Shopping for Canucks stuff is not to be taken lightly, what with the pending Stanley Cup parade in Vancouver and keepsakes getting snapped up fast, but rest assured there is enough to go around.
“We’re running low on jerseys right now but I’m getting another shipment in Friday (today),” Lesley Randle, owner of Sports Traders in Parksville, said from the store.
Big flags, banners, face paint, window decals, keychains, piggy banks, coffee mugs, billiard balls, clocks, chip-dip trays, “we’ve got it all.”
And Bruins stuff too?
“Nope … actually I do have a few pennants, but that’s it.”
“Luckily I already bought my new jersey a while ago — I see most places are all out,” said Eric Petersen, 30, who came in and checked out the inventory while we were there and plucked the last Johnny Canuck car flag, and a flag as well which he later wrapped himself in.
“It’s nuts,” he said of the atmosphere surrounding the Canuck’s run, explaining as a employee at Buckerfields, “I decided to hang one of my old jerseys up (he has about six in all) you know, in support of the team, but I had to take it down because everyone kept coming up and asking if they could buy it.”
Like a lot of homes in these parts, hockey is a part of the fabric of Randle family.
Leslie’s son and daughter both played hockey growing up, and the family is die-hard dedicated Canucks fan from way back. Leslie opened Sports Traders (located on the Old Island Highway across from the big hill of the Parksville Community Park) in 2003. She always gets into the playoffs, and the stock in her store reflects that.
“This is fun.” she said smiling. “Everybody’s excited … I’m not getting any work done, people keep coming in to talk, but that’s okay.”
Oh, and the Green Man in the store’s display window is employee Mark Childs; “we made him lay down and we cut it out around him.”
