Tej Kainth lives in the here and now, but if given the chance to take a trip back to the 1980s, she’d go in a heartbeat.
Kainth, executive director of Tourism New Westminster, was born in New West in 1981 – the same year the Record started publishing in the Royal City.
“I really miss that time. I’d love to go back,” she said. “If I had a time machine I’d go back to the ’80s.”
The youngest of five kids, Kainth loved hanging out with her older sisters and their friends – even if they weren’t too keen on the tag-along little sister. As a kid, she remembers playing California kickball and baseball and creating a relay route through the West End with neighbourhood kids. Next door neighbours, known as Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy, would bring out crackers and cheese, peanut butter sandwiches and lemonade for Kainth and her pals.
Along with the playground at Grimston Park, Kainth remembers a garden on the south side of the park facing Sixth Avenue.
“They used to have a beautiful bed of flowers that said Welcome to New Westminster. It was facing the bridge,” she says. “I used to adore that growing up.
I thought it was the most beautiful thing. I was only five or six years old. It was gorgeous.”
As a kid it was exciting to visit an aunt who worked on McBarge during Expo 86, but Kainth has fond memories of family outings closer to home including visits to Army and Navy (which always included a frosted malt),Woodward’s and movies at New West Cinemas in Westminster Mall. Playing in Queensborough after attending prayers at the Sikh temple was always fun for Kainth.
“Back then, there was so much agriculture there. There were farm animals,” she says. “We would be in our Indian suits and we’d have our heads covered. After we’d pray, everyone would go to eat, and me and my cousins would run out and start looking at the horses and chickens.”
On days when she wasn’t at the temple, Kainth was likely sporting Transformers and Care Bears attire, listening to Roxette, New Kids on the Block or DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and watching shows like Out of This World, Today’s Special and WWF with wrestlers like Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior.
Kainth attended Lord Tweedsmuir from kindergarten to midway through Grade 5,when her family moved to the other side of 12th Street and she started attending Lord Kelvin Elementary School. A self-described tomboy who loved basketball and track and field, Kainth ran for May Queen when she was in Grade 6.
“I just did it because it was a dare,” she says. “That was probably the first time I had to wear a dress.”
Attending May Day, says Kainth, was a “huge thing” for kids growing up in New Westminster.
“May Day was a big thing growing up, doing the folk dance, the maypole, the relays,” she says. “We used to have relay races. Those were so much fun.”
Kainth, who was New Westminster’s 123rd May Queen in 1993, was the first South Asian elected as May Queen.
“For my parents and the community, that was a big thing for us,” she says. “I knew it was tradition, and to be involved and be a part of something that was so valued in our community was a huge honour to be a part of.”
Kainth, a former Royal City Record delivery girl, now lives downtown in a condo overlooking the Fraser River and Westminster Pier Park. As much as she loves travelling down Memory Lane, she loves that there’s “an abundance of activities” taking place in all parts of the city these days.
“It really is a fun city,” she says. “We really have some fun programs going on and incredible restaurants to check out and some upscale bars too. There’s this new wave of energy and people that is nice to see. It’s nice to wake up, have your coffee on your porch and see how packed Westminster Pier Park is.”
Kainth also likes knowing that today’s youngsters in New West are making memories they’ll treasure in the years to come.
“Coming to downtown New Westminster, growing up in the 1980s, I still get that nostalgic feeling sometimes when I am walking by the Army and Navy,” she says.
“But what it has transformed into – these are memories that this next generation is going to be enjoying.”
To view the Record's 35th anniversary special section, check out your Oct. 27, 2016 issue or go to www.newwestrecord.ca and go to Special Publications and click on The 80s in New West - The Record hits 35
