Memories & Musings
January, 2021

The Reimer Family

By Susan Hulland

Former resident Pastor Jim Reimer was quick to respond when I reached out to him for his recollections about the Crawford Bay Hall, saying  “Doreen and I are ecstatic that there are still people on the Eastshore who want to preserve the Crawford Bay Hall. We wish you success”. 

“We moved to Crawford Bay from Calgary in September 1980, My relationship with Crawford Bay hall was immediate and lasted even after we moved to Nelson in 1995. During our time in Crawford Bay, I served as the Pastor of Kootenay Lake Community Church. The building itself was small, and so the Hall was a defacto church Hall. Many times we would use it to conduct Church dinners, weddings, funerals, youth activities, and various gatherings. The Hall was a true community centre. Doreen has many fond memories of participating in the Fall Fair, which took over the Hall for as long as the Hall existed. 

“Speaking of the Fall Fair, I have a funny recollection. The Hall needed renovations, so we went about securing donations, donated labor, and grant funding. We applied for and received the needed building permit. The renovation went splendidly. The job done, we were waiting for the building inspector to come from Creston to sign off on our good work. The fateful day came during the busiest day of the year for the Hall... I speak of the Crawford Bay and District Fall Fair! The Hall was packed; full of people, display booths - complete with every type of home baking, garden produce and everything else one could think of. 

“My heart sank. We were in immediate violation of occupancy regulations. The building inspector was retiring and he had his replacement with him. The new recruit was zealously measuring door entrances, wheelchair ramps, plumbing fixtures. He identified at least 4 violations of code. My heart sank.  At this point, the more senior of the two, looked over his evaluation sheet and said to his understudy, “We have to be flexible with these old community buildings, and the violations are so minor, I do not believe it will impact the safety or the use of the hall. With that he ripped up the evaluation paper and signed off the permit. I have to say, my heart was spilling over with thanks.”