Art Guthrie, a skier and hiker since boyhood, wanted to try something different.
He found the Dundarave Players band.
Guthrie didn't intend to join a band. He started with ukulele lessons at West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre. "I didn't know anything about music. I saw the ad for beginner's ukulele lessons in the newsletter and thought it would be a simple instrument to learn," he said.
That was six or seven years ago. Rehearsing and performing with the band is a great way for Guthrie to explore the musical mysteries of the ukulele. "And it's pronounced 'ook-a-lay-lay'," Guthrie explains. "There is no 'y' in 'ukulele.'" There are five ukulelists among the Players as well as piano and guitar, recorder, harmonica and mandolin. Singers, too. Musicianship is valued but it's the camaraderie and the pleasure of performing for others that counts. The band gives concerts at the centre and at seniors' residences. In November, the Players perform at the library following West Vancouver's annual Remembrance Day ceremony.
For the past few years, the Players have operated independently from their homebase at the centre, rotating band duties among members. Guthrie has been treasurer and equipment manager. This year, he's the record keeper, keeping the numbers in order.
An accountant by profession, Guthrie worked with numbers in business and as a teacher, writer and international consultant. He grew up in East Vancouver, married his childhood sweetheart and studied at the University of British Columbia. Five years to get his commerce degree and another three to qualify as an accountant.
Fortunately, there was plenty of work to finance Guthrie's education and support his family. "During the war, we picked up jobs at the shipyards or wherever we could. We learned how to work and how to find jobs," he says.
Guthrie moved on to summer jobs in construction at lumber mills and one stint as a rigger in a logging camp.
"We went by Union Steamship to the north end of Vancouver Island, then by the narrow-gauge railway to the camp at Englewood on Nimpkish Lake. It was all hand falling in those days, no chainsaws. They'd boom the logs in the lake, tug them across to the railcars, then to the salt chuck where they'd boom them again to go south to the mills," he says.
Guthrie's working life had started much earlier. Paper routes paid for skiing and membership in Grouse Mountain's Junior Tyee Ski Club. "We joined so we could sleep in the club cabin," he says. Guthrie and his friends, Frank and Monty Mosher, would head over to the cabin Friday nights, though the boys weren't permitted to light the cabin stove until Saturday morning. When you're 12 or 13, such comforts don't matter. Getting the key to the cabin does.
"First I have to explain about the hoo-hoos," Guthrie begins. Outhouses for the North Shore ski cabins, towers accessible by ladder in the summer, are known as hoo-hoos.
The key to the Junior Tyee cabin was kept in the club's hoo-hoo. One Friday night, someone, maybe Guthrie or possibly Frank, dropped the key. No, the key didn't fall into the pit; it got hung up on a cross-bar. Guthrie and Frank decided they were too large to go after the key. Young Monty, however, was just the right size. With Frank holding one ankle and Guthrie the other, Monty was lowered down to collect it. The temptation to drop him was quickly quelled. "We would never sleep a wink for the rest of our lives," says Guthrie.
Guthrie and his family are outdoors people, camping and hiking in summer and skiing in winter. A move to West Vancouver 30 years ago brought the Guthries closer to the mountains and closer still when "a group of us, retired and in our 60s and 70s, rented cabins at Whistler for the skiing," he says.
At 86, Guthrie is no longer hiking. "We walk on sidewalks now. It's easy to find a hill, all you have to do is step outside." He still skis at Whistler and at Cypress and his quest to master the ukulele continues.
If you've been wanting to try something different, ukulele lessons or joining the Dundarave Players band might be it. Learn more at West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre, phone 604-925-7280.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
