Fast forward to the early 1970s when houses, we thought, particularly in Vancouver, must have gone as ‘fer’ as they could go. Can you imagine, in Kerrisdale, some homes were around eighty thousand smackeroos? Unheard of, and even some place out in Richmond on Number One Road, out in the sticks, the asking price was forty grand! What was this world coming to?
Today, a million bucks is common place. How young folks, starting a family, manage trying to find a home, some of us seniors shake our heads. We thank our stars for how lucky we were.
One ponders if some top Canadian political names like Lester Pearson, John Diefenbaker, Tommy Douglas, or W.A.C. Bennett here in B.C. could have, even in their wildest dreams predicted such a situation would exist in 2O15. And, if so, could any of them somehow intervened with effective legislation. I would hope so, but who knows, eh?
A while back, I wrote a song about W.A.C. and another focused on The Pacific Great Eastern Railroad, sometimes known as “The Please Go Easy” or “The Prince George Eventually.” By taking the best lyrics from both, I hope to celebrate Premier W.A.C. Bennett’s track record of what he stood for before we completely lose our train of thought, or memories of what B.C. used to be.
TO W. A. C.
By Lion’s Gate Bridge, past Horseshoe Bay, underneath the Upper Levels Highway, you can still feel the spirit of W.A.C and a train they called the P.G.E.
The P.G.E. was a special TRAIN in Beautiful British Columbia in the sun and the RAIN. It started off in Squamish and then moved to NORTH VAN, steam engines nd then diesel, now that was progress MAN.
Today, behind a market place called The LONSDALE QUAY, preserved for train buffs, just like you and ME, there used to be an old station house that belonged to the P.G.E. and, I’ll tell you, it sure brought back many a happy MEMORY.
Yeah, the P.G.E. was a special TRAIN, in Beautiful British Columbia, through the sun and the RAIN. There was no village called Whistler then, for heaven’s SAKE, just a bunch of whistling marmots off ALTA LAKE. Life was pretty basic then ESSENTIALLY in the good old days of the Prince George Eventually.
By Lion’s Gate Bridge, past Horseshoe BAY, underneath the Upper Levels Highway, you can still feel the spirit of W.A.C. Things have sure changed since the days of W.A.C.
The costs of land have ‘fueled’ a few changes. Instead of a service station, there’s another high rise. It’s not that long ago, it seems, that with a fill up, they’d give you a free car wash.