Looking Back: Some History of the Legion on Commercial Drive

by Lyle Neff

An extremely abridged version of this story ran in '05 in the Vancouver Courier, one of your better neighbourhood papers ya know.
__________________________

The Royal Canadian Legion was bracing itself, 60 years ago this month, for the return of our surviving boys from the just-closed Pacific theatre of war. Already some of the demobilized had begun trickling in from Europe. Veterans of (mostly) 20th-century battles themselves, the officers of the Legion knew how it worked: occupation and other duties would delay the return of the vast bulk of overseas soldiers, many for years. Best to begin planning right away, then.
Commander RA Bowcott and the other founding members of what's now called the Grandview Branch, or just #179, may have felt a special responsibility, since the Legion was essentially born in British Columbia. (A small group of Imperial veterans over on the Island was calling itself the Canadian Legion by 1917; the Legion proper, which came to unify almost all ex-servicemen's groups in the Dominion, gained its charter in July of 1926.)
Bowcott and his East End comrades swiftly built an organization to prepare for the influx of new veterans. They began by gaining their charter from Pacific Command in August of 1945, at which time meetings were held in the YMCA at Napier and Commercial. Branch 179 bounced around the Drive a bit in the following decades. It grew with each move, until landing in its present, surprisingly sumptuous, hall on the corner of 6th Avenue.
That was where Peter and Barbie Salmon, the married couple who are President and Secretary respectively on the 179 Executive, sat for a talk with the *Courier* on a sunny Saturday recently. Well, Barbie Salmon, an energetic 56-year-old, didn't sit much. She kept jumping up to fetch documents or take care of some bit of business. Peter Salmon, the 59-year-old son of a Royal Canadian Navy soldier, observed that his wife had first caught his eye at the Legion in the late '80s. "She was running around," he laughed, "causing dissension." Mrs Salmon came back and reported an interesting fact, that a former Legion president had owned the old *Highland Echo* newspaper -- predecessor of the *Courier.*
The Grandview Legion on a Saturday afternoon confirmed, in some ways, the stereotype many younger Canadians have of the Legion as a whole. None of those present could've been much under 40; there was a blue haze in the smoking room; war stories were definitely being told. But against the cliché, the barroom was enormous, well-lit and sparklingly clean. Today's Legion is crammed with electronic games, a superb darts area, pool tables and all the other mod cons of a good pub. There's an enormous concert hall upstairs, where straight-edge and underage rock bands play Friday nights, on top of a spring-loaded dance floor. #179 also has an absorbing collection of historical artifacts and signage, some of the pieces being unexpectedly beautiful. Best of all at the Legion, the drinks are cheap and the company is excellent.
For example, talk of the branch's 60th anniversary brought a relevant comment from Dick Storie, a survivor of the bloody conflict in Korea. Alert and determined at 72, Storie reminded us that "the Princess Pats are still out there on the Afghan Whale. And they're shooting." It was a sombre reminder that the Royal Canadian Legion was born in war, that future wars are likelier than not, and that freedom's institutions may be the essential thing that gets us through desperate times. Aside from its many good works for charity (which are legion, as the Salmons will tell you) and its freewheeling social aspect, the Grandview Legion is probably the most serious and necessary of the East End's community establishments. #179 deserves a very good 61st year.

http://www.pacificlegion.org/images/bbrady.jpg

Event: Black History Month Celebration

Tuesday, February 27

7:00 p.m.

Britannia Library

1661 Napier Drive

Admission is free

All are welcome

In April, the quilts from tiny Gee’s Bend, Alabama will visit Canada for the first time, travelling to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Here, they will be linked together and celebrated along with work from quilt makers of North Preston, a small African Canadian community just outside Halifax.

In October, 2005 some of the quilt makers visited Vancouver along with filmmaker, Matt Arnett. This Tuesday, February 27 at 7pm., the Britannia Public Library will profile the quilters and their abstract art in the half hour film, “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend”.

This film takes us right into the homes and backyards of the quilt makers. We’ll see: “Some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced. Imagine Matisse and Klee ..arising not from rarefied Europe, but from the caramel soil of the rural South in the form of women, descendants of slaves when Gee’s Bend was a plantation….” ( Michael Kimmelman, New York Times).

We’ll be invited to see the quilts and hear the voices of a group of women who have been singing gospel and quilting together for over 38 years – using just what their mothers’ gave them – needles, thimbles, and strong senses of design and survival. Mary Lee Bendolph says “ I had to do what I could to keep my family warm”. Her daughter Essie Lee Bendolph tells us “ I had a brother go to college off the quilts my mom made and sewed.”

Now, art galleries and museums across North America are giving us the opportunity to appreciate these abstract minimalist quilts with “colours that take your attention away from everything else.”

Like Gee’s Bend and North Preston, Commercial Drive is also a small artistic community, albeit an intensely” hip” urban one. So, we’ll be celebrating these quilts loudly, proudly and diversely in many multi media and ethnic styles; that is - in the style “the drive” is accustomed to. Last week, local poet and quilt artist , Diane Wood installed a selection of miniature quilts created by the Carnegie Center Chinese Seniors’ sewing circle in the library’s display case. They’ll be your first welcome as you enter the library’s foyer on Tuesday night. Next, you’ll be greeted by Ola Tawose (see the picture below) with a poem she composed for the quilters and the evening entitled “Hands”. Then you’ll be treated to the exquisite vocals of local chanteuse, Alita Delray accompanied by bassist, James Forrest. They’ll serenade you for half and hour as a prelude to the half hour “Quilts’” film.

Following the film , Dr. Henry Dent a local jazz guitarist , originally from New York will pay his dues to the ladies with some very smooth jazz guitar. Then, local poets, Bonnie Nish and Sita Carboni of Pandora’s Collective will take the stage. Next up, will be Franci Louann with “Black is For”…a poem inspired by Mennonite quilters. Dr. Dent will return to center stage to finish off the evening while you mix and mingle with our special quest artists ..or write your own poem …or design your own quilt. .....

If the spirit moves you..and it probably will.

For more information about this event,

call the Britannia Branch at 604-665-2222.