Lund is ready for its close-up “It’s the end of the road and when you’re at the end of your line you come to Lund” - Peter Behr BY TAI UHLMANN
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ome people see the world through rose-coloured glasses. Reflected in my glasses is Lund. I was raised in Lund, BC and every time I meet someone and tell them “my story,” Lund and I become inseparable. Like I have been wrapped in the macrame poncho of my childhood for all to see. What a childhood it was, like a continuous party filled with barefoot berry picking freedom, playful adults, naked swims, few rules and a lot of outhouses. Now I am turning a real life camera lens on the Lund community for a feature length documentary titled The End of the Road. The film will focus primarily on the hippies who came to Lund in the 1960s and ’70s. This migration of hippies to the little town of Lund was not en masse but was a stream of haphazard arrivals of young folks looking for an escape from Vietnam War era USA, wanting cheap land, and searching for alternative ways of living and loving. This eclectic group of “back to the landers,” dreamers, artists, intellectuals and freedom fighters found what they were looking for in Lund! If I think about moving to a piece of land far from anyone or anything, building a house (with zero experience), having no running water or electricity and raising small children I think, “No thanks!” If you ask some of these late pioneers how they managed, they reply, “It’s just what we did!” Many admit to being naive but they lived and they learned and the attitude was that nothing was impossible. This is pretty amazing when you think of where many of these new arrivals were coming from. Some moved here from New York and had been faculty and students at Columbia University. Intellectual folks who gave up the academic path to create their own utopia in the bush. One man we in-
terviewed was actually writing his thesis on the back-to-the-land movement. He tried to write his thesis by living the life and struggled hard to survive. He actually ended up working at the pulp and paper mill in town for a while in order to put food on the table. The irony was not lost on him, nor was the realization that living off the land was hard. We used to say that Lund had the most over educated and under employed population! The thing that has really struck me through the process of interviewing my elders for this film is the extreme willingness to try anything and the freedom that comes with that. They had no idea what they were doing and did it anyway. Some were running away from something and others were running to something and somehow, often with the help of savvy locals (who were willing to kill a goat-eating bear or cut down a threatening tree in a wind storm) they not only survived, they thrived! They challenged conformity, rejected the strict child rearing of the 1940s and ’50s, explored drugs, shared love, redefined family and created friendships that remain today. While still living in New York City, my husband, Theo Angell, and I embarked on this film knowing that it was high time these stories be collected and told. Now we live in Lund and have successfully crowd funded to make The End of the Road film a reality. The story of Lund during this time period has a certain resonance with people now. Our world has become so dependent on technology for communication that people feel cut off and are looking for connection. Continuous wars and the harsh environmental climate creates the longing for sustainability and the security of living off the land. What happened in Lund during the 60’s and 70’s transformed those living it and impacted the larger community and the world. We have been asking every person we interview this question. “If Lund were a person how would you describe her/ him?” We have heard everything from “Aging Beauty” to “Salty” but what we hear most is that Lund is an “accepting” place. A place where people who don’t belong anywhere else can find like-minded folks and be part of a community.
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Leave your cares behind as you enjoy an afternoon of comfort and relaxation. Cruise with us on our 37-foot tri-cabin yacht while viewing the spectacular scenery & wildlife of our protected waters.
❧ 2 - hour Copeland Islands cruise $69/person ❧ 5 - hour Desolation Sound Lunch cruise $135/person ❧ 6 - hour Mitlenatch Island Lunch cruise $145/person By popular request, we now offer dinner cruises! ❧ 3½-hour Dinner Cruise for 4 or more $115/person Special occasion, custom day cruises & extended excursions also available.
POWELL RIVER LIVING • july 2015 •
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