Saturday in the Park

A bit of wandering before supper seemed like a good idea so I whipped out the map and saw an interesting place named Minoru Park right across the street. The area started out in 1909 as a horse-racing track named after a champion racehorse owed by England’s King Edward VII. We decided to take a walk.

Its large open expanse was perfect for the first airplane flight west of Winnipeg, as well as the first parachute jump. It became a popular landing field for pioneer aviators, a fact that was used by Richmond’s longest-serving mayor L. D. Taylor. In 1928 he was aboard a biplane flying from Victoria to Minoru Park, where a crowd of supporters had gathered to hear a campaign speech. As he exited the airplane he was struck in the head by the airplane’s propeller. A local aviator commented, “It sliced off the top of his head, you know, and knocked him unconscious. They said if he’d had an ounce more brains he’d have been a dead man.” Taylor spent several weeks in the hospital, and eventually survived to be re-elected to several more terms. One cannot resist observing that Taylor proved that a person can be a successful politician with only half a brain. One of the early airplane pilots here became the boss of the little landing strip, so Vancouver hired him to develop their first airport. It is no accident that the current Vancouver Airport is actually in Richmond.

The sound of shouting led us to an adjacent field where two teams of young men competed in a hotly contested soccer match. Minoru Park also hosts local associations for lawn bowling, croquet, swimming, walking, tai chi, and a dozen other fitness clubs. This sprawling campus hosts a large medical center, the local public library and an elementary school, along with fields, pitches, grounds diamonds and gridirons for every sport you care to name. Besides all this, there are many walking trails that pass through forests, open expanses of limitless grass, lakes and streams. I saw numerous examples of trees, flowers, bushes and plants that I could not name.

Another surprise. Across the way I heard shouting, so Glenda and I went over to see what the ruckus was all about. There, on a grassy field, on a perfect Saturday, I saw my first cricket match. It was the season finals. One team was made up completely of Indian physicians all cheering their teammates in Hindi. The other team was Chinese. So you have Indians from New Delhi playing a British game with Chinese from Taipei.

In Canada.

Go figure.Read more