Bernina’s Eventful Adventures

Bernina and I are good friends

I met this grand old lady when I was 18, and she has been my friend for 55 years. She’s tired and is scheduled for a checkup next week, to see if we can revive her. She is a model 730 Record, Bernina sewing machine. We have been through a lot together.

Like many females of my era, I learned to sew in Home Economics class in Grade 8, making the obligatory multi-pocket apron. As I advanced through high school my sewing projects included several dresses, then in Grade 12 a tailored plaid wool skirt and matching plaid wool jacket.

Wacky grad dress!

Using my mom’s old pedal Singer Sewing machine that lived in the basement of our home, I created my high school graduation dress. The tunic design and the multi-colored fabric might not have been my best choice, but when the artsy owner of the fabric store and my creative mother ganged up on me, I acquiesced to their suggestions; their very persuasive suggestions.

The summer that I graduated, I was chosen as Miss Merritt, to be an ambassador for the town of Merritt at various British Columbia festivals and events. I designed and sewed the costumes for myself and the three young women, referred to as princesses, who shared the responsibility of being ambassadors.

Many events required a long formal dress. I didn’t have a lot of money, so I made whatever I needed. Some of the dresses were cute and some were oddly formal and too mature for an 18-year-old, but again, my creative mother and the artsy fabric store owner thought I looked divine.

A formal dress

That same year, I moved to Penticton, living with a family that was based in Penticton, but scattered. The husband worked as a cook in the camps up north. The daughter was married and living in Michigan. The oldest son was at university in Vancouver. And, the wife and younger son lived in the family home. They had extra bedrooms, and rented one to me for a low monthly rate, in exchange for minding their youngest son while his mom played bridge a few nights a week. The mother let me use her sewing machine to create the formal dresses that I needed.

One year later, Mom decided to buy me a sewing machine. I planned to move to Vancouver with another Penticton girl and share an apartment. Mom went into the Bernina sewing machine dealership at 418 Main Street in Penticton and purchased two 730 Record machines; one for my sister Judith in Vancouver, and a portable version of the same machine for me.

In those days the machines, without the cabinets to house them, were around three hundred, or more, dollars. It was a lot of money for a recently widowed woman to be spending, but she insisted that we needed sewing machines. Judith’s was in a cabinet. Mine was a portable. I was single and moving frequently and I didn’t want to deal with a bulky piece of furniture.

Ladies and me in costumes that I made

My next project was curtains for the Vancouver basement suite that my Penticton friend and I shared for six months.

Then friends asked me to make bridesmaid dresses for them. A year later I made a wedding dress for me, and my first husband, Sandy, requested that I make him several cozy wool shirts.

My portable Bernina sewing machine moved from Penticton to Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Bowen Island, back to Vancouver, then strangely enough back to Penticton in 1992, when Lawrie and I bought a home and acreage here.

Lawrie, sofa that I recovered

All along I sewed. Clothes. Reupholstered sofas. Slipcovered chairs. Upholstery for cars that Lawrie restored. Duvets. Curtains. Drapes. Tablecloths and napkins. And repairs of course.

Then when Lawrie and I moved to Mexico, in 2007, I left my Bernina with my oldest sister, Val in Gibsons. I didn’t want to subject the machine’s delicate electronics to the high humidity and salt at our oceanfront home. Val is a fabulous seamstress, and she had several specialty machines and didn’t need mine, so it languished in her basement for twelve years.

When I returned to Canada, in 2020, my sister reminded me that she still had the Bernina but she wasn’t using it. I retrieved it from her home, all thirty-five pounds of it, and brought it back to its origins in Penticton. It seems that both the Bernina and I are destined to live in this city.

The old girl doesn’t respond when I plug her in, and I have an appointment at the same Bernina dealership at 418 Main Street to see if the current owner, Wes, can repair her. Let’s hope she’s up for more adventures.

Cheers Lynda

Sparky sends his woofs!

Our two island paradises

Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Remember that really bad pickup line from the 1980’s?  “So, what’s your sign?” 

  

We are both Pisces, and that makes us just a little bit different.  

By different we mean, we love water and have to live within sight of it, hence our love affair with islands. 

Bowen Island, Canada

Our first stab at island life was Bowen Island, just off the coast of British Columbia Canada, near Vancouver.  It was a small mountainous paradise, about nineteen square miles in total land mass.  Back in the mid-1970’s when we moved to Bowen Island the population was only around twelve hundred people.  The mixed-grade school was so small it was in danger of being closed.  A student had to be invented to meet the minimum requirement of six students.

Car & Passenger ferry for Bowen Island 

Close to the ferry dock was a very small shopping area, with a couple of places to eat and the Snug Cove General Store operated by parents, John & Evy Lock.  It featured a butcher shop, fresh produce, cleaning supplies, dry goods, canned goods, and huge assortment of penny candy for the kids to ponder over.  

The store was taken over by other family members who eventually moved the business into a larger space, and away from the congested ferry dock.  Snug Cove General Store is still operating at the second location, but under different owners.

Harvesting cocos from Playa Norte, Isla Mujeres

Fast forward a couple of decades.  As we neared retirement age, we once again thought of living on an island – only this time we wanted to be warm.  Our choice was Isla Mujeres, just off the coast near Cancun, yeah - I know, the Las Vegas of the Beach.  Now, don’t get me wrong Cancun is a wonderful vacation spot. Founded by the Mexican government in the 1970’s on vacant stretch of white sand this is where all-inclusive resorts became popular.  A great experience for families, at a fixed cost. 

Playa Centro, Isla Mujeres

On Isla Mujeres, life is simpler here.  Yes, we have our share of tourists, with Cancun being only eighteen minutes away by passenger ferry.  

That’s a good thing; tourism allows the residents a way to earn a living and still have the qualities of life and community that makes island living so special.  

Cancun provides the benefit of a nearby international airport servicing the world, familiar stores such as Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, and Sam’s Club - making living in paradise easy, a no brainer.

Yummy mangoes for sale just two blocks from our casa

And yes, in the beginning we used the benefits of Cancun regularly, but as Isla Mujeres grows our trips to ‘the big city’ are less often.  

We have become a part of the community, frequenting local stores where the owners now greet us by name, and usually have exactly what we want. 

Should you move to a small island?  Maybe.  It helps if you are a Pisces, and are patient, but slightly impractical.  Life on an island isn’t always about tight time-frames and schedules.  Sometimes it is a lazy afternoon hiding out from the hot sun and thinking about what you should be accomplishing – mañana.

Hasta Luego

Lynda & Lawrie

Previous life: we were both Bowen Island volunteer Firefighters.

 

A Tale of Two Islands Part Two: Just Being a Kid - on Bowen Island Canada

Stan, Gus, Archie, Scotty, unknown, and Harry in Bow-Mart

"What d'ya want?"  Demanded the tall, cantankerous man, stifling a grin as the little blonde girl flinched at his voice, stumbling with her penny candy choices.

"Ah, ah, ah. Twenty-five cents worth of bottle caps, and pixie sticks, please."  She stammered, wide-eyed in panic, worried he wouldn't let her buy her Saturday treats.  Sandi Stansfield quickly shoved her money across the counter, snatching her hand back, afraid that he might grab it.  Alik McLennan loved to terrorize the kids, but his bark was all there was: no bite.  He and Helen Holte owned and operated the infamous Bow-Mart grocery store-coffee bar that specialized in out-of-date packaged goods and strong, muddy coffee served with a side-order of island gossip.

The packaged goods at the Bow-Mart usually sat on the shelves for so long, a potential buyer would pick up the item, and blow the dust off the top to see that the heck was in the box.  Giggles between visitors could be heard as they prowled the few rows of groceries.  "Can you believe this place?  It's straight out of history."  The Bow-Mart's coffee-counter stools were habitually occupied by group of island characters, all men, all sitting on their specific stool. Heaven help the person who mistakenly sat on the wrong stool.

Bowen Island ferry to mainland

Geographically 6360 kilometers apart, Bowen Island BC Canada, and Isla Mujeres QR Mexico are so different and yet so similar.  The islands are small. They are both located near large cities.   Both islands rely on tourism as the main industry.  Located in the cold northern Pacific Ocean, our former home of Bowen Island is a hilly mountain-top poking of the sea.  It is twelve kilometers long and six kilometers wide, and three kilometers away from the mainland. Located in the warm Caribbean Sea, our southern paradise Isla Mujeres is a relatively flat wind-swept sand bar, seven kilometers long, and half a kilometer wide.

Both islands are a short ferry ride away from a significant metropolis.  Bowen Island is close to Vancouver the largest city in British Columbia Canada, while Isla Mujeres is located near Cancun Mexico. On Isla the main road circumnavigates the perimeter of the island.  On Bowen Island the hilly geography necessitates a different road system. The island roads spread out like fingers radiating from the palm of the hand, Snug Cove.  And of course, being islands, the inhabitants rely on boats to cross the stretch of water between the island and the mainland.

One of the country roads on island

Bowen Island is what is referred to as a bedroom-community, with most working residents commuting daily to jobs on the mainland.  Life revolves around the ferry schedule.  What time is the next boat?  Can I make that one?  Do I have to wait two to three hours for the next one?   For part of my working years I travelled on the car ferry for thirty minutes and then drove for an hour to another city New Westminster: five days a week.  At the end of my day, I would repeat the process in reverse, leaving me with strong visual and sensory memories of the journey to and from the island.

Memories of seagulls screeching and gliding overhead in a flicker of grey and white feathers, and the smells of pine and fir and the sharp medicinal odor of arbutus trees.  An undernote of the distinctive woodsy aromas of the native leathery-leafed shrub salal, tickled the olfactory nerve.  Cold water mussels, clinging to sturdy wooden pilings that had been painted with a pungent creosote preservative, added a salty-briny-tangy smell.  It is the scent of an untamed ocean bumping up against humans and civilization.

Angie, April and Allan Boothman family photos

In the sheltered cove were only a handful of homes, and two small marinas with power boats and sail boats tied to the docks.  On land the roads were narrow, with deep ditches on either side to carry away the rainwater.  On the frequent rain-drenched winter days the main harbour, Snug Cove, is dark and gloomy, pressing in on three sides with an impenetrable forest; a forest populated with wild deer, birds, squirrels, frogs and harmless snakes.  On sunny days the cove is a paradise of sunlight reflecting on the water, bouncing off the windows of nearby homes and sparkling on automobile windshields.

On Bowen Island in 1973, there were so few children the elementary school did not have sufficient enrollment to keep the school open.  There were five kids - and the school needed six to receive government funding.  Lisa Berube was registered as the sixth child, enabling the school to continue operating.  Her family moved from the mainland to the island once their new home was completed.  The 2010 Bowen Island population is listed at 3400 full-time residents, with summer residents swelling the population in July and August.

Sandi Stansfield, John Lock, Larissa Grierson - Halloween

Halloween night was a big hit with the local kids.  The School Road-Miller's Landing area of Deep Bay had the highest concentration of houses.  Many parents would drive their youngsters to the area for a convenient and lucrative haul of treats.  At the end of the evening youngsters and parents gathered to watch the community display of fireworks on the beach by the lagoon, while sipping steaming mugs of hot chocolate.  In the mid-to-late 1970's the island was inundated with new arrivals, people who were looking for a small safe community to bring up their young families.  In October 1978, I remember more than 150 costumed youngsters knocking at my door and shouting: "Halloween handouts, trick-or-treat!"  Big changes in just a few short years.

Lawrie and son John operating our Sealander boat

Sandi's classmate, Angie Boothman Malpass, has fond memories of riding her horse on Bowen Island with her friend Amanda.  There were fields, and country roads, and lanes to explore and sunshine, fresh air, and good friendship to share.  When they tired of riding, the girls would spend a long lazy afternoon watching Little House on the Prairie on television, sharing cups of tea and slices of toasted bread.  As Angie says: so innocent.

Even then Bowen Island had a decent selection of television programming, broadcast in colour.  The Canadian kids probably spent more time watching television than their Mexican counterparts, but they still had a lot of time to enjoy outdoor adventures.  In the winter while our Isla Mujeres friends enjoyed swimming in warm water and sunning on white sandy beaches our Canadian friends might have been ice skating on an outdoor pond.  Chilly!  But enjoyable.

Sandi, Larissa, John, and June - ice skating on pond

Another Bowen Island friend, Cliff Long was fifteen when he moved to the island from the flat prairies in Alberta Canada.  As a student Cliff remembers his terrifying Monday-to-Friday bicycle ride from his home to the ferry.  The older students had to commute to West Vancouver on the mainland to attend high school.  As he careened down "Seven Hills" on his skinny-tired, ten-speed bike, cars rushed past him, speeding towards the ferry.  In the dark winter mornings the rain-slicked roads were treacherous.  Despite his heart-racing rides Cliff managed to navigate safely to the docks, secure his bicycle to a post, and board the ferry.  At the end of the school day, Cliff faced the long ardous bicycle ride up "Seven Hills" to his home.  (Been there.  Done that.  And it nearly killed me!)

Lawrie driving Bow-Fest parade with nephew Jim on back

Summers on Bowen were a big hit with everyone.  Finally the ocean was warm enough for swimming. Jumping from rocky cliffs, or off the wharf was the quick way to get wet and past the shock of hitting the cool ocean water. Summer was also the time for Bow-Fest; a three day festival with rides, and games, and believe it or not - slug races.  You know, those slimy, soft, creepy things that live in the woods feasting on decomposing leaves?   A special track was constructed to allow several of the land-based mollusks to race side-by-side.  The race could be long and tedious as the shy creatures slowly slimed their way to the finish line.  A hot sunny day usually guaranteed that all of the contestants would curl up and refuse to move.  Sunshine, noise, and people: totally outside the comfort zone for a slug.

Very slow when made to participate in slug-race

As the Bowen Island youngsters turned into teenagers their free time was filled with beach parties, or house parties, or hanging out at the ferry dock, and listening to music.  And there were summer-time baseball games - featuring the Bowen Island Sluggers.  Good memories especially for Cliff Long who played on the team for a few years.

When they were old enough to drive vehicles, like teens everywhere in North American, they spent their summer evenings cruising the few roads on the island with the volume cranked up on the music.  I don't know why, but driving and loud music just go together.  I confess.  I did it too.

Most islanders are kind, hard-working, and happy to have a good life.  And I might add, a little quirky!  The people we have met on both islands seem to share a slightly skewed perspective on life in general, preferring to enjoy life rather than fuss over small details.  Bowen Island, and Isla Mujeres: a northern paradise, and a southern paradise.  We are happy to have friends on both islands.

View from our home at Eaglecliff Bowen Island

Hasta Luego
Lynda & Lawrie

Thank you so much to Lawrie's niece Sandi Stansfield Burton, and Angie Boothman Malpass, and Cliff Long for sharing their Bowen Island memories. Special thanks to Catherine Bayly of the Bowen Island Museum and Archives for the fabulous photo of the Bow-Mart regulars.