Bob Smith, 88, is all about sports. In his room at Hilltop House he watches hockey, soccer, curling and golf, he says. Some of his fondest memories of Squamish involve sports too. The Squamish Chief sat down with Smith for a chat that included his time in Squamish, how much he paid for his first house in Valleycliffe and the secret to a long marriage. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: When did you come to Squamish?
A: It was the middle of April 50 years ago. I came here to manage the old bowling alley, Garibaldi Lanes.
Q: What did you think of Squamish when you first arrived?
A: I fell in love with it within a couple of weeks. There were about four thousand people here then. We had rented a home on Parkway Road and about the second week we were there I was in the front yard and a pickup pulled up and a guy – Willy – says, “You have a really good fireplace in that house, do you need some wood?” A complete stranger! I said, “Sure.”
Squamish has been a fabulous place for us to raise our three children – we have two boys and a girl: Warren, Karen and Dale. The two boys still live here.
Q: Do you remember how much you paid for your first house here?
A: Yup, $45,000. That was a house that was a year old that we bought in Valleycliffe and it is now about $500,000. That is progress, whether it is good or whether it is bad. It benefits some and not so much others.
Q: What are your memories of raising your children here?
A: I got involved immediately with soccer, little league, and as the boys grew they got involved with men’s fastball and I got involved with that. I spent many summer months out there at the ballpark – that was my home. If I wasn’t out coaching I was in making hamburgers in the concession stand.
Q: What is the value of sports for you, do you think?
A: My main thing is sports. I have been involved with sports all my life. I can walk down the street today and I can have 38-year old men say to me, “Hello Mr. Smith.” My biggest thrill has been working out there with the kids at the ballpark. My youngest son, Dale, grew into adulthood and went out and coached kids. Two years ago he was coach of the year in hockey. To me, that is giving back what was given to you. I always told all my kids that this community has been good to us and you have to give back to it.
Q: You have been married to your wife Virginia for 52 years. What is the secret to a long marriage?
A: A laugh a day is better than an apple a day. The couple of times I can remember that we disagreed, instead of arguing I just walked out into the yard and then came back in and asked, “Has the smoke cleared?” She would say, “Yes.” And away we would go. We just got along. She’s a gem.
Q: You were on council for a term?
A: Yes, it was a two-year term. The referendum for the arena had failed twice. I ran for council and went door to door. It was the biggest turn out for a local election. We got the arena passed, we built it and we opened it in two years; there was no getting a committee to look into this and a committee to look into that – we just did it.
Q: And you worked at the Woodfibre pulp mill?
A: I spent 19 years over there. I enjoyed it, especially the camaraderie of the people that worked over there. I worked my way up from a cleanup helper, then I operated the kiln. I worked up in the steam digestive, we put 22 tonnes of chips into the digester, bolted the lids down and cooked the chips and turned out pulp. Later, I worked in the lab testing. After I had a couple of back operations they put me out to pasture in the mill store where I spent my last couple of years there.
Q: What do you think of how Squamish has changed?
A: It is progress. It isn’t the same. If you can imagine when I first came here, you knew everybody. The Legion had a band come in on Saturdays and it wasn’t that big of a place, but it was jammed every Friday night and jammed every Saturday night. Everyone went there: It was like a family get-together. Everyone knew each other, that is the way it was. It is larger now.
