Pages from The Guest Book

Very fun butterflies - Thanks
--Sarah Kim, Langley

Wonderful material, very carefully presented.
--Fleming family, Port Moody

What a gem - delightful collection.
--Nancy & Charles Wood, Cobble Hill BC

Very interesting whale eardrums.
--Mavhina Williams, Raunheim, Germany

Very nice, lots of information, marine history and Beachcombers favourites.
--Robert & Monica Friesen, Manitoba

The butterflies were very cool!  We had never seen such big ones!
--Tim & Sonora Powell, Washington

Loved the old outboards.
--Richard Pallister, Lacomb, AB

Liked the rocks and minerals
--Misa Kamata, North Vancouver

Great Farrell display!
--Kay Bruhein, West Vancouver

Really enjoyed the museum, especially seeing the Beachcombers history, as we grew up watching it.
--John & Colleen McMillan

Extremely interesting & well layed out. Very helpful staff.
--June Evans, Burnaby

The butterfly collection was simply amazing.
--Steven Giese, Prince George, BC

Wonderful museum, enjoyed the Farrell exhibit.
--G & C Ludkin, Grande Prairie

I loved the museum.  It is so neat, well taken care of, has a lot of info for the Gibsons area -"wonderful experience".
--Myriam Janb, Vancouver, originally from Egypt.

My kids loved it, we learned a lot. Thanks.
--Kelly Hendricks, Gibsons

"I Remember Washday"

Our exhibit of the pioneer kitchen, complete with the hand cranked washing machine, inspired these stories from visitors:

"My Auntie Jeanie had a wringer washer—and really strong arms!  I remember watching her turn the crank and run the clothes between the rollers. The machine was kept in the kitchen for easy access to water—and because that's where everyone gathered. Nowadays, my 9 and 11 year old daughters wash their own clothes in our updated machine. We've come a long way—thank goodness!  My Mom came to visit recently and hung her blouses outside to dry. They looked and smelled wonderful afterwards—a good reminder not to throw out everything from the past."

"Monday was washday, Tuesday was ironing. My mother used a hand crank wash tub, then the clothes were wrung out and rinsed in tubs of water. Bluing was added to the last rinse to keep the whites from turning yellow. Clothes were hung out on the line to dry and if still damp later in the day they were brought in and hung on a wooden rack hung over the wood and coal stove. This was suspended from the ceiling and raised and lowered by a rope."

"In 1970 I was 6 and a half years old, and my first summer that my younger sister and I were sent up to my Grandma and Grandpa Chandler's farm without our parents. This kitchen was almost the same as their farm house and we used the old barrel wood washer with the wringer hooked on the side. It took most of the day to do the wash. We hauled water from the well and heated it in an oval copper coloured water pan. My sister and I took turns pulling the "stick" to make the washer rock back and forth, then we ran the clothes through the crank turned wringer. Then we rinsed everything and put it through again. The clothes were then hung on the old wire line tied to a tree and the corner of the house. We pegged the clothes with a mix of funny old hand-carved pegs and modern pegs. I remember it was fun but a lot of work for Grandma. The next summer we went up she had electricity and an old electric wringer washer. We still had to carry the water from the well, but half the work and it took half the day to do the laundry. They finally got running water in the early 80's. No more outhouse and no more carrying water by hand. What a treat, even an inside tub!  I'm 42 years old and feel very lucky to have experienced this life style. Hope you like my story."

"As late as 1956, in "modern" Southern California, USA, I did all the laundry for our family of 4 in a laundry tub, using a "plumber's friend" to agitate the wash and a scrub board for the tough spots. Wash done this way included diapers for 2 babies and all the sheets, towels, as well as clothing. It was a pretty good workout!"

"I remember washday…my mother using a boiler and mangle…my mom standing frost-hardened, line-dried laundry by the oil heater to thaw. The bluing bag, dissolving the starch. The smell of pressed sheets. A weekly task she both loved and hated. Sock stretchers. The sheets wrapped around the line in a high wind, so hard to get untangled. Wiping down the line first so it wouldn't mark the clean laundry when hung out. Thinking she was a magician as she pegged it out so fast, pegs in her mouth, shaking each piece with a snap, everything matched and orderly on the line. Even when she got a dryer, she still hung laundry on a drying rack on the balcony of her condo so as to have the fresh smell on the sheets and pillowcases." 

"My mother washed by hand—boiled her "whites". When the weather was wet clothes dried inside the house, draped over furniture, clothes horses and we had a Kreel, which was a wooden frame which could be raised or lowered to and from the ceiling. No wonder bronchitis and arthritis were very common in those days."