[fliptuner]

Don't want to quote a bunch so I'll just say what I remember.

What most people remember as PhoBichNga was originally VicWay trucker style diner.

Where the Canadian Tire was on Gladstone/Kingsway used to be a Lumberland.

A few doors East was a full service Shell station that my dad's friend owned. Remember the rubber hoses that went ding-ding to call the gas boy? When they would check your oil and air and air and water were free?

IIRC the PetroCan on Kingsway/Naniamo used to be a Texaco and they would give away free steak knives and shit when you got a fill-up.

The cornerstore right across from there used to be owned by a Chinese family that lived upstairs. Back in the 80's we used to actually call cornerstores...ready...??? Chinese stores. It wasn't a racial thing - just that they were all owned by Chinese people. A carton of cigs was $15 and sticks were like 10cents each.

Further E on the same side of Kingsway was another Shell station (Clarendon St.) Followed by a Thriftway grocery store. Beside that was Vancouver Karate Club (used to go there) then further down was Beefway, Harvey's Hardware, Purdy's and Wally's and Collingwood Library.

The only reason we really went to Oakridge Mall was for $1.49 days at Woodwards and to check out the displays at Christmas time.

I went to Norquay Elementary on Slocan and 29th and in the summer we would all hang out at Slocan Park where they would fill the pool and have different activities for the kids. There were never a ton of parents there - only those watching very young kids. All our parents were at work so we would just kind of hang out and play til our parents got home. My friend's and I were all latchkey kids with the yarn necklaces lol. A lot of back alley street hockey, soccer and bike riding back then. All around the neighborhood - none of this up and down the street shit.

There used to be a REAL sense of community back then, less PC bullshit, more common sense, better service at stores, etc.......