 FRASER
Joe Fraser's family first found Ocean Park in 1930 when they house-sat
for his father's Vancouver Tech. colleague for the summer. The A. Fraser
Reid house, 'Kinnaird' was on the east side of 128th Street, two blocks
north of North Bluff Road. Joe's family bought the adjacent five acres
and built a cottage, 'Baldovan'. Mr. Berry had owned the land and Berry's
son, an oyster raker, had dug the well for them.
. The drive from Vancouver was on dirt roads through New Westminster,
over the railway bridge, down the tunnel of trees that was King George
Highway, and along pot-holed Crescent Road.
Goods were purchased at Cope's Corner (128th and 16th) in the general
store adjacent to a large farm and orchard. They bought eggs at Valentine's
farm near 22nd Avenue.
For a Vancouver lad, summers in Ocean Park were idyllic. Young Joe explored
the area alone walking past Cope's Corner to the beach trail near of the
end of North Bluff Road. At the tiny post office, he met the Postmaster,
a man Joe recalls as having a husky build, and who compensated for being
deaf by reading peoples lips. On occasion Joe would help the Postmaster
by carrying the mail bag up the steep, wellestablished trail from the
rail line. In addition to the postal service, the Postmaster offered home
grown fresh produce for sale: some of the biggest, sweetest, green peas
Joe remembers eating.
Among the delights for the teen-aged Joe, most important was learning
to drive his sister's car on one corner of his Dad's five acres. Another
was finding the large crabs in the tide pools. With a homemade billy-can,
forked stick and a grating, Joe cooked the crabs and took them home in
a gunny sack, ready to eat. He did the same with clams, sometimes eating
the clams raw, with salt.
Joe rented a row-boat for $1 from the Religious Education Council Campsite.
He liked going to Blaine with Mr. Berry's son to play Pool.
When Joe went to University, his father sold the property. The connection
continues however, as Joe and wife Jean moved to South Surrey in recent
years to be closer to their daughter, Cathie Stonier,
now raising her family here.
- Shirley Stonier
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