Night Music: Tired of Waiting For You

WISE Hall in Danger of Closing

.

I am unhappy to read that the WISE Hall on Adanac is in danger of shutting down as a going concern.

Built originally as an annex to the Methodist Church on Venables, “time is running out for one of East Vancouver’s last cultural keystones. The WISE Hall, a cherished arts and community hub, urgently needs your help to survive,” the WISE Hall wrote in an Instagram post. “For years, we’ve been a home for vibrant discussions, artistic creativity, and community building. Now, we face the real threat of closing our doors forever. This is a critical moment, and every second counts. We need your immediate support to keep the spirit of East Van alive and thriving.”

To keep it operational, the Wise has set up a fundraising and membership drive with the goal of raising $700,000 and gaining 500 new members. Memberships are $10 per year; one-off donations can also be made. See more details here.

Image: Roofs

Poem: Instructions For This 3 Minute 15 Second Poem

Read each word slowly.  Think about each word for 15 seconds.  Read the next word.

resemblance

impression

façade

masquerade

exhibit

display

vase

vast

obscure

mist

hazy

remembrance

resemblance

Night Music: Ne Me Quitte Pas

Image: Red Wood

Night Music: Look What You’ve Done To Me

Image: Light At The End of the Path

Night Music: Against The Wind

Image: Street Art #2

Night Music: Teach Your Children

Poem: In These Days

 

in those days,

when we had nothing to lose,

when a shoestring would have

busted our budget,

you wouldn’t have been mawkish

if we’d lived in a belfry;

you wouldn’t have been angry

if it was ringing with bats.

you’d have loved it, and loved

life and loved me while doing it.

 

but these days,

when we have everything,

if it’s not designed by a consortium

of the better known architects

we don’t even look,

don’t even disturb our coiffeured

minds for a moment

unless it has the imprimatur

that others love it

and is, therefore, worth loving.

 

 

Lawn Bowling to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Leisure on the Drive, 1930-1965

.

The times they were a’changin’. The long recession that swamped Grandview from 1913 to the mid-1920s had merged into the Great Depression after just a few years of optimism and building. However, continued population pressures brought a steady growth of residents and the consequent continuation of trade for the kind of businesses that served the neighbourhood – grocers, hardware stores, furniture and appliances. Once the First Avenue Viaduct was built and linked Commercial Drive to downtown in 1938, business significantly improved. The massive influx of workers during World War Two brought prosperity to many, and the 1940s was a time of relative plenty. A further decline in the early 1950s was halted and turned around by the enterprising and entrepreneurial Italians who took over much of Commercial’s trade, and their families who filled out Grandview’s streets. While the poor and disadvantaged were becoming a concern for the new profession of social worker, for the middling and management classes, the period from 1940 to the 1970s was a time of increasing economic security, expansion of horizons, and self-fulfillment. Their leisure activities changed along with them.

* * * *

The ideal of an attractive floral garden never having been met, the prospect of turning Victoria Park into a private club for lawn bowlers didn’t meet with as much resistance as might have been expected. Especially when the transformation could be sold as a welfare project, benefiting both workers and the neighbourhood in general. The club gained its extensive facilities through the leadership of florist Catherine Bufton, who had also been the key organizer of the war memorial at Grandview Park in the late 1920s. In fact, once the war memorial was in place, she shifted the attention of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Grandview Chamber of Commerce specifically to the development of the lawn bowling club. By dint of careful preparation, hard work and community fundraising, she and the Chamber persuaded the City Council and Parks Board to approve the work as a depression relief effort. The Echo called the $4,000 enterprise “a challenge to the hopeless, pessimistic, disintegrating tide of events.” The facilities, they said, “were a nod to the future in good faith.” The money “was raised by community effort and spent entirely as a relief project. Carpenters and others gave their labor with the sole satisfaction that the labor was its own reward.” In the end, there were the immaculate greens – the pride of English greens keeper Aleck Hughan – and, running along the park side of Salsbury, the Association’s elaborate clubhouse. The Mayor of Vancouver attended the opening in May 1933, and Catherine Bufton was awarded a lifetime membership in the bowling club for her work. Her chief lieutenants had been her husband, Hubert, and Mabel Rutter but they were greatly assisted by a number of others. ⁱ

Image: CVA 371-999

From the opening, the Grandview Lawn Bowling Club became a gathering place for virtually all the professionals, the businessmen and the artisans who played a role in the story of Commercial Drive in mid-century. Their wives socialized here and the couples got together on a weekly basis, or even more frequently. In the winter, when bowling wasn’t available, they held whist drives in the clubhouse. Many were also leading members of their churches but, in those devotions, they divided themselves up between Anglicans, Presbyterians, United Church, Jews, and Catholics. It was on the lawn bowling green and in the clubhouse that they were all united. This was the glue that helped keep much of the group together.

The Men’s Club had about 60 members throughout the 1930s, with the Ladies’ Association having a few more than that. Bill Ross, head of the Ross & Howard Iron Works, was the president of the Club for the first three years, and he was followed by Charles Smith for the next two. Smith was an Australian by birth who had left his family as a young man to make his fortune in Fiji. He made enough in the South Seas to afford passage to Vancouver where he in 1910 he opened a real estate office at Commercial and Grant. After serving with distinction in the Great War, Smith returned to his real estate office, moving into building management, insurance, and legal affairs, and rapidly becoming the middle-man of choice on the Drive. He and his company were involved in many of the most important transactions that shaped the physical environment of Commercial Drive in the 1920s and 1930s, representing the buyer, the seller or, quite often, both. Both Charles and Phoebe, his wife, were keen lawn bowlers and active members. The social aspect of the Club had always been important but with Charles Smith at the helm, it really took off. After all, as the Highland Echo reported, “Charlie was … very popular and the green was a social centre.”ⁱⁱ

Throughout the middle and late 1930s and, so far as wartime restrictions would allow, into the 1940s, groups of Grandview lawn bowlers traveled down to California each January or February to play in major tournaments. In the middle 1930s, some of the traveling bowlers included A.P. Squires of Magnet Hardware and his wife, J.A. and Edith Johnstone of Grandview Jewelers, Catherine Bufton, Charles & Phoebe Smith and Dr Thomas Agnew, in his seventies, who had practiced on the Drive since 1916. It took some managerial or ownership authority to get a few weeks off in winter to gallivant around Southern California playing lawn bowls, and a few bucks too. But this traveling apart, the Grandview Lawn Bowling Association was an equal opportunity recreation, its membership including owners, managers, professionals in law, banking and medicine, plumbers, car salesmen and sheet metal workers, and all of their wives. Dyed-in-the-wool Conservatives happily teamed up with upstart CCFers, Catholics with Masons, athletes with gourmands. All year long, in season and out, with pickup games, tournaments, Association elections, whist drives, teas and dinners, the Grandview Lawn Bowling Club was the social centre for most of the movers and shakers on the Drive. And, at least in the 1930s, the Highland Echo, as the reflective mirror of this same group, tracked every game and event and item of gossip, often on the front page.

Over the winter of 1947-1948, a number of BC lawn bowlers, including Charles & Phoebe Smith traveled to Australia and New Zealand. A series of games against southern hemisphere greens was the excuse for this wonderful vacation jaunt. For Charles Smith, though, the trip was about much more than bowling. During the bowls tour, he got to meet his brother and other relatives for the first time in several decades. When the 1948 season began in May, “attendance was probably the largest opening since the Club’s inception,” reported the Echo. But busy as the bowling greens at Victoria Park were, they probably were not the first choice of much of Commercial Drive’s younger crowd and attendances fell steadily. ⁱⁱⁱ

In the meanwhile, movies had made themselves a big deal by mid-century. Thomas Shiels, owner of the Grandview Theatre, sold out to Famous Players in 1927, perhaps to escape the expenses that talking pictures were about to impose on theatres. Famous Players knew how to run picture houses, and the new Grandview Theatre quickly became a central feature of Commercial Drive throughout the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s and into the 1950s. Not only did they show all the latest movies, but they made themselves available for fashion shows, relief concerts during the war, and even political mass meetings.^iv

.

When the rival Rio Theatre opened at Broadway & Commercial in 1938, Famous Players spent $25,000 on renovations to the Grandview, including new floors, new seating, two new projectors and a brand new foyer. The front of the theatre was redone once again, this time in red and black, in early 1940. Tommy Thompson, a wounded vet from WW1, was manager of the Grandview from 1943. A popular figure in the neighbourhood, he helped form the Canadian Legion Branch on Commercial after the end of WW2. In October 1950, the Theatre went through yet another major renovation. The ticket counter which had been in the centre of the entrance was moved to one side, being built into the new wall. The Echo described the color scheme as “pleasant”.^v

Another local alternative to the Grandview was the York Theatre on Commercial north of Venables. It used to show movies about two months after their first run at the Grandview. It was cheaper, too, because “there used to be mice running around … it wasn’t grungy, but it wasn’t as nice as the others.”^vi

However, it was the novelty of radio – which brought entertainment and information directly into the house – that put the first dent in the movie’s cultural dominance. A radio in the 1930s was like a computer in the 1990s – everybody wanted one, everybody bought one, and soon they became commodities. By 1932, more than 500,000 Canadian homes had purchased the $1 annual receiver license. Once table sets came in as an alternative to the more expensive console models in the mid-1930s, there were radios to suit virtually every budget with the average cost falling from $120 in 1929 to about $40 in 1934. The success of radio swiftly led to the creation of a new occupation – radio repairman — and, over the years, the Drive had a dozen outfits that offered to fix damaged radios. Even the established furniture and appliance dealers such as Manitoba Hardware set up radio repair departments. A couple of the repair businesses would survive into the television age in the 1950s but many would simply fade away. Others, like Joe Warman and Bob Thomas, would parlay their success as radio repairmen into larger businesses that sold a full range of furniture and appliances.

But then as now, British Columbians like to get out of the house and enjoy themselves. Whist drives were the big deal in these years. When the newly formed Grandview Community Association wanted to make itself known to the residents, it held “a whist drive and dance” at Grandview Hall in January 1936 with entertainment by Len Peacock’s Valley Vagabonds. You could get admission to any of the local Whist Drives and Dances for 25¢ (“ladies for dance only 15¢”). In January 1937, the CCF Club added cribbage to its activities. Bingo was often added. By early 1956, the Legion Social Club was running bingo games three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm. The Legion building had recently received a new coat of stucco “greatly enhancing the appearance of the building.”^vii

Radio which had insinuated itself into daily life also helped spread music of all types, and this led to the growing popularity of public dances. There were regular dances at the I.O.O.F., Masonic, and Grandview Halls, and almost anywhere else a stage could be laid down. Many organizations used dances to keep their members happy in the early 1950s. The Grandview Concert Party, for example, was organized to present “old time” music and dancing at Grandview Park each Friday evening. Over 1,200 attended the first concert sponsored by the Senior Citizens of Grandview. After short speeches by local politicians Syd Bowman and Harry Rankin, the evening was given over to music and dancing. The highpoint of that first evening was square dancing and these Friday nights quickly became popular square-dancing events. The music was supplied by Mr & Mrs E. Bolton using their PA systems. Later, the “Y” and the Chamber of Commerce organized dances in Grandview Park each Friday evening, and the Echo reported that they were “becoming more popular with every passing week.” The organizers paid the Parks Board $7.50 a week for the use of a stage and a PA system. Bill Lamountaire, well-known in the area for the square-dancing parties, was happy to play records brought by dancers.At the same time, the Legion was running “socials” at the Oddfellows Hall each Monday night.^viii

After a short lull, the Friday night dances at the tennis courts on Grandview Park started again in 1955 on 27^th May, from 8 until 10. More than 100 showed up for the opening night. On 21^st June they held a party attended by 500, of whom more than 40 were costumed dancers. Following the trends that were current on radio and in the movies, the Friday night dances in Grandview Park soon began to feature rock and roll. By May 1957, there was a Rock & Roll Dance contest. In 1964, the Y held a “Beatles Hop” for their Friday teen dance. Music was by the Chevelles. Later weeks would feature Count Five Combo and the Checkmates. Admission for the 8 o’clock – midnight affair was 50 cents for members and 75 cents for non-members.^ix

The popularity of dancing and music led to changes in retail on the Drive as several radio and electrical stores began to carry recorded music. Warman’s Radio & Electric at 1622 Commercial hired Rosana Atkinson to run their new records’ department in 1941. They also changed their advertizing slogan to “the House of Melody”. The following year they hired carpenters to create “sound proof booths” for the listening pleasure of customers. After Warman’s was taken over by Moores in 1952, those booths were a feature of Moores’ advertizing. One of their competitors, Commercial Sound at 1928 Commercial, had “records for renting,” while another, Bill Pastraschuk’s Kingcraft Records at 1652 Commercial offered over 3,000 records “at all speeds” by 1957.^x

While dancing, even modern dancing, seemed to be enjoyed by almost everyone, a few of the local elite were opposed to strong drink and places where gambling might be rife, such as pool halls. As early as October 1910, the Grandview Progress Association approved a motion “that this Association register a strong objection to the licensing of pool rooms in Grandview.” However, there were always one or two operating on the Drive, and as late as September 1963, when the storefront at 1622 Commercial was being prepared as a new billiards hall, the Chamber of Commerce protested loudly, claiming that such a use would be “detrimental to the area.” By the end of October, the rumour was that the developers had abandoned the project, opting to buy the venerable 40-year old Grandview Billiards at 1816 instead. But that deal fell through and by January 1964, Guido Digiacinto had opened Gransasso Billiards right where he had wanted it, the worthies of the Chamber notwithstanding.^xi

But some sporting places were considered too family-friendly to be concerned by such conceits. In November 1954, Louis Marino, a family man and member of all Grandview’s upper circles, had completed his $150,000 renovation of Grandview Lanes, building eight more bowling lanes upstairs with room to spare. It was formally reopened on 13 November by Alderman Syd Bowman. Marino was cashing in on a genuine craze: bowling was incredibly popular and there were leagues and teams representing dairies, and haidressers, restaurants and beauty salons, among many others. Within 18 months, Marino had installed six new pool tables in an upstairs room making the facility “the most modern billiard room in the city.” ^xii

Image: Province 1951 Feb 1, p.9

While some of the civic dignitaries did concern themselves regarding the deleterious effect of one more pool hall, most of Grandview burghers were busy enjoying the prosperity they had worked for. And this enjoyment expressed itself as much in travel and time off from business as it did anything else. After the restrictions of the Depression and then the World War, travel bloomed with the coming of peacetime. Just a couple of years after she had purchased a babywear shop at 1437 Commercial, added children’s wear and renamed it Janie’s Shop, Janine McGregor closed down her business for two months in the summer of 1946, while she vacationed in California with her mother and sister. Alf Glass and his wife closed their bakery, too, that summer so they could cruise up to Prince Rupert. Several other of the long-time merchants on the Drive chose to close their businesses at a fixed time each year, allowing their staff to plan and book holidays.^xiii

The Interior of British Columbia, Vancouver Island, and the neighbouring Prairie provinces all attracted the newly liberated traveler after the War. The Hipwells, father and son furniture dealers on the Drive, and their families vacationed in Banff during the summer of 1946, while Dr Greenius and his wife drove up to Dawson City. Gordon Hamilton, scion of the Hamilton plumbing company, and his family were driving through the Interior that summer, as were Drive furniture maker Christopher Williams and his wife. That August, Alex G. Holmes, publisher and editor of the Echo, and his wife took their first vacation in twenty years; they motored and fished on Vancouver Island. Andy Carper, operator of Carper’s Service Station at Grant and Commercial, and his wife Irene spent several weeks at Prince Albert, SK, while Moore’s George Whitaker visited Edmonton. Others took vacation properties in the Okanagan, the Cariboo, and on the Gulf Islands. Barkerville was especially popular in 1962.^xiv

Many of Grandview’s luminaries were keen on hunting and fishing and put their vacation time to good use. George Wood of Commercial Furniture and George Whitaker of Moore Appliances, for example, went hunting together on Vancouver Island in 1946 and bagged their full quota of deer. In the fall of 1947, Drive hotshots Bob Thomas, Fred Smith and Fred Steacy spent their vacation together shooting ducks in Alberta. In October 1950, Kathleen Thoreau of the Bo Beep shop, went hunting in the Cariboo. She bagged a big deer and a black bear. Fishing was also a big draw, with Mr. & Mrs. Tommy Thompson, manager of the Grandview Theatre, Syd Bowman of Manitoba Furnishings and many others filling their catch. In November 1954, Jack Wilson of Grandview Meats and his wife, Jen, spent a week hunting on Quesnel Lake. He bagged a moose, 20 grouse and 15 rainbow trout. The 600lb moose became dinner at the annual banquet of the Lower Mainland Gun Association later that month.^xv

This was also a period during which men and their cars went on very long journeys. At times, it seemed like a competition. In October 1946, Alf Higgins, owner of Commercial Drive Garage, and the dean of the Drive’s surviving pioneers, drove through eastern Canada and the US, clocking up 8,000 miles. In the next few years, the Fred Hamiltons, Mrs. Steacy, and the Louis Tobans were also driving across great areas of the States. In November 1947 Mr and Mrs Clarence Webber returned to Vancouver after a seven week drive that took in the Grand Canyon, New York, Niagara Falls and Chicago. Dr. and Mrs. Greenius drove 6,000 miles to Eastern Canada and back. H.H. Rosen of Silro did the same trip for 6,300 miles.Mr & Mrs Guy, the Drive’s piano makers, drove 6,000 miles (using 354 gallons of gas) to Toronto and back. In the same year, Frank Bufton drove his family to Washington DC for the Florists Telegraph Delivery Association convention. By the time they got back they had clocked 10,000 miles. To top them all, Frank Frost drove 16,000 miles from the Pacific to the Atlantic, down to Florida and back to the Pacific Northwest. ^xvi

It was not uncommon for the successful business families to fly or take the train back east, buy a new car in Ontario and drive it home. Mrs. Bowman and Louis Toban did it, separately, in April 1954. Toban, who had turned his Commercial Drive-based drugstores into a powerhouse regional chain, used one of his 10,000 mile drives to visit Florida, where he and the family took a plane to enjoy some R & R in Cuba the previous year. The West Coast of the USA was also a popular vacation spot for Grandview’s burgeoning bourgeoisie, especially in the winter months. Fred Ross, of Magnet Hardware, and Mrs. Mitchell of the Royal Drug Store, both spent a month or more in California during 1947. The Rosses were regular visitors to Los Angeles as were the Tobans, the Kantors, the Webbers, the Agnews, and Fred Hamilton.^xvii

The Seattle World’s Fair was another busy destination in the summer of 1962. Many Grandview residents drove down to the Fair, while Frank Bufton took his sister by boat. Other destinations in the Western States were also visited. Harry Goertz, of the Manitoba, and his wife enjoyed a skiing vacation in Lake Tahoe one year, having traveled to Acapulco the year before. His trip to Mexico inspired his partner Rolly Neale to visit Acapulco where he caught a 9’6” 118-lb swordfish which he then had stuffed and displayed in Manitoba Furnishings that summer. Meanwhile, menswear maven Bill Becker and shoe salesman Ron Abraham took on Las Vegas, and others visited Salt Lake and Arizona.^xviii

With the introduction of regular air travel, Hawaii was favoured by the 1960s. Bob and Vi Thomas, of the TV and appliance store and the splashy ads, spent six weeks there in February 1963, returning again the following year. They were joined by the Hipwells, the Hofers and the Neales, partners in the Manitoba, and the auctioneer Reginald Rowse and his wife who returned “very tanned and rested.” The Neales, especially, made Hawaii an annual destination.^xix

In the early 1950s, James McIntyre, the dry goods merchant, and his wife travelled to Europe for long visits on several occasions. On one trip they took a slow boat that took three months to pass through the Panama Canal and sail to Scotland. Also making the trip across the Atlantic were the George Oballas. He was then a realtor with Liberto and later became a major force with his own company on the Drive. They drove to New York, put the car on a ship and traveled the Continent for four months. In the late summer of 1963, Joe Carter of Rowse Auctions took a 6-week vacation to London where he bumped into Mr. & Mrs. Wallace of Manufacturer’s Outlet. In the spring and early summer of 1963, Angela Rossetto of Atlantic Travel advertised that she would take a tour party to 14 European cities in 7 countries, beginning in August. This would be the start of regular charters to Europe operated by Atlantic over several years.^xx

But no matter how much the prosperous merchants traveled, they still spent most of their time at home and on the Drive. And there, the future was television. In the early spring of 1953, the Echo could report:

“TV masts are appearing in greater numbers throughout the community and this week two new ones were erected over the stores of Hipwell Furniture and Manitoba Hardware. Both stores plan to sell and service television sets of the most popular makes. The new Bellingham signal is expected within the next few weeks and this fall there should be Vancouver’s own service from the hills on the North Shore.”^xxi

The stores themselves were keen to promote the new service and new product line, especially as the US stations were expected to televise the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II that June. “Get your ariel up in preparation” shouted Hipwell Furniture. “Preliminary tests indicate that reception from Bellingham will be almost perfect!” They were selling Westinghouse, General Electric and Motorola televisions from as low as $299.95. By the time Christmas season came around, Manitoba Furnishings were pushing hard: “Our own local station CBUTV will be on the air before Christmas. Seattle will double its power by December 1^st. Bellingham is improving daily. In less than one month you will have a selection of entertaining and exciting programs, so buy a TV now.” And the Margaret Rose ladies’ wear shop offered a 21” TV as the prize in their one dollar Christmas raffle.^xxii

Like many cinemas, the Grandview Theatre was threatened by the introduction of regular TV service. They put in a brand new “Vista Vision” screen to replace the old 16-foot screen just in time to show “The Robe” in glorious Cinemascope in 1954. In September, faced with the first flush of television keeping patrons at home, Famous Players reduced the price of admission: 55¢ adult, 45¢ students, 20¢ children; Saturdays 45¢ for adults. However, the movies were having a tough go at any price, it seemed. At the end of 1955, Famous Players closed the Rio Theatre at Commercial and Broadway leaving the entire district without a cinema except for the Grandview. In early January 1956, the Sun’s gossip columnist Lew Wasserman floated a rumour that the Grandview would also be closing. The management at the Grandview was quick to point out the lineups for each show and to refute any suggestion that the theatre was going to shut down. The Echo called the gossip-mongering “irresponsible,” and the old theatre got a lick of paint on the exterior.^xxiii

But assurances and paint were not going to save the old cinema. By September 1953, the chair of the CBC was estimating that Canadians would be spending $300,000 a day on TV over the following twelve months. And in January 1956, the national service announced that direct feed TV from eastern Canada – which meant hockey – would become available by summer 1958 once the chain of microwave towers had been built. By the fall of 1957, the Grandview Theatre was shuttered for the last time.^xxiv

Over the winter of 1968/1969 the Grandview Lawn Bowling Club’s greens at Victoria Park were severely damaged by weather as was the clubhouse on Salsbury. The Club was already suffering from a lack of finances and new members, and decided to close the greens and to amalgamate with the Hastings Lawn Bowling Club at their green in the 3000-block Pender Street.

Two weeks later, the Echo ran an editorial: What could be more natural than to convert the green to a bocce court so that the many residents of Italian origin surrounding the park could enjoy one of their old country games. And so, the use of that particular public/private greenspace moved on.^xxv

---

ⁱ   Highland Echo 3 Nov 1938, 2 Mar 1939, 21 May 1942. Others in at the beginning were Mrs Wiggins, Mrs Wiseman, Mrs Ubbink, Mrs C. Wood and Phoebe Smith but “almost all the preparatory work [was] done by [the Buftons] exclusively”: Highland Echo 17 Feb 1944.

ⁱⁱ   Highland Echo 2 Mar 1939

ⁱⁱⁱ   Highland Echo 1946 Aug 1, 1947 Feb 6, 27, 1948 Mar 18, Sadly, within weeks of his return to Vancouver, Smith suffered a massive heart attack and died. “largest attendance”: Highland Echo 1948 May 6

^iv   The sale of the Grandview was part of a much larger deal for the Orpheum Theatre and five other “suburban” cinemas. See bond notice at Sun 1927 Mar 22, p.15

^v   Highland Echo 12 Oct 1950

^vi   Mary Bosze quoted in Karen Martin, ed, “Stories From Our Own Backyard” (SFU, 1997), p.26

^vii       Highland Echo 1936 Jan 23; “cribbage”: Highland Echo 1937 Jan 21; “bingo”: Highland Echo 1956 Jan 19

^viii       Highland Echo 1952 Jul 3, 13, Sep 4; 1953 July 23, Aug 13; Parks Board receipt in CVA, GVCoC, AM 368, 552-C-5, file 10, Correspondence 1954; Legion: Highland Echo 1952 Jul 3

^ix       Highland Echo 1955 May 26, June 2,23, July 7, 1956 Jun 21, 1957 July 4, 1964 Feb 27, Apr 30

^x   Highland Echo 1941 Dec 4; 1942 Jun 25; 1952 Feb 28; 1953 Dec 22; 1957 Aug 1;

^xi   GPA Minutes, 1910 Oct 3; Highland Echo 1963 Oct 31, 1964 Jan 30. The Grand Sasso would soon convert into a restaurant.

^xii       Highland Echo 1954 Oct 14, Nov 11, 1956 Mar 2

^xiii       Highland Echo 1946 Jun 20, Aug 15

^xiv  Hipwells in Banff: Highland Echo 1 Aug 1946; Dr. Greernius: Highland Echo 1946 Jun 6; Hamiltons: Highland Echo 1946 Jul 18; Williams: Highland Echo 194 Aug 22; Holmes: Highland Echo 1946 Aug 22; Caper’s and Whitaker: Highland Echo 1947 June 5; Barkerville, see for example, Highland Echo 1962 July 26

^xv       Wood & Whitaker: Highland Echo 19 Sep 1946; Thomas etc: Highland Echo 1947 Oct 23; Kathleen Thoreau: Highland Echo 1950 Oct 26; Tommy Thompson: Highland Echo 14 Aug 1947; Bowman: Highland Echo 1948 Jul 1; moose: Highland Echo 1954 Nov 11,25

^xvi       All Highland Echo Higgins: 1946 Oct 3; Hamiltons: 1946 Jul 4, Steacy: 1946 July 11, Tobans 1947 July 3; Webbers: 1949 Nov 20; Greenius: 1948 Oct 21; Rosen: 1948 Nov 11; Guys: 1951 May 31; Buftons: 1951 Aug 16, Sep 27; Frost: 1948 Mar 25;

^xvii       Collecting cars: Highland Echo 1, 29 Apr 1954; Tobans in Cuba: Highland Echo 1953 Dec 3. Travel: All Highland Echo: Ross: 1947 Feb 13; Tobans: 1949 July 14; others: 1951 Jan 5, 11, 18; 1952 Jan 10

^xviii       Highland Echo 1963 April 4, 1964 Mar 26 Mar; 1965 Feb 18; Rolly Neale’s fish: Highland Echo 1964 Jun 4

^xix  Highland Echo 1963 Feb 14; 1964 Jan 9, Feb 13; 1965 Jan 14, Feb 4

^xx       McIntyres: Highland Echo 1951 Aug 9, 1954 Jun 4; Atlantic Travel advertised weekly between May and July 1963. See for example Highland Echo 1963 May 9; Oballas: Highland Echo May 30, June 20

^xxi       Highland Echo 1953 Feb 26

^xxii       Highland Echo 1953 April 16; May 28, Nov 19. See also ads and stories 1953 Dec 17

^xxiii  Highland Echo 1954 Dec 16, 23 Dec; 1955 Sep 15; 1956 Jan 5; 1957 Jul 18. More on VistaVision: Sun 1954 Mar 25, p.15

^xxiv  CBC: News Herald 1953 Sep 29; microwaves: Sun 1956 Jan 17

^xxv       Highland Echo 1969 Apr 3, 10

Image: Four Dancers

GWAC AGM Next Saturday

Night Music: Weed Smoker’s Dream

.

America Eating Its Young

Today is the 54th anniversary of Ohio National Guardsman shooting dead four unarmed students at Kent State. Eleven other kids were injured.

Although the President’s Commission on Campus Violence equivocated and blamed both Guardsmen and students, it did finally conclude that “the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.”  It was murder, pure and simple, though the US justice system refused to press charges against the Guardsmen.  After all, as Nixon himself said just a few days before the massacre, student protesters were just bums.

Lest we forget as we watch Columbia and UCLA and campuses across the US today in 2024.

Image: Line #1

Night Music: I Wanna Love Him So Bad

I may have been the only person to buy this single in England, but it was my favourite music for a whole summer.

Best in Vancouver 2024, On The Drive

.

The Georgia Straight Golden Plate awards for best in Vancouver have been announced. There were many Commercial Drive establishments that won or placed highly and they are mentioned below. The full set of winners can be found at: https://www.straight.com/food/27th-annual-golden-plates-awards-tasty-results-are-in

• Bar Corso — #2 Cocktail bar
• Dolce Amore — #1 Gelato
• DownLow Chicken Shack — #1 Fried Chicken and #2 Comfort Food
• Fish Counter — #3 fish restaurant
• Harambe Ethiopian — #1 African
• Havana — #1 Caribbean, #2 Latin American, and #2 overall on the Drive
• Kin Kao — #2 Thai
• Kishimoto — #2 Sushi and #3 Japanese
• Kulinarya — #1 Filipino
• La Grotta del Fromaggio — #1 Deli
• Liberty Wines — #3 wine store
• Livia — #3 Brunch
• Lunch Lady — #1 overall on the Drive
• Memphis Blues BBQ — #1 barbecue
• Merci Beaucoup Cafe — #1 Hidden Gem
• Mexcaleria — #1 Mexican and #3 overall on the Drive
• Mom’s The Word — Best bartender: Caitlin Docking
• Rosemary Rocksalt — #2 Bagel
• Sol y Limon — #3 Tacos
• Sopra Sotto — #2 Pizza
• Sula — #3 Indian

Congratulations to all those who placed above, and to all those other wonderful eating places on the Drive that we all love even without awards.