William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD
A FAREWELL TO THE STONE HOUSE
In the 20’s and 30’s times here in Saanichton were tough.
Building materials were expensive – they sure cost enough.
My wife’s grandfather, Dado, he was an old country Scot:
He built his stone house with local materials that he got.
Road foreman of Ward 6 he picked up each stone.
He carried them to Saanichton – ‘twould soon be his home.
Ward 6 was divided and it became today’s Central Saanich.
Now they are tearing his house down in a high density panic!
They called the new district Saanichton’s Land of Plenty.
Our symbol was a cornucopia and it was never empty.
Pave over the farmland to build rental units o’er the green
Where the gardens and orchards and fruit trees had been.
How much money does one need to really get by:
Making millions from garden farmland these developer guys.
Where did they come from with their on council friends:
Paving over the gardens, making the OCP amend and bend.
Make variance amendments to the new million dollar OCP plan.
Squeeze as many high density town houses in as you can.
No thoughts for our future by salted people on council’s slate;
Were the 19 recommended RCMP charges just a figment of fate?
Farewell to the stone house a land mark that we on the Peninsula love well.
Morning and evening traffic at Prosser and East Saanich will now be hell.
This will set the precedence with one developer’s toe in the door.
The numbered company in Vancouver will come again as before.
They will come with their lawyers and the die will be cast.
They’ll make millions and millions – forget about the past.
These paid for members on council they soon will be gone:
We’ll be left with townhouses with their postage stamp lawns.
©Copyright October 31, 2009 by William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD
Dado had a framed scroll, which had been crocheted on linen covered by glass, inside the door of his home. It was called leaving footprints in the sands of time. The Lord carried him after he fell off the scaffold and broke his back. He healed and continued construction. He had visions of his stone house standing (like the stone buildings in Scotland) which have weathered hundreds and hundreds of years. His stone turret barely made it to eighty years – what a shame