Download The Keith Beedie Story - Beedie Group

76
THE KEITH
BEEDIE STORY
FROM TOP: Lana, when she was
three years old, with Keith’s
1950 Ford, in Birch Bay, 1951.
Th e family spent many years
vacationing there. Lana at
about age three.
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 6: GOING IT ALONE
CALIFORNIA DREAMS
Doing a bit of roofi ng with Charlie
and some odd jobs on the side was
providing Keith with enough money
to support his young family, but
he wasn’t content. He had fi nished
building his home on Knight Road
when he hit on an idea that had been
kicking around the back of his mind
ever since he had started building
things for a living. He wanted to try
his hand at making movie sets. Now
that he had accumulated some skills
and confi dence, he thought it might
be the right time to give it a shot.
“Lee seemed okay with the idea,” says
Keith. “Heck, we were going to Hollywood.” One of his father’s sisters,
Aunt Vi, and her son, Murray, lived in Los Angeles and she off ered to
look for a place for the family to live. In the meantime, Keith started
to tie up loose ends in Vancouver in preparation for the move. Job one
was to sell the house he had just spent the better part of a year building
from the ground up. It didn’t take long. “I got an off er of $10,000 pretty
quickly,” says Keith. “I jumped on it. It was the biggest chunk of money
I had ever seen in my life.” Aft er paying off the mortgage and taking
into account the money put in for materials, not to mention his labour,
Keith had about $5,000 left from the sale. He was impressed with the
margin and it occurred to him that you could make a good living
building houses, but he was California bound.
Keith sold everything they couldn’t carry with them. Th eir
home had gone to the highest bidder and so did all of their
furniture, much of it built by Keith himself. “A lot of that
stuff had been turned out in the old workshop,” says Keith.
“Th ey were some nice pieces, bird’s eye maple, expensive
stuff I was proud of. I don’t know where they’ve gotten to
now, but I sometimes think it would be nice to have some
of them. Th ey were all built to last.” Unencumbered by
possessions, Keith was ready to start over in Hollywood.
Keith had taken care of the considerable paperwork for
the move, which included joining the carpenters’ union so
he could work in the States. Th e new owners of the house
had quickly taken possession, so the family needed to fi nd
somewhere to stay until they had word that their travel
documents had been processed. Keith moved his family
into an Auto Court at the corner of Nelson Street and Kingsway, in
Burnaby. “Now it’s one of the intersections bordering Metrotown,”
says Keith. “But then, the area wasn’t built up at all. It was fi lled with
big trees and some houses.” Th ey lived there for three or four weeks
and when word came that their paperwork was ready, he and Lee were
eager to be gone.
Th ey loaded up their car with the few things they had kept. All that
remained was a quick trip to the United States Consulate to pick up
the offi cial documents and they would be on their way. He headed
downtown to make the fi nal arrangements.
When he arrived at the Consulate and the last
of the forms were presented to Keith to sign,
he was informed by the clerk that they would
have to process a $5 charge for each member
of the family to gain admission to the United
States. Keith stared wide-eyed at the clerk. It
was the fi rst he had heard of any additional
expense. “As far as I could tell, that was
nothing but a head tax,” says Keith. Th e clerk
tried to explain the fee, but Keith was having
none of it. “I said, ‘I’m not paying to go to the
States, to hell with it!’ ” Keith stormed out of
the offi ce, leaving all the documentation for
All that remained was
a quick trip to the
United States Consulate
to pick up the offi cial
documents.
the move on the desk of the clerk. “I really wanted to go, but I can get
pretty stubborn about stupid little things,” says Keith. Fift een dollars
was all that stood between Keith and California.
Hollywood was out. Th e house was gone, as was most of their furniture.
Keith had cash from the sale of the house and some furniture, but
didn’t have a job or any real prospects for work. Once more, Keith was
at a crossroads and the way forward was unclear. It was a fresh start,
but not quite the one he had imagined
77