January 28, 2019
Looking back at the history of our town we see buildings that were there and are now gone, people who were here and no longer are, jobs, institutions, businesses, even the landscape has changed over time. But what can truly strike us as different from the past is the difference of day to day life. An individual’s roll in the household or out among the wider world, like today, depends on so many things. In the early days of Maple Ridge the day to day life of one particular group looked so sharply different from what it does now that looking back and forth between the two we can barely recognize it, that of course is the life of children.
Many of you out there will remember a time, all year long, when children were set loose outside with a vague understanding to “be back for dinner.” In the summer kids would flock to the waterfalls at Kanaka Creek to play behind the rushing waters. They could put their heads into the space behind the falls, while the water pounded on their backs. A log over the falls, where there is now a bridge, was their way to the other side. In the winter it was skating on Whonnock Lake or sledding on the golf course hills. No matter what season it was there was always adventures to have outside.
Those times are not too far distant, and in fact those activities are still part of our children’s lives today, but most of you will not remember times when children were very much part of the work force. The idea of children adding to the family income, or taking on the harder household chores was not something that was questioned.
In the earliest days of Maple Ridge, in the Victorian era of the late 1800’s, some of the more dangerous household jobs were left for children. When the back of the wood burning stove needed sweeping and cleaning that was a job for the littlest one who could get to the back the easiest.
Jobs outside of the house were also common for children. Depending on the family, the income of a child could mean the difference between eating and going hungry.
That was not the case for Norm Pelkey and his family, but he had his job none the less. Norm’s parents owned the Ruskin general store, and 9 year old Norm, along with his menagerie of pets would make grocery deliveries in his wagon pulled by his miniature pony.
Like most things from our communities past we still see echoes of it today. Children still have chores to do and childhood whimsy can still be had at Kanaka Creek, we just have to remember to look back and find that child inside all of us.