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Community

by Girard Hengen
The Review

Veering sharply right off the Pat
Bay Highway at Amity Drive, a
Steady queue of motorists have
been pulling into Chuck and Marie
Thomas’ gas station for one last
time.

The couple is retiring Friday
after 24 years of pumping gas,
cleaning windshields, checking
the oil and doing just a little bit
more for their customers at Mount
Baker View Service.

Customers who have become
good friends over the years lament
the passing of an era.

“They te good people. Theyre
going to be missed,” said Roland
Prince as Chuck doted cheerfully
on his car. :

“Anything they can do to help
you out with, there’s no problem
at all,” he said.

~ (Chuck) has more patience
than anybody I know.”

Then, with an ever-present wry
grin that reminds one of a favorite
uncle, Chuck tosses a candy to
Roland.

Service, and a bit more.

The candies — Lifesavers at
first, and now caramel toffees —
are legendary for a legion of
Peninsula drivers.

“People say they didn’t come in
to get gas, they came in to get

caramels,’ Chuck laughs.

“We've been here so
long, we’ve seen kids, local chil-
dren who could not drive — now
their kids are coming in,” said
Marie. “That’s when you know

he

you're getting old.”

For example, she relates the
Story of a young girl from Saltspr-
ing Island who used to show up in
an old Volvo.

Fifteen years ago, the girl said
she was going to New Zealand.
Last year, she appeared in a new
Jeep station wagon with three
children in tow.

“She kept saying, ‘I don’t
believe it, I don’t believe it, I don’t
believe it. I used to come in here
when I was a little girl and you’re
sull here’,” Marie recalls fondly.

She said it’s time to retire
because “we want to be able to
stop and smell the roses.”

The little station has undergone
a number of name changes over
the years, from BA to Gulf to
Petro-Can, it’s present affiliate.

There used to be a small coffee
shop tucked into the comer facing
the highway, a hardware store
behind it, and an active service
bay.

Chuck says he moved to the
Peninsula from Port Hardy in the
late 1960s because he got “‘fed
up” with the oil company that
owned and regulated it.

The couple searched for a sta-
tion they might like to buy. The
search ended at Amity Drive.

The option of purchasing was
taken out of their hands in 1971,
when the provincial Highways
Ministry bought it after making
Amity a through road to Lochside
Drive.

The Thomases have been leas-
ing from the Highways Ministry.

WITH THE SIGN IN the window
announcing their retirement,
Chuck and Marie Thomas
stand in front of the Amity
Drive Petro-Can station that
Is SO well regarded for old-
fashioned service. With the
advent of self-serve gas sfa-
tions, the Gays of personal
service are numbered. Only
a few stations still offer full
Service.

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Now Chuck, aged 63, and
Marie, 60, are closing up shop.

After all, Chuck has a sundeck
to finish on his Lochside Drive
home. The garage has to be
redone, some of the house needs
renovation, and there’s the garden
to work in.

As for Marie: “I’m going to

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clean cupboards and wash walls
and bake cookies, things that I’ve
never had time to do.”

Leaving the area hasn’t entered
their minds.

“This is God’s country,”
remarked Chuck.

“It’s been rewarding meeting all
the people....They’ve appreciated
the service.

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| End of an era as community siation closes after 24 years

“The little community service
Station is gone, I guess,” he
reflects,

A Highways Ministry spoke-
sperson said the ministry is unsure
what it will do with the station,
especially in light of the recent
announcement putting improve-
ments to the Pat Bay Highway on
hold.

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-CRIC - Notice of Public Hearing 1991-6. The Commission will hold a public
hearing commencing on 8 July 1991, at 9:00 A.M. at the Conference Centre,
Phase IV, 140 Promenade du Portage, Hull; Quebec, to consider the following:
100. GALIANO AND MAYNE ISLAND, B.C. Application (910202100) by
COUNTRY BROADCASTING CORP, PRO. Box 151, Black Creek, B.C., VOR
1C0, for a cable licence to serve Galiano and Mayne Islands. The applicant has
requested to be relieved, by condition of licence, of the requirement to distribute
the programs of local television stations CBUT, CHAN-TV Vancouver and
CHEK-TV Victoria, B.C. on unrectricted channels, pursuant to section 12 of the
Cable Television Regulations, 1986. PROPOSED FEE: The applicant proposes
to charge a basic monthly fee of $24.95 for the distribution of the proposed
services. For Class 2 licensees, with fewer than 2,000 subscribers, the basic
monthly fee is not regulated pursuant to subsection 17(2) of the Cable Television
Regulations, 1986. Examination of application: Burrill's Store, Sturdies Bay,
Galiano Island, B.C.; Island Tides Office, Village Bay, Mayne Island, B.C. This
application and information on the intervention process is available through
CRIC, Central Building, Les Terrasses de la Chaudiere, 1 Promenade du
Portage, Room 201, Hull, Que.; and through the CRTC regional office: Western
Regional Office, Suite 1380, 800 Burrard St., Box 1300, Vancouver, B.C., V6Z
2G7. Interventions must be filed with the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa,
Ont., K1A ON2, with proof that a copy has been served on the applicant on or
before 18 June 1991. For more information you may. also call the CRTC Public
Hearings Branch at (819) 997-1328 or 997-1027, CRTC Information Services in
Hull at (819) 997-0313, Fax: (819) 994-0218, or the CRTC regional office in
Vancouver (604) 666-2111.

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