Embedded Files
Memories & Musings
The King Family
The King Family
By Leona Keraiff
By Leona Keraiff
There is a smiling face on the car deck of the MV Osprey 2000-the first ever female crew member on the Kootenay Lake Ferry as of June 1982. Her name is Sharon Koshlay Zeeman and her family story has many connections to our Community Hall.
“My grandmother Alma King moved to Crawford Bay as a young girl with her brother Earl and parents Owen & Margaret Palmer. They moved to Crawford Bay from Winnipeg, they brought the three Maple trees beside the road across from the old school...Our property was where the Crawford Bay Inn is...it went right up to the road that went beside the Hall. The tennis courts used to be on that piece plus the building that the buses used to be parked at”
Alma married William King, they had 10 children here in CBay, the third of whom was Sharon’s Mom, Beatrice. Baby #six is Norma Hempstock, formerly of Gray Creek, and #10 Lorraine Van Ruyskensvelde who also raised her family here in the Bay.
All the above mentioned girls would have attended school in CBay using the Hall as their gymnasium: “Our school learnt to do a volleyball serve fast, hard and low because our volleyball court was the size of a badminton court with a really low ceiling...I remember playing ringette “Crawford Bay Rules“, badminton, basketball...Remember doing a school Christmas Concert with a full Hall many years in a row, school Remembrance Day events...I did Brownies and Guides in the Hall. My Mom Bea was my Brownie Leader...My Mom used to be the person who used to rent out the Cbay Hall for many years. I remember helping her clean the Hall after a dance...Dances years ago did not have liquor licences, everyone drank outside...when I was 10 I got up at 6am after dances and went to collect bottles, then my Dad came to help me bring them home {Crawford Bay Inn-formerly the Mar-B-Lee owned by the Koshlays}. I bought a bike from the bottles! Beer bottles fetched 2 cents per bottle”
“I remember going to the hall for wedding receptions, funerals and funeral receptions (used the hall for my mom’s service and reception same as Lorraine and Dale VanRuyskensvelde), Anniversary parties (Did my parents 25th anniversary dance April 1985), Reunions, Sunday School dinners, community Christmas Parties, and doing the yearly school Christmas Concert. {I have always been the class clown) one year I remember the whole school was going to sing Frosty the Snowman and with the help of Fran Choquette the Home Economics teacher we made a frosty the snowman costume and as the class sang Frosty the Snowman I was dancing around the hall throwing the hole punch circles there were so many people I got stuck between the crowd.”
Grandma Alma was a member of the Women’s Institute, participated in Fall Fairs and chaperoned teen dances in the Hall. Reference: “Remember When” by Susan Hulland & Terry Turner, published 2004.
“My Aunt Lorraine entered her preserves and baking in the Fall Fair. My Mom Beatrice entered her crocheting and won 1st prize ALWAYS. My Mom was also on the FF Committee for many years. As a student I also entered, winning top student points and as an adult I entered my photography. My children, Sheldon & Cassandra Zeeman entered the FF and also came away with prizes.”
“Mom and I were both on the Kokanee Karnival of Sports Committee. We met in the small Hall. The 3 military guns in the little Hall, in the glass front cabinet were donated to the Hall. I think for insurance purposes they had to be made that they could not be fired. My Dad Mardy, had the barrels of the guns filled & I think firing pins removed so that the guns could stay in the Hall”
Sharon’s Mom, Bea, was Crawford Bay’s post mistress for 22 years when the post office was in the Mar-B-Lee...about where the Lackovics park their van.
PICTURE THIS: “On some Sundays the older King children used to walk from Crawford Bay to Gray Creek and catch the Nasookin Paddlewheeler to go for a ride. They used to get invited to the wheelhouse to play checkers with Capt. Mackinnon.” To close this circle of connections Sharon told me that her first Captain on the Kootenay Lake Ferries was Don Mac kinnon, grandson of the Nasookin Captain!
Report abuse