My PARENTS' WORK - District of Saanich

.F.
"In 1954, when we went to the British Empire
Games-now called the Commonwealth
Games-we were sitting right in the spot
where Roger Bannister passed John Landy in
the Miracle Mile. That's something that will
always stand our in my mind."
JOHN PENDRAY, 75
The British Empire Games BC ARCHIVES H·06678
"One of the big events when I was growing up
was Torchy Peden and the six-day bicycle race."
GEORGE F. WILLIAMSON, 79
"I remember when Muzz Patrick, whose old
man had the New York Rangers, won the
Canadian Boxing Championships in Victoria. I
remember when my brother was picked to play
against the touring English All Star team and
he had to check Stanley Matthews, Great
Britain's star soccer player. That was a packed
house at Royal Athletic Park. I think there was
over 6,000 people turned out for that game."
LIONEL c. SPELLER, M.M., B I
"A big highlight in Cordova Bay was the Regatta
Days. Some of the events were called open
events where anybody, wherever they lived,
could come and race on the beach-they had
obstacle races and kayak races, that kind of
thing. Others were closed events for people who
lived or had camped in Cordova Bay for a
period of more than two weeks. It was so some
great athlete couldn't come from Victoria and
win the Norris Cup. They had speedboat races
later on, and they were called hydroplane races."
ERIC WALLACE MCMORRAN, 75
"I remember when the Victoria Cougars won
the Stanley Cup in 1925. I can remember
hearing my father cheering away."
JOHN E. 'JACK' MERRETT, 87
"Boxing was very common. It's sad because it's
a dreadful sport. To get your brains knocked
out is not a sport in my estimation, but in
those days there was the 'Brown Bomber' Joe
Louis. Everybody just adored him. Then we
found out that he was going to fight this fellow
from Wales. Well, all of a sudden my
sympathies changed. I wasn't for Joe Louis
anymore, I was for this litde Tommy Farr, a
coal miner. Wiped, oh, he got beat so bad! Joe
Louis won, of course, but I'll never forget how
Tommy Farr stood there with welts all over
him, and he said, 'I done my best, mom.' To
tell his mom that really got to most of us."
ABOUT THE GREAT DEPRESSION ...
LILLIAN EASTON, 79
"I had a very small income from England at the
time and that was about all we had. Mind you,
we lived well enough because by that time we
were on the ranch, and we grew a good deal of
our own food. We had cows and we had
chickens so we ate well. We had to buy flour,
things like that, but we lived well. A lot of
people were very hungry during the depression."
MARIGOLD PATTERSON, 97
"My mother grew a vegetable garden-what
they called a 'victory garden,' and we ate a lot
of carrots. To this date, I'm not very fond of
carrots. "
BERNICE 'BERNIE' (CARTER) POLIQUIN, 68
"I know that it certainly reduced my dad's
estate to about one-quarter of what it had
been. We each had stocks and they were worth
practically nothing by the end of the
depression. My parents couldn't engage in any
outrageous spending. Luckily, he'd just built a
new house in 1929. If it had been one year
later, he said he probably wouldn't have built
it. It's a heritage house now."
JAMES 'JIM'S. HOGG, 83