A book that details 100 years of history for the Sunshine Coast through the eyes of its author, including his adventure to Powell River during the 1950s, was released at the end of 2014.
That Went by Fast: My First Hundred Years is a book by Frank White, published and written with the help of his son Howard White. Frank details his life with humorous reflection as he writes about the events and people he encountered around BC and the Sunshine Coast.
Personal encounters and memories are all told with the wisdom of someone who has become very open about their long life, taking a dark yet humorous look at what his personal future will hold. Frank’s statement at the beginning of the book perfectly sets the tone for the chapters to come: “There is nothing like an ending to make things fall into place.”
His various travels took Frank to Malaspina Inlet and the Powell River area while he worked in a logging camp in Theodosia Inlet. Safety rules had gone out the window during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Frank writes at length about the logging camp nicknamed Baloney Bay—it had a pig pen near the kitchen and “the reputation of being one of the cheapest and most dangerous camps on the coast”—and the trials of working in the logging industry before the implementation of safety and union regulations. “The mail boat seldom left without some accident victims on it.”
Frank sampled a small taste of life in Powell River during this time. “I had never been around the Powell River area before and I kind of liked what I saw.” He spent time in the old Powell River hospital when he was sick with a bone infection. While there he spent time doing minor volunteer work helping the nurses tend to the elderly. “There seemed to be something open and friendly about Powell River people you didn’t always find in coast towns.”
The people he encountered during his Powell River experience include May Salo, the daughter of Jim Palmer (who gave his name to the Palmer Bay area on Vancouver Island, across Johnstone Strait from West Thurlow Island), and a friendly baby otter who he took in as a pet.
The book is a detailed personal history from the eyes of a person who has witnessed it all, and is published by Harbour Publishing. This is the second of Frank’s books, the first being Milk Spills and One-Log Loads: Memories of a Pioneer Truck Driver.
