Ruth Garant, 79, remembers a very different downtown Squamish when she was a girl growing up.
“We had wooden sidewalks on stilts, and lots of times we had to push the cows off the sidewalk to get back to go downtown,” Garant recalled, chuckling.
Five women and two men – all seniors – gathered in the common room at Squamish Senior Citizens Home Society’s The Manor Friday afternoon to share their experiences with The Squamish Chief over muffins and coffee.
They said they liked growing older in the district.
Eighty-something Bob Quinn, who arrived 22 years ago, presented an ode to Squamish.
“There was a feeling you were welcome and nothing was necessary to belong here,” Quinn said, and the assembled group nodded. “Nowhere on the planet I haven’t been, almost every town and hamlet from China to Poland and to all the West Indies, and nowhere have I felt the welcome and good will as in the dear, dear Squamish.”
The Manor residents seem to cherish the sense of community they have fostered in their seniors’ rental housing complex, often finishing each others’ sentences.
“Us older ones here, we all have different abilities and talents,” said Margo Wyssen, 74, who ran down a list of the painters, singers and musicians who live at The Manor. “It is kind of nice to be able to enjoy that once and awhile.”
Like most who live in Squamish, the seniors live very active lives, often biking, swimming, walking or taking in an exercise class.
Ann Evans, 76, originally from Trinidad, keeps busy volunteering including at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park and on crime patrol in her neighborhood.
“I have a busy time,” she says.
A complaint of Evans, shared by several of the seniors, was a lack of suitable transportation to Vancouver.
“Anytime I hear somebody is going to Vancouver, I am going to ask if they have room for me,” Evans said. She wishes there was a train to the city, as there used to be, or a more convenient bus that would pick her up and drop her off near her home so she could go to Vancouver and buy food imported from Trinidad.
“There is no way I am going to get [that] here in Squamish,” Evans said.
Jean Pettersen, 70, said a lack of affordable rentals for seniors here is a pressing issue.
“If we had gobs of money, we could be buying some of the seniors’ condos behind us, or this and that… but if you don’t have that kind of cash in your pocket and you are a senior, you are really hooped,” said Pettersen, adding housing should be a central issue in the upcoming federal election. “That is the one thing they can’t seem to figure out: Why in the world can they not build any apartments for the working poor, for the homeless and for the seniors?”
Although each of the residents said they receive good medical care from a local doctor, they said more specialists are needed in Squamish.
“It sure would make life easier than having to go to Vancouver,” said Wendy Richardson, 66.
The seniors also said more lower-cost clothing stores downtown would be welcomed.
Garant, who said she loves seeing all the babies and toddlers around town, said there should be more activities for the youngest Squamish people and tourists with young children – “like a waterpark and a little fantasy land like they have [near Cultus Lake], Dinotown, something that interests the young crowd,” she suggested.
Although the seniors noted the increasingly young demographic – Squamish currently has a median age of about 37 – they did not begrudge the generational shift.
“Young people need a place to live too,” said Richardson. “And it is a beautiful place.”
