Flash Back Fridays
Written on February 17, 2012 at 8:29 am, by Scott
FRANKIE TACKER and JON LIND 1971
In the summer of 1971 Frankie and Jon wandered into the spacious fireplace room of the Lodge. They were hitchhiking up from California and were waiting for the man giving them a ride to fill up with gas at the Strathcona pumps. It took a while in those days, so Jon sat down to play the piano and sing. Jim happened to hear him and was impressed. Jim talked Jon, a Mannes College of Music graduate, into staying, telling him that he could entertain the Lodge guests. He had to find a job for Frankie too.
Front deck of the Lodge
I started at Strathcona Park Lodge in February 1978. My position as a mechanic was to maintain all the equipment, diesel generator, vehicles, chain saws, boat motors etc. For me it was a fantastic place to be, having gone through my separation from my wife. There were only about twelve of us, including people my age who I could talk to. One night a week we would go to Stevie Smith’s cabin to sing songs and drink wine, or we would go to town and to the pub.
Bob graduated from the University of Toronto in 1972 as a biologist and worked as an environmental assessment biologist in Ontario, until he met Paul Bragstad who convinced him to go meet Jim and “give them a hand”. Bob was a “can do” style of the Happy Warrior. He had a choice bunk: in with Toby Hay, or build himself a cabin. He built the upper dome. The lower dome was built by a Friends World College kid from Massachusetts and was constructed with standard two by four technologies. Bob had learned that an engineer named Jim Bohlen on Denman Island was developing a style of dome that truly reflected Buckminster Fuller’s ideas. Called the ‘icosocabin’, the new style of dome was actually several facets held together by system of nodes. Bob solved the nodes problem by using the strapping used in lumber yards to hold together the bundles of lumber. The dome is still prime staff accommodation. Bob became a senior kayak guide for Eco -Summer and for 18 years led trips all over the world including: Bahamas, Tonga, Mexico, the Canadian Arctic, Terra Del Fuego, Australia, the Queen Charlottes, and the West Coast of Vancouver Island. On April 2nd, 1983 Bob married Marie and they have three kids of their own as well as being the foster parents to many children from difficult circumstances. Bob and Marie are famous on Quadra Island because they choose to foster the kids no one else wants: kids with fetal alcohol. Two years ago there was a fuss with the Ministry of Children and Families. 
I went through the usual college stuff to obtain a teaching diploma and taught Phys. Ed. at an all-boys school in Plymouth, England for three years. Following that I worked at the Out- ward Bound Mountain School in the Lake District for two years. This was followed by my “wandering” years where I traveled and worked at the Minnesota O.B. School during the summers and returned to the U.K. in the fall. I was eventually asked to stay as Assistant Director with the goal of establishing a year round program and this I did until I received a letter requesting me to register for the “draft”. This annoyed me as I had already served my two years in the RAF when I was 18!!! So I returned to the U.K with family in tow. All of this took place between1959 and 1970. In 1971 I was offered the directorship of the recently opened Outward Bound (O.B.) School in Keremeos B.C. which I took on and I stayed there until 1974. That was the year that we all met the government people in Victoria. Anyway that began my association with the Lodge. As you probably know I started my own whitewater kayaking school in 1976 and Barb and I ran it until 1998 when I lost my depth perception due to an eye injury. We still kayak. Both Barb and I are partly bionic, having had new hips but we are still able to get out and about. 
