28 THURSDAY October 27, 2016 • New Westminster RECORD
THE 80s IN NEW WEST
THE RECORD HITS 35
‘I REALLY MISS THAT TIME’
She’d go back to the ’80s in a Uash Tej Kainth lives in the here and now, but if given the chance to take a trip back to the 1980s, she’d go in a heartbeat.
Kainth remembers a garden on the south side of the park facing Sixth Avenue. “They used to have a beautiful bed of flowers that
By THERESA MCMANUS Kainth, executive director of Tourism New Westminster, was born in New West in 1981 – the same year the Record started publishing in the Royal City. “I really miss that time. I’d love to go back,” she said. “If I had a time machine I’d go back to the ’80s.” The youngest of five kids, Kainth loved hanging out with her older sisters and their friends – even if they weren’t too keen on the tagalong little sister. As a kid, she remembers playing California kickball and baseball and creating a relay route through the West End with neighbourhood kids. Next door neighbours, known as Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy, would bring out crackers and cheese, peanut butter sandwiches and lemonade for Kainth and her pals. Along with the playground at Grimston Park,
said Welcome to New Westminster. It was facing the bridge,” she says. “I used to adore that growing up. I thought it was the most beautiful thing. I was only five or six years old. It was gorgeous.” As a kid it was exciting to visit an aunt who worked on McBarge during Expo 86, but Kainth has fond memories of family outings closer to home including visits to Army and Navy (which always included a frosted malt),Woodward’s and movies at New West Cinemas in Westminster Mall. Playing in Queensborough after attending prayers at the Sikh temple was always fun for Kainth. “Back then, there was so much agriculture there. There were farm animals,” she says. “We would be in our Indian suits and we’d have our heads covered. After we’d pray, everyone would go to eat, and me
and my cousins would run out and start looking at the horses and chickens.” On days when she wasn’t at the temple, Kainth was likely sporting Transformers and Care Bears attire, listening to Roxette, New Kids on the Block or DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and watching shows like Out of ThisWorld, Today’s Special and WWF with wrestlers like Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior. Kainth attended Lord Tweedsmuir from kindergarten to midway through Grade 5,when her family moved to the other side of
Growing up: A five-year-old Tej Kainth, left, during school photos at Lord Tweedsmuir. Her dad did her hair that day. Above, Kainth today. She currently serves as Tourism New Westminster’s executive RECORD /Archived Files director.
had to wear a dress.” Attending May Day, says Kainth, was a “huge thing” for kids growing up in New Westminster. “May Day was a big thing
“May Day was a big thing growing up, doing the folk dance, the maypole, the relays,” she says. “We used to have relay races. Those were so much fun.” 12th Street and she started attending Lord Kelvin Elementary School. A self-described tomboy who loved basketball and track and field, Kainth ran for May Queen when she was in Grade 6. “I just did it because it was a dare,” she says. “That was probably the first time I
growing up, doing the folk dance, the maypole, the relays,” she says. “We used to have relay races.Those were so much fun.” Kainth, who was New Westminster’s 123rd May Queen in 1993, was the first South Asian elected as May Queen. “For my parents and the
community, that was a big thing for us,” she says. “I knew it was tradition, and to be involved and be a part of something that was so valued in our community was a huge honour to be a part of.” Kainth, a former Royal City Record delivery girl, now lives downtown in a condo overlooking the Fraser River and Westminster Pier Park. As much as she loves travelling down Memory Lane, she loves that there’s “an abundance of activities” taking place in all parts of the city these days. “It really is a fun city,” she says. “We really have some fun programs going on and incredible restaurants to check out and some upscale
bars too.There’s this new wave of energy and people that is nice to see. It’s nice to wake up, have your coffee on your porch and see how packed Westminster Pier Park is.” Kainth also likes knowing that today’s youngsters in New West are making memories they’ll treasure in the years to come. “Coming to downtown New Westminster, growing up in the 1980s, I still get that nostalgic feeling sometimes when I am walking by the Army and Navy,” she says. “But what it has transformed into – these are memories that this next generation is going to be enjoying.”
HEADLINES AND CLIPPINGS THAT CAUGHT OUR EYE The following are some of the local issues reported on in the early years of the Royal City Record: May 1986: The luxury cruise ship Pegasus arrives at New Westminster’s waterfront.The 340-cabin ship was acting as a floating hotel and was docked upstream from the S.S. Prince George. Both hoped to cash in on Expo 86 visitors. September 1988: New Queen Elizabeth Elementary School opens in Queensborough. June 19, 1983: Because of the recession, the Royal City Record stops publishing for three weeks. “The Royal City Record has not escaped this devastating financial crunch,” the front page article says. Nov. 28, 1984: 110 tons of herring are sold at CK-
NW’s herring sale at the waterfront. May 21, 1988: headline: Display OK, says inspector. There’s nothing wrong with a mannequin (or shall we say womannequin?) dressed in showy lingerie in a display window on 6th Street, says the city’s chief license inspector Mel Clerihue. “I was just up there and I saw nothing that contravenes city bylaws,” Clerihue told the Record. The decision means the shop can keep its risqué window display in place – despite complaints from some irate citizens. In a letter to city council, a resident said the store is “plainly a sex shop. I never thought I’d see this in a busy thoroughfare in New Westminster… “
Dec. 10, 1988: Record editorial urges city aldermen to stop being sexist and adopt the term “councillor” as women are elected to city council. The men are reluctant to change the status quo. Sept. 17, 1988: The city spends $300 in lab fees trying to discover what the white powder is that is left at the base of numerous trees and lamp posts in Queen’s Park. The lab conducted numerous tests, dissolving the substance in acids, trying inorganic tests and organic tests, finally they realized it was plain ordinary flour. No one knows who put the mysterious piles of flour at the base of the trees and lamp stands. June 18, 1988: A downtown forum decides it’s time to hire a paid coordi-
nator to help in revitalization. “Participants in the forum agreed that enough revitalization talk has taken place (20 years of it, in fact) and now is the time to act.” Sept. 26, 1987: School trustees decide against suing members of council.The New Westminster school board decided to not seek legal action against city council despite the scorching trustees received at the Sept. 14 council meeting over the adult crossing guards issue. The board considered legal action when aldermen blasted them with criticism over the way they handled the controversial adult crossing guard issue. Aldermen accused the board of having a ‘hidden agenda,’ being ‘intellectu-
ally dishonest’ and manipulating the press. In the past, the city hired and trained the guards with the school board reimbursing the city. But this year the city refused to continue. The crossing guard issue resolved itself when the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of Greater Vancouver offered to administer the program which is paid for by the school board. Feb. 27, 1983: The New Westminster school board makes the daring move of changing a 112-year-old tradition in the Royal City, much to the horror of some aldermen and residents.The board approves including boys in the May Day Royal Suite.Their role will be decided by the schools
and by the May Day committee. Said Ald. Joe Francis: “We’ve had it the traditional way for 100 plus years and we should keep it that way.” The Record editorial (written by a male) lambasted the teachers for wanting to involve boys in the May Day Royal Suite. The editorial called their idea a “farcical display of petulance.” The editorial said teachers should be sticking to teaching – not changing the city’s time-honoured traditions. A May King indeed. Editor’s note: Boys have been involved in the May Day Royal Suite for more than two decades now as Royal Knights. In fact, you could almost call it a tradition.