On June 15, our provincial government lifted the restriction on traveling in BC. On June 16, Jen and I left for a two-day getaway to a town called Gibsons, in an area not far from Vancouver known as the Sunshine Coast.
Gibsons is best known to Canadians as the home of the most successful television drama ever produced in Canada. The Beachcombers ran on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s TV service for 19 years in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
One of the main settings for the show is the café Molly’s Reach. Drive into Gibson’s Landing (Lower Gibsons) today from the ferry, and there it is right in front of you: the iconic big yellow wall with “Molly’s Reach Welcome back” scrawled on it.
It’s a decent little diner. We ate there the first time we were in Gibsons last year and when back this year. Even though I was not a regular watcher of The Beachcombers, I still felt like I was participating in a slice of Canadian culture as I looked at the familiar images and memorabilia.
Then we learned that the building had been a liquor store when it was turned into a film set, and it was not until years after the show ended that Molly’s Reach actual became … a restaurant.
This should not have disappointed me. I already knew that, in the world of film, nothing is as it seems. And yet, I had assumed that it had been in reality what it was on TV.
Lesson 1: Reality is often (usually?) not what it appears to be.
Lesson 2: We can change things to align them more with what we envision and desire.
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