Only the song remains the same

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Only the song remains the same

by Jan Rankin on Wed, Jun, 29, 2011 12:00 AM

Sometimes, you don't think about things for a long, long time and a smell, sound, or some other seemingly insignificant at first event, will trigger a flood of memories. For me, it's always something small - like the little door that Alice goes through only to discover a vast sea of stuff.

Today, driving from New Westminster back to Richmond on what is probably the stickiest day in quite sometime, I had the radio just blasting along with the AC when "Lola" came on. You know, the old Kinks song. It took me right back to 1980 (or was it 1981 - I'm sure someone will correct me) when my friend Barb and I went to see The Kinks perform at the Vancouver Coliseum.

This is the night I would meet the love of my life (one of them) and the last time I would go the Richmond haunt known as OHenry's or Hanks. For those of you not familiar with Hanks it was located on Park Road in the same strip mall as The Dogwood Restaurant. It would be one of the last nights I Bacon & Eggs at Denny's on 3 Rd at 2 am or bad coffee at rival Binos after dancing at the Surf Caberet or the Richmond Inn Pub (it had those little red bar stools. All are gone now and for those who have known me for a long time will also know the sad story of my first love.

The chain of thought didn't stop there though. I basically grew up in Richmond from the age of 12 and remember the many sticky summer nights on the Skookum Slide outside The Bay before there was a mall, hot summer days picking strawberries at Twin Hollies on Steveston Hwy or Bissetts at No 4 and Francis. The only theatre use to be where the parkade is now beside Sears. Our bowling alleys were on No 3 Road next to the Rickshaw Restaurant or at the other end of town at Shellmont Lanes. Lansdowne Mall at that time was a vacant horseracing track where we spent a lot of gas doing doughnuts when not drag racing on Finn Road.

My first beer was consumed at Garry Point Park (I was underage but it's so long ago no one can touch me on that!) when the only thing there was sand dunes, bon fires and lots of darkness when the sun went down. Some of my best memories of youth are scattered in the sands there. I remember when the Salmon Festival played over 2 days and came complete with rides and fireworks.

I could go on and on but I think the point has been made. I have been here so long that I have seen the changes and lived through them. As a social worker and realtor, I'm really an agent of change and progress. Moving toward the future - whatever that maybe. The landscape in Richmond has changed so much and so quickly there are times I barely recognize the place myself. But the background to our lives, the musical tracks, stay the same. Ray sounded just the same as the last time I heard him and expect the same the next time. It's a bit of an anchor. I wonder what change markers I will notice then.

So, what memories of Richmond do you have?

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