West End History Project: Nadine – 4

“West End Memories Project: Growing Up in Vancouver’s West End”

Nadine Jones grew up in the West End in the Depression Years with the kind of spirit that allowed two girls and their young mother to survive and go on to lead very productive lives.  
Here is Part 4, the last piece.  Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here.  (To contribute a story, check below the fold below.)

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I forget what mum paid in rent but nothing compared to Holly Lodge (right) which charged $28 for a five roomed suite (with private bath of course) and Blenheim Court across the street at Jervis and Davie.  My then girl friend, Edith Fixott lived in Blenheim Court and I thought they must be very rich indeed.  We lived in the attic rooms in an old house (still there) kitty corner from Holly Lodge.  I have a picture of myself on a slab of wood fondly referred to as “our verandah” which led to the wooden fire escape.
As far as schooling was concerned, when I passed out of Grade 8 in North Vancouver -before we moved to the West End – , I had decided to enroll in a commercial course.  I hated school and wasn’t good except at the subjects I liked, English and Socials, but a commercial course with shorthand and typing and bookkeeping wasn’t offered at King George which most of the high school aged kids in the West End attended.
A handful of us who wanted to take Commercial were shunted off to Fairview High … but it was full and the overflow, me being one of them, were shunted even further west to the annex of Fairview which was called Seaview and was located up 4th Avenue at about Arbutus or Yew … just east of where the big Safeway on 4th Ave. is located.
Street car fare was only a nickel and I guess mum had to come up with a dime every day until I quit in Grade 10.
The street cars which ran down Davie Street were number 3 and on Robson Street they were number 5.
My first job was at the Empress Jam factory on Hamilton Street at 37 cents an hour and my second job was at Woodwards (who didn’t work there at one time or another?).  I learned to be a cynic at Woodwards when I spent the day in the stockroom marking things up from 89 cents to 99 cents for their famous 99-cent Day Sales.
My memories of the West End are mixed.  The horrible landladies and smells of other people’s cooking and bathroom smells are imprinted on my memory forever but also there was the beach, the friends, the small joys and hope and the fun of being young.
The West End we knew was gracious old wooden homes and the comaraderie of poverty.
No matter what else it was, it was home.
I hope I’m wrong but I think today’s West End of glass and chrome and cement and highrises has lost its soul.

1100-block Robson Street with streetcar tracks (and Safeway) 1933

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Gary Pennington welcomes your contribution:

Please take this as a sincere invitation to write your story or stories about Growing Up in the West End.  Use whatever styles that suite you. Stories or letters can be anywhere from 25 words to 2,500 words.
We may have to break down lengthy pieces into shorter stories in some cases.  We will not indulge in any extensive editing other than what is absolutely required.  Prior to portrayal on the website or publication in print, we will ensure that issues to do with potential libel or defamation are dealt with to protect writers and those written about.  While we encourage candour and disclosure, if there are things that you feel are too sensitive for real names to be used, please use pseudonyms and state this in your writing.
We would ask you to contribute your stories as soon as possible so that we can meet the goal of producing a memorial book for the 100^th anniversary of King George High School in 2014.  Please send your stories, pictures, memorabilia, and certainly any ideas that you have about the project to the address below.  If you have the technical skills please send stories as attachments in MSWord format.  If you don’t have that skill set, please send us your stories by the postal service.  If that is not convenient, we can likely arrange for a personal or telephone interview. We also need contact information for other former West Enders.  Please send us any such information that you may have.
Thanks very much for considering this invitation to be part of what we feel will be a truly grand project for us and those who follow.  Again, please know that what we wish to do is to give voice to much of the joy and sadness that marked our lives as West End youth.  We are happy to answer questions that you may have.  All good wishes.
Gary Pennington, 2838 Hwy 101, Roberts Creek, BC, V0N 2W3 E: gazpen@gmail.com  T: 604-886-5746