BEDEQUE - Erik Gerlund is living his dream.
For many, that dream involves the bright lights of the big city. For others, it’s stardom.
But for the Vancouver, B.C., native, it’s quite the opposite.
Gerlund has left behind a successful career in the film industry for a quieter life, one filled with scooping ice cream, bagging groceries and keeping shop.
“When I was a kid my parents had a little country farm out in Abbotsford, just a place to go and sort of hang out on weekends. Up the road there was an old market, much like this one,” said the new owner the Bedeque Village Store.
“When I walked in here it brought me right back to my childhood.”
Going from designing sets on big-budget television and film productions to being a shop keep happened by chance — and rather quickly.
Gerlund had never been east of Montreal and decided, last July, to come to P.E.I.
He landed in Summerside. As he walked the city’s quiet streets, he was awestruck.
“After three days, I felt so comfortable. I just loved it. I said that’s it, I’m moving here,” recalled Gerlund.
“It was like love at first sight. I was really taken aback.”
With the help of realtor Ron Barrett, he started checking out properties.
Then, en route to lunch in Victoria-By-the-Sea one day, they drove past the store.
“It just caught my eye. A day or so later I popped in my rental and came out here. This was sort of a fantasy of mine, to have a little corner grocery,” said Gerlund. “There was one in Vancouver I always wanted to buy. They wanted a couple of million dollars and I couldn’t afford it. It was just way too much.”
The quaint country store in Bedeque offered a cheaper alternative.
Soon, the deal with owner Susan Whelan was done.
Gerlund, his 79-year-old mother, his beloved dogs and even his ex packed up their lives and made the 6,373-kilometre trek to Bedeque.
“I am coming to understand it is a really integral part of Bedeque, the community, this little store,” he said, surveying its interior. “It services a lot of families around here. They depend on it for milk, bread, butter, sundries, smokes, gossip, for sure, and their morning coffee.”
The original store, a feed-and-seed-operation, first opened in 1900 and soon became a general store. In 1938, it was destroyed by fire and the current building dragged to the site from Lower Bedeque.
Gerlund is planning a restoration, giving the store a “five-and-dime” 1920s general store feeling, with new counters and coolers, an expanded ice cream counter — a long-time staple — period lighting, a deck and seating outside, and an exterior facelift. There are even plans to reopen the store’s kitchen.
“I want to take this store and resurrect it to what it has been in the past,” added Gerlund. “I want to preserve Bedeque’s history.”
“I just want a place the people can drive by and go, ‘whoa, stop the car, let’s go in there and check it out’.”
That work won’t start until spring.
First, Gerlund wants time to get to know his new home and his neighbours.
“I am the new kid on the block, I am the outsider,” he added.
“From film to this, I think it is a great transition.”
FIVE INTERESTING FACTS
1- He's 56 years old
2 - Native of Vancouver, B.C.
3- Spent 27 years working as a set designer/artistic director in theatre, film, TV
4 - Worked for NBC, ABC, United Artists, Universal
5 - Credits include TV shows “The Dead Zone”, “Eureka”, “Millennium”, “Lucifer”, “Smallville”, “Forsaken”, “Shattered” and upcoming eight-hour miniseries, “We Will Rise”
BEDEQUE - Erik Gerlund is living his dream.
For many, that dream involves the bright lights of the big city. For others, it’s stardom.
But for the Vancouver, B.C., native, it’s quite the opposite.
Gerlund has left behind a successful career in the film industry for a quieter life, one filled with scooping ice cream, bagging groceries and keeping shop.
“When I was a kid my parents had a little country farm out in Abbotsford, just a place to go and sort of hang out on weekends. Up the road there was an old market, much like this one,” said the new owner the Bedeque Village Store.
“When I walked in here it brought me right back to my childhood.”
Going from designing sets on big-budget television and film productions to being a shop keep happened by chance — and rather quickly.
Gerlund had never been east of Montreal and decided, last July, to come to P.E.I.
He landed in Summerside. As he walked the city’s quiet streets, he was awestruck.
“After three days, I felt so comfortable. I just loved it. I said that’s it, I’m moving here,” recalled Gerlund.
“It was like love at first sight. I was really taken aback.”
With the help of realtor Ron Barrett, he started checking out properties.
Then, en route to lunch in Victoria-By-the-Sea one day, they drove past the store.
“It just caught my eye. A day or so later I popped in my rental and came out here. This was sort of a fantasy of mine, to have a little corner grocery,” said Gerlund. “There was one in Vancouver I always wanted to buy. They wanted a couple of million dollars and I couldn’t afford it. It was just way too much.”
The quaint country store in Bedeque offered a cheaper alternative.
Soon, the deal with owner Susan Whelan was done.
Gerlund, his 79-year-old mother, his beloved dogs and even his ex packed up their lives and made the 6,373-kilometre trek to Bedeque.
“I am coming to understand it is a really integral part of Bedeque, the community, this little store,” he said, surveying its interior. “It services a lot of families around here. They depend on it for milk, bread, butter, sundries, smokes, gossip, for sure, and their morning coffee.”
The original store, a feed-and-seed-operation, first opened in 1900 and soon became a general store. In 1938, it was destroyed by fire and the current building dragged to the site from Lower Bedeque.
Gerlund is planning a restoration, giving the store a “five-and-dime” 1920s general store feeling, with new counters and coolers, an expanded ice cream counter — a long-time staple — period lighting, a deck and seating outside, and an exterior facelift. There are even plans to reopen the store’s kitchen.
“I want to take this store and resurrect it to what it has been in the past,” added Gerlund. “I want to preserve Bedeque’s history.”
“I just want a place the people can drive by and go, ‘whoa, stop the car, let’s go in there and check it out’.”
That work won’t start until spring.
First, Gerlund wants time to get to know his new home and his neighbours.
“I am the new kid on the block, I am the outsider,” he added.
“From film to this, I think it is a great transition.”
FIVE INTERESTING FACTS
1- He's 56 years old
2 - Native of Vancouver, B.C.
3- Spent 27 years working as a set designer/artistic director in theatre, film, TV
4 - Worked for NBC, ABC, United Artists, Universal
5 - Credits include TV shows “The Dead Zone”, “Eureka”, “Millennium”, “Lucifer”, “Smallville”, “Forsaken”, “Shattered” and upcoming eight-hour miniseries, “We Will Rise”
