Monday, July 28, 2008
What I did on my summer vacation, Part II
After half a continent of driving and a brief, unscheduled lay-over on Vancouver Island, we finally made it to our destination on Saltspring Island, 29 km X 14 km, population 10,000.
The word "enchanted" often comes up when talking about Saltspring. It is a place that seems oddly disconnected from the real world. The island is a magnet for hippies, artists, organic farmers, dreamers and mid-life crisis types trying to reinvent themselves. On top of that, there's a smattering of yacht-club types, retirees and some people who are just plain filthy rich.
The crazy blend of character types gives the place one of the most unique and colourful local cultures anywhere in North America, in my experience. Some of my observations :
- On the whole island, there was not one, single, solitary chain or franchise restaurant. Not one. No McD's, no Dairy Queen, no Subway, no Keg, no White Spot. In fact, I counted no more than 10 chains or franchises of any sort, and that included some very prosaic examples like a bank and a hardware store. It was as though the island had declared independence from North America's economic empires.
- Despite the big communal culture of the place, public services - especially public recreation services - were astonishingly poor. The things they called public beaches weren't true public institutions but just little strips of unclaimed land maintained (half-assedly) by volunteers, not by any local government.
- Besides hippies, deer are the dominant life form on the island. They have no predators there, so they have no fear and wander about at will... the deer, that is, although I suppose those observations apply equally to the hippies.
- A big chunk of the local economy runs on honest john boxes. No, really.
- If I never see the word "organic" again, it will be too soon.
Coming from the wide open prairies, I felt oddly comforted by the womb-like limitations of the place. In half an hour you could get from one end of the island to the other; that was your whole world and all variables could be known.
But since this place is still home to a bunch of hairless apes, there were also downsides. I got a big dose of all of the island's negatives just before I got on the ferry to leave. For my ferry-crossing snack, I revisited a vegan restaurant that makes the most incredible sandwiches I've ever tasted. I got chatting with the proprietress, a cheerful Quebecois woman, and suggested that her recipes were so great that she should think about franchising. Her mood immediately went sour.
"Yeah, well, that was the original idea."
She proceeded to tell me how Saltspring has the highest per capita population of millionaires, including a very elite group of 100 who each have net worths exceeding $300 million.
"They all belong to a club and they all, you know, play together," she said suggestively.
She didn't get into a lot of details, but I got the picture that she had come out to the island seven years ago with some recipes and some funky cafe design ideas with the hopes of wowing some deep-pocketed patron who would help her finance a franchise empire. Sadly, her plan had failed and she was quite bitter about it.
"Saltspring is a strange place. BC is a strange place. Except for Vancouver, BC has the rudest people in Canada... very British and Irish, you know."
On the ferry ride back, I felt very sad for her. Yet, I was also glad I'd heard that story. First, it assured me that, yes, hippy types can be greedy and ambitious too. Second and more important, it helped shatter some of my idyllic notions of the island which has helped me miss it less.
But then, as time went on, I started to get pissed off about her attitude. Yes, failed business venture, very sad. But exactly where does a Quebecoise get off calling other people "rude"? My experience with people all through BC was completely opposite to what she suggested. On the other hand, I've been to Quebec many times - both in urban and rural areas - and I can assure you that "friendly" is the last word anyone would ever use to describe the Quebecois. Hell, "cheerful" usually seems way too much to expect from them. So perhaps Organic Girl (as my kids have since dubbed her) should have looked in the mirror for the source of her negative experience.
Anyway, that was our trip. This is getting long winded, so I'll leave out the whole happy episode where we almost literally bumped into a long-lost friend at the farmers' market. I'll also leave out the drive back, which was grueling and featured some of the worst mountain driving I've yet encountered. We made it back just in time to get to the wedding of one of my best friends. It was a lot packed into two weeks. Consequently, it seemed like much longer. We all felt like we'd been away a month. We certainly got our money's worth out of that trip.
posted by Mentok @ 12:27 p.m.,
