The year was 1967... I moved to Pitt Meadows with my mom, my new step dad, and 3 younger sisters in January. I was half way through grade 6, at the time, and was enrolled in Meadowland Elementary. It was to be my first public school , as I had always attended French, Catholic schools in Coquitlam for the most part and Surrey (for the first half of grade 6).
I was really nervous and scared. I did not know anyone. I had grown up thus far in the city (so to speak) and my first impression of Pitt Meadows ?? Well, I thought to myself "What the Hell??", "Where am I ???"... All there is here are fields with cows, and big ditches that look scary and we were going to live (temporarily , thank God) with my new step-dad's friend who lived in a weird looking house on Richenback Rd. until we found a house of our own to live in. Yikes!! I had to sleep in one room with ALL of my sisters on ONE bed!! We had to sleep sideways, so we could all fit ..................
I wanted to go and live with my real dad again. But, that was not going to happen, so, disgruntled, scared and very shy, I headed off one morning, from this weird little house that sat in the middle of a big field, and walked up the street, around the corner and to a school full of uncertainties.
My teacher's name was Mr. Harlow. And grade 6 and grade 7 were joined in one room. I walked in wearing a white blouse, a blue woolen skirt and white leotards. The girls in the classroom all looked at me, and snickered. GEEKSTER !!!!
I saw them all wearing make up and nylons and I just wanted to cry and run right back out of there.
But no, couldn't do that either.
So, it began...
Mona Loveridge, and Lenore Tottenham quickly took mercy on me. But, they didn't get along too well, if memory serves me correctly, and they fought over me. Lenore won that battle for reasons I don't really remember fully, but Lenore and I became good friends from then on. She taught me all I needed to know to fit in. She taught me the swear words and what they meant, and she taught me how to act , so I wouldn't be picked on.
I didn't take long, and I caught on.
We soon moved to a big house on Dewdney, a couple doors down from the Klingler house, across the street from Van den Brink's, in the old Lige farm house.
In March, I turned 12 and soon made alot of friends, both girls and boys. I was beginning to like this place and loved my new popularity. I hung out alot at Lenore's who lived down Harris Rd, close to Silver bridge. She had goats and lived on a hobby farm. I was beginning to know what Pitt Meadows was all about. Fields, cows, goats, pigs , chickens and cow manure smell everywhere.
I got to know all the kids who lived on Dewdney Trunk Rd ( now Old Dewdney)... The Klinglers, Van den Brinks and Bennett's. I hung out mostly at Klingler's and sometimes at Bennett's with Melvin. We would listen to music in the back shack and one song I remember that was popular at that time, was " The House Of The Rising Sun."
The Klingler's would always have alot of kids hanging out over there. They had a big basement and we were always allowed to be there, it seems. John and Evelyn were older than Madeline and I, and they always had their friends there all the time. If they did not want Madeline and I around , they would always be kicking us out of there. And that seemed to be most of the time.
In the last couple months of school in grade 7, when I turned 13, my baby brother was born. My girlfriends loved to come to my house to see him. Laurie Roseland for one. By then, I had alot more friends, and we were all talking about Pitt Meadows High School and we all felt like we were growing up and leaving our younger siblings behind in the "little kid" school.
My summer adventures were walking through the back fields of my house and going fishing for carp in the slough. We used a stick with string and hung a twisted saftey pin on the end with a worm on it and thought we would catch fish. Ya right, all we did was get sunburnt and dirty. We would step on cow pies (imagine that) as we walked through our fields and tried to stay away from the cows, who would chase you. (Or, we just thought they would).
They must have really made us think so, because more than once I tore my clothes trying to get away from them, as I would squeeze my body though the barbed wire fences. What a city girl, eh? City girl, no longer!! I was a country farm girl now!!
I got into picking blueberries for spending money. I picked at Wheeler's farm (on the corner of our Dewdney and Harris Rd.) alot , but my favorite place was at Devereaux's. Mrs. Devereaux had the big berries there and they were easier to pick. They were called Dixie's and you could just scoop the whole branch into your bucket in one swoop, it seemed. They were huge and boy, did they taste good too!! I had blue lips alot that year. :o)
Mrs. Devereaux would see me coming in my cut off jeans and pig tails and would always call me Daisy May. She was a very sweet lady who later on was the seamstress we hired to make all of the bridesmaid dresses for my first wedding. What wonderful memories!! David was a nice guy too, and when I would miss the bus in the morning to PM High School, he would walk me up there and I remember taking short cuts and crossing rail road tracks, etc. He knew where to go, and I was so happy to have someone to take me, that I kept up with his fast pace and we would chat all the way.
I had made alot of friends in Meadowland and that road holds alot of very wonderful memories for me.
It may of been a long time ago, but some things... You just never forget. I want to thank Melvin Bennett for having the will, the stamina and the determination to get these 2 past high school reunions together. You are a wonderful guy, Mel. You've been my friend for a very long time, a friend when I needed a friend. A friend for life, a friend that I hold sweet memories of in my heart.
And thanks Bill Nash!!! You are wonderful to do all of this, for all of us. Thanks for giving me the chance to write this down. Thanks for opening the window of opportunity and the door leading back to all of these wonderful times, memories, friends, and the love we share for one another from a long time ago...
