The request by the Cornwall's and the McClaren's for a history of each cabin has led me to a realization about my family...none of us have a decent memory for facts, dates or otherwise. We are not sure when our cabin was built, when Uncle John and Aunt Carol added the kitchen, when we moved into the cabin, when the sleeping cabin was built, or when the outhouse  was built.

 

When I was in grade 5, I did a 30 minutes presentation on Buccaneer Bay for my ele­mentary school class.   I tackled that project with as much trepidation as I write this today. Luckily, back then I had a true historian to help me out.  I spent hours with Uncle  Joe discussing the history of the island. Although the presentation was a success, the materials I collected from Uncle Joe have long since disappeared.

 

As far as I can gather, the Cowie cabin was built in or around 1910.  It started out as a one room sleeping shack for Calvert Simson. He would let his guests stay in the main cabin and wander down the beach, approximately 50 ft., to his sleeping shack. The sleeping shack I refer to is the building block for our cabin today.  If you look carefully at the back of our cabin you will see an original window and even some original  exterior or siding. The ceiling and siding in the guest room are also remnants of the original sleeping shack.

 

I heard a rumor that Joe Dunn stayed in the cabin prior to his cabin being built in Water Bay. I've also heard a rumor that the cabin was originally situated near the Carmichael cabin and then moved.  This might justify the story of Calvert having to wander down the beach at night.  All I know for sure is that the cabin is amazingly level for a build­ing of  90 years.

 

My earliest recollections  of Buccaneer is staying in the one bedroom cabin.   Cooking  was done on a Coleman stove on a log in the front yard. There is a story that the stove exploded once when Aunt Wendy was using it but I am not sure if it was the stove or her cooking that burst into flames.   Washing dishes, washing bodies and brushing teeth all done near the salal bushes when John's garden is today.     Mom and Dad slept in the captain's bed, I slept in a little bed under the front windows (both beds are now in our sleeping shack) and John and Bob slept on the floor. I don't recall spending a lot of time indoors when we were younger. 

 

Dad remembers eating crab cocktails prior to a meal of hot dogs and chips. I don't remember eating crab but I certainly remember running away before he killed one. Some of fondest early memories of Buccaneer were Sports Days.   Ghost   stories being  told by Norman Ellis, three leg races (being paired once with Mike Bernard and winning- even though he was a boy), and watching all the adults making fools of themselves.

 

I  remember one summer when the Baker's were up at their cabin and Vicky and I tried to dress alike every day.  I remember all the really weird clothing anybody over the age of 10 wore during the 70s- frankly, it was scary. Mostly, I remember having a great time  even thought we weren't at Disney Land.

 

I asked Aunt Carol when they added the kitchen to the cabin and she couldn't remember. She does remember doing a lot of dishes outside but can't remember if they were still washing outside after she and Uncle John were married in 1978. John and Carol were quite inventive when they searched for materials for the kitchen.  There are planks around the sitting area that were salvaged from the farm and small leaded glass windows from Uncle Joe's apartment building in Vancouver.

 

As for the outhouse...well, the first outhouse I remember was at the foot of the stairs up to the sleeping shack (maybe that's why my brother John's garden is doing so well). Our present day outhouse was dug by Uncle John with a little help from Dad. Apparently, it isn't fun digging a hole in the clay cliffs. Dad built the outhouse as a thank you to Uncle John for letting us use the cabin.  When Uncle Joe passed away and John and Carol moved into his cabin, we finally had a cabin of our own.  The most pressing  issue was sleeping space. In an attempt to maintain his sanity, Dad swiftly received permission to build a three bedroom sleeping shack up the hill. Uncle John helped pour the foundation, Billy helped with the stairs and the rafters and Uncle Bob helped with the rest. The shack was made livable quickly and sparsely, and stands pretty much the same today as it was finished back then. Every couple of years a little more insulation was put in, but I wouldn't want to spend a winter up there.

 

I asked my brother John if he could remember when we built the sleeping shack. He couldn't remember a date but he remembers that he and Bob were old enough to take the bus from the ferry to Sechelt by themselves. He also remembers being young enough to be close to tears when Dad left them in Sechelt for an extra hour because he left the keys for the car at the cabin. Luckily, the two of them had Archie comics to entertain and twizzlers to eat. 

 

In 1995, we enlisted the help of Monty Wood, Tony Pasqualini, and Warren Wilson to build the latest addition to the cabin. The sleeping shack of the 1900's is now a cabin with most of the modem day necessities. A main bedroom with a bow window, a guest room, a bathroom, an open kitchen-dining room-living area, running cold water in the kitchen and bathroom, electricity generated by the solar panels on the roof, a portable generator, a stereo and a telephone. Dad is fantasizing about a television but he is fighting the whole family on that one.

 

One thing is for sure, while the Cowie Cabin has changed a lot since it was built, we still go there for the same reason: to spend time with good friends while relaxing on a gor­geous island.​​

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