tell it was the 70's, as that is my only excuse for ever wearing green trousers. That, and my allowance was blown on candies, instead of my wardrobe.

This was taken on the ferry between Revelstoke and Nakusp on the Upper Arrow lake. If you ever get the trip, it's a beautiful drive from Revelstoke, following the Columbia, over the ferry to Nakusp. Since I'm wearing shorts, is there any reason for the hat? Really?

If you keep travelling south from Naksup, you'll come to Trail (which is almost on the US boarder). This picture was taken at Marg and Ed's place in Trail.

Judging on my hasty exit, I think I'm going to fire up the bbq to cook that fish. Take this another 10 years forward, and I was quite a keen fisherman at Nahatlidge. I skunked Larry 12-0!

Here's me helping shovelling the snow. I decided to work the snow blower, and dad had the shovel. It's not my fault, I just preferred working the blower!

1974 - This is grass roots Canadian hockey at it's finest. We don't need a frozen lake or skates. A hockey stick, a rock, dirt road, and it was game on! Only for a very short time was that house actually occupied, so it mainly just sat there gathering snow.

Here we are, perfecting my face-off techniques. The barn in the background always looked like that. Every so often, they'd put a horse in the field, but that was rare.

I know this isn't our place... Maybe Grandpa / Grandma's in Richmond. Looking at the plate of goodies becide me, it must be Christmas. Since I have nothing in my hands, I must be looking for a plate of my own. And, under that plate of goodies is a very interesting dress. Teddy bears, flowers and toy soldiers? I think that print is a little young for her, but I did mention this was the 70's. Not an era known for it's fashion.

This is definately Grandpa and Grandma's place in Richmond, and it looks like it's Christmas time. So, if that's true, where's my pile of pressies?

Dad and Grandma at Grandpa and Grandma's back yard in Richmond.

This is the Musgrove family, the dad owned the Musgrove Ford Dealership in Vancouver.

Here is my Great Grandma Shaw. She lived in a home in Shawnasee and was in her 90's when this picture was taken.

OMG. Judging at this picture, it was after PE and lunch. I retouched some of this picture and was thinking I should retouch my hair as well, but, that would change it from a unique picture to just another school picture. For this, I blame my mom -- come on! Where was the comb! I don't have an exact date on this picutre, but I'm thinking around 1977, so I'd be about 7.

This is one of those "do you remember where you when..." pictures. Do you remember where you were on August 17, 1977? Well, I do. I'm sure without even mentioning what event took place on that day, there's a few that know this date off by heart (if not, Google the date). On August 17, dad and I were at the Disneyland hotel in LA. As you can see, we were both enjoying a nice amber bevvie - me hooked on A&W root beer, and dad was trying to endure Coors. I'm sure I had the better tasting option.

When in Rome, do like the Romans. When in LA, swim in the pools! And, what could be better than swimming in a beautiful in the middle of a Californian summer? Not a lot!

Our hotel room was the one by the palm tree. Oops. Looks like we left our sliding door open. Oh well, no worries - nothing much to loose. That was before the days of digital cameras, mobile phones, or portable DVD players. Thinking back on it, how did we ever manage?
Here I am, doing like the dolphins and making as big of splash as I can. I wasn't the fastest swimmer, but excelled at "the big splash"!

Phew! Exhausted. Enough swimming. Time to hit the rides!

This is a great picture. It shows what a '70's hockey team is all about. Everyone looks like they belong and it shows a great sense of team spirit. The Revelstoke Oldtimers went to Victoria for this trip. I hope everyone in this pic looks back and has a fond memory of the trip.

1980's

For those of you who knew Howard, this is behind his house. And, for those of you that knew Howard really well, you'll remember his squirrel "Chirpy". Ok, I made that up - I really have no idea the squirrels name, but it was Howards.
One other thing I'd like to point out is just how trusting people were in the 80's, especially in J. Notice the door behind the squirrel? See the lock? All it is, is a piece of wood that you turn sideways to lock, or up and down to open. Good thing the crooks in this part of the world weren't that bright. Wouldn't you like to explain that to your insurance adjuster now? "How'd they get in sir?" "I don't know - the wooden lock was secure" "Wooden lock?" "Yes maam. I had the stick in the 'locked' position". We had a run in with our insurance, and, OMG - it was like we drowned a puppy or something.

I'm not going to bore you with the entire story of "Chirpy - the wonder squirrel", as there are many rolls of film of him. And, that was in they day where you had to get film developed!!! None of this wait 3 seconds for the pic to be saved onto the memory card. Film!
Anyway, here's "Chirpy" on the chopping block. And, no, as far as I'm aware, that's not how Chirpy met his maker. I was led to believe that he tried to take a nut that was too large back to his tree, and didn't make it home.

In the 1980's, dad and his team were lucky enough to go to Edinburgh for a hockey tourney. Not as many people as went to Victoria in the above picture, but still a keen bunch.
In the background is a clock showing 10.35 (presuming AM), which means that while you poor people were getting up nice and early, you were at home sleeping. Now, who had the harder day? I'd also like to point out, that this was before helmets were mandatory. Definately not a sport for the faint of heart, especially for anyone that likes English Football (that's scoccer to you and me).

1990's

The next section, is from my graduation at UCC back in 1991. I haven't thought about this day for a long, long time. Just seeing if I recognize anyone - there's Hoover then Terry infront of me and Randal behind me, then Piglet and Greg. From there, my mind goes a little fuzzy. Probably because that was over 5 years ago. Amazing how you forget them all, and then see a picture and start remembering all of them. Funny how you spend 60+ hrs a week for 3 years with a bunch and then 5 years later, forget some of them. Guess, in my defence, the picture is a little blury, so it's hard to pick them out. I remember in one of the first classes we had, one of the profs said that a quarter of us would drop out by Christmas and half wouldn't make it to the end of the year. I stumbled a little with the course, but, as you can see, made it in the end.

For the next handful of pictures, I will let you imagine the graduation song as we walk along and receive our awards. The one thing I'd like to also say, is that was before we'd actually received our grades - none of us knew if we were going to graduate. Sure, there were a couple that got super grades, but for the rest of us, we were walking on egg shells. And even though I'd received good enough grades through the year, some of our exams were worth 50% of our grade, so that alone could make or break your entire year.

Here I am at the front, receiving my award and shaking the Deans hand. I think that was the first time I'd ever seen the Dean, so I guess that's a good thing.

The 90's were an interesting fashion time. We'd just escaped from the neon pinks/green/oragnes, drab greys and pastels, and, for men, they'd started using colour in ties. So, yes, this was a fashionable tie at the time. And, like all men, this tie is still in my closet, although I don't believe I've worn it more than 5 times since this event.

After the graduation, we went back home. Here's a pic infront of the house with Dad.

I think for this picture, we're at grandma's place for a little winddown, with my cousin David becide me.

Back at home with grandma infront of the house.

And here am I with my grandma and my cousin David.

Not sure about you, but that was a very ... not sure what to say ... a very interesting trip for me. I know, this page means more to me than anyone else, but it's like a little time capsule. I'm sure there's some great pictures that you have, so, please do send them along. Even if you/I only look at this page once in a blue moon, it does bring back a lot of memories. Scan them, describe them, and email them over please.

Night all.
Brian