Some 250 Creekers came out June 2 to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the Roberts Creek Community Hall and pose for the latest community photo.
As well as a chance to get into the picture, say hi to their neighbours and get a piece of cake, residents had a chance to hear the stories of Jeff Newman.
Newman grew up on Crowe Road in the 1930s and 40s and earlier this year he started sharing old family photos of Roberts Creek and nearby parts of the Sunshine Coast on community Facebook pages (see www.facebook.com/robertscreekisastateofmind and www.facebook.com/gumbootnation).
Newman was hoping to take people on a brief walking tour, but cancelled after he had to be rushed to hospital a couple of days before.
“They raise ’em tough in Roberts Creek,” Newman joked about still being able to put in an appearance at the hall despite the health scare.
Newman impressed the crowd as a natural storyteller, and earlier in the day he told Coast Reporter about his own brief career in the local newspaper business, with the now-defunct Coast News.
It was in 1953, right after he graduated from Elphinstone Secondary. His cousin worked in the print shop back then and his mother, Madge Newman, wrote the Roberts Creek community column. “It was kind of family thing,” he said, but it wasn’t for him.
“I had written an essay and the Coast News got a hold of it and published it, so they offered me a job,” Newman said. “I figured as a world class reporter I’d be goin’ right to town, but I found myself down in the compositing room setting up type for ads. Printers’ ink, hot and smoky from the press running – no thanks… I didn’t stay there too long.”
Newman eventually went on to a career in the air force in 1957, but he continued his connection to the Creek, even after his mother subdivided and sold off the Crowe Road property and moved to Sechelt.
Newman lives on the Lower Mainland now but gets back to the Creek fairly often, he said.
A crew from Eastlink Community TV was on hand to record Newman’s stories, which they planned to run Friday at 8 p.m.
