Ruby Petrie

Ruby was a school stenographer living in Coquitlam when her husband Roy persuaded her to retire and move to Tulameen in 1979.

The family had always picnicked and camped in Tulameen partly because Roy's brother Barry had a cabin in the area. But to move there was a different thing for Ruby to consider. Five years earlier Roy bought a pie shaped piece of property right on the edge of Tulameen, beside a lane that ran to the lake. There was, and still is, an old miner's cabin on the property. Roy had been going back and forth from the coast to the Tulameen property. But now he wanted to live in Tulameen permanently!

Tulameen at this time (1979) consisted of a small number of cabins on Otter Lake with very few conveniences like electricity and indoor toilets.

The property Roy had bought used to be a drive-in cafe. All the equipment to run the Totem Away was still there and the people of Tulameen (especially the women) encouraged them to re-open. So re-open they did! And before Ruby knew it she was very busy cooking hamburgers, hot dogs, fish & chips, and serving milkshakes.

Their customers were the permanent residents, "summer people" and especially the teenagers who loved not only the food but hanging around the Totem Away drive-in. People who were driving by thought the property was a park and asked if they could picnic on it. Ponies and horses that roamed the area grazed freely on their grass.

Ruby said, "it was not unusual to be pushing hamburgers out to waiting hands in the dark and at the same time entertaining their friends in their back yard around a camp fire". In the evening, when there were no more customers, Roy and Ruby went dancing with their friends. At that time these monthly dances were very popular and well attended and featured live bands.

Ruby's connection with this area is not only through her husband Roy and their business. Her Grandfather Herbert Jones emigrated from Australia to Hedley in 1903. He was the engineer for Hedley Mines. Unfortunately he died quite young after losing a leg in a mining accident and then contacting the flu in the Great Flu Epidemic of 1919. Ruby's great uncle, Gomar Jones was a mine manager. His home was what is now called the Colonial Inn. The lovely big old colonial style bed and breakfast you pass by on the road through Hedley.

Ruby's father, Herbert Jones, also became a Hedley mine engineer during the mid-twenties. She told me that the mines were often closed in the winter time. To make ends meet for their families, groups of men travelled to Otter Lake to cut ice for the railroad. Ruby's father, Herbert Jones was one of those men. They lived in box cars on the side of the road while they worked. The story goes that exclusive clubs like the Railway, Vancouver and Terminal clubs insisted on ice from Otter Lake for their drinks. Some of the buildings which were built to store the ice are still standing in the Tulameen area.

Ruby's mother's family emigrated from the United States to homestead in Keremeos. She met her husband at the weekly summer baseball games played in different towns throughout the area.

I asked Ruby if she ever went on the Kettle Valley Railroad. She said once when she was a small child she remembers traveling from Princeton to Vancouver.

Ruby still lives in Tulameen in a home built on part of the original property she and her husband purchased. She is a vivacious, lovely and humble woman. Ruby recently celebrated her 80th birthday. She acknowledges that the air and beauty of Tulameen keeps her healthy. She is very active and social in the community. Ruby plays crib and bridge weekly at the Tulameen Community Club Centre. She golfs in the summer and just recently gave up bowling. When I asked if there was anything else she said, "Don't forget my sense of humor!"

Ruby's final comment was that she is now so grateful that her husband made her move to Tulameen, British Columbia.