Memories of Port Alberni

• the smell of balsam sap on small hands
• the shadow of alder trunks in the fog
• Aunt Pearl laughing
• pond water squeezing rubber boots against the leg
• a skim of ice on a mud puddle
• Aunt Joan laughing
• a log fort chinked with moss
• fat slugs with eyes on stalks
• shooting an arrow into the air
• chocolate cake and Chez Helene
• frogs in a tin bucket
• half-painted signs in the basement
• apples plucked from the tree
• handfuls of huckleberries
• Grandpa laughing
• broom flowers snapping seeds
• bracken spears
• an Indian test pattern on TV
• dining on deer in the kitchen
• linoleum like giant diamond-shaped candies
• rain pattering on a yellow rubber hood
• tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
• driving over the Hump on a wet Sunday afternoon
• shale slabs, fallen logs, and mud
• robins in the cherry tree
• Nabob Coffee on Simpsons' shelves
• a neighbor family living in the basement of an unfinished house
• piles of comic books
• Meccano sets, tinker toys, and monopoly
• art teacher criticizing a picture painted the colour of mud
• hanging Jimmy Scot
• coming home from school in the dark
• the smell of the pulp mill on the north wind

David Whalen lived in Port Alberni from the age of two to the age of eleven. These are some of his memories:

• One dog...Stubbie
• Two cows...Goldie and Blackie
• Thirteen kids...
  • 2 Turners
  • 3 Yackaboskis
  • 1 Sing
  • 1 Scott
  • 3 Conners
  • 2 Hadleys
  • 1 White
• Lots of pigeons
• Lighting grass fires and putting them out
• sledding down the cable trail on an old car hood
• Pussy willow whips
• Climbing trees, but not quite as high as Ricky
• Carving our names high in Sing's tree until Donnie bounced
• Rock throwing
• Fern fights
• Kick the can, Wave
• Comics on rainy days
• Tug boat with Mr. Sing, Up the canal
• Fishing
• Cougar hunting
• Miles of Trick or Treating
• Fireworks
• Rain, rain rain...mud,mud,mud
• rubber boots 12 inches high and puddles 13 inches deep
• Swinging from the willows in the swamp (not quite Tarzan)
• Blackberries, salmon berries, huckleberries, wild strawberries, neighbor's rasberries
• Log forts & fires
• Bears & trees
• 9th Ave massacre (being sick, I watched from window)
• Blasting caps in a bonfire (of course, having to practice the piano, I watched from window)
• Looking out the window a lot
• Home-made wooden paddle boats in Hilton School Park pool
• go karts (wooden death traps)
• Horse back riding (once)
• A swing in the forest
• Mom & Dad teaching us to ride our Xmas present bicycles (ride downhill, walk back up)
• The first skateboards (a board resting on a metal-wheeled skate)
• Billions of plastic Army men & Match box cars
• Playing hockey (5am on the ice)
• Playing hockey (the table game)
• Swim lessons (damn cold!)
• Painting lessons in a park in Alberni
• Riding to Sunday school and walking home
• Jaycees' Xmas parties: wondering how Santa knew that we liked plane models
• Jaycees' float in the parade
• Archery in some building downtown next to Zellars
• Blackberry picking followed by swimming, followed by an ice cream bar
• Woodwards' $1.49 Tuesdays
• Watching Broken Arrow 3 times in a row at the Paramont
• Macintosh Toffee
• Delivering newspapers for $ 0.35 a week, rain or rain
• Collecting bottles for $0.02 each
• The old mine and the abondonded tressle

Michael Whalen was born in Port Alberni and lived there until he was four. These are some of his memories:

• a big wooden house
• a forest with rich undergrowth
• plaster of Paris Indian molds
• wood burning pictures (and that smell)
• a car pinned under a building like a witch in Oz
• a boiling sky reshaping the mountainscape
• bears in the yard
• raccoons on the car port
• a deer in the basement
• a house floating on a river
• a giant fire fighting airplane
• a tiled Texaco station with red stars
• a gold leafed HFC logo on a glass door
• a hopelessly out of place 60's modern turquois glass and steel government building
• and beaches with cabanas in some lost idea of a resort
• the Friendly Giant in black and white
• The Sing's blond 50's end tables (with the cars in the drawer),
• The snap dragons at the north end of the yard by the circular drive way,
• That old upright piano on the west wall,
• The floral pattern in the maroon chesterfield,
• The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show,
• The drop off at the back of the Turner's yard,
• Black Licorice Pipes at the corner store,
• Indians spear fishing in the falls,
• That silver trestle bridge past the stinky pulpmill with the red and white striped crash poles,
• Slot cars in the basement (close to the mouse traps),
• Secret Panel at the back of the open closet where the sleeping bags were kept (Hope my kids don't take a power saw to my house),
• Rotary Club cocktail parties,
• A bathroom sink with a chained rubber stopper,
• That silver hand meat grinder Mom used to grind onions into the hamburger patties to hide them,
• The wooden spoon, the yardstick on the nail by the basement steps,
• Cabins at the lake,
• Summer camping with the soft echo of kids shouting in the dense wood,
• Snow in the circular driveway,
• Dad appalled by "Karl's Kabins" sign being so "korny" with it's "K"s.
• That bottle house towards Victoria,
• That ice cream shop on the way to the ferries