Sunny day, perfect for spring cleaning. Let’s tidy up some loose ends from previous columns.
• Don’t expect Gwen Walter’s NASA flight suit to turn up in a second-hand store.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield was back in the news on the weekend after his flight suit was sold for $40 in a Toronto thrift store. Apparently, there was a mix-up and the garment, which was supposed to be loaned to a science museum, ended up in a box donated to charity.
Saanich’s Walter, Hadfield’s mother-in-law, has a flight suit that he wore in 2001, the year he flew the second of his three space missions.
Walter, who markets mission memorabilia through her own company, displays it in her showroom but says she’s going to have the suit stored properly by a customer trained in the conservation of costumes.
As for the one found in Toronto, Walter is relieved that it was purchased by someone with a science background who appreciated its historical value. “I’m just glad it was a woman who understood its importance, rather than someone who would flog it, put it on eBay.
“I’m certain a lot of people are thinking ‘I’m going to go to the thrift store.’ ”
• Remember the Swallowed Anchor?
It was a funky old house in Esquimalt’s West Bay neighbourhood that was notable for its kitschy, nautical-themed folk art. A stork with a bundle in its bill stood atop the roof. A peg-legged pirate, parrot perched on his shoulder, peered across West Bay from a crow’s nest. Other figures — King Neptune, mermaids, sea creatures — adorned the property, all of them created by carpenter John Keziere, who moved into the house in the 1970s.
At one time, tour buses would stop outside. Keziere himself was known to don a mermaid costume during Swiftsure, row out to a little island in the Inner Harbour, prop himself on the rocks and wave to the yachts.
Alas, both the house and folk art fell into disrepair after Keziere’s death in 1999. Three years ago, neighbour Carole Witter tried to move it all across the road to the Hidden Harbour marina, which she and her husband own — but those negotiations failed and the house was razed. The site awaits redevelopment.
Witter hasn’t given up, though. The folk art has been catalogued and placed in storage, awaiting resurrection in a manner befitting the history and character of the neighbourhood, which includes marinas, float homes, Work Point Barracks and Witter’s own lovingly restored, 122-year-old Captain Jacobson’s House. Witter figures something can be done with the folk art to help West Bay stand out.
“We’re just waiting for an opportunity for us or someone else to take it on,” she said Monday.
• Speaking of old buildings: Anyone know what happened to the Ian’s Coffee Stop sign?
A brief brouhaha arose in 2013 when the city of Victoria ordered the destruction of the derelict Turner building at Fort and Richmond.
The distinctive round-walled two-storey structure, dating to the 1940s, was a local landmark before Ian Turner closed his restaurant in 2001. The building was saved from the wrecking ball when new buyers stepped in just over two years ago. They hope to retain the facade but fill in behind with a new three-storey office building, though that would require rezoning.
Architect Alan Lowe would like to be able to incorporate the old two-sided, white-on-red Ian’s Coffee Stop sign that projected over the sidewalk like an arrow. Only one problem: He doesn’t know where it is.
“If it’s still around, it would be nice to put it back up when we’re finished with the redevelopment,” he says. “It might not be heritage, but it’s nostalgic.”
• Remember Sharon White, the Victoria woman who spun a 2013 promotional-event encounter with Seattle Seahawk Doug Baldwin into a tongue-in-cheek “romance” with the receiver? By sheer chance, White and her twin sister, Sandy McClary, bumped into Baldwin’s mother, brother and uncle on a New York street before the 2014 Super Bowl, so they took the opportunity to introduce themselves to their “future in-laws.” Everyone had a good laugh.
Fast forward to last month’s Super Bowl, where the sisters had great seats in the end zone — as did Baldwin’s family. “Hey, it’s the twins,” said the receiver’s little brother, recognizing the pair.
Baldwin himself spotted the sisters in their No. 89 jerseys — his number — before the game. “He looked up, bumped his fist to his chest and pointed to us,” Sharon says. “Sandy said he was pointing to his number but I know he was pointing to his heart.”
Can’t fight fate.
