Raised in a ROCK SHOP

The Influence of Rock Collecting & Lapidary While Growing Up

- DEB BRANDT

How to start a rock shop business can be a rockhound's dream. For Velma (nee Medley) Stockton-Henken, she grew up living this dream in her mother's rock shop learning all things rock and lapidary. As she prepares to sell her "rocky" inheritance, here's a look back at a childhood and young adulthood like no other.

STARTING A ROCK SHOP 

Isobel Medley was an only child and was raised in the early 1920s on a prairie farm in Carberry, Manitoba. She attended a one-room school with one teacher for first through 12th-grade students. Isobel developed a strong interest in rocks and geology in those formative years. She eventually moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1945 she married Al, for whom she waited eight years for his return from the War. She became the mother of three children while studying geology. Her love of rocks ultimately inspired her to open a rock shop.

The Fraser Rock Shop opened in 1960 and it became the place her daughter Velma spent most of her childhood every day after school. Velma holds many fond memories of her experiences there. For instance, the original shop was located next to a Chinese market - one that Velma frequented when the fresh produce was being delivered. She remembers the shop had an apartment upstairs and she often played with children who lived there.