Vancouver History

[SumAznGuy]

Coming back from the US today, I saw 3 old school BC Electric buses driving down the highway with Vintage plates. One bus said 1949 on it, and the other 2 buses looked even older.

I guess they might have been at the Langley car show today.

I'll try to upload the pics tonight, but they are of poor quality taken with my E71. =(

Here are some pics I found online.
http://slackeye.com/index.php?page=62&tp=2

http://www.trams.bc.ca/index.html

[K-Dub]

More about Mr. Giuriato. My french teacher was Giuriato, but somehow I don't think this is the same Giuriato guessing from how old you are.....

[cunninglinguist]

Was Mr. Giuriato the teacher who renewed his wedding vows each year and told stories of "Stregga"?

[MG1]

Originally Posted by K-Dub

More about Mr. Giuriato. My french teacher was Giuriato, but somehow I don't think this is the same Giuriato guessing from how old you are.....

That's probably his son. You'd be surprised at how many teachers come from a family of educators.

[MG1]

Originally Posted by cunninglinguist

Was Mr. Giuriato the teacher who renewed his wedding vows each year and told stories of "Stregga"?

Sounds like him. Semi bald and a huge nose. Fairly tall and thin. His eyes always sparkled and he loved teaching. He wasn't that old, so he probably stayed at Strath for quite some time.

Do any of you younger Strathcona types remember the in house dentist? Mrs. Cunningham. I mentioned in one of my earlier post about how miserable she was. When you think about it, anyone would have lost it having to work with so many Asians and their crooked teeth on a daily basis. LOL.......... sorry, that was bad.

[MG1]

School life was great back in those days. We had so many things to do during lunch hours. When it rained, we had the covered play areas - the basements. I remember the ceilings being low and the lighting was poor. Four square, cards, and dodgeball were favourite games. The play areas were segregated. Boys on one side of the bulding and girls in the other. I remember the elephant stampede. Some of us crazier boys would run into the girls play area with our pockets pulled out of our pants and our penises sticking out.... elephant stampede. Hilarious. Supervision must have been hard at Strath, because there were so many hidden hallways and corridors in those old buildings. We got a way with all kinds of shit. I remember being on the third floor of the senior building. I think I was in grade 6. Our homeroom was at the southeast corner of the building. We dropped waterbombs on people (balloons filled with water). Since it was a corner, we had a good vantage point. We could see people coming from both sides. One day, the look out person was not doing his job, because just when we dropped one, the VP came around the corner. The water bomb hit the intended target, but also got the VP wet. The VP was a really old dude. I think his name was Mr. Warkentin. He knew who we were and he came up the stairs. We thought we were dead. He let us go, but not without giving us one of his "deadly" stares. Which was funny, because it wasn't scary at all. We just played along and pretended to be uber scared. It made him feel powerful. LOL. During weekends, we played roller hockey at the school. Most of Strathcona was blacktop. Around the building in between the buildings - all smooth blacktop. It was great. Some of us were really good skaters considering the kind of skates we used. I think my mom still has a pair of those old metal skates put away somewhere. You wore the skates over your shoes/runners. No matter how many kids were out there with skates, keys were always in demand. Most kids either forgot to bring them or lost them. I could always count on my sister, because she never lost hers. Do they even make skates like that anymore? Most of the kids just slammed their runners into the skates and that seemed to work. My skates always came apart and I had to tighten them all the time.

[thumper]

oh noes this thread is silent...

more slightly off topic stuff: SR racing, back in time, used to be a small little store front in a strip mall off no.3 rd (roughly where the canada line aberdeen station is now) next to a karaoke place (i can't remember the name). they used to do installs under a covered bay where the dumpster is parked... so yeah they've come up a long way.

or how about worksport performance on cambie? it used to be in the same complex where mini richmond is now. they also had a small satellite storefront in parker place.

[Senna4ever]

For the people that grew up near the PNE in the 80's/early 90's: Remember the hole in the fence that was hidden by the big pine tree along Hastings Street? You couldn't see the hole from either the inside or outside because of the branches that grew out through the fencing - you had to go in the tree to access the hole. BAM! Free PNE admission!

[rb]

Not really Vancouver history as its more tri-cities but here's some stuff on the Westwood Motorsport Park, which is now just a housing development aka Westwood Plateau.

Some of the track still kinda exists today, which you can still checkout.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache...a-9cc29fb8fb13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood_Motorsport_Park
http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/Featu...aspioneer.html
http://www.westwood50.org/

[AzNightmare]

too bad this thread doesn't have pictures.
Like a picture of the same landscape throughout the decades so we can see the changes.
That would be really cool

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by 89blkcivic

As for kids nowadays, I guess it's not their fault. Our world is so different now. Kids cannot go outside and play stick ball or hockey till 10 at night in the city. Actually, you cannot do it anywhere, from what I hear. Even in small towns, there are weirdos.

Sorry, my response is a little off.......

Heck, I'm only in my late 20s and even I had the joy of playing street hockey until the late hours of the night in the summertime.

I'm going off on a tangent, but I honestly don't think the world is any more dangerous now than it was back then. We just didn't have a 24-hour news cycle and the internet to 'scare us' into thinking that there was a sexual predator lurking around every corner. I remember encountering weirdos on the streets back then, but like most kids, I simply ignored them or ran away fast if I felt too threatened. It's ridiculous that kids have to be dropped off at school if they only live 3-5 blocks away. I walked to school when I was 5 years old and I never came close to being run over by a car, nor did I ever have some shady character ask me to jump in their car for a ride.

I honestly hope that when my peers start having children that we can raise children the way that we were raised. Honestly, the possibilities of anything really bad happening to a child if left unsupervised are astoundingly small - the statistics favour parents.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by thumper

oh noes this thread is silent...

more slightly off topic stuff: SR racing, back in time, used to be a small little store front in a strip mall off no.3 rd (roughly where the canada line aberdeen station is now) next to a karaoke place (i can't remember the name). they used to do installs under a covered bay where the dumpster is parked... so yeah they've come up a long way.

or how about worksport performance on cambie? it used to be in the same complex where mini richmond is now. they also had a small satellite storefront in parker place.

SR racing was beside VOX karaoke. The old store front is approximately at the south end of the station.

Worksport was in the old building, where the McDonalds is now. Of course, that building was torn down and replaced with the McD's.

[InvisibleSoul]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

Heck, I'm only in my late 20s and even I had the joy of playing street hockey until the late hours of the night in the summertime.

I'm going off on a tangent, but I honestly don't think the world is any more dangerous now than it was back then. We just didn't have a 24-hour news cycle and the internet to 'scare us' into thinking that there was a sexual predator lurking around every corner. I remember encountering weirdos on the streets back then, but like most kids, I simply ignored them or ran away fast if I felt too threatened. It's ridiculous that kids have to be dropped off at school if they only live 3-5 blocks away. I walked to school when I was 5 years old and I never came close to being run over by a car, nor did I ever have some shady character ask me to jump in their car for a ride.

I honestly hope that when my peers start having children that we can raise children the way that we were raised. Honestly, the possibilities of anything really bad happening to a child if left unsupervised are astoundingly small - the statistics favour parents.

Yeah, it's pretty fascinating how this whole universal feeling of insecurity has been instilled in our society now compared to 20 years ago.

I'm about the same age as you, and yeah... back then, it seems like all the kids walked to school on their own. I swear I remember when I was like four years old, before I was in school, I would walk the couple blocks to elementary school on my own to pick up my older brother...

[skyxx]

THREAD REVIVAL! I don't have anything to say but I just can't see this thread die.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by 89blkcivic

It used to be one of three buildings there. That's when the PNE was huge. BC sports Hall of Fame..... is it and the huge ass BC Relief Map still around somewhere?

That map was the work of one man who, piece by piece, put that map together. It was massive. They had this moving walkway that held 50 or so people up high that swept across the map.

http://www.challengermap.org/home.htm

They just talked about the map on the news. Looks like part of it found a new home.

[CP.AR]

I'm nowhere near "old" - only 20, but have some random stuff to share mostly in Richmond...

Remember when the lansdowne Future Shop used to be across the street (beside what is now sport mart)? Hell they had the craziest TV display on the back wall, thinking back - I wonder how much electricity they used to run that display? As well, parking there was 10x as bad as it is now...

In that same area, I very clearly remember Hazelbridge way being a single lane road, with nothing but a 4-way stop on the Alexandra (McD) intersection. It was smooth sailing, no crazy drivers, no congestion.

London Drugs used to be where No.3 Staples is right now - again, that entire area was congestion free ALL THE TIME.

Oh yeah... one thing I am sure everyone misses - a construction free, pothole free, No.3 road.

That's all I can think of now!

[MG1]

Ah.......... Richmond. I recall quieter times too. My buddy owned a stereo shop in Times Square. Two doors down from Canton Wunton House, my favourite hole in the wall. They are now in South Richmond. They are called Danny's Kitchen, IIRC. Best curry brisket on rice and decent wunton.

I haven't been anywhere near Times Square. I gather Kerrisdale Cameras is gone too.

[skyxx]

Originally Posted by Captain Picard

Oh yeah... one thing I am sure everyone misses - a construction free, pothole free, No.3 road.

That's all I can think of now!

It was also 10x bigger, smoother, and C-Lai free....

Anyway, back on topic. Anyone remember how their Christmas/New years went. I remember Vancouver being more spirited in a sense compared to today. It could just be me but I'm pretty certain it's not what it used to be when it came to christmas.

[MG1]

I really miss Woodwards this time of year. Those window displays in the old downtown store during Christmas were awesome. They were awesome when I was a kid and they were just as awesome when I saw them later on. Fucking progress.............

[!Nhan]

I'm not as old as some of you guys, but do you guys remember when milk was availble for sale in plastic bags? I remember going to buy them and then putting it into a plastic container.

Anyone remmeber Mr. Ho's on Kingsway in Burnaby? I don't think it's related to the Ho Ho's they have now, but that place was awesome went there at least once every other week.

I remember at the old aberdeen right down the stairs from the chinese theater they had this dessert place I think it was and they had the best grass jelly ever. They had this statue of a turtle or something out fron and the place was just amazing.

I miss the old chinatown. Going there every saturday with my parents and being able to walk around and not have to worry about the junkies and what not.

What I missed the most was Gold Stone. They had the best house special spaghetti and I have yet to find a place that was as good as theirs.

[triplexcel]

Hah I remember those old milk bags. I was only a couple yrs old though.
But yah. Chinatown use to be swarmed with people and I couldn't even get through them even as a kid. What has vancouver turned into?
Posted via RS Mobile

[thumper]

Originally Posted by !nhan

I'm not as old as some of you guys, but do you guys remember when milk was availble for sale in plastic bags? I remember going to buy them and then putting it into a plastic container.

i remember this. toss the bag into the container and cut a corner off the top of the bag and pour... we used to get door to door milk deliveries from dairyland this way.

[hal0g0dv2]

[MG1]

Originally Posted by thumper

i remember this. toss the bag into the container and cut a corner off the top of the bag and pour... we used to get door to door milk deliveries from dairyland this way.

And you had to cut it right or else it dripped down the side and into the holder. They came in bags of three.

Milk delivery from Dairyland when I was a youngster was the glass bottles. I remember my mom putting tokens on top of the used bottles and placing them outside the door. I guess each token meant one bottle. The milkman carried those metal crates as he did his rounds in the apartment block. I think they had only one kind of milk and butter. Not sure how they do it nowadays. Probably on-line orders.

[Spectre_Cdn]

Originally Posted by Captain Picard

I'm nowhere near "old" - only 20, but have some random stuff to share mostly in Richmond...

Remember when the lansdowne Future Shop used to be across the street (beside what is now sport mart)? Hell they had the craziest TV display on the back wall, thinking back - I wonder how much electricity they used to run that display? As well, parking there was 10x as bad as it is now...

In that same area, I very clearly remember Hazelbridge way being a single lane road, with nothing but a 4-way stop on the Alexandra (McD) intersection. It was smooth sailing, no crazy drivers, no congestion.

London Drugs used to be where No.3 Staples is right now - again, that entire area was congestion free ALL THE TIME.

Oh yeah... one thing I am sure everyone misses - a construction free, pothole free, No.3 road.

That's all I can think of now!

And not so long ago, Lansdowne Best Buy used to be a Safeway. The current Future Shop used to be Zellers, which moved to the other side of the mall. Near Gingeri, there used to be a huge playcentre sort of like those McDonald's kids areas but 10x bigger (forgot what it was called). There was also an Eaton's, with a restaurant upstairs where Zellers is now. After Eaton's closed, that space was a GM showroom for a while... no salespeople just full lines of GM cars in the mall. Winners used to be a computer store.

In Richmond Centre, there used to be a Zellers where Sport Chek is now, with a Kernels and Pet Habitat next door where Old Navy is now.

Around Christmas time, there was also a free trolley bus (like the Stanley Park trolleys) that went from mall to mall, including the old Aberdeen.

Almost every bus in Richmond used to go to downtown Vancouver because there were no dedicated Vancouver buses.

Other than the malls... there isn't much I can remember. Oh and there were NO CONDOS in the city centre 16 years ago.

Originally Posted by 89blkcivic

Ah.......... Richmond. I recall quieter times too. My buddy owned a stereo shop in Times Square. Two doors down from Canton Wunton House, my favourite hole in the wall. They are now in South Richmond. They are called Danny's Kitchen, IIRC. Best curry brisket on rice and decent wunton.

I haven't been anywhere near Times Square. I gather Kerrisdale Cameras is gone too.

Kerrisdale Cameras is still there.