Eileen's Snapshots, Willows

This was the way to live!

Remember the building of the Esplanade Road behind the north end of the beach? It ran along the left and left rear of the photograph. The municipality built it and they came.

As it turned out, what came was "The Wrong Element" in the opinion of the local residents. To impede the progress of The Wrong Element in cruising the new Esplanade, the municipality had the temerity to install a speed bump. Well that really set off The Wrong Element. It annoyed other elements, too. The word circulated around the school about what was to be done. Many, including the author, on several warm summer evenings gathered around that speed bump and cheered as The Wrong Element drove its cars back and forth over the offending bump. The occupants of an unmarked police car were spotted at once and were greeted with universal derision. They elected to leave again after "investigating".

The heavyweight intellects at Oak Bay City Hall finally concluded that they had made a mistake. The speed bump was removed.

All that calls to mind the Foul Bay demonstrations shortly after, during university days. Remember the sit in at Foul Bay Road and Oak Bay Avenue? Foul Bay and Foul Bay Road were becoming gentrified and the residents of tony houses overlooking Foul Bay and living on Foul Bay Road wanted a "better" location and a "better" address than Foul Bay. "McNeil Bay" or even, horrors, "Fowl Bay" were proposed. Rest assured, all, that after our efforts, Foul Bay Road has remained Foul Bay Road! (Foul Bay was aptly named. Have a look at it at half tide or lower; it is a foul anchorage.) This horrid revisionism was not new, you know. It had all started back in 1917 with the City of Victoria. Oak Bay City council would not agree to any change then, either.

Here we see Rick Doyle (l), Myra Hall scouting for a new mount, Claire Drean and Jill Wolton in that summer sun of 1963.