I have memories of attending many a public function at the soon-to-be-demolished Delta Town & Country Inn, but it’s a visit for personal reasons a couple of decades ago that I recall most vividly.
When you combine a central location with plentiful gathering space, you get an amenity that’s a crucial piece of the city’s fabric, which is exactly what the old hotel at the junction of highways 17A and 99 has been for the past half-century. There’s no doubt it’s been showing its age in recent years, but if those ’80s-era drapes could talk, boy could they tell some stories.
The first time I can recall being at the Town & Country was for a Miss Delta pageant in the mid-1980s and the reason I remember that is because I decided to use the entrance north of the one by the old Shell gas station, which is otherwise known as the Steveston Highway exit. Once I got my bearings, I was back at the hotel all the time as it was the go-to place for all manner of gatherings, those of the political variety being the most memorable.
I can still recall school trustees, back when they had taxing powers, getting an earful from a standing room-only crowd of irate ratepayers in the late ’80s, which was around the same time Dr. Stan Wilbee bested Lois Jackson and others to win the federal Tory nomination.
Over the years I have attended all kinds of functions, from celebrations to mark the 100th anniversaries of both Ladner Pioneer May Days and the Delta Chamber of Commerce to some painfully long Hats Off to Excellence galas.
However, the memory I hold most dear, and the one I’m finally able to laugh about now, dates back to the summer of 1999 when the hotel was offering a swim and dine deal that got you use of its pool as well as a barbecue dinner. My son was about 18 months at the time, so we thought it would be a great idea to spend a sunny evening splashing about.
Everything was going swimmingly, that is until the projectile vomiting started, which, as you can imagine, was more than a little off-putting to everyone in the spray zone, which was on the patio, not in the pool, although that didn’t seem to make it any less mortifying for new parents.
The Town & Country will soon be gone, but I’ll have that memory forever.
