“Live every day as if it was your last, because one day, it will be.....and how would you like to be remembered?”
A heart attack in the early hours of the morning five years ago has afforded life a certain clarity for Reg Boaler.
Nothing now fazes Richmond-raised self-employed businessman, actor and public speaker Boaler, with everything that life throws at him — including being towed recently — neatly folded into perspective.
Nursing a small, white cup of coffee at his favourite café-bar in the City Centre, the outgoing, talkative and dapper Boaler was reflecting on life growing up in Richmond and how he’s grateful to see the sun rise every day.
“After my heart attack, I make sure nothing pisses me off. If I wake up in the morning, I’m a happy man,” said Boaler, who lives near Williams and Shell roads and has, for the past 17 years, run Boaler Glasswasher out of an office on Westminster Highway and No. 3 Road.
“You really have to poke me hard now to make me angry; you’d really have to spit in my face.”
As the caffeine from cup No. 1 started to kick in, Boaler began digging deep into the memory banks of a childhood in Richmond and days of the strap, a punishment for seemingly trivial “offences.”
“I grew up in the Seafair neighbourhood from age nine, after moving from Winnipeg; we thought we’d died and gone to heaven; it was so green,” said Boaler, whose family used to cut the grass on Christmas Day and mail it to relatives in Winnipeg, which was under ten feet of snow.
“I got six of the strap at Alfred B Dickson elementary. It was my first day there and I thought, to make a joke, I’d say during roll call that I was Elvis Presley. The teacher didn’t like that and neither did my dad, who also gave me the strap when I went home.
“I also got the strap at Hugh Boyd, because I yelled ‘field trip’ out of the school bus window.”
Cup No. 2:
When he wasn’t playing the role of class clown, Boaler was in the Sea Cadets in the mid ‘60s and after each meeting, he and his buddies would go to the nearby Skyline Hotel (now the Westin near No. 3 Road and Capstan Way) where there was the Chipper Diner.
“We used to go there and get the best burger and fries in town, and I remember when Westminster and 3 Road got the first traffic lights in Richmond.”
Eventually a Richmond High grad, Boaler studied electronics at Vancouver City College before becoming a technician at Xerox of Canada for 12 years.
After a time spent in sales for the same company, Boaler and several colleagues quit and started their own photocopying and printing division in Vancouver.
His own Boaler Dishwasher — installing draught beer and glasswashing systems to licensed premises across B.C. — is now his bread and butter.
However, acting has also paid dividends for Boaler, who only took lessons when he divorced as a 47-year-old.
Cup No. 3:
In case you think you recognize Boaler, it’s likely from commercials; but he did have a prominent role as a pawnbroker in 2008 the made-for-TV movie My Babysitter is an Alien.
“I always wanted to get into acting, but I was discouraged as a teen by my peers,” said Boaler, who has three adult children, two of whom were adopted.
And, for the last 15 years, Boaler has been mastering the craft of public speaking through the Competitive Speaking Vancouver club.
“They’ve taught me everything; I joined to become more comfortable speaking in public and now I’m learning Mandarin as well.”
It’s served as more than a confidence booster, though. Earlier this month, Boaler won the regional heat of the International Speech Contest in Prince George and is heading to Las Vegas in August for the semi-finals and, hopefully, the finals.
“So I’m in the top 100 in the world right now. I now make friends easier and I feel like I can talk anybody.”
Really; you don’t say, Reg.
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