When you enter the billiards room at the Boswyk Seniors Activity Centre in Mission, you’ll hear several distinct sounds. There’s the racking of the pool balls, the clack as a cue strikes the white ball and perhaps most importantly, the sound of laughter, especially when the Monds brothers are playing.
Wayne Monds has been playing pool since he was about 15 years old, even if he had to skip school to do it.
The 76-year-old says he enjoys the game, but hasn’t played steadily.
“There was a 30-year stretch when I didn’t play, I got married and had one child and a bunch of grandkids,” Wayne said with a smile.
When he moved back to Mission and the Boswyk Centre was built, he, his brothers and spouses all joined.
His brother Dennis Monds, is turning 84 in April and he loves the facility.
“It’s great I try to come as often as I can, probably three times a week. It’s my best pastime right now, it’s our exercise program,” said Dennis.
The brothers are frequent visitors to the centre.
According to Dennis, they arrive at about 9 a.m. and play until noon, trying to get in as many games as possible.
While they don’t wager on the games, the brothers are still competitive. Sometimes they get carried away talking and don’t focus, but there’s no mercy amongst brothers.
“He’s winning 13 games to five so far today,” said Wayne.
“We’re both winners,” added Dennis, “we have fun. We laugh a lot and laughing is good for your health.”
He also said the Boswyk Centre has nice slate tables to play on.
“I played a lot of bar pool in Williams Lake,” explained Dennis who lived there for 13 years. He added that pubs have tables, but it’s not the same as a billiards hall.
“Our pool halls in town eventually all closed up, then Abbotsford was the only place to go.”
The Monds brothers were born and raised in Mission, just “out of town” in the McConnell Creek area. The family has been in Mission since 1939. There were nine children in the family, six boys and three girls.
“We were one of the smaller families too. The one’s down the road had 12 and another had 14 kids,” they said.
While both Wayne and Dennis moved away at some point, they eventually found themselves back home.
“When I got closer to retirement, I felt like I wanted to be closer to family so I moved over this way,” explained Dennis.
Wayne lived in Abbotsford for 15 years, but also returned.
After both living full lives, they are happy to be home and having a chance to relax.
“Now we have time to play pool.”
