It is a bright, summer morning on Bowen Island. The air if filled with the sweet smell of wild berries, fermenting and drying in the sun, as my brother, Jim, our cousins Ronnie, Renee, Gordon, John and I pick our mandatory bucket of black berries before breakfast.
We present the fruits of our labor to mother, to be frozen for winter pies and jam. Then we devour a huge breakfast of bacon and eggs and as many pieces of toast as our stomachs will hold. The run on toast is because Jim and I and our cousins Gordon and John have a contest each morning to see who can eat the most toast.
Gordon invariably comes out the big winner, his all time record being 12 pieces at one sitting. It is only because of our days filled with intense physical activity that we don't all become fat as pigs.
With the taste of hot dust in our throats, we run the country mile to Snug Cove to watch the Steamships, the Lady Alexandra and the Lady Cynthia disgorge its contingent of picnickers and tourists, who arrive daily on the Island. We check out all the kids, to see if there are any potential friends or foes. Then it's time for a swim at Sandy beach, followed by a sit on the hot bench. This is our favorite sun spot, where covered in sand, we bake to a golden brown before returning to cool ourselves in the chilly water. Of course renting a putt putt boat for 50 cents, or fishing for shiners at the dock are also alternatives, even if we do have to throw them back.
Bowen Island in the fifties is mainly a summer resort, where along with the individual tourists, large companies, churches, guilds etc reserve one or more of the six large picnic grounds for the day. Summer to us, is gorging on ice cream and pop at these picnics. The annual longshoreman's picnic is our favorite, as they are the most generous with their treats, especially as the day wears on and their beer supply has been largely decimated.
When the city kids come to the island on these yearly picnics, they are no match for the likes of us. Along with our summer friends from the island, we enter all the races and contests each picnic has to offer, trying to fit in as many of the groups as possible. Often as not we win the prizes for our age groups.
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