John Grant recalls what youths in Beaverton did for recreation and entertainment in the past. His grandfather Playfair Brown initially settled in Beaverton with his grandmother Jessie Williamson, and when he returned to Beaverton after the Second World War he noticed there was nothing for people to do. He then decided to open a gymnasium so that the boys could learn the "manly art of fisticuffs" to get them off the street and allow them to get their aggression out. He eventually ended up in Toronto as Canada's boxing promoter. He worked with Conn Smythe to build Maple Leaf Gardens. He also coached the Canadian Olympic Team, promoted many professional events in the 1920s including long distance running, and swimming. John also recalls that when he was growing up there were townsfolk and cottagers, and cottage girls would come into town to meet the town boys and summer romances would blossom, which doesn't happen anymore since many cottages have been converted into homes when the owners retired. He also recalls the Port Bolster drive-in, and in particular a tale from when he went to see the film Love Story. There he saw a tractor entering the drive-in that was pulling a trailer with a couch on it, and he recounts that "the love story on that couch was better than the one on the screen." He also talks of the Commodore Theatre as "the" place to go to in its prime, and recalls a story about his father traveling there with friends in a Model T Ford on a particularly cold day. They thought they'd drain the fluid to stop the radiator from freezing but didn't realize the fluid would freeze on contact and ended up having to walk six miles in the cold. Finally, he also talks of the Strand movie theatre, which had an Edison projector that still survives today. A resident of Thorah Island originally purchased the projector in the late 1890s, and the family retained the projector until it was donated.
