George Tidball - Circa late 70s

Ten more blogs and will have reached 6000
 

In spite of my advanced age I have a very good memory, for names, places and useless facts.

I believe I know when waiters (that’s what they were called in Vancouver in the 70s) when they began to use that one verb after serving your food, “Enjoy”.

While George Tidball started his Keg ‘n Cleaver in 1971 on Lonsdale in 1971 by the mid 70s when we arrived to Vancouver from Mexico City there was a Keg in Burnaby near us.

We loved to go there because Rosemary loved the salad bar and I enjoyed the synthetic bacon bits I put on my salad servings.

Racquet Ball was the sport du jouer and we could watch players at it from our tables.

Today 5 January I wanted to write an upbeat and random blog. I went into my files titled Taconite/Soriano and I saw the Tidball, George file. I took it out as a week ago I invited my daughter Hilary to dine at the Burnaby Keg. We reminisced with smiles but sadly discussed how Rosemary never ate a big steak. In Mexico City they said she ate like a “pajarito”, or little bird.

Being in the restaurant we knew we were but a few blocks from our first home when we came from Mexico. It was on Springer Avenue very close to Lougheed Highway.

It was there where I noticed three strange customs/ideas about Canadians. We had made friends with a couple from our BMO Bank. I asked Rosemary, “We are being invited for after-dinner drinks. What’s that?”

My daughters had a friend called Moira who lived in our townhouse complex. We invited her often for dinner. What was strange to me was that when our daughters were in Moira’s house in late afternoon they would send them back when they were going to have supper.

I remember well that on Saturday evenings when we were invited to a party (that does not happen anymore) we would get into our Mexican VW and I would instantly turn on the radio knowing that CBC had a program called Our Native Land and played Indian (then) Indigenous music. I would look at Rosemary and tell her, “This is your music, you are a Canadian (I was still an Argie)." Rosemary would frown and would tell me to turn it off.

Unfortunately, with her gone, she cannot enjoy, as I enjoy, CBC’s Reclaimed that plays a varied mix of very interesting Indigenous music.

Being with Hilary at the Keg some 43 years later felt odd as we looked around but enjoying our steaks (feeling guilty because of all my vegan friends).

I did notice that:

1. There was no salad bar.

2. No racquet sports being played.

3. And our server never said, “Enjoy”.

I wonder what George Tidball make of the proceedings.