Susan Bell ( Lundqvist ):  

A long time ago in a place far far away.........Oh... that's another story. Only some six months after that "Then " picture was taken, and near the end of grade eleven in June I began full time summer employment as a receptionist for the Ministry of Health on Broadway near Main in Vancouver. For over 45 years I exchanged Christmas cards and letters with an older woman I worked with for those 2 1/2 months. That summer of 73 I got my 1st car... a pale blue 69 Vauxhall Viva with manual floor shift.... right after my 1st paycheck. My brother Gary found it for me. I was starting to use the office training I had enjoyed learning at school. I realize now driving yourself to work in Vancouver makes you grow up faster than sitting in class or killing time in the library or cafeteria but you don't know it at the time. For grade 12 I decided to start the school year by moving to Smithers BC. My parents had both been absent while I attended grade 11 at Centennial the previous year and they were now both settled in. While I loved living with them, Smithers High just felt like too many steps back so in Oct. (before my boyfriend flew up for my birthday) I decided I would return to Centennial at the November break. On my birthday my boyfriend presented me with a Promise Ring and my parents were fine with it on the promise I would finish school. With my parents suggestion and support and only one month over age 17 l was now living on my own in " the little house" on the rear of my families property on Quadling Ave. Today we call them lane homes. Ringo Starr had a hit released the week of my birthday..........Photograph. I became engaged 48 years ago on Christmas Day 1973 at White Spot's Grandville House Dining Room on Grandville St. My fiancee presented me my ring on a day the restaurant was closed and as he had to do a managers security and equipment check we had the entire building to ourselves. We sat in the same booth we had used a week earlier when we had dinner there with my parents and asked them for their permission. Their only request had always had been that I finish school before we got married. In my heart I had always known he was the one. My 3 older sisters had all left home before they completed high school and all on their wedding day so I was breaking new ground. I had started a trip down The Yellow Brick Road........ Steve and I were married a week after my final classes got out in June 74 and then honeymooned for the month of July in Finland and Sweden. ( He was the tall, silent, serious looking one with the black 63 Pontiac convertible who sometimes picked me up at Como Lake Jr. High. We had dated for most of 5 years but as he was older than me we never went to school together.) We bought a used VW bug and drove thru the land of the midnight sun from my parent's home towns in Finland to Stockholm Sweden and then returned to Finland via an Ocean Ferry over the Baltic Sea. We met all the extended family in both the old countries and we also toured 1000 year old castles. (Steve likes history!) Everyone insisted we use their Sauna....... . Mama Mia............... there was one in every home! ABBA was at their international launch with Waterloo. We have since resided in Smithers, Dawson Creek, Prince Rupert, Kamloops, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Vernon (Coldstream) and then back to Kamloops. Steve left the Hudson's Bay Company Food Services after 11 years with The Bay in 86 to operate his own restaurant. After many company transfers we gladly picked Kamloops to return to. We love it here and are happy we have been able to live in, see and experience so much of the rest of BC. With Steve's frequent business travel we have made life long memories and friends in each corner of the province. My first job after we were married was as a receptionist and switchboard operator for the School Board office in Dawson Creek, BC. I have REALLY enjoyed my career in BC Land Titles and Survey Authority that started 46 years ago. I worked with a bunch of very good friends who kept me laughing. I started with the LTSA in Prince Rupert at age 18 and have also worked in the New West and Kamloops offices twice as well. At age 25 I took a 5 year family leave from 81 to 86 to be an at home Mom with our two boys as toddlers. They were born 22 months apart. I was eligible to pension out in the fall of 2012 as they had offered us old timers an early retirement incentive but I decided I would stay on until April 2015. Sixty days after I retired they called me back on contract for the next year and one half. The only condition was it could not conflict with our vacations in Mexico or my time at the lake. Now I am fully retired and loving it.. Steve and I have done a lot of travel over the past 47 plus years and still spend some time in the USA. We have always been involved in Auto Sports as a hobby and still attend many events as long time members of the Vintage Car Club of Canada. At age 19, while members of a Corvette Club Steve encouraged me to slalom (auto cross) Corvettes with manual 4 speeds. I got pretty good at it in ladies class over the next few years. Safe to say no one I went to school with ever foresaw me racing cars. These were in the " BC " years.........Before Children. If there is a car show, slalom or swap meet we may still be close by. Prince had a hit then....Little Red Corvette. I have my three older sisters and my two cousins I grew up with who all attended Como Lake High or Centennial and still reside at the coast so we are sometimes "down" to visit family. It is being away all those years that you really see all the changes to Coquitlam. Then you notice all the moss on everything, LOL. My only brother Gary and his wife Bernadette (our classmate " hopalong " Bernie Gauthier) have also lived in Kamloops twice. More recently for nine years they lived in Edmonton to be closer to their children and grandchildren. This past year they have now relocated to OK Falls where they plan to retire.. There are some more of our school mates in the Kamloops area. Our two boys have made me proud of them. Life is good and we have been very fortunate. Kamloops was an excellent city to raise a family. Once the boys became school age we decided Kamloops was our final stop and we even stayed in the same house until they both had started junior high school. Seems like just yesterday we were involved with Beavers and Cubs, Scouts, Air Cadets, baseball and soccer. And then there was snowboarding, every mother's nightmare. Jordan was only on an ambulance ride once ! Oh... and once again for mountain bike riding.! August 2010 was the 40th Anniversary of Steve taking me on a date to the PNE in 1970 ( that's right ...I was 13.... but Mom gave her OK ) so we attended the Bryan Adams concert on opening day 2010 to mark the occasion. Still have the stuffed toy dogs he won for me from Play-land in 70, 71 and 72 . Passed on the Roller Coaster line up but at least this time I did not have to be home by midnight ! Steve teases me that Bryan Adams wrote Summer Of 69 for us but Heaven is a better choice. There was a song out in 1969 by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap....Young Girl. The lyrics came under a lot of heat at the time....so did Steve. In Oct 2010 on my birthday Steve and I visited Coquitlam all day for a wonderful trip down memory lane. We stopped to see the family home and the " little house" off the back lane at Quadling Ave. Our family had moved there when I was only 2 years old. Both houses were still there that day but have since been removed as most of the neighbourhood is being replaced with monste...Expand for more