Give it 60 years or so. Squamish will look different. It certainly looks different than it did in the '40s and '50s - something Ellen Grant (formerly Judd) and Edith Illes (formerly Marchant) can attest to.
The pair led a heritage walk in the downtown core on Sunday (Feb. 20), and the Squamish they described doesn't appear to exist anymore, except for a few traces in the form of old buildings.
Squamish was diked in the late 1890s, but even after it was the town was still wet. Grant explained the wooden sidewalks would float during heavy rains and since the roads were not paved, sometimes the young and old would find themselves in the mud.
"We were left with sloughs that rose and fell with the tide," Grant said, nothing those sloughs became play places for children.Along Pemberton Avenue the sidewalks, and houses were built on stilts.
There was a swamp where the RBC Royal Bank stands now, the Howe Sound Business Centre was a movie theatre, the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Centre was a swamp, Pavilion Park and Stan Clarke Park were filled with water, the Parkside Restaurant was a post office, and the building housing H&R Block housed Dr. Laverne Kindree's office. Anna's Attic housed a barbershop and pool house where women weren't allowed, 25 loaves of bread could be purchased for $1.25 and plum trees lined Cleveland Avenue.
"The most beautiful thing about downtown Squamish was the plum trees," Illes said. "In the spring it was just a massive blossom."
During the war years, the Waltz Inn sat at 38033 Cleveland Ave., and it would serve rabbit - under the pretense it was chicken."If you wanted, you could have your tea in China cups," Grant said.
Woodfibre, Britannia and Squamish had a rivalry in not only baseball, but everything else too, Grant said.
The out-of-town teams were sponsored, so Squamish always had to prove itself.
There was no Howe Sound School District, and there was only one school - the Mashiter school.
"We didn't have a school board," Grant said. "The inspector lived in Vancouver and only arrived up here two or three times of year."
Part of the reason for the infrequent visits was the lack of transportation into Squamish. It was accessible by a three or four hour boat ride.
Cars became popular even before the government came through with a road.
"Four about 20 years they were promising us a road," Grant said. "Just about every one had a car before we got a road."
But there were telephones - just not like we know them today. The phone line was a party line. The ring at the Grant's home as a child was three long, three short and three long again.
Sometimes you had to wait before you knew if it was for you, she said.
