Our Lunch with Wanda

Since it was Sat­ur­day and the sun was out (a rare com­bi­na­tion if there ever was on in Van­cou­ver in Win­ter), we took a walk, and end­ed up on Granville Street, up near Mein­hardt’s. We had met with some­one ear­li­er and did­n’t have lunch, so we were a lit­tle hun­gry. We stopped and went into the nar­row lit­tle restau­rant that is run by Mein­hardts called ‘Pic­nic’, which offers some of their sal­ads, sand­wich­es and quich­es from a glass case at the front, and has seat­ing in the form of 3 or 4 tables for two and a large, mar­ble-topped pic­nic-style table that runs rough­ly half the length of the room. We took our seats, the two of us next to each oth­er on the bench, and were just about to dig into a lunch of Endive Sal­ad, Chick­en Sausage roll (in my case) and Yam sal­ad, when Pam’s eyes go wide and her jaw drops. Across from us, about to sit down right in front of Pam, is Nan­cy Robert­son, who is the woman who plays “Wan­da” in the Cana­di­an TV sit­com “Cor­ner Gas”. I knew that Ms. Robert­son and her hus­band (and cre­ator of the show), Brent Butt, were both Van­cou­ver res­i­dents and lived near­by, but this was the first time we’d ever run into any of the cast.

It’s impor­tant to note that Pam is a Cor­ner Gas Fan. Actu­al­ly, she’s more than a fan. She’s a big fan. As in not ever miss­ing an episode (and thank good­ness for the TiVo, we don’t have to rush home to catch it when it’s on).

After let­ting Nan­cy eat her lunch and read her Geor­gia Straight, Pam could­n’t hold back any longer and said what an hon­our it was to meet her. We chat­ted for a lit­tle while, and Nan­cy was very gra­cious, and hope­ful­ly not too put upon. We not­ed that it was a nice thing for her to be able to get a vaca­tion, and she relat­ed the shoot­ing sched­ule (4 1/2 months) in Saskatchewan, where the series takes place. She told us that the series was being released in the US this com­ing Sep­tem­ber, and Aus­tralia as well. I’m hop­ing it’s a hit in the US, part­ly because it will be nice to see Cana­di­an char­ac­ters on Amer­i­can TV who are not Moun­ties or the McKen­zie Broth­ers .

After we said good­bye and head­ed out for oth­er errands, I asked Pam if this made her day or per­haps her week? She just grinned from ear to ear.