Photo: Bob Cain
TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO,
when Hornby Island Co-op looked like this, two wonderful people started working there. It is our good fortune that they are still doing that. Here Jim Horner and Sheila Macpherson each write about their 25 years.
---
25 years ago: Jim and daughter, Matisse,
who currently works in Hardware.
Photo: Bob Cain
JIM HORNER'S WORDS:
Wow, 25 years of pushing a broom around the floors of our beloved Co-op store! My loyalty to our community store began basically the day I first set foot on Hornby Island, Labor day weekend 1977, when we stopped at the store to ask directions to a rental advertized in the Courtenay Green Sheet. Davina Barrett and Annie Fearman were so friendly and helpful I had a good feeling about the store and the island right from the beginning.
8 years later when I started working for Mick Vet who had taken over the cleaning contract from Diane Taylor, Rusty Harrison was managing the store which was only a couple of years old then. The warehouse and post office had yet to be added to the building; the gas pump stood where the post office now is, and the produce area was the lunch/coffee area. I remember the stock from the old store being spread out strategically in a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to make the hugely increased shelf space look full; a problem no longer (ha ha). So now its 2011, and I'm buying my beer from the baby who's arrival Valerie and I were anticipating when I first pushed a mop over the Co-op floor!
---
SHEILA MACPHERSON'S WORDS:
Rusty hired me to work the Sunday shift as a cashier/clerk on the grocery floor. Helen Onorah trained me to work on the till which was electric but had a hand crank attachment in case of power outages. Nothing was computerized.
When a temporary position opened up in the Post Office, I was fortunate to get the job for a regular 3-day week, operating out of a nook where the magazine rack now stands. That job also included dispensing fuel and propane alongside the parcels and postage.
Later I moved upstairs to help with the bookkeeping in the office, which is now the staff lunchroom. Payroll records were cumbersome, not yet computerized, and the membership files were still in giant ledger books with hand-written entries for patronage dividends.
Ah, those were the days' The work is still challenging, never a dull moment, and I love the variety of personalities that walks through the front doors.
----
The amazing thing about the Hornby Co-op has been the ability of management and staff to be so adapatable. For the Co-op to have survived and grown, and grown and grown, and yet to continue to provide winter service and also be a crucial resource in the bursting summer months is pure magic. Perhaps this success is because at heart our Co-op, a savvy retailer, is basically a family business.
The Board of Directors wishes to thank and commend Bob Cain for providing an extraordinarly photographic archive. To see more of his work visit: rcainphoto.com/blog
Ann Newdigate for the Board of Directors.
