Editorially speaking...
As some Chronicles readers may have discerned, aviation history is another passion of mine. What a treasure trove of fascinating stories is available in books, newspapers and online!
Speaking of the information that’s there for the taking with just a few clicks of a computer key, I was recently sent a link to a photo story on Howard Hughes’s fabled Spruce Goose.
If you think our famous Martin Mars flying firemen were big, check out the size of the Spruce Goose. The teeny model plane in the second photo is a DC-3! —Wikipedia
If you’d like to know more about this one-of-a-kind aircraft that flew only once and is now in a specially-built museum, just Google Spruce Goose.
Its nickname is somewhat misleading, by the way, as it’s mostly built of laminated birch. The real ‘spruce’ aircraft was the Mosquito fighter-bomber; one of the fastest and most successful fighter-bombers of the Second World War, it really was built of spruce—British Columbia spruce.
Another story for another day.
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It’s looking more and more promising that the B.C. Maritime Museum will have a new home in the Victoria Inner Harbour’s landmark CPR Steamship Terminal by trading locations with the Bateman Gallery.
There can be no better location in all of Victoria for the B.C. Maritime Museum than the beautiful Steamship Terminal. It’s on the water and opposite the Parliament Buildings. Here’s hoping! —Wikipedia
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Another Victoria icon, this one from my childhood, is about to close after 90 years.
This is the venerable Broad Street eatery presently known as Old Vic Fish & Chips. In my youth it was Old British Fish and Chips and served the best fries and fish in town. I couldn’t afford it very often but I can still savour those occasions when I was able to partake (to this day fish and chips are a favourite, latter-day health considerations be damned!)
But, as ever, progress has reared its ugly head and the OVF&C is toast. The heritage building in which it’s located is to be redeveloped as a 135-room hotel.
Sigh..........
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It has been announced that the Canadian Armed Forces will “resume surface gunfire training” in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
What great childhood memories this evokes!
When I was a kid, growing up in Saanich, I would often hear RCN ships firing at plane-towed targets in the Strait. What a blast for a post-WW2 kid as he walked to school.
Ka-boom! Ka-boom! Ka-boom!
The last time I heard what I thought was naval gunnery practice was the morning, 40-odd years ago, that Mount St. Helens blew her top. And I was living in the Valley by then.
Ah, sweet memories...
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