Big Little McBride,BC

    You are looking at a photo of the Village of McBride, BC, our town.  Obviously the picture was taken during the summer, and when I pulled out the photo, it was startling for me to see all the greens, after seeing so much gray and white as we go through our winter months.  Anyway, that is off the topic of this blog.  

    McBride was at one time the smallest village in British Columbia, I don’t know if that is still true, but it has a population of about 700 people.  A lot of people find surprising when I tell them, is that McBride is the largest community Joan and I have lived in, since immigrating to Canada back in 1973.

    When we first arrived in Canada I took a job teaching in a one-room school in an isolated lumber camp where there were no roads in and out.  There was just a mill, bunkhouses, a cookhouse, office building, and recreation center (where I held school).  Later a company store was built and a mobile school building was moved in.

    We had no TV reception, only intermittent radio at night, no telephones (until later when a microwave public phone was installed beside the office.)  We lived there 3 years, only being able to leave camp at Christmas, Spring Break, and summer vacation, but we were young and adventurous and survived.

    Finally “camp” life got to us and I took a job as “Head Teacher” in a two room school in a small place called Avola.  It was a hell hole, but having never been there before, all we could go when considering the job, was its location on a map.  On a map, it seemed promising, at least it was on a highway.  But when we finally got there we found life there pretty intolerable.   

    Even though Avola was on a highway, it didn’t have much to offer--a gas station, a small convenience store, and later a pub.  For us to buy groceries or do our laundry we had to drive 45 miles one way to Clearwater.  We only lasted one year in Avola.

    Then we moved to McBride.  Here we we found two groceries, 4 gas stations, a hardware store, clothing stores, a bank, and a laundromat.  It felt to us like a big city.  For the first time, we were living in a place that had people our own age, with similar values (back to the land lifestyles, the arts, and the environment).  We bought a small hobby farm of our own, and have lived here ever since.

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca