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THE KEITH
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
20 BEEDIE STORY
21
Joan in front of the Beedies’
Vancouver home, circa 1937.
Keithʼs teenaged
imagination was
piqued by the
romance and
heroism of the
soldiers and
airmen fi ghting
overseas.
CHAPTER 1: A BEEDIE IS BORN
Some of Keith’s construction projects were small; others were
signifi cant. “One time, I built myself a room in the basement of our
house,” Keith says. “I made a bunk bed to sleep in, built it really
high, close to the ceiling. I used inner tubes for springs and an old
mattress. I had the foot of the bed pushed against the wall and made
a little trap door to outside, covered by a secret panel. I could climb
out whenever I wanted.” His parents didn’t lavish much praise on him
for his ingenuity, but they didn’t stop him from experimenting either.
“Th ey didn’t pay much attention to what I was doing down there. I
fi gure it kept me out of their hair,” says Keith.
While constructing fanciful projects was good fun on a slow aft ernoon,
Keith’s real love continued to be model airplanes. What had started
as a pastime to share with his dad quickly grew into a passion. He
spent hours painstakingly putting together miniature versions of his
favourite planes. “Hurricanes, Spitfi res and the Lysander. Th ey were
all as fragile as heck, made of balsa and rice paper. I ran out of room
to keep them. I had them hanging from the ceiling, but there were so
many that they kept bumping into each other,” says Keith.
For a growing boy of 13 with an intense love aff air with planes, the
outbreak of World War II in 1939 aff orded Keith new scope for his
hobby. “I remember getting ready for school on the morning of
September 3, 1939, and hearing the announcement on the
radio that the war had started. My mother was crying,” Keith
recalls. His imagination was fi red by the war news. His passion
for fl ying came alive hearing the stories of fl ying aces and air
battles. In the early days as the war in Europe was gaining
momentum, the importance of planes for the Allies was
becoming clear. Th e feeling at the time was that the war would
be over quickly if the proper resources could be devoted to
the fi ght. People everywhere were rallying together in Victory
Drives to collect material and funds for the war eff ort. Keith’s
teenaged imagination was piqued by the romance and heroism
of the soldiers and airmen fi ghting overseas. When he heard
about Vancouver’s Air Supremacy Drive, he knew he’d found
his cause.
Keith’s entrepreneurial spirit was ignited. He looked about for
ways he could help and landed on a surefi re idea. Living about
six blocks from the Quilchena Golf Course, where he oft en
caddied, he identifi ed the golfers on their way around the course
as an untapped fundraising bonanza. Th e way the course was
set up, the golfers all had to cross Arbutus Street in the middle
of their games. All Keith had to do was erect a lemonade stand on the
sidewalk at the crosswalk and off er golfers a cool glass of free lemonade.
In exchange, he would ask for a donation to the Air Supremacy Drive.
Th e only thing missing was the stand.
Keith immediately threw himself into his new construction project. “I
got really into it,” Keith says. He scavenged through the garage and
basement for materials. Once he’d built the stand, he added a small
roof to off er his patrons shade while they drank their lemonade.
Standing back and appraising his work, Keith felt there was something
missing. Th e stand wasn’t fl ashy enough, it wasn’t eye-catching. He
took another look through the things in the house. He was delighted
to fi nd a large roll of shiny silver material that was precisely the type of
thing he was looking for to jazz up the structure. “Th e fabric was ideal.
I cut it up and used it all over. I lined the whole thing, tacked it all over
the outside. I spent a long time making it perfect, working out all the
little wrinkles so it was fl awless.”
Keith’s business plan, cause and construction proved irresistible to the
golfers who lined up to purchase lemonade. Th roughout the day, money
poured into the young man’s collection for the Air Supremacy Drive. In
the end, he raised more than $39, “a lot of money for those days.”
Keith was proud of his endeavour, but it didn’t take long for his
ingenuity in material collection to show a downside. Reg came home
to gather his projector and screen in order to give a presentation at
work. Aft er tearing apart the basement looking for the screen, he
stormed upstairs to ask the family if they had seen it. Keith’s heart sank
when he realized that he had cut up his father’s screen to decorate his
stand. It sank further when his dad informed him that a new one cost
$75. Th e $39 raised for the Air Supremacy Drive still went to help the
cause, but Keith wasn’t allowed to forget his mistake.
FROM TOP: Evelyn Beedie with
Joan and Keith in front of
the Quilchena Golf Course
clubhouse in Vancouver, circa
1938. Joan, Keith and Evelyn.