Congratulations Jack on five years of ODN. Your little venture has grown into a “must read” event for many of us in the community. News so fresh that it hadn’t even got on the local grapevine, also a great forum for local opinions.
Today, 31st May, is also a milestone for Dave and I, it is 25 years since we crossed our fingers, held our breath, hoped for the best and moved to Oliver.
Dave was employed with Molson Brewery who were planning a merge with Carling O’Keefe, meaning a lay off of half the staff, including Dave. Some of the older men were offered early retirement but Dave, at 45 was not old enough to do this. Dave was a maintenance mechanic and the idea of looking for work, at 45 was rather intimidating as most employers wanted younger men.
I was working at a half way house for young schizophrenics, recently released from Riverview mental hospital, and needing a slow re-immergence into the community.
I had previously worked as a cook in a senior’s assisted living facility but an accident had caused a back injury. I couldn’t lift the heavy equipment any longer, so I retrained as a councillor and started a new career.
The new job was good but government interference made things rather difficult. They demanded more and more paperwork for every small incident that happened with the residents. With schizophrenics, every tiny thing turns into a special incident and I seemed to spend more time filling out forms than working with the residents.
The constant office work was extremely frustrating as the staff spent less time with helping the kids with their problems and more time writing nonsense that probably no-one would ever read. I really did not enjoy the job any longer as it was not what I had trained for.
Dave and I both had to make a decision as to our future as something had to change. Our four daughters were old enough to do their own thing and two of them were settled in homes of their own.
We had always dreamed of owning a campground and had spent many camping holidays discussing how we would have handled the campground we were staying in. We decided to take the plunge and make a major move in our life. We came for a short camping vacation to OK falls and registered with a realtor. Our wish was to relocate within one hour of Penticton, preferably with some mobile homes for some winter income.
For the next six months the realtor sent us information on various campgrounds around the area. We received information on many locations but the place that suited our needs seemed to be the Bel Air Cedar motel, in Oliver. So, in April of 1990, we came to look around.
This began our transition to life in Oliver………….to be continued