Several years after Wally Smith passed away, I decided that I should find out who my father really was. Sure I knew he was a printer by trade, an orchardist, a columnist, an inventor, a self made man, but really, who was he?

You would think that a boy living under his father’s roof for 18 years would know who his father was, but he and I did not spend much time together. I knew that several of his friends were still living, so my wife and I journeyed to Oliver to make some inquiries.

The first I thought of was Carleton MacNaughton. He and Wally were both orchardists, went to the same church and had great respect for one another. I arranged to meet Carleton at his farm shortly after lunch. We were both glad to see one another, but he seemed perplexed when I told him that I wanted to get to know Wally better. He said, “let me take you two for a ride.” We climbed into his 4 X 4 and headed for the hills, literally.

We proceeded up McKinney way and pulled into a clearing off the graveled road and stopped. We got out and began to walk through the bush. He started to talk about the building of the Kettle Valley Railway and how it almost passed through this area. Then he pointed out a behemoth tree just ahead of us. This tree was on private land now but would have been cut down if the rail line had gone through. With the three of us linking hands, we could just reach around that monster. Carleton and I were both over 6 feet tall and my wife was 5 ft 8 in, so that was one big tree! That was in the mid 1980′s. I hope the tree is still there for it was a wonderful sight to behold!

We hoofed it back to the 4 X 4 and drove some more until we crossed a creek where he again stopped. This time he pulled out three fishing rods and away we tromped across country. Shortly we came to a stream with deep pools and set to fishing. I couldn’t catch a thing but Carleton reeled in 4 or 5 and my wife caught several in the hour or so we were there. The afternoon was warm, the air was fresh and the company was excellent! We returned to the vehicle, then back to the farm and to our car. We gave him our fish.

The final question, who was Wally? I’m still learning about him. I learned too that Carleton was as fine a host as there ever has been.