Island Living

We took the ferry over one very nice early fall morning and arrived at the Long Harbour dock where Lee was waiting beside his shiny new BCAA tow truck to take us to Ganges where he bought us a very nice lunch while getting to know us.

After lunch Shelagh took young Harley to a nearby playground while Lee took me over to the Shell Garage for a tour and further interview.

The garage  was well equipped with three bays, one having a pit and two tow trucks and a small Datsun pickup BCAA service vehicle.

The operation was a major one on the island as it had the garage and Shell gas station, BCAA road service, a Shell bulk fuel plant with tanker truck, Loomis Courier service and had recently sold a two-cab taxi business.

Lee and his wife Mary Ann ran the whole operation, but both were very warm and caring individuals and made me feel at ease from the first meeting.

Lee explained my duties would be to assist the journeyman mechanic, handle road service and towing jobs as well as drive the fuel truck which included fueling the ferries after their runs ended in the evenings.

It sounded perfect to me and I told him as much and was offered the job which had come up as a result of one of the employees' plan to leave in the near future for some reason.
Lee said I could start a.s.a.p. and would enquire around to find us a house to rent and would let us know as soon as he located something suitable.

Phil was disappointed to learn I was leaving, but was envious I was getting away from the rat race to the rare opportunity of living in a paradise.

A few days after our trip to the island Lee phoned having found a nice place about 15 minutes drive from Ganges in a house with a fantastic ocean view from its rear deck.
The rent was reasonable at $500.00 and we put the move into motion and were on site in less than a month.

By late October I was working in the garage and enjoying the variety of routine services, tire repairs, road service calls and fuel deliveries that included the other Shell station in Fulford Harbour at the Southern tip of the island which is 25 miles in length by 8 across at the widest point.

The road service jobs were very satisfying as people were so glad and relieved when I pulled up and usually had their vehicles running in a few minutes.

If it was a serious breakdown and couldn't be fixed within 15 minutes, we were to tow them in for repairs.

The shop was constantly bustling as they had a very good reputation for honesty, maybe in part to Lee being a retired Mountie with great integrity.

The McColl's were so good to work for.
Mary Ann bought us each a bowl of delicious soup from the nearby deli every day and they had us to their home for big dinners on several occasions.

I really appreciated the attitude of honestly diagnosing and recommending repairs and took great pride in doing a complete job every time a vehicle came in.

We had a $19.99 oil change special that was my responsibility and I had cars lined up down the street waiting  as I methodically went through the procedure which included safety checks to find items requiring repairs that brought in money for the shop while ensuring the cars were safe upon the jobs' finish.

As I went over them and found a problem I would confer with Bruce, the journeyman who usually agreed with my findings.

Lee was very pleased with my work and told me so on many occasions giving me raises several times.

The business was doing so well he hired another mechanic who was a factory trained Toyota technician from Australia.

Phil was the usual easy going Aussie with a great sense of humour who really livened up the shop as Bruce was usually quite dour and often grouchy.

The island attracted many celebrities such as Rockford Files' Stuart(Angel) Margolin,artists such as Robert Bateman and Canadian actor Scott Hylands all of who's vehicles I serviced on occasion, but only met Scott Hylands when he brought his pickup in himself.

Our house was quite comfy and had the million dollar view I described and was located up a steep hill and onto a side road named funnily "Main Street".

Often as I pulled onto the Walkers Hook Road in the morning I would find two young native kids hitch hiking and picked them up.

Tanya and Tyson lived nearby to us and we got into the routine of me driving them to school and often home again if they were seen loitering by my Jeep at 5 p.m.

They were very nice kids, Tanya was 12 and Tyson about 14.

I learned Tanya was near the top of her class and was very good company making very intelligent conversation as well as being very sweet natured and extremely pretty with her long black hair.
Tyson was quiet and ended up getting into a lot of trouble, but never gave me any grief in the slightest.

Tanya often visited our house and was often around on weekends. we thought nothing of it until Shelagh met her Mum and found out she was AWOL much of the time and they were not allowed to hitch hike.

Once her Mum learned we were okay she allowed Tanya to continue visiting where we fed her and enjoyed her company and play with Harley who was nearly 3 then.

In the early spring we were thinking about buying a home as Dave, our landlord gave us notice he needed the house back for his daughter to occupy.

Prices were high for what was on offer and we began searching when I received news that the fellow I had been hired to replace had changed his mind and Lee was overstaffed and gave me notice.

Once again our plans were quickly changed for us and we  decided to look forward to moving to Victoria where we could be near to my family and live in another paradise... but could we afford it?