For people like George Sim, the word retirement does not apply.
Their leisure and volunteer time simply expands to include the hours work had occupied, which explains George’s participation in sports on the recreation side of his life and his involvement with the Ambleside Tiddlycove Lions Club, chief among his varied volunteer activities, on the community side.
He’s also called upon as a planner, organizer and scheduler for activities – the PGA Freedom 55 golf tournament at the end of May, a cycling trip to Washington in September, and a Lions club convention in Whistler in October are only a sample of George’s busy schedule for the year.
Achieving a balanced life after work takes practice. George has been work-free for seven years and it took five of those years to learn to say no. But the sense of fulfillment that comes from saying ‘Yes’ is so much better, he admits.
“I’ve always had time for others,” he says. “I remember like it was yesterday what my dad told me when I was in Cub scouts, six or seven years old. He said ‘The more you put into something, the more you get out of it.’ That, and the importance of quality, I learned from my dad.”
George wasn’t into sports in his younger years, though this was not due to lack of interest. Born at North Vancouver Hospital in 1950, it turned out George had a heart condition which, thankfully, had mended itself by the time he reached the age of 15.
“I didn’t play any contact sports until then,” he recalls, “and then I did them all: baseball, soccer, rugby, and skiing.”
George did play golf during those years, earning enough from his paper route to pay for a set of clubs. “I rode home on my bike with the clubs balanced on the handlebars and a big grin on my face.”
A boy riding home on his bike with a new set of golf clubs purchased with his own money, smiling all the way. It’s an image Ralph Bower, North Vancouver’s ace news photographer, would have appreciated.
Ralph, who still lives in the Queensbury neighbourhood where he was born, was a neighbour and friend of George’s father, the butcher at Queensbury Market, and the shop owners, Spike and Gar Lee. Young George spent much of his time in the shop, listening and learning, and was regularly recruited to appear in Ralph’s photographs for the Vancouver Sun.
“Whenever Ralph needed a kid for a photograph, I was his model. I remember one with a bowl on my head, getting a haircut, and another on the first day of school. Then there was the Thanksgiving one with the turkey. …”
The Sim family moved on to Lynn Valley, where George senior and his brother Jimmy opened Sim’s Meat Market across the road from the Cedar V movie theatre. By then, young George was old enough to help out in the shop on weekends and holidays, when not playing field sports.
“I was good with a knife,” says George, a statement that could be considered a little frightening, until he continues, “So I apprenticed as a butcher at the Super Valu at Park Royal.” In 1976, George purchased the butcher shop in Ambleside from Peter Black. He sold it back to Peter in 1983 and went to work in sales at Schneiders, retiring from the company as its district marketing manager at the age of 60.
George joined the Ambleside Tiddlycove Lions Club in 1976 and got involved with the North Shore Lions Youth Exchange program. The exchange was established to strengthen the bonds of cultural understanding and friendship between two sister cities, Chiba City in Japan and the City of North Vancouver.
In 1990, George joined the Evergreens rugby club. The Evergreens are Vancouver’s original over-40 rugby club, inspired by the Old Boys, or Wak-Wak (‘old-old’ in Japanese) league in Japan. The Evergreens have toured and played almost everywhere, including Japan, where George was presented with a special red Wak-Wak rugby jersey.
In 2020, he will visit Japan again, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Sister City pact between the City of North Vancouver and Chiba City, and of the North Shore Lions Youth Exchange Program. On this visit, George intends to play at least one game of rugby with the Wak-Wak rugby players in Japan.
“I haven’t played my last game yet, in any sport,” he says.
“As long as I’m on the right side of the grass, I will keep doing what I love to do.”
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or email her at [email protected].
