For more than 40 years, we have been weaving together pieces of information into various forms of presentations, one of these being a tour.
Whether these are walking tours of a neighbourhood, a themed walk through a cemetery, or commentary on a bus or boat, they all entail a collection of stories, anecdotes and facts.
Sometimes the tour participant has to use imagination to "see" something being described. Sometimes the tour has a distinct focus, while other times it might be more general.
We have always aimed for our tours to be educational, entertaining and enjoyable - worth the time and effort to go for a two hour walk.
This year, we decided to prepare one in particular that had a new and creative scope. The tour would still have a solid basis of fact and accurate historical information, as do all our works, only this time we would add a feature - elements of historical fiction.
This tour, a cemetery walk, will overlay a series of characters, real people from the earliest days of New Westminster, interacting with a prominent person from local history.
In doing this we will take what we know of these local citizens from the early 1860s, and we know a great deal about them, and blend it into their meetings with the commanding officer of the Royal Engineers.
We enjoy good historical fiction and have been laying the groundwork for some future writing in that genre. It must be based in fact, appropriateness of period, and the overriding necessity of context for what the events portrayed.
In this new tour, we know clearly what the citizens were involved with, and we have a solid understanding of their day-today lives. We also know a lot about colonel Moody, the man who was the commanding officer of the col-umbia detachment.
In the new tour, there is no doubt in our minds that these folks would have chatted comfortably with the colonel. We can place them together at various times, in meetings, events, church services, social gatherings, concerts and so on. Our challenge was to imagine, based on what we know, what a conversation in our early city might have entailed. Was it a complaint about the governor? Was a project not proceeding properly? Was it complimentary about a musical evening?
If you enjoy historical fiction, send us an email to [email protected] and tell us your favourite title of that genre.
Interested in our new cemetery tour with this additional historical material? It is coming up on Sunday, April 28, starting at 1: 30 p.m. near the Fraser Cemetery Office at 100 Richmond St. The tour costs $10 per person, lasts about two hours, and goes rain or shine. Join us for a selection of "new" historical stories.
