Editorials

Last week’s Chronicle on the legendary Crowsnest Pass bootlegger Emilio Piciarello drew this response from reader Steven H: 

“Johnny Schnarr was Vancouver's top Rum Runner. He worked for the McCoy Syndicate whose offices were in the Marine Building; his full story can be found in Libraries. He always had to build a new boat every time the Americans built faster Coast Guard boats. 

Further to today’s story on Emilio Picariello, ‘Bottle King” and bootlegger, if you should find yourself in the Crowsnest Pass, specifically in Coleman, AB, you might wish to check out the Rum Runner Restaurant. It features a mural depicting the wild 1920s when that area was a bootleggers’ Mecca. 

Be sure to order Pic’s Bootleg Beans, “a blend so good it’s almost illegal”! 

Can any of us really trust our childhood memories? Can we really be sure that those few images or moments in time that seem to be branded on our brains really existed or happened as we recall them?

One that sticks out in my memory is of an open garage at the end of Leslie Drive, Saanich, BC, two streets over from mine. I often passed the garage in summer when coming and going from the local playground. 

If you write historical posts for social media as I do, it can be surprising which subjects resonate most with readers, judging by the volume of comments.

Some subjects that you’re sure will draw a response, don’t; and some that you think are so-so, ring a bell. Go figure.  

Twice lately, I’ve written about the Westholme Giant, a fir tree so tall that it could be seen by ships at sea who used it as a landmark.

The wind sure can blow in Prince Rupert!

I’ve expressed my misgivings with Facebook in the past. It’s sort of a love-hate relationship. Okay, not really love or hate; let’s just say, I’ve become wary. You have to watch what you say on Facebook or you can get burned. I don’t mean idle chitchat, I mean when you post something that you mean to be informational as well as entertaining. In other words, the full beer, not just the suds.

Like history, for example. (What else would you expect me to write about?) 

After years of public agonizing, the NDP government has dropped the shoe: Daylight Saving Time will become permanent as of the morning of Monday, March 8th. 

That’s when DST will become law—not for just seven months of the year but for all 12. 

As you read this, I’m beavering away on my latest book. Not just another book, my 39th, but my grand opus. Twenty-five years in the making, in various archives and in the field, are going into what’s to be a four-part series.

Vancouver Island’s Mount Sicker, the scene of a short lived but extremely rich copper boom at the turn of the last century, has been in the news again. Modern day miners are examining the ore dumps from the Lenora, Tyee and Richard III mines for overlooked treasure.

Coincidentally, friend and avid prospector Blake MacKenzie has been doing some scratching of his own about Mount Sicker. 

He recently informed me that he has re-staked the historic Sullins claims. Back in 1897, F.T. Sullins was one of a group of fortune hunters from Port Townsend who first noted promising signs of copper on Little Sicker Mountain.

We’re heading into BC Heritage Week, February 16-22. This year’s theme is "Stir the Pot," a celebration of the history, culture, and stories behind food.

Aligned with BC's Family Day on February 16, Heritage Week will, focus on food as a shared, inter-generational, and cultural tradition featuring events, workshops, and community activities province-wide.

All well and good, but when I think ‘heritage,’ I don’t think of food.

While shuffling files recently, I found a column I wrote for the Cowichan Valley Citizen for Heritage Week of 2007. At that time I and others were battling on two fronts: to save the Valley’s Kinsol Trestle and South Wellington’s Morden Colliery tipple/head frame from destruction.

I’m happy to report that my newest book, Unknown Nanaimo: History You Never Learned in School, is being well received in, where else, Nanaimo. One bookstore now orders by the case and she tells me that “people love local history”.

Who knew?

There aren’t many rules to writing for an audience any more. I mean, since the arrival of social media, particularly cell phones, people say just about whatever comes to mind and to h- with spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax and all that other boring stuff they tried to teach you in English Lit.

Here at the BC Chronicles we do attempt to write real good, ha ha. This is brought to mind by my own local newspaper, which shall remain nameless, having twice lately referred to the seven-month-long work stoppage of our bus system as being the longest in B.C. history. 

I know, I’ve said it before: They’re not making the good old days any more.

But it’s true.

Earlier this month, a front-page story of the Victoria Times-Colonist heralded the almost certainty that the Capital Iron lands project on Victoria’s waterfront will be approved by city council. It’s to be one of the greatest developments in the capital’s history—as many as 14 buildings constructed on a seven-acre parcel bounded by two whole blocks.