Dave Hardy, chopping a wood pile in Cumberland

Dave Hardy, chopping a wood pile in Cumberland

by | Jan 27, 2015

Dave Hardy, in Cumberland

I bought a house and moved my family from Comox to Cumberland in the late 1970s. The village had become an enclave for a new wave of artists emerging from the newly formed Comox Valley Arts Alliance, and others in search of affordable housing.

One of the first people I met there was a commercial fisher named Dave Hardy. He had a trawler moored at the Government Wharf in Comox (I can’t remember the name of his boat) and worked local waters. He was a kind person. When my father visited from Minnesota, Dave  offered to take him on as deckhand for a day. It was an experience my dad talked about for years.

I walked by Dave’s house one late-summer day and found him working on an enormous pile of logs in his yard. He heated his house with wood, as did many in Cumberland. The way he trimmed his beard always made me think of Abe Lincoln, but better looking and living the west coast lifestyle.

George Le Masurier

Decafnation | Jan. 27, 2017

Group of singers at the Renaissance Fair

Group of singers at the Renaissance Fair

by | Jan 26, 2015

Singers at the Renaissance Fair

The Comox Valley Arts Alliance was formed sometime in the mid-1970s. I joined the organization soon after it was founded. During my lunch hours, I left my desk as editor of the Lifestyles section of the Comox District Free Press, and walked down McPhee Avenue to the Arts Alliance building. I hung out there often, and played chess sometimes with reporter Brian Belton. I also once hung my first one-man photography exhibition there.

I’m fuzzy on when and where this photograph was taken, so maybe readers can provide more reliable information. I captured this image at one of the Comox Valley’s Renaissance Fairs, which I think were promoted by the Arts Alliance. The scene is typical of the new cultural events happening in the 1970s. People sang, danced, created art and where just there.

I don’t know any of the singers in this photograph, so maybe readers can add some names and a better recollection of this event.

George Le Masurier

DecafNation | Jan. 27, 2017