have it your own stupid way: Chapter 11 - Hatzic, the Depression and indoor plumbing

The farm house

Joan and Dad

Continuing to quote from the 1932 letter, Dad describes life in Hatzic and Canada during the Great Depression:

“The farm we bought is situated on a hill-top in the picturesque Fraser Valley, and has a panoramic view of the winding river and thousands of acres of fertile farm lands receding to an impressive background of mountains. Excepting for the climatic conditions, it is as good a place to recuperate in as one could find in a long-search of the countryside.

Mr. Pomeroy and myself put in considerable work during the winter, and aided by Chinese labourers, we improved the place both from the point of living and from the point of fruit-farming. Unaided by outside agencies, we installed a bathroom, complete in all details, hot and cold water system, and drainage disposal system. We have done little better than break even on this season’s crop because of adverse weather conditions, and it is too bad that the withdrawal of labor will prevent the working of this place on a profitable basis in the near future. However, we have an overabundance of garden produce and tree fruits preserved for winter use, and that is a big factor towards economic living.

This country is in very bad shape from coast to coast, the wonder being that the community inertia is not penetrated by hardship and suffering. As in Britain, the embers of revolution continue to smoulder, their slow smoke always evident but quite ineffective in shattering public apathy. The bourgeoisie majority, analogous to the lumbering trained elephant, still retains a humble passivity before the diminutive trainer in the form of the crafty minority. When will the sleepers awake? At whose inspired guidance shall the cycle of revolt gain it momentum? Two or three generations hence, perhaps, when ritual and blind faith and empty prides and animosities have fallen into discard in the face of advancing education and social adjustments, shall our descendants see the dawning of civilization. In the meantime, a little judicious blood-letting might not be far amiss, the quicker to scavenge the world.

Autumn is fast changing the color scheme of our fair valley, burnishing with gold and copper hues that scene which so recently predominated green. Quiet reigns supreme on this hill-side as I write in the open air, save for the occasional utterances in discord of a pair of bright blue birds, which we take to be a species of woodpecker. The river below is still and glassy, bearing on its surface an inverted mountain. Far off a cock crows; a dog barks at a scarcely heard car on the road; both sounds accentuate the silence, and only by them are we reminded that far below us, the pursuits of man continue – and so life goes on.”

I visit the Mission/Hatzic area every year and would love to find the actual location of Dad’s old farm, even though it is no doubt a housing development. Although tracing old property records just by owner name doesn’t seem to be a possibility, my friend Geraldine, who lives in the area, thinks it was probably located on the Hatzic Bench.

Added note: In the spring of 2011, local historian and writer Daphne Sleigh was able to pinpoint the location of Dad’s farm down to a small section of the Dewdney Trunk Road between the Westminster Abbey and Cemetery Road. Her research suggested the farm was 7.87 acres, part of District Lot 9-3, Township 17, Map 6621E. We visited the spot (in the 34800 block of the Dewdney Trunk Road) and compared the present skyline to those in the old photographs and I am very grateful to Daphne for all her efforts in this regard.