Glenn Hilton's Blog

This week was my parent’s 54th anniversary. Normally for anniversaries we tend to get together for dinner or if it’s a special one, throw a big party. But this year I wanted to do something different. During spring break I took my own little family of five away to Palm Springs and on our way home I was struck by the thought that my oldest daughter would soon be starting grade 12 and we really wouldn’t have too many years left as things were now. Our family would change, some of the kids would be off at college, some may get married and bring their new spouses, etc. And though all that change will be welcome and exciting, our trips will never be quite the same as when there was just the five of us. That got me wondering. One night a week or two later my wife and I were out for dinner and we got on the subject and she too had been thinking of this. She however was thinking about her own family and how much fun it would be for her parents if they were to get together with just her siblings for an evening to reminisce and be together apart from spouses and grandchildren. I thought it was a great idea and decided I’d like to do that very thing with my own family but stretch it out for a couple days. So when I got home I started reaching out to each of my four brothers and sisters and was delighted when they responded favorably to the idea.

So over the next few months the planning began. The goal of the excursion would be to take mom and dad on a trip down memory lane to pack as many memories as we could into two days. We wanted to surprise my parents so I told them that my wife and I would be taking them away for their anniversary. They took the bait and we were good to go.

The big day arrived and the surprise went off without a hitch. We’d designed some t-shirts for us all to wear, so when mom and dad walked out their front door, here were their five kids all in a line wearing “The Original Hilton7″ t-shirts with each of our childhood nicknames and numerical birth order on the back. My parents were as happy as I imagined. They were so surprised and had no idea that we were all coming. I’m pretty sure my mom shed a tear or two under her pink sunglasses. When we all piled in the SUV and started down the road she said she never imagined that something like this could happen. When I told them we’d be heading to our childhood neighborhood first, mom responded excitedly, “Wow, Steveston! That’s best of all!” and then my nautically addicted dad followed up with “Will we be catching a boat?”.

It was only ten minutes into the drive that mom and dad had their first scrap. I told them about seeing one of their neighbors coming into their garden a few days earlier and dad said it was impossible. Mom didn’t agree. Dad than put her in her place and it got all quiet for a few minutes. Just like old times!

Our first stop was at our old home at the south end of #2 road in Richmond. We’d lived there in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s and had many memories there together. We’d called the new owners and requested that we come to visit and take some pics. They were happy to oblige and called in their parents who’d bought the house from us so that we could reconnect. Just being on site brought back so many memories that got us all sharing stories. Like the time my brother Tim came home and found a blackened gas can lying on the tennis court with the charred remains of my Big Jim & GI Joe collection. I’d tried to blow up all my childhood dolls at once but it didn’t work like I’d wanted and ended up pouring the gas directly on the fire. Not a super wise plan, as the fire came shooting up the stream of gas and into the can and blew up. I ended up losing my eyelashes, brows and bangs, which was a tough one to explain to my mother.

Funny thing was how small everything was for us now. My brother Steve remembered cutting the grass, which seemed to take eons, but the yard looked so little now. Our back fence (that was erected to protect us from the thieving son of our neighbors) used to seem so high but was actually quite short now.

After we finished reminiscing at our house we headed up to the dyke by London Landing where we spent a lot of time playing as kids. We’d packed a KFC bucket of chicken lunch that was a favorite treat and sat together looking out over the Fraser river and Shady Island.

After lunch we had a photo shoot with local photographer Jeremy Lim and then headed down #2 road to the Gospel Hall that we grew up in to finish things off. My mom and sisters all put their hats on for the photos there in remembrance of the interesting rules we had to abide by while attending there. Our old friend Bernie Murphy met us there and gave us a tour and showed us all the renovations that had happened since we’d left. The best part was finding the row of photos of all the Sunday school classes that we were a part of as this brought back a swarm of memories.

From there we headed out to Steveston High. This was the high school that all five of us kids graduated from. Sadly the school is on its last legs and is about to be torn down, but we were happy to be able to experience it there together one last time.

Following that experience, we drove back to the village of Steveston and spent some time walking through the shops and docks. So much had changed there since we were kids. It used to be a long row on boat sheds, canneries, nets and fishing docks, where now they’ve completely cleaned up the area creating a little heritage tourist village that’s so pretty and quaint.

Everywhere we went people were starring at our bright shirts. But we didn’t care, everyone was proud to wear them. We all wore them for two days straight. My sister Sue suggested that we do them ‘Accurpress Green’ to commemorate my dad’s machinery manufacturing company’s primary color.

We finished our Steveston tour with dinner at Caesars Pizza. This was our favorite restaurant to visit when we were kids and we hadn’t been there in over 30 years together. It was just as good as we remembered and we left stuffed! Over supper we slipped out a box of promise cards that was almost a daily experience for us at dinnertime. Each of us read a Bible verse and we’d have to guess where it was found. As usual dad got nearly everyone right. I had my Bible Gateway open on my iPhone under the table but unfortunately couldn’t type fast enough to be able to get them in time. After we finished that Dad gave us a one-hour diatribe of his life from birth. Funny to think but I learned a lot of things I never knew about my dad. I always had remembered him as being such a successful business man but didn’t know how much he’d struggled to make ends meet in his first couple of businesses. Didn’t make me feel so bad about my first couple kicks at the can.

After super we left the little island of Richmond and headed off to the city. Before I was born (I was the youngest) our family lived in Burnaby but my dad grew up in Vancouver and my mom did her nursing at St Paul’s. We also spent quite a bit of time in Vancouver even when we lived in Richmond so there were many memories for our family in the city. My mom said that when she first moved to Vancouver from Trail back in 1954 that she could only remember three tall buildings in the city, the BC Hydro building, the Marine Building and Hotel Vancouver. So we opted to book in at the Hotel Vancouver. Though it’s a Fairmont now, it used to be a ‘Hilton’ and we all prefer to remember it that way.

After we checked in and put our stuff in our rooms we trucked on down to Stanley Park to take in the show “Anything Goes” at the Theatre Under the Stars. My mom & dad seemed excited about this, as this was something we’d do often when we were little. This was my sister Sue’s idea as she used to love the picnics we did together in the park before we attended the outdoor shows. We booked a number of months in advance so we were able to get front row seats. We visited a specialty candy shop before the trip so we could pick up all our favorite childhood treats. For some reason though Dutch licorice and soup candies seemed to taste a lot better back then. Again we ate way too much. My calorie counter was off the charts for the day, but I was fine with it. As how often do you get to do something like this?

After that we returned to the hotel to turn in. We got adjoining rooms so it was actually quite fun for the five kids during our stay at the hotel. It was kind of neat to reconnect in this way as it had been decades since we’d spent time together like this. Steve and Tim were still raring to go when we got back so they headed down for nightcaps, but the rest of us needed our beauty sleep so we crashed early.

The next morning we did brunch buffet together and then were going to go swimming (which was a family favorite event on holidays away together) but no one was feeling super inclined that way so we decided to hang out in the lobby to play some games and chat more about old times.

After we checked out and said good by to the Hotel Vancouver we had one last spot to visit, The Vancouver Planetarium. This was another family favorite as kids. Not much has changed there in 30 years so it was truly a blast from the past experience.

That night my sister in law Chantal threw a big anniversary party back at her home in Surrey. All the spouses, grand children and great grandchildren were invited. It was quite a event with over 40 people in attendance. The Original Hilton7 showed too (except my brother Steve who had to fly back to South Dakota that afternoon) but we all agreed though our stint had been fun, we’d wear our shirts one last time and then put this experience back in the time capsules of our memory.

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