Pitt Meadows museum

The museum is one of Pitt Meadows' historic buildings - it used to be Roraph's general store, with the family living in the back and upstairs. Now it holds the history of the community - white settlement in the area dates back to the 1870s.

Whenever I visit, I check the "Miss Pitt Meadows" display. As a pupil at Pitt Meadows Elementary School in grades 3-6, I remember the excitement of the annual sports day - the parade, the ceremony, the rest... In my day, Miss PM was chosen by ballot from the oldest class in the elementary school, and her attendants came from the other classes, probably one from each class. I wonder how they were chosen the first time, in 1938 -
Interesting to see three Japanese names - I am always distressed to think that these families would have been moved, during World War II, to one of the eight internment camps in the BC interior, or perhaps even further east. About 22,000 people of Japanese origin lived in BC at the time, of whom three-quarters were born in Canada or had become Canadian citizens.

Across the road from the museum is another of Pitt Meadows' historic buildings, Hoffman's workshop, full of fascinating machines and tools -