One of the places we visited in Vancouver was Stanley Park. This is a must see if you are in Vancouver and I can’t even guess how many times I have been there. When I was a university student I would often drive through the park and stop and sit on the seawall and watch the water. All my worries and anxieties about school and lack of money and boyfriend trouble would pack up and leave as the smell of the ocean drifted up my nostrils and the wind off the water blew my hair around my head.
When I was in my third year at the University of British Columbia, I joined the rowing club. We would train early early in the morning in Coal Harbour which lies along the south of Stanley Park. One morning in February, around 5am we were carrying the shell down to the dock. It was nasty cold and their was ice on the dock – one wrong step and one of our team went sliding across the dock and into the freezing water. We pulled her out as quickly as we could and hustled her back into the boat house to see if there were any spare clothes that she could change into. Once we had her relatively warm and dry, we realized that there would be no practice that morning. We packed up the shell and our gear and we climbed into our assorted cars to head off to the university to get ready for morning classes. The boathouse was right at the entrance to the park but to leave we had to drive all the way around the park as the road was one way. The sun was just starting to peak up over the city and the park glowed with a pink tinge. As we drove past the area of the park that hosted the totems each of us slowed down to look. Under the totems there were a couple of refrigerators, three ovens and a dishwasher. It seemed to be the most bizarre and random thing you could imagine. One of the team, when we got to school, called the police and told them. She found out that the appliances were likely stolen and had been left there for the “fence” to pick up. For whatever reason he/she never showed.
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Diane Gallagher Photos 