Heritage Week

Where Do You Find Heritage?

The theme for this year’s BC Heritage Week is “where do you find heritage?” and the PoCo Heritage and we wanted to hear from you! Was asked our community where they find heritage whether it be in stories they share with their community, dishes cooked together as a family, your parent’s old house, or anywhere else you might find it. Well, the community responded and we would love to highlight some of their answers.

We would like to thank everyone who participated and look forward to many Heritage Weeks to come!

Heritage Art J.Schmidt J. Schmidt Meg McLaughlin Karen Hein Victoria Pitsiaeli

Discover PoCo’s Heritage Art!

If you want to find some of PoCo’s heritage in unexpected places, we have just the thing for you! Scattered throughout downtown PoCo are various pieces of

art and many of them have themes from PoCo’s history! For example, did you know that a painting of our old

city hall is painted on a box just behind our

new city hall?

You can find this and other heritage art on our Heritage Art Walk! The route will take you on a loop starting behind the Leigh Square Community Arts Village leading your through downtown, along the PoCo Traboulay Trail and finally back to the Museum. Parks, paths, history and heritage; what’s not to love!

We’re always happy to hear more stories as well. If you would like to send us your story of where you find heritage, please send an email to [email protected] and you might just be featured on this page!

Rhymes of Times:

My Garden Connects Me To My Past

(Where Do I Find Heritage)

Julie Schmidt Feb 8, 2021 Copyright

My yard connects me to my past

With so many memories that last and last

My apple tree wins the prize for seniority

Transplanted from the yard of my childhood family

Its apples are small but crisp and so good

Now its days are numbered by a crack in its wood

It must surely be seventy or eighty years

And thoughts of its demise cause shedded tears

A windstorm felled a sister tree onto its branches

And tall evergreens shade it, reducing its chances

As soon as my crocuses appear

I know the time is very near

When my rhubarb will pop out from the ground

Reminding me of my Heritage Friend no longer around

Each Spring my husband’s aunt’s purple lilacs bloom

Filling the bedroom above it with pleasant perfume

A special message of reassurance to all around

Your warmth seeking veggies can now

go in the ground

My grandfather’s rhododendron turns the front yard deep pink

One of a few broadleaf evergreens trees I think

We have a few evergreens grown from potted Xmas trees

That overcame transplant stress moved from our hot home to winter freeze

Our son distributed saplings on his wedding day

Hoping to make the world a greener place to play

My garden takes me back to when he was only three

And climbed to the top of a much too tall tree!

Memories attached to emotions are memories that stick

Trying to hide panic I pleaded, “get down here real quick”

Rhymes of Times: Where Do You Find Heritage?

Julie Schmidt Feb 7, 2021 Copyright

Heritage Heritage everywhere I look

Of Heritage I could write a book

Fifty five years living in the same home

If only I’d moved and loved to roam

My grandfather gave us his Queen Ann Oak dining room table

And at the one century mark it still remains remarkably stable

It’s been our only table where we eat

And served as our package drop off point and a workbench to boot

I still appreciate its delicate lines

And all the memories it holds of holiday times.

The chairs needed regluing at one time

But the leather seats have weathered just fine.

I think it’s safe for me to say

They don’t make them like they used to today

From my Aunt, I have tartan skirts, scarf and dainty tea cup

I think of her fondly as I drink my tea up

Both sets of our parents have now passed on

But some of their belongings are here not gone

We eat off my parents good China each day

As it doesn’t make sense to just store it away

The Family Bible made a detour

So now its whereabouts is obscure

The Schmidt Family Story of generations past

Has been digitized so it will last

The Mennonites brought it with them on their sea voyage long ago

They had to pay a head tax so the government would know

Just who was born to whom and when

So it held a different meaning back then

My grandmother’s gold watch I plan to pass on

To my granddaughter five generations along

And I hope that she too will do the same

So forevermore in the family it’ll remain.

Where do you find heritage?

Heritage in Unexpected Places

I’ve moved a lot throughout my life and have gained and lost things along the way. But some of the
items I still have with me are part of my heritage. Perhaps many of them have more meaning to me
because I have personal stories of how I came to have them.
In the dining room of my parent’s home in Pointe Claire, a suburb of Montreal, there was an oak dining
room set. My mother always spoke disparagingly about it because she said it was poor post war stuff, all
she could get before they left England in the early ‘50s. She must have been eager to get rid of it
because she sold the buffet to the daughter of a next door neighbor. Well, that daughter moved out to
BC and gave the buffet to me.

It is now part of my dining room furniture. I like the fact that it is plain and
understated but full of stories.
After my father passed, it came

time to divide up the rest of my parent’s household goods. There was

artwork and framed photos and other bits and bobs.

I looked for one thing on the inventory that wasn’t there. I could

remember finding a spoon in the back of a kitchen drawer once when we were preparing a

meal with extended family. It was a heavy dark old spoon but it stuck in my memory. Something told me
that there was a story behind that spoon. So I asked after it when the items were divvied up.
I received a huge box full of items and those Styrofoam peanuts. There among all the other stuff I
received from the estate was that dark old spoon. After a coating of Silvo and much rubbing it shone and
the engraving on it became clear. There was an interesting story behind that spoon. It was a silver spoon
made to commemorate the ordination of Thomas Strange when he became a minister in 1753. It just
goes to show that you can find heritage even in the back of a kitchen drawer!

The Search for Heritage

Heritage is all around us. You can find it in the fine artwork that is around Port Coquitlam. In my
own home, I have paintings passed down from my Grandmother that she drew. She was very crafty. I
have a figurine of a lady that is from the 1800’s. It used to be my Great-Aunt Grace’s. Over the year’s I
have acquired my mom’s leftover knick-knacks such as: a tiger, a fish, and 3 ceramic statues that she
painted back when ceramics were popular. My Aunt Do started a fine china dish collection for me at age
12. I still have it. I have only used it once. My Aunt Eve gave me a Royal Albert complete dish set, but I
put it in consignment because I had no where to store it. I received my Uncle Bill’s handpainted walking
stick when he passed away. I received my Grandparent’s 1942 Webster’s Dictionary. I love books so this
was a great thing for me. I, myself have a collection of comic books, which I plan to hand down to my
nephews.
Another place to find heritage is in the trees and other plants that are growing. The Poco
Museum collects artifacts, and stories about times gone by. My mom and I once volunteered for the
PoMo heritage Society. We got to dress up in heritage costumes for heritage days. My cousin had an
overwhelming collection of old tools. And of course there is the photo albums. I also have the family
tree book that goes back to the 1600’s.

I find heritage everywhere, including my personal history. This year I researched my family from Cyprus and found an interesting connection between this and the history of Canadian peacekeepers.