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THE KEITH
BEEDIE STORY
Keith took up
caddying. He
started out by
walking the links
with his mother.
BELOW: Evelyn Beedie and her
golf friends, out on the links,
1939. Quilchena Golf Course.
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 1: A BEEDIE IS BORN
KEEN TO MAKE A BUCK
Keith was motivated to earn money for the war effort, but he was also
eager from a young age to fi nd ways to make money for himself. Keith
had always wanted a bike. He’d been a stamp collector as a little boy
in Regina, but ended up trading all his stamps away in exchange
for rides on a friend’s bike. Once in Vancouver, Keith’s father was
unwilling to offer his son an allowance, but he did propose a modest
fee in return for household chores. “He wanted me to learn the value of
a dollar,” says Keith.
In addition to odd jobs around the house, Keith took up caddying. He
started out by walking the links with his mother. She showed him the
game and taught him all about club selection. His mother was runnerup
to city champion one year and golfed every moment she could, so
she knew everyone at the local course. She introduced him around and
soon he had as much caddying work as he wanted. He got 50 cents per
round, plus tips. He enjoyed being outdoors and listening to business
being done as the men played. It was better than selling lemonade on
the sidelines. In those days caddies carried the bag.
Soon Keith had saved up the money he needed to buy his own
bike. His big day had fi nally arrived. “My father took me to
the store and we looked at all the bikes that were lined up.
Eventually Dad talked me into buying a bike called a
Durkopp,” Keith says. “It was on sale for a good price,
so I saved a few bucks. But it was a German-made bike
and I sure got yelled at a lot as the war started. I sure
would have liked to have a CCM like everybody else.”
Despite some early misgivings about the bike’s brand
and appearance, Keith’s new set of wheels opened up
a fresh world of earning opportunities.
He took an aft er-school job as a prescription delivery
boy for a drugstore at the corner of 37th and West
Boulevard, a job he held for more than a year. “It felt
like all I did was bike up and down hills,” says Keith.
“I delivered mostly to the Women’s Hospital on Oak
Street and the Willow Pavilion, between Oak and
Cambie, rain or shine – mostly rain. It was quite a
job.” In exchange, he received 20 cents an hour, plus
free ice cream and chocolate bars. Eventually, he moved inside the
drugstore as a soda jerk. His new position was warm and dry, and it
came with a 5-cent-an-hour raise.
Never one to take it easy, Keith also worked as a newspaper delivery
boy, another job that took him into the West Side of Vancouver.
He had a delivery route that covered homes between Arbutus and
Granville and 15th Avenue to 25th Avenue. Most of the homes were
on huge lots, many up hills with long, steep driveways. When the time
came for the monthly payments, Keith had to knock on the kitchen
doors out back, oft en being told by the maids to come back for lack of
cash. “It was awful,” Keith says. “I had to pick up the papers at a local
garage, then stack them in the bike basket on my handlebars,” says
Keith. “Th ey weighed a ton, especially on Saturdays
when they were full of fl yers. Th ere were no plastic bags
in those days to keep them dry. We just packed them up
and covered them in canvas to protect them.” Th e tower
of heavy newspapers on the front of his bike made
balancing and steering diffi cult, if not impossible. One
rainy day, Keith lost control of his bike in the middle
of the intersection of Granville and 25th. “Th ere was
too much weight right over the handlebars and did I
ever topple over. I was all right, but it was so bad that
a motorist stopped to help me. He tried to pick up the
papers, but it was no use, they were everywhere.” Keith did his best
to gather up what he could, but the papers were strewn across the
entire intersection and those he salvaged were soaking wet. He had
no choice but to make his way back to the shack and make a call to
Keith and Joan with their dog
Spot, 1937.
“I delivered mostly to the
Womenʼs Hospital ...
rain or shine – mostly rain.
It was quite a job.”
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