Up the Creek

My wife and I live a happily ever after retirement life in the small residential community of French Creek, half way between the Town of Qualicum Beach and City of Parksville on Vancouver Island. The adjacent Morningstar golf course is just sufficiently far away, that we don't have to worry about the risk of finding golf balls in our martinis, while struggling to relax on our patio during the great summer weather we enjoy as a result of living in Canada's banana belt.

Last year, the arrival of our first traffic light really put French Creek on the map, and needless to say it found itself in the headlines. The event was so significant that both our local provincial legislative representative and the chairman of the regional district, arrived to ceremoniously throw the switch which activated this new LCD adorned appliance... in front of a crowd of at least a dozen excited onlookers. 

Qualicum Beach, not to be out done, built a roundabout at one entrance to their little town... after ripping up the expensive wiring that had thoughtfully been installed during the reconstruction of that particular roadway in advance of that intersection's needs for a traffic light. This major project followed more than a year of rancorous debate at QB's council meetings, naturally with substantial coverage and several headlines in the local newspaper, and it disrupted the traffic flow during construction for what seemed like at least six months.

Parksville, on the other hand, simply erected signs welcoming all and sundry to their fair city, and another set of expensive signs, only a few  blocks apart, marking the entrance to, and exit from their otherwise  hardly noteworthy downtown. These signs are adorned with pretty little imitation starfish and sand-dollars, presumably to advertise the existence of their magnificent beach... which could be seen from their main street until the construction of the high-rises and other view blocking resort buildings that also appeared in the PV down town last year.

But we really, really do love living here.