We had Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on in the background of dinner the other evening. It’s not often that we have the television on during dinner but it’s Ella’s introduction to Star Wars and she is very excited! Emily got to reminiscing and was telling us that before moving to Canada from New Zealand in 1990 she had only seen four movies in a theatre.
The best part of her story is that one of the movies on that illustrious list is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
As she wandered through her childhood for a few minutes, she told the kids about movie day at the community school. Yes! A half a world away in Saanich, we also went to the community school on a weekend afternoon to watch reel-to-reel films from projector to screen.
It got my mind turning backwards. We saw a lot of films at Stelly’s Secondary. My most vivid memory was from the early 1980’s and the screening of Puff the Magic Dragon.
Then a whole series of memories came flooding back: the National Film Board of Canada films in darkened rooms and picture slide shows of the global missionary work of families in our church, complete with the running replay of each and every painfully un-exciting event.
That was the extent of the multi-media experience when I was kid. There were debates at the parent advisory committee over the first Macintosh Computers that to came to our school. My buddies’ parents chased every audio innovation from vinyl, 8 track, cassette tape, laser disc to the compact disc.
Everything came alive at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver. The focus of the world’s attention was on our global fair featuring the most advanced technology in transportation and communication. It featured the opening of the SkyTrain and the massive screen at Expo Centre that was home to the featured attraction, the Freedom to Move exhibit.
From there my imagination redrew the landscape of the West Saanich strip through Brentwood Bay from the same era: Payless Gas, the original Brentwood Cycle, the Bargain Barn, Food Giant, Brentwood Supermart, the fish and chip shop, the Poppe Shoppe, the flower shop and the Country Kitchen.
This weekend, we raked up the summer canopy of the giant Garry Oak at the end of the driveway once again — for the 43rd straight year. This was the first time we had to clear off a sidewalk. Times are changing, this will be the first year we won’t have to clear a flooding ditch in a mid-winter downpour.
Ella said to Emily, “oh I’ve been to like a million movies at the theatre!”
Now we are juggling an endlessly growing number of services that deliver streaming video, audio and internet content to each house on demand. Try to keep up. Or not. Either way it’s not bad to pause every now and then to retrace your steps.
Photo credit: “Vancouver” by “abdallahh” used under license “CC BY 2.0“
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