Maggie Mulvaney describes her home town, circa 1960.

Terrace is dusty. The Coast Range likes to pour rain on us. Good thing. We don’t notice the dust as much. There are four paved roads. Two of them got that way because Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited here for British Columbia’s Centennial in 1958.

We have two stoplights, both on the main drag, Lakelse Avenue. Both are a block away from each other. I never figured that out. Why not put a light on another street, and make it easier on drivers trying to get between the sporting goods store and the Super Value? Dad says it was to impress Queen Elizabeth and the Prince. We saw them come through town, and both lights were red. Their convertible just drove right on through, so now I have to talk to Dad about his theory, and ask around town about the stoplights.

Logging trucks come right through town, driven by the fathers of most of the kids I go to school with. These guys are tough. They comb their hair like Elvis or Buddy Holly and wear suspenders with their pants cut off just above their boot tops. They smoke Players or Export A. Some of them smoke Sportsman, in the nice yellow packet with a fishing lure on one side, and a different fish on the other side. You can collect the packets, and win valuable prizes. Their wives work hard keeping them in lunches, and doubly hard to keep their kids noses and clothes clean. The guys like to go to the Royal Canadian Legion on Saturday with their wives for a bit of dinner, a lot of drinks and a few dances.

On Friday nights, the Lakelse Hotel Bar or Terrace Hotel Bar get busy, especially on payday. I heard Dad telling Uncle Rick that if he was thinking of going to the Lakelse Bar, he had better take his hard hat with him, or sit with his back to the wall and his bum half on the chair so he could dive under the table when the action gets too much for his personal safety.

Just a couple of weeks ago I heard my best friend Ronnie’s Dad tell my Dad that two of the loggers’ wives were hitting each other over the head with beer bottles. All five of Terrace’s RCMP had to come to break it up. One of the RCMP got a bonk on his head, but he’s used to it. After he learned his lesson and was hit, he just held on to both of the ladies’ foreheads as they swung at each other. The two of them were stitched up at the hospital.

Luckily, they made it back to the bar in time to have a nightcap, and watch their husbands get into an argument about which one of them got the most stitches.

Next thing you know, the same RCMP is back … he called in another RCMP to break the guys up, because the wives had devilish looks on their faces, and fresh beer bottles in their hands, says Ronnie’s Dad.