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Mysterious letters, meth busts and marooned North Bend residents in this month’s dive into the archives

Hope in History returns with a look at November 2003 and 1983
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In November 1983, teachers picketed the school board office at the corner of Park St. and 4 Ave. Sherry Griffiths/Hope Standard

Another trip down memory lane in The Hope Standard’s archives.

November 2003 — 15 years ago

Sharon Danchuk, owner of Sharon’s Deli, received a piece of fan mail that blew her away. “It’s so unexpected you just say —wow,” she said of a letter of apology and a $10-bill she received from two tourists who had tea in her deli and left without paying the tab. It took the help of a post office clerk to find the right business, as the envelope read ‘The coffee shop, diagonally across the street from the 2 telephone poles and the very big carved bear in the park.’ And this is not the first letter she has received from patrons who’ve left without remembering to pay her.

$14,000 worth of crystal meth was seized, in addition to 48 marijuana plants, in a Nov. 22 police raid on a 3rd Avenue house. Four people faced charges in relation to the bust. This was the second drug bust in two weeks: a grow operation was also raided on River Parade, with seven arrested.

November 1983 — 35 years ago

Seven mothers of the Shxw’Ow’Hamel (referred to as Ohamil in 1983) First Nation battled to improve living conditions on their reserve. In late October Genny George, Diane Kelly, Jodie Ward, Irene Paull, Christine Peters, Lorraine George and Marlene Paull (as well as Emma Joe) walked into the Vancouver office of the Department of Indian Affairs and refused to leave until they spoke to the person in charge of housing. What they demanded was a drastic improvement to nearly all areas of the five homes on the reserve, two of which were condemned, as well as help for five other families living off the reserve in need of homes.

Teachers in Hope staged a walkout on Nov. 8, after a breakdown in talks between the B.C. government and the B.C. Government Employees Union. If no agreement is reached by Thursday, the paper read, other crown corporations including BC Ferries and BC Hydro would join the strike. North Bend residents were left high and dry during the strike, a news story later in the month read, as the ferry to the community was out of commission for the length of the strike.


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Dana Andrews lifts up the linoleum to show the rotted floor in a condemned trailer on the Ohamel reserve, inset shows Greg Andrews showing a badly warped back door. Seven mothers demanded improved living conditions on the reserve in November 1983. Sherri Griffiths/Hope Standard
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Dave Greer and Chris Araki installed a new time clock at the Hope Arena late October 1983, inset photo shows the clubs and businesses who donated money for the clock having a look at it before it is hung up. Hope Standard archives