As a child, Don Bokic listened to tales of Canada.
"My maternal grandfather was in the Gold Rush here," Bokic says, discussing the steam engineer who sought a fortune in a foreign land at the outset of the 20th century.
"He came back a rich man, and of course all those stories," Bokic recalls.
Born during the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Bokic witnessed the land of his birth falling under the control of Benito Mussolini and then becoming a socialist country under Yugoslavia.
The son of a gendarmerie officer, Bokic was also affected by the deep-seeded political divide of the times when he enrolled in military school in Serbia.
Bokic was more than halfway through a four-year surveying program when he was expelled because his father was a nationalist.
Looking for a way to support his wife and daughter, Bokic decided to emigrate.
Despite shorter immigration paths to Sweden, Brazil, and Australia, Bokic elected to spend a few months in a refugee camp in Italy while Canada's wheels of bureaucracy slowly turned.
On Nov. 4, 1965, Bokic arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax, N.S.
Bokic, 79, is affable and articulate as he recalls mining coal to learn English.
Underpaid as a surveyor because of his lack of English skills, Bokic says his foreman told him that an improvement in his new language would yield a raise.
"In those days they had no school where they sent you, so I learned from people around me," Bokic says.
After six months, he returned to his foreman and got his raise.
After hearing about Vancouver's warmer climate, Bokic crossed the country.
Working as a surveyor, Bokic helped plan the infrastructure for the town of Mackenzie as well as a sewer line that stretched from Tsawwassen to Ladner.
"I found out that it's nice working for somebody (but) if you can have a job where you work for yourself it's even better."
After running a Marine Drive service station, Bokic eventually set up a specialized industrial parts shop in Surrey.
After eight years of prosperity Bokic noticed his customers disappearing.
"I'd seen the writing on the wall, so I sold," he says.
With enough money to retire, Bokic moved to North Vancouver and experimented with a life of leisure. The experiment was short lived.
"I was bored to death in retirement," he says.
After seeking out home-based businesses, Bokic learned to repair quartz watches.
"I found the best job in the world. Before that, whenever somebody called me for lunch I was there, but after, my wife would call me three times for lunch and I say, 'Yeah, coming.' It's such an interesting thing to do."
JEREMY SHEPHERD . [email protected]
