Tour De Silverdale 2 Sept
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VOLUME 20, NUMBER 4 July-Aug 2015 INSIDE THIS ISSUE UPCOMING EVENTS EDITOR’S BIT Many thanks to all Tour de Silverdale 2 Sept. 1, 2015 at 6:00pm -Rocky of our contributors this month espe- Stewart Farm Picnic 4 Point Run, 2800 Murray St., Port cially Walter, without whom…. Fraser Valley Show 5 Moody. Dinner at Pajos and a short Speaking of Walter, he sends along Rear View Mirror 6 run afterwards Contact person: John his regrets that there is no Members Two Lions Show 7 McDonald (contact info on page 10). Cars article this issue but adds that July Event 8 Oct. 6, 2015 at 7:00pm -BCIT Shop the schedule for the next four articles New Member Profile 9 Tour, 3700 Willingdon Ave, Burnaby, is as follows: Les Foster (Oct. 2015), Member Reports from Overseas 10 B.C. Contact person: Lorna Hoare Allan Reich (Dec. 2015), Dave Welcome to the OECC/ The Boot/ Oct. 17 (Sat.) Annual Fraser Valley Warlimont (Feb. 2016) and Doug At the Wheel 11 Run (more details to come) Courtemanche (Apr. 2016). “Tour de Silverdale” (story page 2) “TOUR de SILVERDALE” Street hill. I say planned because when we turned onto Tyler the occupants of a car coming up the hill in- Text by Alan Miles formed us that a tree was down across the road and that further travel in that direction would be fruitless. Photos by Alan Miles (page 2) Our fearless leader Walter then devised an alternate and Michael Speke (page 3) route to our first stop and second “history lesson” on Kenney Ave. Front cover photo: Barbara and Malcolm Tait Our second history lesson concerned the area known as Silverdale, which I’m slightly embarrassed to say I hadn’t heard of. Walter gave another short, very in- Can a car run be educational? I mean, other than formative talk on this subject. I took the following off of learning that one should fill up the gas tank before Wikipedia to save me trying to remember everything starting said run (not mentioning any names, Mr. but it does cover many of the things Walter mentioned Grant). Turns out they can be. in his lesson. Walter Reynolds started his “Tour de Silverdale” run “Silverdale is a semi-rural neighbourhood of the District of with the first of two “history lessons”. Walter gave us Mission, British Columbia, Canada 40 km east an informative talk on Britain’s first motor car and its of Vancouver on the east bank of the Stave River at its con- 56 mile journey which took place on July 5, 1895. More fluence with the Fraser. Noted for its historic Italian Ca- info can be found in Walter’s fascinating article on this nadian community, its economy was farming, fishing and subject in the January/February 2014 issue of the logging based until the general suburbanization of Fraser Roundabout. Valley life in the 1960s and '70s. Of its Italian community, notable offspring include Phil Gaglardi, former BC High- ways minister, and speed-skater Eden Donatelli. Sil- verdale is also notable as the site of Canada's first train robbery, by the "Gentleman Bandit" Billy Miner, and it is there he is supposed to have first used the polite "Hands Up!" in the course of the robbery. The lakeshore residences on the east side of Silvermere Lake are part of Silverdale. Silvermere was created by the dredging of the marshlands in the area.” Walter addresses the participants at the start of the run After Walter’s first lesson was complete route sheets were handed out with Walter’s usual proviso that this would not be one of those “divorce rallies”. In other words, no complicated questions to answer, just follow the route and have fun. The start point for the run was the McDonalds parking lot at Harris Road and Keeney Ave. Site of second “history lesson” Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows. From there we headed east on Lougheed through Maple Ridge, for a time taking the Bypass and then back on to Lougheed Following our talk we headed out for the second half of to Hayward street where we took a left to continue on the tour which took us along some very nice rural and to Keystone Ave. After driving quite a distance on Key- semi-rural roads in the Mission area. Roads, some of stone we ventured onto Townshipline Ave. which came which were named for Silverdale’s more famous sons to a dead end at Clay St. Here we turned right follow- and daughters (Gaglardi St. and Donatelli Ave.). ing Clay St. until a planned left turn down the Tyler Continued next page... VOLUME 20,NUMBER 4 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 2 The tour finished up at the Mission Springs Pub on the Lougheed Highway where we all enjoyed a great meal, great refreshments and great conversation. Chairman John McDonald gave a short talk thanking Walter for or- ganizing the run and all for attending. Turnout for the run was excellent with 16 cars taking part, most being VCB members, but with several LAMB (Langley Area Mostly British Car Club) and Rover Car Club members also taking part. Twenty nine people sat for lunch. It was great to see some newer members there including Robert and Pam Burns in their 1978 Triumph Spitfire and ace camera man Michael Speke in his 1974 Jensen Healey (if I’ve forgotten anyone, my apologies). Also noteworthy, we gained two new members on the tour. Welcome to Da- vid Vervaet and Teresa Evancic who attended in their very cool Land Rover Defender Light. All in all another very successful run put on by Walter Reynolds and I’m sure all attending would join me in thanking him for all of his hard work. Putting on an event like this takes a lot of effort and judging by the attendance of his last two runs (the other being this year’s Fort Lang- John McDonald addresses the crowd at the ley Run) this is something that branch members are want- Mission Springs Pub ing. Thank you Walter! VOLUME 20,NUMBER 4 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 3 Stewart Farm Picnic 2015 By Walter Reynolds On a sunny and hot August 4th evening 32 Vancou- ver Coast Branch members and guests met at the Historic Stewart Farm in Surrey for the Branch's 2015 Annual Picnic. Included in the 32 were sever- al Triumph Register members. We had invited the Triumph Register club as a way to reciprocate the invitation they extended to us to attend their 2014 BBQ. The Farm's parking lot was jammed with old British cars. I counted 17 at one point. A special car in attendance for a short while was the 1951 Daimler Barker Special of Dave Warlimont. While at first they didn't realize it Brian Lees and Richard Taylor were dressed almost identical and even sat together like they were twins! Once food was devoured, I made a few announcements regarding the November 1st London to Brighton Run and Lorna detailed upcoming events (Rocky Point Park Run, Port Moody, Sept. 1st; BCIT Shop Tour, Oct. 6th and the October 17th Annual Fraser Valley Run). Once that was over I tried to corral the four members present who had signed up for the "Man from UNCLE" movies pass- es. This was because we had to provide Warner Brothers with a photo of as many of the pass holders as possible, in front of a British car. Once I had the four together, I realized one had walked away. "Like herding cats!" one observer quipped. The photo, included here was taken by Sarah Wilson in front of her TR 250. Next on the agenda was the run to White Rock which was led by Ken & Pat Miles. All the British cars participated in the run and we must have made a pretty sight driving along in groups, waving to passers by. Statistically speaking, this was the third year in a row where we've had hot weather for the picnic; it's the second in a row where the tide has been in and no beach visible, and this was probably the most people we have had to the picnic, (2014's group pho- to showed 19). Interestingly neither of the 'twins' is in the photo and also missing is the photographer, Sarah Wilson! Once again, a successful event and thanks to Lorna for look- ing after the details. VOLUME 20,NUMBER 4 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 4 Fraser Valley Classic Car Show Text and Photos by Walter Reynolds In sharp contrast to last year when the very first Fraser Valley Classic Car Show was held in pouring rain, year two, on Sunday, July 19, 2015 was a swel- ter. It was a gezillion degrees all day long. Thanks to the event being held at the Atchelitz Threshermans Association’s property in Chilliwack there were lots of places to hide from the heat. From the Vancouver Coast Branch were Bence & Helen McIntyre (1964 MGB), Steve and Susan Blake (1937 Chevy 1/2 ton pick up truck), Clifford Jones (1969 Ford Cortina estate wagon), me (1963 Rover P5 3 Litre) and, newly back in the fold, Italo Cirillo (1961 Austin Cambridge estate wagon). Steve’s Chevy pick-up won first place in its “Domestic” class while the Reynolds Rover was Runner Up in its “Import” class. The Fraser Valley British Motor Club did an outstanding job of organizing this event. Tasty food was pre- pared by the Thresherman’s Kitchen volunteers. 140 cars showed out of 151 that were registered.