Lost In The 50’s Rally “It’s a Wrap Folks”

 

Well another rally is in the books and duly recorded in photos. What a great time we all had! Bev and Dennis worked tirelessly to prepare fun, on theme decorations and great activities. Between music bingo, kazoo singalongs, 7 little girls skit, great costumes and everything music, Bev and Dennis had us laughing, dancing and at times very animated! Thank you both for the time and energy that you put into our Rally. Bev and Dennis always step up to help and that makes our chapter a better place. Unfortunately due to the cooler weather and wind we weren’t able to do our sock hop. Hopefully we can postpone that for when we either have more cooperative weather or an inside room. Your ideas about cars on the tables and soda floats were a big hit; so yummy!

 

Cathy, Sue, Irene, myself and our long suffering husbands (Todd, Rick, Ralph and Gary) had a great time with the games. So fun to have new chapter members like Cathy and Irene who have such great ideas and take our fun levels very seriously. Thank you for finding such crazy games like the Oreo cookie challenge, pig, water ball toss, cheerios on pipe cleaners, trivia and of course “Would You Rather?”

 

The outdoor movies were a well enjoyed event. Although it was cooler, many of us brought out our blankets and enjoyed the popcorn and show. We had a glitch with the end of the movie Grease but most of us have already seen it many times, so that was fine. On the Sunday night we had a bonus movie “RV” with Robin Williams. It was exciting to be able to watch on such a big screen and a lot of laughs to see Todd and Ralph trying to hold down the 16 foot screen when the winds came up. So many fun memories. Thank you to Todd and Ralph for organizing the movies, the screen, the projector and the manly muscle to keep the screen on the ground.

 

Unfortunately due to covid we are still not sharing a lot of our meals. We always love our joint Happy Hour times and it was fun to eat together but with our own food. The food highlight for me was the delicious pizza that I didn’t have to cook. It made us smile to see how many of us older folks love candy so much; candy bags were a big hit and not just for me.

 

Thank you to all of you who came to the rally and especially to all of those who continually step up to help make our FMCA chapter stronger, more fun and inclusive. To our executive and their spouses who are always helping at events and in the background thank you as well. Audrey, Matt, Cathy, Kathy, Andy; please tell me that I haven’t forgotten anyone! Thank you also to Jaden for always helping out.

 

A big thank you to the wonderful folks at Cowichan Terminals who enable us to have our annual rally on their beautiful waterfront site. They go to a lot of effort each year to cheerfully clear a large area and get it super clean and swept of nails and screws before we get there. They also take extra time to move large lifts of lumber so that we can keep our community tents well anchored down in the inevitable winds.

 

We are looking forward to many more great events next year. Remember, each one of us is “The Vancouver Islanders FMCA Chapter” so come out and support events, tell your friends and nice strangers about what we are doing, the fun we are having and bring them and their rigs to check it out for themselves. Remember to hand out your FMCA magazines to folks who might be interested in learning more about RV’ing and the great benefits of becoming an FMCA member.

 

Travel safe and remember to pack your smile,

Cheers,

MaryAnn & Gary Tennent

778-966-1048

Cowichan Exhibition Grounds Rally -27 – 30 May, 2022

 The first Rally of the season was a basic, intimate rally with eight coaches in attendance. Some were

parked in the open lot around the light pole, whilst the others sought some shelter between the barns.

Little did we know, the wind would come from the west and funnel right down between the barns,

Mother Nature foiled us again!

Mary-Ann had appealed to the attendees to “bring a sewing machine if you have one”. No doubt Mary-

Ann had something neat planned out. So Friday night, rope baskets were being assembled and sewn.

When I showed up Saturday, I thought everyone was making a toque! They were neat baskets for sure!

Verne had brought his infamous fire pit, but it didn’t come up on the back of the coach, he stuffed that

thing in the back of Audrey’s car! What was he thinking?!

As usual, we huddled around the fire, trying to keep warm from that westerly. Audrey had asked me if I

could bring some firewood with me, it’s a good thing she asked, as we had burned every last scrap of

wood we had. So much so, on Monday morning, Verne had to use his portable compressor to finish

burning the ashes in the fire pit (before it went back into Audrey’s car).

Saturday night, Bev and Dennis put on a fun game of music bingo, I think it was 50’s and 60’s music?

Being as young as I am, I only recognized 3 or 4 songs! I bet you can’t guess who had a handicap in this

game?!

The first round cost 25 cents and we needed two full lines in any direction, Jody won that round. The

second round cost 50 cents and this time we needed to make an “X” and this was won by Verne. Which

brought us to our final round and cost us a dollar. This round was to be complete by getting the 4

corners and wouldn’t you know it, Verne won this round, too! I wonder if he had horseshoes in his

pockets?

Sunday was another cloudy chilly day, I made two pots of coffee on Sunday (thanks to the handy outlet

on the barn). The crafters were in the barn finishing the last bits and pieces of their baskets and Verne

had his fire lit first thing in the afternoon. People would come and go for the chit chat and warmth,

stubbornly sitting in the wind. It wasn’t until Happy Hour that we figured out, if we move the fire to the

lee side of the barn, the wind couldn’t get to us. So, Happy Hour was much warmer and with everyone in

attendance, patiently waiting for the pizza to arrive, looking at Mary-Ann’s collection of photos from the

pirate rally from Sept. we had some good chuckles and stories, reminiscing of times past. We had pizza

Sunday night from Ali Baba in Duncan. We all sat in the barn at our own tables and enjoyed the pizza,

we even had enough for some folk to take left-overs home. This was followed by a rousing game of

Jenga, courtesy of Mary-Ann and Gary.

Monday was the mass exodus, remembering the fun we had over the weekend and looking forward to

the next get together (July at the Living Forest), I headed for home, stopping for fuel and almost fainting

at what a ½ tank of fuel cost me! However, anytime in the RV is a good time, so I shan’t worry much

about the cost of fuel, I have two legs and two arms so surely I can do without one of them??

Matt