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In 1953, I had to have that "certain" car, so I took a second job as a car hop for Chick Chamberlain at the Tomahawk Barbecue. My hours were Sunday, 8:00 pm to 12 midnight, Mondays & Wednesdays, 9:00 pm to 1:00 am at $1.00 an hour.
The Tomahawk was located on a dirt and gravel lot on the south west corner of Marine Drive and Phillip Ave. It consisted of two rooms and an attached ivy-covered shed. The front had a counter with about a dozen fixed swivel back stools which faced a wood-burning fireplace at counter height. The centre stools were warm but it sure became colder as you moved to the outside stools. It was dark and the walls around the fireplace held all Chick's native carvings, etc. This front area was for the tourists.
The back room, nice and bright, had a counter with about six or eight stools facing a large sawdust-burning stove where Chick performed his magic beating the hamburger flipper in time to the juke box. This was for the regulars, like "old Dunc" who turned up every night after shift in his smelly old bone-dry covered in sawdust, riding his old bike with the large steel carrier.
The car hop spent most of his time in the attached shed (dripping when raining) making milkshakes, setting up trays and keeping the wood box and sawdust pails full. The drive-in area was poorly lighted and when you approached a car, you shuffled your feet on the gravel as many were with someone they shouldn't have been with or were "smooching". Tips were not a standard and once in a while you were handed a beer.
Chick used to have people take him up on his offer, "Eat Five Dagwood Hamburgers ($0.50 each) and the sixth one was free. He provided free bottles of Orange Crush to all the challengers and of course they became full on the pop. His wife, Jessie, a wonderful woman, made all those famous Tomahawk pies.
At the end of the evening, while we all cooked our own hamburgers, Chick would regale us with tales such as keeping a pot of pea soup all during the Depression, 5 cents a bowl or free, about lots for sale in Capilano for $200-300. (He had the city and/or district notices) and a large street plan for the future. It indicated the present Marine Drive as a one-way street, east to west. The second drive, west to east, was to be located to the south, right where the new Tomahawk Barbecue exists today.
Several years later, the likes of Murray Dykeman, Gordon Soderstrom, Bill Dench and myself became "regulars". I spotted a new female one day, ask the waitress, Gurmie Teja, to find out her name and telephone number. Joyce and I were married in 1955. Send us your memory!
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