I (I The Prince George Citizen - Monday, July 28,1997 - 11 CITY DESK: Mark Allan 562-2441, Local 382 FAX: 562-7453 Community AIRSHOW BOREDOM? NO CHANCE! Mrs. Dombierer remembers it all... Member of pioneer family has been here for nearly all of her 90 years by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff Susan Dombierer is about as true a living pioneer of Prince George that you could hope to meet. She came here as a seven-year-old in 1915 — the same year Prince George was officially incorporated. She’s survived through all those mayors and city councils, and lived to see her favorite community rise from a village of less than 500 to a thriving city and gateway to the northern half of B.C. At 90 years old, she’s less active physically, but don’t try and stump her mentally. Her mind and memory are sharp. “I get my albums out once in while. I cry and I laugh. So many memories... “I raised three boys. They all wanted to play hockey,” but never did they have such a facility as the Multiplex, she said. “I just cried with joy at seeing it. I just stood there in the awe and wonderment to think I’d live to see something like that.” Don’t even talk to Susan about such foolish ideas as the waste of taxpayers’ dollars when it comes to the new Civic Centre, Multiplex or aquatic centre. “I just say, ‘Don’t be so doggone. . . You haven’t raised children or you just don’t give a darn,” said Susan, the daughter of local pioneers Marie and John Assman, who arrived here from Edmonton with five children and produced five more for raising in this community. “We travelled on the Grand Trunk Pacific (which had reached Prince George a year before in 1914). The seats were hard, wooden benches, and the train stopped at every water tower to take on water. During stops my dad would milk the cow and feed the chickens we brought with us,” Susan recalled. Citizen photo by Dave Milne Susan Dombierer, a true patriot and pioneer of Prince George, can recall clearly the Grand Trunk Pacific, silent movies and a 1930s influenza epidemic. “My mother could make soup out of stone. We always had food.” she said. She recalls (nose first years in Prince George, living in a “shack” at Fifth Avenue and Gillett Street in an “all bush area” with a rickety wooden sidewalk leading all the way downtown from the Central area. The Assman children attended “a little log school house” in Central Fort George (located in the vicinity of Spruceland and the Bypass down to the Nechako River). She’s been around since Sir Wilfrid Laurier was prime minister of Canada and movies were silent, but for local music played in the “pit.” She’s lived through two world wars, Korean and Persian Gulf wars, the Depression and an influenza epidemic in Prince George “during the dirty 30s” that claimed many lives in “the old hospital,” she said, referring to a forerunner of the Prince George Regional Hospital. “I remember my mother making soup and taking it to the sick. But she never got sick nor did any of our family. “There were no radios or televisions, so some news we never heard. Most was by word of mouth. For the longest time we didn’t know what the First World War was all about.” Her late husband, August, worked for the city for 34 years during which he served as fire chief for about 30 years, and whose career footsteps would be followed by Harold and then Michael, who’s the present fire chief. Between the four, son Eric, a school teacher in Chilliwack, and daughter Eldrid Henderson, they’ve given Susan nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. They’ll celebrate her birthday in a relaxed family setting on Aug. 6. “I just hope I make it till then,” said Susan with an impish smile. To FIND AN ANSWER, YOU MAY NEED TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES. Hard line statements won't get us any closer to developing workable solutions for British Columbia's forest-based economy. To find the answer, we all need to work together. And be informed. At the Forest Alliance of British Columbia, we believe it is possible to have both economic stability and environmental protection. But we need your support. Join HERE and NOW Native Games The North American Indigenous Games in Victoria Aug. 3 to 10 will involve 4,500 athletes and 2,500 cultural participants from around the world. This largest youth gathering in North America will welcome 27 teams participating in 16 sports as well as traditional events like Arctic sports, hoop dancing and war canoe races. Since the number of participants will double that of the 1994 Commonwealth Games, this celebration of sport and culture will leave an indelible mark on the capital city, said Jan Pullinger, B.C. minister responsible for sports. To launch the Games with a traditional Coast Salish welcome, more than 50 traditional oceangoing canoes powered by hundreds of a paddlers will converge in the Inner Harbor at 9 a.m. Aug. 3 following a 1,000-kilome-tre expedition from Fort Rupert. A cultural village in Sidney will feature B.C. First Nations arts and crafts plus nightly shows by indigenous groups including performers from U.S., Japan, Australia and New Zealand. For tickets and more information call 250-381-NAIG. Leisure pool Visit the Four Seasons Leisure Pool for a summer of spectacular splash days. There’s a wide variety of daily activities. You can join the pool staff Monday, Wednesday and Friday for programmed theme day games and activities. There’s Monday Madness from 2 to 4 p.m., Wacky Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Fabulous Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information call 561-7636. Dance slated The Senior Activity Centre holds a dance Aug. 9 at 425 Brunswick St. Doors open at 7 p.m., dancing runs from 8 to midnight. Music is by the Canadian Capers. Admission is $7 at the door. Everyone 19 and older is welcome. For information phone 564-3287. Tennis lessons Leisure Services along with Wendy’s Restaurant and Coca Cola are please to offer junior lessons for children aged 6 to 14. Lessons will be geared to the beginner and advanced beginner levels, and there are lessons for different age groups. Lessons will continue until the week of Aug. 18. Call leisure services at 561-7633 for when lessons will be at a court near you. Art gallery The Prince George Art Gallery holds a basket-weaving lecture and workshop Aug. 10 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the art gallery. It costs $30 per family or members $20 per family. For information phone 563-6447. Teen crisis line The Teen Crisis Line holds volunteer training Aug. 15 to 17. If you’re interested, pick up an application form at 1306 Seventh Ave. For information phone 564-5736. us. And have a voice in the most important issue facing British Columbians today. Call 1-800-567-TREE (8733). 11 LOGGING IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. PERIOD.// SMA71839 FOREST ALLIANCE of BRITISH COLUMBIA Common sense. Common ground. www.forest.org The noise, the speed, the sights. Something for every taste by KEN BERNSOHN Citizen Staff People found a lot of different things to like at the Prince George Airshow Saturday and Sunday. Some liked the jets. Others liked the historical aircraft. Some were fascinated by flight. Some liked the chance to laze in the sun and be entertained. And John Christiansen especially liked the button he got at the Canadian Forces recruiting booth. Don Wilkins was impressed by the B-17 Flying Fortress. One of his friends, now retired Conservation Officer Milt Warren, had flown Lancasters in the Second World War, then transferred to B-17s. “We’re really here because our 10-year-old son, Bill, wants to become a jet pilot,” said Don’s wife, Kathryn. Kimberley Inkster and Iain Stedeford were at the show for the first time with their youngsters, Myles Inkster, Kristy Inkster, Brice Inkster and Matthew Stedeford. “It’s an excellent day,” Iain said. The kids liked the speed and noise of the jets while the adults enjoyed the day together with the kids in the sun with so much to see. Mayor Colin Kinsley, a pilot himself, was easy to sell on the airshow. “I am very much enthralled by airplanes. I got my flight training here at the airport,” he said. “On Friday I flew in the front turret of the B-17 on take off and landing and in the bombardier’s seat as we did a mock bomb run over city hall,” Kinsley added. Lt. Michael Isiah of the U.S. Navy was at the airshow with the P-3 Orion. But he spent a lot of time clambering into and around the B-17. “It’s the first time I’ve ever been in one,” he said. For Isiah, the trip to Prince George was a special treat. His squadron is based in Hawaii. “This is the first airshow we’ve done since we came backs from the Persian Gulf in’May, and boy, is it wonderful. Everyone in the squadron wanted to come.” For Dave Wilson, who recently retired as the chief administrator of the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, the B-17 Texas Raiders, built in 1944, brought back memories of his youth. “Like every kid in school in the 1940s lain Stedeford, Kimberley Inkster and their children Myles, Kristy, Brice and Matthew find a bit of shade under the U.S. Navy’s P-3 Orion. I grew up with it. I’ve drawn that plane more times than most people have spit, like other kids in school when I was,” Wilson said. He also liked the CF-18 Hornet and the F-117 Stealth which did a flyby Saturday, looking like a prop from Star Wars. Jan Christiansen, at the show with his son John, 6, took a different approach. “I come for the ground displays,” Jan said. And for John, his favorite thing was the button he got when he visited the Canadian Forces recruiting display. More than 200 people dropped by the recruiting booth over the two days, according to Petty Officer Second Class James M. Shepherd. The members of St. John Ambulance and the B.C. Ambulance Service volunteering their time at the show said they had little business, and nothing serious. “I’m just a kid when it comes to air-shows,” Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Dick Harris said Sunday. “I especially like the Stearman (biplane). I can see myself in the open JOHN CHRISTIANSEN: Button ISIAH WILSON cockpit trailing a white scarf,” said the Reform MP. “This is fantastic.” Mike Hanson especially liked the F-14A Tomcat, which took off Sunday to return home after being a static display Saturday, because after making a couple of passes over the airshow crowd, it went straight up and up and up and up, disappearing into the sky before heading south to California. Kent Le Fleur summed up the attitude of a lot of people who were stretched out on the grass or lazed back in lawn chairs. “It’s nice to have a relaxing afternoon in the sun with so much to watch,” he said. But for Brandee Honkanen, 8, Chad Bryce, 12, and Josh Honkanen, 11, the day was a combination of fun things, from jet action and an airplane to helicopter transfer in the sky to free cake from the Prince George Kidney Club next to the kidzone. More photos, page 21