by David Bremner, dgbremner&co menswear
dgbremner&co the Outlet, good bones clothing co –
Appreciating time, people, life and the lens of youth versus the incredibly humbling corrective lens of age.
As I put the finishing touches on my submission for this month’s edition of Seaside Magazine, I find that I am continuously brought back to the people, events and situations that have ushered me to this point.
It is Mother’s Day, and I’ve just spent part of the morning with my 98-year-old mom in the extended care wing of the Saanich Peninsula Hospital. I am an only child; we’ve been looking at pictures that span almost a century of her life, and virtually all the 68 years of mine. All the while I can see she is struggling to place me in her world. Mom has dementia; to her, these photos are her link to the past and her conduit to the present. Seeing the pure joy of recognition, of a temporary restitution of her memory … is without doubt the most important thing I’ll see or do anytime soon.
So, forgive me for being nostalgic for a moment, but this is more or less what I had decided to write about: remembering the Saanich Peninsula as it was and seeing it as it is today.
I’m a Victoria boy, so my memories of Sidney and the Peninsula as a whole will always be textured with those experiences. Back in the day, we used to smugly say Sidney was “a two-day wagon ride from Victoria,” and the only reason to go was the pub at the Sidney Hotel. It was a place to explore when you first got your driver’s license, it was BC Ferries, the airport and the gateway to the Gulf Islands, but its reputation as a retirement village gave little reason to spend much time here, let alone to invest in a business or consider moving here.
Fast forward 50 years! Over that period the things I took for granted or just didn’t see attracted people from all over the world. I asked one famous American transplant – “You could live anywhere in the world; what made you pick Sidney?” His response was “you grew up here, didn’t you?” I believe it was his kind way of inferring in this regard that I was likely not of average intelligence. He is sadly not with us anymore, but regretfully I understand that he was bang on.
What he saw then, and what people continue to see now, is a location recognized as one of the most livable places in the world, with a strong and resilient downtown core with most if not all of the services people need, and with exceptional access to transportation hubs. Add to that our proximity to the ocean – we have become a gateway to the Salish Sea for hundreds if not thousands of people every year, who leave appreciating all the things that as a young man, I took for granted … because back then I thought Sidney was simply “a two-day wagon ride from Victoria.”
On the following pages, Seaside Magazine is happy to introduce you to some of the local businessmen who contribute to making the Saanich Peninsula what is is today.
