Vancouver History

[thumper]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Now, does anyone know where the Minnam's old Dyno is? I know Eurosport had it at one point in time.

i thought one of the local shops took over the lease for that thing?

[thumper]

Originally Posted by K-Dub

Sigh, I walked by today and read the sign, they've been closed by the health board since March.

it's been closed by the health board and you still want to go back?!?

[SumAznGuy]

I drove by the Hastings location of Supra GT and it looks like they finally closed up shop. I've bought a few things from them too, without install. Back in the day, their prices weren't too bad.

Correction, looks like they moved to another location as a google search shows them being on Kingsway now.

Yes, they also had a N. Van location. It is really close to the industrial parks just off of Marine Dr. I'm thinking it might have been Llyod st.

[thumper]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Yes, they also had a N. Van location. It is really close to the industrial parks just off of Marine Dr. I'm thinking it might have been Llyod st.

my friend says i've been there with him before (looking for a front lip spoiler for his then-new 200sx ) but it's not coming to me. dingy wood paneling, old stock tires, and an impressive window display collection of enkei and riken wheels from the 80's maybe?

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by thumper

my friend says i've been there with him before (looking for a front lip spoiler for his then-new 200sx ) but it's not coming to me. dingy wood paneling, old stock tires, and an impressive window display collection of enkei and riken wheels from the 80's maybe?

And don't forget the Ronal wheels too. But Enkei's might be a bit too new for them.

And of course all their great winter tire/wheel combo ads in the chinese buy & sell.

[thumper]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

I made a post about that but no one replied. I feel so sad now.

really? oops... missed that

[tonyzoomzoom]

Originally Posted by fliptuner

What about Supra GT on Hastings and Jackson(?). The guy had a hard on for early 70's Corollas.

Was Supra GT on Commercial (somewhere around Napier) before they moved to Hastings St? I kind of remember they were nearby another garage called KM Racing (or something like that). I remember the KM guys had a 320i with square headlights.

I used to go there in the early 80s

[?NR]

Originally Posted by 89blkcivic

I bought a few things from him. Stuff took forever to show up. Nice enough guy. Biggest beef I had was the place he sent me to have things installed (Installation was inclded in price). Wing Fai Motors on Powell street. Those guys had no idea what they were doing. They went out of business... wAnder why? They're under a new name now or possibly changed ownership.

Wing Fai is gone. They are now Superstar on Bridgeport Richmond.

[?NR]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

The old Sun Sing Theater, in the Pantages Theater on Main st.
http://www.cinematour.com/picview.php?db=ca&id=18605

More Vancouver theaters, thanks for the link Thumper.
http://www.cinematour.com/results.php

there was Sun Sing, Yuen dong (Far East), Loong Sing (Broadway & Comm.), Aberdeen.. i think I missed one though which is Golden Harvest... i think..

[K-Dub]

Originally Posted by thumper

it's been closed by the health board and you still want to go back?!?

It's one of the three places on Hastings I wanted to try. The other two are Save On Meats, Ovaltine Cafe.

The place is old man, it doesnt even have a washroom, back then it wasnt a regulation/requirement for a restaurant! I'm not surprised, I walked by a couple times before, but I was never in the mood to eat or the time wasn't right.

[Spaceship_coupe]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

I drove by the Hastings location of Supra GT and it looks like they finally closed up shop. I've bought a few things from them too, without install. Back in the day, their prices weren't too bad.

Correction, looks like they moved to another location as a google search shows them being on Kingsway now.

Yes, they also had a N. Van location. It is really close to the industrial parks just off of Marine Dr. I'm thinking it might have been Llyod st.

Close...The Supra GT in North Van was on Pemberton and Welch and Harrison ran the shop.

I wonder what they did with all those old wheels, IMO it'd be a gold mine for an old school lover like me.

[welfare]

Originally Posted by InvisibleSoul

The southeast corner of Fraser & 33rd used to be an A&W Drive-In Diner...

And another Safeway used to be at Knight and Kingsway, which of course turned into a flea market for many years, before finally being turned into the King Edward Village condo complex...

haha. wtf? i grew up on 24th and knight. across the street from safeway. that tv store on the corner used to be a corner store.

Originally Posted by ziggyx

I'm not that old but yeah here goes.

First is my elementary school Charles Dickens. I left this elementary school in 1999 I think?? It was a really nice school with about 500 kids. This school was one of vancouver's oldest buildings ever being built in 1912. Thats right it was built before World War 1 even started lol. Now it no longer stands there because it was torn down due to the fact that it wasn't a safe building if an earthquake ever hit. It was more cost effective for them to build a new school.

heres what the school used to look like


As for the new school you can see it. The address is 3351 Glen Dr. I can't find any pictures of it online.


Also I'm pretty sure that quite a few of you remember when station square used to be the place where all kids hung out? It had famous player movies that didn't have stadium style seating. This meant that if a really big person or someone with a huge ass afro sat in front of you, you would have to move seats lol. There's bubble tea and karaoke as well. Most importantly who could forget Johnny Zee's ?!? This place was so busy before metropolis, playdium and famous players silver city came along. Oh yeah and who could forget playdium. haha one of the best arcades that I have ever been to because they had some pretty wicked games. Like the ferrari racing game although it was hard as hell, DDR on a huge ass screen, and you could choose to have unlimited plays for an hour. Only crappy part was that they didn't really bother to maintain their equipment.

Now station square is pretty much a ghost town and playdium doesn't even exist anymore.

oh shit. yeah, i went to dickens too. well, first annex then elementary. wicked school. mr rooney was the principal. i didn't like him much at all
yup. life was good. the nintendo entertainment system came out and rocked the hell out of atari/gemini/colecovision. the commodore 64 was astonishing
i'm gonna read some more of this later.

[welfare]

and oh yeah. 21 jumpstreet was awesome

[MG1]

Do any of you remember 1967?

Bobby Gimby and the Confederation Train. I think every elementary kid in Vancouver went on a field trip to see the train at the CN Station. It was a huge success. We also got a commemorative coin and some other trinkets. Bobby Gimby was there playing his custom made herald trumpet - studded with all kinds of jewels. So cool. We were so proud to be Canadians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18-oRTLIe3I

[synchrocone]

To the OP, this a really nice thread. It conjures a lot of imagery and really gives you a good appreciation of Vancouver history. I find it really interesting to visualisizing so many kids in a school when I could remember only maybe 15students in our class one year in 87-88. I can remember somehow getting into Capitol 6 with my buddy to watching the original Predator, then coming home to watch Ron Hextall and his big stick against the Oil that year.

Random thoughts:

Kids nowadays living sedentary lifestyles really seems to be getting worse comparing it to when i was a kid.

Ive read recently that the UK is having the same problems. For instance, games like tag, british bulldog, climbing trees are being phased out as they are considered too dangerous and too much of a liability to recess supervisors and school officials. Skipping rope usage is also reported to being near its death bed as well. Its not looking good, my friends.

I remember playing British Bulldog was one of the scariest things to do as it got pretty violent a few times in grade three but the recess supervisor never stopped us from doing fun things. Looking back nobody really seriously got hurt badly. Bob, or "Bobator" the recess monitor was a pretty nice guy, maybe too nice..

Anyone remember Halloween in Vancouver when firecrackers were a bigger thing? I remember hearing about going near Ho-Hos in Chinatown to get them. It was a pretty good year not even being able to see more than 50feet because of all the smoke and having two garbage bags of candy, hehe.

I really enjoyed your stories on your child labour experience before times changed. Im going to have to read more of this later.

[trd2343]

Is there any recommendation for a book of the overview of the history of Vancouver? I am not looking for a book with lots of details, but it highlights the major events that took place and shaped Vancouver into what it is today.

[MG1]

Originally Posted by reamemiya

Is there any recommendation for a book of the overview of the history of Vancouver? I am not looking for a book with lots of details, but it highlights the major events that took place and shaped Vancouver into what it is today.

A good book about the history of Vancouver would be nice. The history books I've come across are just raw information, which is OK, but I would also like to find out how it was like to be there. I like reading about how families made it through the war or through tough times. I came across a good book at the library about the Japanese Internment Camp ordeal as seen through the eyes of a child - what she could remember and how she felt about it. History like that is great, because it puts you right there. History with a personal touch.

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.......

[CorneringArtist]

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.......

I hear you. I used to play street hockey with the kids in my complex when I was 10, seven years ago. We sometimes went until like 9 or 10, and the only thing stopping us were parents and cars that had to pass by the playing area. But now, no one even thinks about playing, they're all too busy either doing nothing (like myself, and I outgrew street hockey), or just play on the playground and big field in the center of the complex.

[welfare]

people can do whatever they choose to. society is so paralyzed with fear nowadays. we're all so conscientious. everything needs to be prevented. it's really taken the fun out of life.
so go ahead; eat your trans fats, drink out of the water hose, play your british bulldog until the late hours. everything in moderation. you only live once. i don't understand the whole reasoning behind prolonging the whole thing to that point

[MG1]

Originally Posted by synchrocone

I find it really interesting to visualisizing so many kids in a school when I could remember only maybe 15students in our class one year in 87-88.

Yeah, Strathcona back then was huge. I cannot imagine how they kept everybody together. No e-mail between teachers. I don't even recall there being telephones in classrooms like they have now.

Anyway, Strathcona had some really cool teachers back then. My favourite teacher was the music teacher. Mr. Theo Goldberg. He's now Dr. Goldberg. I hear he's still alive. Anyway, I met him later on in life at UBC of all places and he still remembered me. He's a prof with the UBC Music Education Department. Back when he was my grade 4 home room teacher, he drove a green (I think) Mustang. He was so proud of it that he used it as often as he could in his lessons (don't ask how). He drew a picture of it on the board and tied it to who knows what music lesson. Fond memories include him getting us to play and sing the greatest hit of all time (so we thought), "Windy". Dr. Goldberg was always into leading edge technology - synthesizers and all kinds of electronic gadgets. He had this neat electronic board that had the musical staff etched on it. It was touch sensitive and played back the note you touched on the board. Thinking about it now, it must have been way ahead of its time. He also created a school musical based on a famous old Chinese song. The musical was called Flute Island and it involved a huge amount of kids. That man really made a huge impact on me. Rumours were he had something special in the back of his classroom. Only a few people ever saw this thing. My wife actually remembers what it was......... a small still. LOL. He was brewing something back there. Hey, it could have been water, you know. He wasn't the science teacher though. And no, it wasn't a coffee maker, either.

Another great teacher was Mr. Giuriato (I hope I got the spelling right). I can go on forever with these teachers, but there was one scary teacher all students at the school feared. I'm not going to say her name, because just mentioning it name gives me the creeps. She was like the Cruella De Vil of Strathcona. She had tonnes of make up on and smoked like there was no tomorrow. She was tough on the boys. Almost like she hated men and wanted to destroy all signs of maleness in us. Her favourite move was to literally drag boys down the hall and to the office by their ears. Granted most of us skinny Asian boys weighed 45 pounds soaking wet, but I never thought ears could hold that much weight. She favoured the girls. She always had her favourite girls go to the store to buy her cigarettes and chocolate bars.

Corporal punishment. Yep, it was rampant back then. I think they put an end to corporal punishment, because the principals were having way too much fun hurting kids.

Of all the pranks I pulled at school, I never got caught. Never got the strap, except by mistake. I used to go home for lunch, because lunch hour was just that - one hour. One day I got back to school to see a whole bunch of kids crowded around the entry way. A female teacher was screaming at the kids. She was like losing it. Being curious, I made my way to the front to see what was going on. All I heard then was, "You, you, you, and you (pointing at me) come with me!" Apparently, nobody opened the door for her. Back then, that was a sign of disrespect. So here I was following a bunch of other boys on the way to the office. The principal gets out the leather strap. Crap, I remember that thing to this day. It was huge and not like a belt. It was solid with a cross pattern on the leather surface. Up to that point, I had only heard scary stories about the strap. We were told not to move our hands, because if the principal missed, he would give you the strap twice. All of us prayed he would not miss and hit us square on the hands. The last thing you want is for him to get just a little piece of your hand like your pinky. We all tried to be tough and held our tears back, but it hurt so much tears automatically ran out. "Now let that be a lesson to you!" I remember him saying. We apologized to the female teacher and went immediately to the washroom to try and wash the pain away. I recall the mark that was left on the palm of my hand.

Remembering further back, I recall a very nice lady. She had a very weird name, perhaps Mrs. Fong-Dickman? She was Asian, I think and was one of the Kindergarten teachers at Strath. She was so nice to the kids. I remember being sick one day. I ended up barfing all over her shoes and feet. I thought she was going to scream, but she calmly took her shoes off, wiped the stuff off her feet and continued to rub my back to make me feel better. Kindergarten was so neat. It was an all day Kindergarten. It had to because most of the mothers in the neighbourhood worked. I remember nap time. Man, was it good. We went to our cubby and pulled out our pillows and blankets. We slept to the teacher's singing. I rarely slept, but it was very relaxing. I think we should all have nap time at work.

Anyway, this post is getting way too long.

I wanted to tell you a story about my first love when I was in grade three. She was a native girl who I thought was an Indian princess. So naive and innocent back then.

[skyxx]

^ Bhahahaha Awesome story man. Oh did you have any crush on teachers? .

[MG1]

Originally Posted by skyxx

^ Bhahahaha Awesome story man. Oh did you have any crush on teachers? .

No, they were all ugly as sin. And, older than the hills. Strathcona was like where teachers went to before retiring. Asians give no trouble kind of thing.

There were, however, some young male teachers who broke many a young girls' hearts. LOL.

Mr. Ponak. I remember the girls going gaga over him. He was clean cut and wore nice suits.

[thumper]

Originally Posted by tonyzoomzoom

Was Supra GT on Commercial (somewhere around Napier) before they moved to Hastings St? I kind of remember they were nearby another garage called KM Racing (or something like that). I remember the KM guys had a 320i with square headlights.

I used to go there in the early 80s

might have been KM auto. i think we are thinking of the same shop. had that awning in the front with the multicolor stripe on it... but i thought it was on clarke not commercial

[tonyzoomzoom]

^^^ you're right on. It's Clarke not Commercial.

[thumper]

Originally Posted by tonyzoomzoom

^^^ you're right on. It's Clarke not Commercial.

but i never got to see the bmw... i only saw the 16v scirocco with the euro lights.