What's happening in Cloverdale September 2010

In a nutshell, not too much is going on around Cloverdale in September.

September 11, Saturday - pancake breakfast at the Cloverdale Legion. $4.50 gets you pancakes, eggs, sausage, coffee, tea, and orange juice. The Legion is located on 57th Avenue between 176th Street and the Cloverdale Bypass, across from the firehall. 8am to 11:30am.

September 18, Saturday - Soap Box Derby. 8:30am to 2:30pm. This is held on 60th Avenue, on the hill above Greenaway Park. It used to start around 181A Street, come down 60th, through the flat section around 180th Street, then down the hill by Greenaway Park, ending before 177B Street. So expect traffic to be detoured away from 60th for a few hours. Check their website for more information. I didn't see the route on there.

September 18, Saturday - Like birds? Surrey Parks is hosting a free bird watching walk and talk at Hi Knoll Park, a little southeast of Cloverdale, between 9am and 11am. Meet at the parking lot on the north side of Colebrook Road. For those of you haven't walked around Hi Knoll Park there are several entrances. To get to this one drive east out of Cloverdale down Highway 10 and turn right (south) on 192 Street. Drive a couple of kilometres (you will drive over the train tracks and past the flats) to Colebrook Road and turn left. You'll see the parking lot about 3 blocks down the road.

September 19, Sunday - Terry Fox Run. Various locations around BC but in Cloverdale, the Legion is sponsoring it. 17567 - 57th Avenue. Registration begins at 9am. Donations gratefully accepted. For more infomation see the Terry Fox website.

September 24, Friday - Are you a country music fan? Come out to Fraser Downs and hear Travis Tritt. Concert to be held on the racetrack's infield, so hope for good weather. The concert starts at 6pm but there are several opening acts so it will likely be well into the evening before Travis comes onstage. Tickets can be purchased from Ticketmaster for $77.50.

Free outdoor movie in White Rock, Saturday August 28 2010

There's a free outdoor movie playing in White Rock tonight, Saturday August 28 2010. This will be at 5 Corners, which really hasn't been 5 corners since the early 1990's. Its approximately the corner of Johnston Road (152 Street) and Pacific Avenue (approximately where 10th Avenue would be if White Rock was in numbers). Best suggestion is to get yourself to 152 Street and head south to White Rock. Once you cross 16th Avenue you are no longer in Surrey, you're in White Rock, drive down a few blocks and the street bends to the left. That's 5 Corners. I'm not sure if traffic will be closed on Johnston tonight.

8pm - Hairspray

Movie ends just after 9:30pm. I'd say bring a lawn chair. This is all pavement around here. Blanket won't be too comfortable.

Free outdoor movie at Holland Park Saturday August 28 2010

There's a free outdoor movie at Surrey's Holland Park tonight, August 28 2010.

8pm - How To Train Your Dragon

Show ends around 9:30pm. Bring your own lawn chair or blanket. Bundle up, it cools off real fast once it gets dark. Holland Park is near the King George Skytrain station, on the corner of the King George Highway and Old Yale Road.

Tennis courts open at Greenaway Park

I forgot to mention that I was driving past Greenaway Park a few days ago and noticed the tennis courts are completed, nets up, and people are playing tennis on the two courts.

I often wondered if newcomers to Cloverdale knew about the old tennis courts that were on the hill midway between the pool and Lord Tweedsmuir. Certainly those of us who were living in Cloverdale in 1969 knew they were built because it was big news and they used to have tennis lessons there.

The newly built ones are much easier to spot - just a few feet away from the parking lot.

Playing at the Clova from August 27 - September 2 2010

Playing this coming week at the Clova starting Friday August 27 to September 2 is:

7pm - Scott Pilgrim vs the World

9:10pm - Dinner for Schmucks

Last show lets out at 11:05pm. Times are approximate. The Clova doesn't start playing the movie if there are still people lined up for the concession. Admission is $8, stay for one or both movies. If there are 2 people in your group admissions is $15. Add another $4 for each additional person in your group. Bring your own reusable drink and popcorn containers and fill up at the concession for $2.50 each.

Free outdoor movie August 22 at Morgan Crossing

On Sunday August 22 a free outdoor movie is coming to South Surrey at Morgan Crossing - 15765 Croydon Drive.

9pm - ET

Movie ends at 10:30pm. Bring a lawn chair and probably a sweater or jacket because it'll be cold. Maybe a rain coat and umbrella in case it rains. But you'd have to be a diehard ET fan to attend in the rain! No seriously, I'm pretty sure Fresh Air Cinemas cancels in bad weather.

Free outdoor movie August 21 at Holland Park

There's a free outdoor movie on Saturday August 21 at Surrey's Holland Park, located in the Whalley area on the corner of King George Highway and Old Yale Road, across from the King George Skytrain station.

8pm - The Last Song (with Miley Cyrus)

Movie ends at 9:30pm. Bring a lawn chair or blanket.

Free outdoor movie August 20 at Holland Park

There's a free outdoor movie on Friday August 20 at Surrey's Holland Park, located in the Whalley area on the corner of King George Highway and Old Yale Road, across from the King George Skytrain station.

9pm - The Wizard of Oz

Movie ends at 10:30pm. Bring a lawn chair or blanket.

Playing at the Clova from August 20 - 26 2010

Coming this week - August 20 to 26th - at the Clova:

7pm - Salt

8:55pm - The Last Airbender

Last show lets out at 10:40pm. Times are approximate. The Clova doesn't start the movie until there are no more people lined up at the concession stand. Admission is $8, stay for one or both movies. 2 people is $15. Add another $4 for each extra person in your group.

Troubling news for horsepeople at Fraser Downs

The first interesting piece of news at the end of July is that General Manager Chuck Keeling announced his resignation effective October 1, 2010. For those who are not familiar with the history of Fraser Downs, Keeling's grandfather Jim Keeling Sr was the one who founded the racetrack at Cloverdale in 1976 - back in the days when it was known as Cloverdale Raceway. In the early 90's his son and Chuck's father, Jim Keeling Jr, took over the management duties. In 1996 he died rather tragically in a boating accident and his son Chuck took over running the racetrack. Huge shoes to fit for a young man in his mid-20's. Chuck has not announced what his new venture is other than to say it is nothing related to horse racing or gaming.

On Friday, August 13 2010, a newsletter was issued on the BC Harness Racing website. You can read it here.

Bottom line is the number of racing days at Fraser Downs has been cut from 37 days to 23 days. Racing was supposed to resume on October 1 but has now been postponed to October 15. All race days for 2011 have been cancelled, but there might still be racing next year, dates to be determined.

This is not good news for the horse owners and trainers and other persons who work in the backstretch of Fraser Downs. That is practically no income at all.

Awhile ago I posted about Fraser Downs moving into the 2000's. I was at the city hall meeting where the racetrack staff and backstretch people were all for a casino opening in Fraser Downs with slot machines. I went to the meeting out of curiosity. Bottom line is it didn't matter to me one way or the other. I've been to Reno and Las Vegas several times over the years. I did not oppose a casino opening at the racetrack.

The incredible thing was the horsepeople's attitude to this. Slot machines were good. It would save their racing industry. They'd be able to share in the slots revenue and the purses. Some sort of racetrack propaganda they were all blindly believing as several horsemen and women took the microphone to address the council.

I shook my head. I sympathized with them and for their jobs and way of life but they weren't seeing the bigger picture. These are not businessmen used to the corporate world. Well there might be a couple of semi-retired corporate types who got into horse racing as hobbyists, but we're not talking the majority of the backstretch folk, many of whom have not worked any other jobs. Corporate business people are used to meetings, contracts, budgets, crunching numbers, speaking with advisors, etc. Not so on the racetrack where gossip runs rampant and the scuttlebut clearly was that the slots would be a good thing.

I doubted it. I figured the casino would bring in a new clientele who lived closer to Fraser Downs than other casinos and would come to Cloverdale instead of driving into Newton, Coquitlam, Richmond, etc. The corporate busines people running Fraser Downs would be checking their spreadsheets and seeing that slots revenue was good and the wagering on the horse races not so good because they are two different business run under Fraser Downs. I knew the slots revenue would carry the horse racing along for awhile but eventually someone crunching numbers would see that the horse racing venture just wasn't that profitable.

I think this is just the first step.

Prepare for a mass exodus of horsemen to Ontario.

Handling the Cloverdale heat with frozen treats

Its been HOT lately in Cloverdale, in the low 30's every day. Nights are still warm and sleeping at night is not easy because the house maintains the heat from the sun beating down for a long time. Staying cool is not easy.

I hear several ice cream trucks in the neighborhood. Most of the time I hear the truck playing Turkey in the Straw, but lately we've been inundated by the competitors who play The Entertainer and La Cucaracha.

I've been buying more ice cream and frozen yogurt from the store than I usually do. Yesterday we finished off the last of the ice cream so a trip to the grocery store was in order today. I bought a container of ice cream, one of frozen yogurt, a box of something called frozen cream pops (face it they were creamsicles when I was a kid) and a box of popsicles, also with some fancy name.

It's almost like I have to ask myself how old am I. Reverting back to childhood treats.

Well whatever works to stay cool in this heat.

Cloverdale's Blueberry Festival 2010

Sorry to say I didn't take in too much of today's blueberry festivities in Cloverdale. Can thank the too hot, hot weather for that!

We did start the day at the Legion for blueberry pancakes. Yummy!

Then Kerry had to leave and I waited at home for my father and his girlfriend to arrive so they could see what's happening in Cloverdale today. We drove back to the parking lot near the Legion and fortunately there were still a couple of spots available so we managed to park fairly near to 176th Street. A quick walk down there to check out the cars. There were some older cars and trucks but many were newer vehicles and hot rods. We didn't see the blueberry pie eating contests nor the entertainers or vendors. Basically once up the street and back around 11am and called it quits due to the heat.

I managed to take a few photos of some cars.

I can say I'm sure glad I'm not at the Abbotsford Airshow in this weather with the hot sun beating down on the pavement.

Apples for the garbagemen

Today I was in the backyard doing some painting when I heard the garbage truck and then male voices. I looked up to see 3 garbagemen on the other side of my fence by the apple trees looking for a snack. One of them had snagged a Transparent apple and was eating it. The other two were looking for an apple but they are high up. I told them the Transparents aren't that good and recommended they eat a Gravensteen instead. The Transparents are getting to the end of their season and are over ripening on the tree and falling half rotten to the ground.

But I could see my recommendation wasn't getting through to them, so I helped out by grabbing my apple picker - a net attached to a pole - and passed it over. One of the men snagged two apples for him and his co-worker and they were both happy.

They can help themselves to the Transparents. I don't like them, but my horses do!

I did make some nice apple muffins with the Granvensteens a couple of days ago.

If you're interested in one of those nifty apple picker nets, I bought it at Lee Valley Tools in Coquitlam last year.

Free outdoor movie August 14 at Holland Park

There's a free outdoor movie on Saturday August 14 at Surrey's Holland Park, located in the Whalley area on the corner of King George Highway and Old Yale Road, across from the King George Skytrain station.

8:30pm - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Movie ends at 10pm. Bring a lawn chair or blanket.

Free outdoor movie August 14 in White Rock

There's a free outdoor movie playing in White Rock's Central Plaza on Saturday August 14:

Happy Feet - starting at 8:30, ending around 10pm

Central Plaza is on the southwest corner of 152 Street and 16th Avenue, though techinically this is White Rock, so make that Bluff Road and Johnson Road. This is a shopping mall. TD/Canada Trust is in there as is Shopper's Drug Mart, I think Scotiabank is on the corner plus a bunch of smaller shops. This is a parking lot so best to bring lawn chairs instead of blankets.

Playing at the Clova from August 13 - 19 2010

This week at the Clova only one show is playing, not a new release, just a long one so they don't have a 2nd one playing:

7pm - Inception

Show lets out at 9:30. Admission is $8 or $15 for 2 in your group. Add $4 for each extra person in your party.

Salty's Fish and Chips coming to Cloverdale

There's a building in the northeast section of the Clover Square Village on 177B Street and Highway 10 and I see a sign on it that Salty's Fish and Chips is opening soon.

I'm assuming Salty's may be a franchise because I've eaten at the one in White Rock.

Is it a good thing to be coming to Cloverdale? There already is a fish and chips place downtown on 176th Street across from the Clova Theater - Sea Shanty. So, yes Cloverdale could probably use another fish and chips place, that's not the reason I'm questioning them.

Its the building they're moving to. Right now half of the building is the UPS store - courier and mailbox rentals. The side that Salty's is moving to has been the kiss of death for many restaurants over the past 10 years or so since its built.

Originally it was a donut shop, this was a few years before Tim Hortons came to town. I don't remember the name, an independent franchise. It closed down and another donut shop opened, this one a franchise, again the name escapes me but it might have been Robin's Donuts. I remember going in there one night around 10pm and they didn't have any donuts. All they had was coffee. "Come back around 2am," said the cashier. "The baker will be on shift and there will be donuts."

Yeah, I'll get that right on that and set my alarm to wake me up in a couple of hours so I can go back for donuts. I mean is it just me but when a business has "donuts" as part of their name, is it unreasonable to expect to go in during their business hours and purchase, say, donuts? I remember we ended up driving to Langley to buy donuts from Tim Hortons.

That may have been its demise if everytime customers went in to buy donuts and they were out so people went elsewhere and never returned. Ever hear of consumer confidence?

Its been a variety of restaurants over the years. Among others I remember an Indian restaurant, a sushi restaurant, and most recently a Bread Garden. Those are the ones I remember but never was a customer.

Its kind of a bad location. You have to drive through the Chevron gas station to get to it. It gets overlooked by people who see a variety of restaurants ahead in the next block or so: A & W, Ricky's, Tim Hortons, McDonald's, Wendy's, Starbucks.

I like fish and chips. Maybe I'll come down one night and check it out. I wish them luck staying open. They're going to need it. That place has been the kiss of death for every other eating establishment that's tried to make a go of it over the years.

A House with a Bomb Shelter? In Cloverdale?

In this day and age building houses with bomb shelters is pretty much non-existent. But what about during the world wars? Or threat of a cold war or nuclear attack from Russia back in the fifties and sixties?

Growing up, none of my friends lived in houses with bomb shelters. I knew of only one house in Cloverdale with a bomb shelter. I lived in it.

My father had our house built in 1962 on 182 Street, formerly Thomas Road. My mother grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. She remembers World War 2 and the sound of bombs dropping. It was probably this fear of being bombed that made her insist to my father that the new house have a bomb shelter built in it.

In my lifetime I've never known of another country waging war on Cloverdale and singling out this rural farming community as a bomb drop.

So there it was this cement bunker in our basement, accessed through the storage room beside the furnace and hot water tank. From an early age we understood that if bombs were dropping over Cloverdale we had to run down to the bomb shelter and take cover.

Fortunately no bombs ever descended on our part of town and our bomb shelter's usefulness kind of shifted to storing the Christmas decorations.

Sometime around 1970 my mother must have decided Cloverdale was unlikely to come under attack and decided the bomb shelter could be put to better use by having a sauna installed in there.

Forget bomb shelters. I'm sure we were probably the first house in Cloverdale to have a sauna installed in the basement. This was a good sized sauna too running half the length of our house. My mother still made sure we understood that if any bombs dropped on Cloverdale we were supposed to make a beeline for the sauna.

Like all things when the sauna was new my parents and their friends used it a lot but eventually lost interest. The storage room beside it became a spare bedroom and eventually my bedroom around 1973. I wasn't too excited about people tramping through my bedroom to access the sauna. Soon the sauna suffered the same fate as its bomb shelter predecessor and became storage for Christmas decorations and other items.

Our old house still stands and sometimes I wonder whatever became of the sauna/bomb shelter. The room really couldn't be used for much else other than a sauna or storage. Its underground, no windows, no access other than through my old bedroom. I suppose a new access to it could go through the old den. I keep hoping that one day the house will go up for sale and I'll call the agent to take a look. Not that I'd ever want to live there again, but I'm kind of curious about any renovations that have taken place in the past 25 years since my parents sold the house and whatever became of the old bomb shelter.

Free outdoor movie August 7 at Holland Park

If you like classics, "The Wizard of Oz" is playing at Holland Park on Saturday August 7. Hmm, isn't rain in the forecast this weekend?

This is a free outdoor movie that starts around 9pm. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Snacks. Maybe an umbrella???

Holland Park is in Whalley on the corner of the King George Highway and Old Yale Road, not too far from the King George Skytrain station.

Free outdoor movie August 6 at Fraser Heights

If you missed it when it was playing at the Clova, and if you like free outdoor movies and are looking for something to do on Friday August 6, you might want to consider driving over to Fraser Heights Rec Centre to watch "How to Train your Dragon". The Rec Centre is on 160th Street, about a kilometre or so north of Highway 1. There's a good sized parking lot there. Bring your lawn chairs or blankets and snacks. Bring a sweater It gets cold after the sun sets. Show starts at 9pm.

The Destination Cloverdale shop

Has anyone ever seen the Destination Cloverdale office/shop open? Its a tourist information centre about Cloverdale but the only time I've ever seen it open is when Elections BC was in there and they had removed all the tourist stuff.

They have a nice display in their window to promote the upcoming blueberry festival on August 14. A couple of blueberry pie plates with covers on them, some blueberry muffin mix, and bottles of blueberry lemonade. That sounds yummy. Very simply done, set up on a table in the window. Sure looks good.

Playing at the Clova from August 6 - August 12 2010

This coming week at the Clova, from August 6 to 12 is:

7pm - Toy Story 3

9pm - The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Last feature lets out at 10:50pm. Admission is $8. Or $15 for 2 people. Add $4 for each extra person in your group. That price is for one or both movies.

Torchlight Parade looking up?

My father phoned about 10pm last night. A little odd because he never phones that late. He'd just returned from the Torchlight Parade held on Marine Drive in White Rock. He said the parade was actually better than usual this time without the huge delays between entries and the slowness in catching up. He said a smaller crowd than usual showed up. I guess people are getting tired of it and the one year its actually better than usual the people stayed away. As such my father took in a big haul of goodies, you know the stuff that they usually give out to children. He wanted me to come over and share in the booty.

One of their friends he went to the parade with is a New Yorker and is very loud and pushy. She got a good haul of goodies last night too. I'm pretty sure she jumped on the street and demanded cookies and candies and the people handing them out were too scared to say no!