When Stan Fryer and his family moved to the White Rock-South Surrey area in the 1930s, it was all summer cottages and trees.
Born in 1926 in Moose Jaw, Sask., the White Rock resident, now 98 years old, recalled moving with his family — he, his parents and four brothers crammed into an old Chevy — to South Surrey when he was about 10, in 1936.
"I remember the first time seeing the water ... I jumped out of the car and ran into the water with my clothes on. We all did," Fryer remembered with a grin while sitting in the café area at Peace Portal Church Wednesday afternoon.
His first school was Crescent Park Annex, a one-room schoolhouse in South Surrey, and he was one of the first students at Semiahmoo Secondary, built in 1940.
"We were really surprised when they built the school on top of the hill," he noted.
Fryer left school at the age of 15 (Grade 9) to work for Canadian Pacific Airlines during the Second World War, dismantling aircraft for more than a year before working at the YMCA, where he met his wife, Shirley, before he became a genuine milk man in 1950, delivering milk directly to people's West Vancouver homes in glass jars each morning. But not in a milk truck.
"I was the last person to drive a horse ... to take a horse and cart," Fryer said, remembering how, in cold weather, the milk would "freeze up and pop the lid."
About to turn 99 years old this July, Fryer — who took up track and field at the age of 80 and still dances at least twice a week — is as active as ever.
He plays pickleball on a weekly basis, and also, teaches newcomers to the sport, described by many in recent years as the fastest-growing sport in North America. Fryer plays and instructs in the gym at Peace Portal Church in South Surrey on Wednesdays, noting anyone is welcome; players don't need to belong to the congregation.
Certified as a pickleball instructor by the founding member of both Pickleball Canada and BC Pickleball Charles (Chuck) Lefaive, Fryer got into pickleball in his 70s, while he was also being a caregiver to his wife after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
They met when he was working as assistant physical director at the YMCA and ran the Saturday night dances.
An accomplished dancer himself, with experience in ballet and ballroom dance including Flamenco, among other styles, Fryer knew Shirley was the one, right away. And she knew he was.
"When I first danced with her, that's when I knew that this is the girl I was going to marry ... and she knew, too — she told me that later."
They married in 1948.
He and Shirley were married for more than 50 years before her diagnosis, and they retained a cherished closeness even as her memory diminished to the point where she could not recall events and incidents that had just occurred (the couple were the subject a short film, Before She’s Gone, made in 2016 by their grandson Arun and featured in the 2017 Vancouver Short Film Festival). Shirley passed in 2017.
"I was a caregiver for 18 years. Each night I would sing to Shirley, I'll Always Remember, the song they were playing the first time we danced," he noted. "You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about the world. You learn a lot about God and how he fits into your life."
He took up pickleball when Shirley was still alive, as he played tennis at the time and many of his friends had started getting into the sport.
"All of my friends encouraged me to come and play," he said, adding he's been teaching for more than 10 years now, estimating he's taught between 1,000 to 1,200 pickleball newcomers at Peace Portal Church.
"I remember bringing (Shirley) down here (while I was) teaching pickleball, and she would tell some of the students, 'That's my son up there, teaching."
He and Shirley moved all the way up to Kitimat early in their marriage, taking their two sons with them, when Fryer worked for the Hudson's Bay Company.
"All they had was a trading post," he remembered, adding he had to learn how to trade furs with the local First Nation residents of the region.
The moved back to South Surrey about 10 years later, to a home on Crescent Road, but Fryer said even then, which would have been the late 1950s or early 1960s, things were much different than today.
"To give you an example, when we lived on Crescent Road, we would park the car in the driveway and leave the keys in the car in the ignition," Fyer said with a chuckle. "That's how much it's changed ... the front door was wide open in the summertime."
Currently, Fryer resides in White Rock, and enjoys life "abundantly," participating in dances at the Kent Street Activity Centre and at the Elks Hall on a weekly basis, as well as teaching pickleball to newcomers on Wednesday afternoons.
"Pickleball is so much fun and I think the wonderful part is, helping people get into playing it — some of them have never played any sport, and to see them come in and they're a little afraid — and then they realize how much fun it is ... seeing the expression on their face."
He gets anywhere from two to 10 students at each lesson, people of all ages from all walks of life.
On Wednesday (Jan. 29), Cheryl Parsons was one of Fryer's returning students at the church, having heard of Fryer through her husband and his friend.
"So I came to this church and I met Stan for the first time — he showed me how to play and gave me all the rules on how to play pickleball — it's been about six weeks," she said. "I love it. I love it! It's so much fun," she said with a wide smile.
"I like learning new things, and playing with other people. It's really a lot of fun."
– with files from Alex Browne
