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Published: August 23rd 2011
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For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com November 9th, 1985. A week before my 4th birthday, and I was boarding a plane to Abbotsford BC, perhaps the first backpacking venture of my life, to visit Chicken Grandma & Grandpa. I was in the company of a 2nd cousin or distant aunt that I wasn’t familiar with. But with Theodore (my companion Teddy Bear since birth) by my side, I was unafraid.
My visit coincided with my Grandparents building a new house on a recently purchased piece of property in Abbotsford, an hour’s drive from Vancouver on the west coast of British Columbia. They had just sold the chicken farm in a nearby community, leading us to dub them ‘Chicken Grandma and Grandpa’. The setting of their new home was stunning, on a hilltop with a vantage point looking across the border into the US, and morning sunrises over majestic Mount Baker in Washington State providing the backdrop to breakfasts in their new kitchen.
I have few memories of that childhood trip, but the ones I do have are vivid. I remember boarding the plane with Theodore, celebrating my birthday with one
of Grandma’s trademark bunny rabbit cakes, and of course the story that my Grandma loves to recall the most. Supposedly when I arrived, I politely informed Grandma that I needed my ‘Magilla Gorilla’ coloring book from a previous visit. When she couldn’t find it, I calmingly approached a shelf, pointed to the correct drawer, and in there she found it. Finally, I also remember meeting Kefyalew, an Ethiopian refugee that my Grandparents sponsored to Canada, who was staying in their home at the time. This is a good example that illustrates my Grandparents sense of compassion, and dedication to the Lutheran Church.
Throughout my childhood, my Grandparents did the 1100km drive from Abbotsford to Edmonton once or twice per year, and their arrival was always so exciting, it rivaled Christmas morning. As our parents forced us to go out and ‘help Grandpa haul things in’, my 2 sisters and I would sneak peaks and sometimes even tastes of the countless buckets of fresh baking and goodies that Grandma would bring for us. Every morning during their stay, I would wake to the smell of fresh brewed coffee and Grandma’s homemade jams spread on toast. Having once lived in Edmonton,
Grandma and Grandpa would pass their visits socializing with relatives and old friends, and Grandpa would hit up auctions all over the province until his truck would be full of antiques and machines to take home for his impressive collection.
Grandma and Grandpa came from humble backgrounds. My Grandpa’s father was among several thousand Germans whose ancestors had migrated from Russia to Nebraska, America. Encountering discrimination from other German’s in the US due to their Russian background, a group of 600 Germans set out and established themselves in the region of Luseland, Saskatchewan. It was in Saskatchewan that my great-Grandfather owned a repair shop from the early 40s to the early 60s. In recent years, my Grandpa has built a perfect replica of that garage on their land in Abbotsford, and he uses it to house his grand collection of antiques, restored gas pumps, and motors. The centerpiece in the shop is the Kembel gas truck from those days, perfectly restored and drivable.
Grandpa loves to show off his antique goods. During my recent visit, he opened cupboard upon cupboard; “this is a cream separator”, “this is a set of letterboxes from the 1930s”, “this is a rare
Esso can from 1922”, etc. In fact, at the Abbotsford County Fair, my Grandpa has been known for his cream separating displays, where he serves ice cream to customers. Grandma always tries to remind Grandpa to start getting rid of some of his stuff, but for now, the garage remains stuffed full.
After Saskatchewan, my grandfather came to Edmonton for work, where he met my Grandma who, coincidentally, was another German from Saskatchewan. He swooned her, and in 1954 they tied the knot. Work on a tunnel under the Fraser river in Vancouver then brought my Grandpa to the west coast, and from there he went on to work with machinery, then work at Safeway, a Canadian grocery store, and finally purchase the chicken farm.
In 1968, my grandparents purchased a shared seaside lot on Galiano Island, the first Gulf Island that you pass on the ferry ride to Victoria (Vancouver Island), for a mere $5000. Then my Grandpa built ‘The Cabin’, a classic Canadian log house that is so refreshing and wonderful to visit that it has attained a sort of divine status within our extended family. Any new girlfriend or boyfriend is only fully initiated to
the Kembel Family once they have visited The Cabin.
Galiano is a pleasant and scenic little gem, famous for it’s white shell beach, incredible views over the gulf islands, and wildlife such as deer that are so comfortable with humans you can practically approach them. As a child, and on my recent visit as well, I enjoyed jumping off the various fishing docks of Galiano, spotting seals resting on the coast, and prying sea stars off the rocks in front of our cabin. Currently, my uncle Brad owns the cabin, and is kind enough to allow visits to the family.
In their retirement years, Grandma and Grandpa have developed a strong passion for researching Kembel genealogy. They have traveled as far as the US, Germany, and even Argentina to research our family history and attend genealogy conferences. For the latter country, they learned that a group of German Kembels had made their way from Russia to South America. They got in contact with a ‘Juan Carlos Kembel’, a sort of Spanish speaking version of my Dad, and flew all the way down to meet his family and tour the country with them. In return, the Argentinians flew to
Canada to visit us and our family.
My Grandpa has developed a family tree that contains no less than 7500 people, and when printed, is 37 pages (over 30 feet) long times 3 pages wide. Ask him about it and you will get no short answer, and if you are lucky he will even fire up the old computer to show you how he inputs new family members into the system. Grandpa has traced our ancestors to a small village called Kolb on the Volga River in Russia. Kolb was among a hundred or so villages of Germans who migrated to Russia upon invitation by the Catherine the Great, a German Empress of Russia, in 1763. My Grandma has also taken the time to write and publish her own autobiography, where I got some of the old photos you can see on this blog.
Being a travel blog, I cannot fail to mention that my Grandparents are also great travelers. Their journeys have taken them to Hawaii, Guatemala, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Germany, Egypt, Israel, Malaysia, and Singapore, not to mention roadtripping throughout Canada and the US. Perhaps it comes with no surprise that I have followed
My Grandma's Parents
Photo from my Grandma's Autobiography in their footsteps. I am sure that as you read about my Grandparents and their achievements, you can understand a little better where I come from.
This summer I was back in Canada for the first time in 2 years, and I decided to spent half my stay in BC because it is so scenic, and so that I could spent time with my family. It was Grandpa’s 80th birthday, and for this special occasion the entire Kembel extended family gathered, which is quite a rare occasion. Even Emily, from Taiwan, got to meet Grandma, Grandpa, and my whole family for the first time.
For me, all of my memories of BC, which included most of our family trips as children, are tied to my grandparents. As a child I always looked to BC with awe, because that is where we holidayed, that is where the landscapes are some of the most magical and surreal in all of Canada, and more than anything, that is where Grandma and Grandpa live.
I wrote this blog in honor of my Grandpa’s 80th birthday, and for both my loving Grandparents, who have inspired me and made me cry at every
Visiting Grandma & Grandpa on my 4th birthday
Including Theodore the teddy bear, and my favorite Magilla Gorilla coloring book departure since I can remember. Who knows, maybe some day I will still fulfill my childhood dream of moving out to BC to live with Chicken Grandma and Grandpa.
I love you Grandma & Grandpa!
For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com Click to Page 2 for more pictures!
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Valerie Adams
non-member comment
How delightful!
Just tripped over your blog, Nick. I went to school with your Uncle Brad in Burnaby and remember your grandparents well. So lovely to see the whole family - the Kembel brothers, the cabin, the Chicken Farm... And nice to "meet" you too. Kind regards from Melbourne Australia - Valerie Adams