|  SMITH
Originally from Saskatchewan and England, Midge's parents, Alfred and
Lucy Oliver, arrived in Ocean Park in 1934 from Port Kells.
When the Olivers moved into the area, the local school at 24th and Lower
Ocean Park Road had only six children instead of the needed eight to be
allowed to function. With the arrival of the Mcleod family from Manitoba
about the same time, Midge Oliver and Margaret McLeod made up the magic
number and the little school opened.
Norm Smith met Midge in the army at Hastings Park Army Depot in 1945.
Norm remembers that he was waiting for an office appointment when 'this
little dame' knocked the papers being carried by an army Padre flying.
Norm helped his future 'little dame' pick up the papers and the rest is
history. They met in March and were married on December 29th of the same
year in a double ceremony with Midge's sister Margaret and Peter Broatch.
The weddings took place at the Church of Ascension on McKenzie Avenue
in Crescent Beach.
Norm and Midge moved to Ocean Park in 1946, and had four children, Gwenyth,
Stanley, Maribeth and Dawn.
In 1946, Norm started work with Jack Manten, founder of Manten's Nurseries
and was there for six years. Norm then started Rose Gay Nursery, a smaller
nursery, at his home location on 15th Avenue and Olympic View Road at
the intersection of what is now known as 15th Avenue and 131st St.
Jack Manten pioneered growing dwarf fruit trees, and shipped
orders all over North America. All the dwarf fruit trees sold in North
America came from Manten Nurseries. Johnny McGoogan was the foreman when
Norm first went to work there. Johnny grew all the Vancouver flowering
cherry trees for the Vancouver Parks Board at a location on North Bluff
at the east end of Campell River Park.
Norm later started the Ocean Park Nursery with Val Johnson, who was in
the landscape business. Norm was the nurseryman and got the business off
the ground with his own nursery stock from his home location nursery.
Paul, Val's son, eventually bought out Norm's interest in 1975.
Norm remembers the times when he met Reverend Hughes, the Post Master,
going down the beach trail to get the mail bag dropped off by the Great
Northern train. His usual greeting was a gruff, "Good Morning. Hughes
the name! Reverend Hughes!"
Norm and Midge's house was one of the lucky ones in the 1940s. They had
power on two lines coming through the woods to a cluster of three or four
houses. However, if someone happened to plug in a toaster, the lights
went out. More outdated houses such as the Allanson's, used coal oil lamps.
Norm's final career was as the local Fire Chief. The Firehall was started
in March 1954 and it took four years to November 1958 to be completed.
Volunteers paid for most of it and built it themselves. It was assessed
at $50,000 and cost the firemen $10,000. Generally there were 15 or 16
men in the department. Norm joined in 1952. He became Fire Chief in 1962
and remained in that position for 19 years of his 29 years in the department,
retiring in 1981.
The Fire Department bought a 1946 Airforce Crash Truck in 1947
which carried two cylinders of CO2 and 300 gallons of water.
Norm recalls the truck grinding up the hill to go to a fire in Ocean Park
and realizing the truck had been built for flat runways at the airport!
Sometimes they would run out of water at a fire in Ocean Park.
This meant they would have to take the truck back to the top of the hill
on Crescent Road to refill and then back to the fire in Ocean Park, which
by that time "Would be going real good!"
Another time the shed behind the Mary and Webb Hoover's Cafe (across from
the Community Hall) caught fire and to save the cafe, the shed was hooked
up to the water truck and pulled away.
Midge and Norm are still living in Ocean Park. They now have 12 grandchildren
and three great grandchildren.
- Rob and Lois Allanson
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