Editorially speaking…
Memory is a funny thing. It can be vivid, branded into the brain; it can be ephemeral, just a wisp-like fog that swirls about you from time to time but is always there, slumbering in the subconscious while it awaits a word, a sight, a smell or a sound—something, anything—to bring it if only momentarily to the fore.
One that has always stuck in my mind from childhood concerns money. A stack of bills pulled from the wall of an old house, once a store my mother told me, as it was being torn down.
Demolitions were rare at that time in my part of the woods, the Swan Lake of Saanich, so we kids were in the front and centre, even in harm’s and the workers’ way, as they deconstructed the old store, one board at a time.
Then we saw them, a thick wad of bills. Orange is the prevailing colour in my mind’s eye, with green ink; but I wouldn’t stake my life on that memory detail. But definitely real money, not play money!
That the demolitioners gave them to us after a quick look tells me that the bills were worthless, likely a foreign currency and old.
I’ve since learned a bit about history, including something of Germany’s short-lived Weimar Republic which was so ravaged by inflation after the First World War that it took a wheelbarrow of currency to buy a loaf of bread, or so the stories go. Years later, I’d learn that a Cowichan Valley pioneer had papered his walls with the stuff.
Was that what was in the walls of the old building being torn down? I’ll never know now, having been too young to keep even one of the bills as a souvenir.
All this came back to me this week in an email with its offer of an auction sale of Confederate States of America currency, and Eric Duncan’s reference to worthless Confederacy $10 bills in this week’s Chronicle.
As I said, memory is a funny thing.
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It was the Cranberry Volunteer Fire Department to the rescue during last Saturday’s coal mine bus tour hosted by the Nanaimo Historial Society.
While trying to turn around in front of the fire hall in South Wellington, our bus’s rear end hung up on a gravel bank fronting the schoolyard. Even our evacuating the bus to lighten the load didn’t help; it was stuck fast.
Simply put, if you’re going to get stuck, I strongly suggest doing it right in front of a fire hall, almost blocking their garage doors. They want you gone—now. And if you won’t or can’t do it yourself, they’ll do it for you.
I’m sorry I didn’t ask the names of the volunteers who freed our bus from its backside perch.
Which they did. After wedging rubber mats and boards under the bus’s single rear drive wheel, and hooking the chief’s pickup to the front, the driver hit the gas pedal, the chief did the same. There was a screeching of spinning tires, a stink of burning rubber and swirls of blue smoke.
Bless the Cranberry Volunteer Fire Department!
But it worked and, after an hour’s delay, we resumed our tour of the Greater Nanaimo coal mines, tour guide David Hill-Turner keeping up a steady patter of information interlaced with humour and, as they say, a good time was had by all.
I’d seen it all before on my own time and dime but I was curious to view “my” coal mines through the eyes of someone else.
Then Belinda and I were off to tour (again) the Ladysmith Cemetery. For all my visits there I’d never checked out every old headstone and corrected that on Saturday by looking specifically for those relating to the Extension Mine explosion of Oct. 5, 1909, that killed 32 men.
Ah, the good old days...
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I’ve written about finding old photos in at flea markets and garage sales and sometimes being able to trace their provenance. Here’s such a tale from retired Victoria journalist Lon Wood. He titles his Facebook post, WHO WAS MILL ARTIST ‘R.M.?’
I’m taking the liberty of reproducing it here in the hope that a Chronicles reader might help Lon solve the mystery.
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Crofton Mill was built in 1956 and established by British Columbia Forest Products (BCFP) as a single-line kraft pulp mill in 1957.
A year later an artist now known only by the initials “R. M.” created a coloured pencil-crayon drawing of the mill superstructure.
The finely-detailed rendition measures 7” x 9½” and is matted with plain cardboard in a thin, black wooden frame, such as is used for diplomas. On the brown paper backing of the artwork is a sticker label for “Diggon’s — Diggon-Hibben Ltd. Victoria, BC printers, stationers and book sellers” and likely picture framers.
This gem of Crofton history was tucked away in the back of Shop & Wash thrift shop/laundromat a long while before my offer on it was accepted.
A lot of water under the bridge since R.M. produced the rendering of the mill 67 years ago.
A newsprint line was installed in 1964 and Fletcher Challenge bought BCFP (including the mill) in 1987 through its Canadian operations division Crown Forest Industries — merging to form Fletcher Challenge Canada. Norske Skog bought the latter in 2000, to operate within its Canadian division, which became Catalyst Paper in 2005. Paper Excellence Canada completed its acquisition of Catalyst Paper in 2019 and in early 2024, Paper Excellence shut down paper production at the Crofton mill while pulp production continues.
It would be nice to hear from anyone in Crofton who R.M. or his or her family might be. Has crossed my mind. There might even be a series of mill drawings for other Crofton area depictions that would have historical interest in the present day. Text/call (250) 216-7797 with any leads or DM via Facebook. Thanks!
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