Some people use their bulletin boards for announcements and reminders, keeping them sparse and organized.
Not me.
Oh, my office bulletin board is full of reminders and schedules, but it is also full of memories. Removing everything in preparation for our move to a new-to-us building on Sept. 1, 2020 has been something of an archeological dig.
There was an “I Love PA” pin, and a “Worst Place to Live” bumper sticker (thanks for that, MoneySense Magazine). A Spirit of BC pin from the year the 2010 Winter Olympics happened and the torch run came through town. A white towel from the Alberni Valley Bulldogs’ playoff run in 2013. An invitation to a dress rehearsal for the Tin Pants Theatre, and the schedule for McLean Mill National Historic Site in 2011 when it featured the Tin Pants Theatre Troupe, Beaufort Gang train robberies, steam mill demonstrations and steam train rides.
There was an invitation to a Port Alberni Centennial event at the AV Museum in 2012, and an article about a young cousin of mine from Peterborough, Ont. and her fundraising feats.
There were Christmas and postcards, thank you cards and both lanyards and pins from past Heritage Fairs, which I really missed this year.
I had a black and white reproduction of a photo of myself in front of the giant rock at Percé, Quebec with a copy of the News’ fifth anniversary issue, for a feature we used to run. Embarrassingly, I cannot remember what we called the feature, although I think it was “Take Us Along.”
I discovered an absolute gem underneath four years of Black Sheep Rugby and city council meeting schedules: a photo of myself holding colleague Rachel Theus’ youngest son Erik at his baby shower. I uncovered the photo on Erik’s ninth birthday—it had been on my bulletin board since the first year we moved into our Margaret Street location.
On Sept. 1, we will start collecting new memories at our third location since we printed our first-ever edition on Aug. 25, 2006. We are moving to 4918 Napier Street, where we will share a building with Houle Printing.
If the address sounds familiar, it’s because the building was once home to another newspaper, the daily AV Times, which closed in 2015. Although our parent company, Black Press Media, owned the AV Times for about six months, we were never the same newspaper.
There are already some interesting mysteries to learn about our new home, which once housed a printing press. There used to be a giant safe that is an unusable relic from another era. There is a glass door labeled “Sun Editorial” that we are told comes with a story, and I can’t wait to find out what it is.
Now the big question is whether I put some of these old memories back up once the bulletin board is relocated in our new building, or do I start with a clean slate?
Susie Quinn is the Alberni Valley News editor.