By Elida Peers
One of the neat things about working on the movie of Woodside Farm is viewing the historic photographs that have turned up.
Right now haying is going on at Woodside, if you look on West Coast Road as you drive between Whiffin Spit Road and John Muir School. So perhaps it’s a good time to introduce Sooke readers to the spanking new barn that was built in 1932 for Arnold Glinz.
Today it’s been repainted and re-roofed and looks just about as good as it did in 1932.
Earlier Muir barns had served the farm for many years , but when the owners who came after Muirs, Arnold and Rosa Glinz, developed the farm into a prosperous dairy and cheese-making enterprise, they needed a barn that could meet the standards of the 1930s.
The image shows the barn interior; it was built by Bert Russell, a carpenter whose work is represented in a number of Sooke homes of that time.
Besides the gleaming new stanchions in this photo, one can see plank tables set up in the barn for the feast that was prepared for Sooke friends to join in the celebrations.
The abundance of farm produce, and rich baking done by Mrs Glinz and the hired girls, soon adorned those tables.
We understand that a barn dance took place as well, before the hay was lifted into the loft; this was talked about for years, by all the Sooke neighbours fortunate enough to attend.
Sunday dinners at the farm soon became a draw for Victoria folk, who would come out via tour buses for chicken dinners with strawberry shortcake dessert. Dinners cost 75 cents.
When we get the movie finished next year, one story tells of three little girls, Nan Seymour, Muriel Gettle and Marjorie Horwood, who were taken to tea at Woodside as a treat, and how Mrs. Glinz taught them how to eat meringues like ladies. Muriel, now in Burnaby in her 90s, tells the story with a chuckle.
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Elida Peers is the historian of Sooke Region Museum.