My East End Neighbourhood

O ne of our neighbours was Russian, another was Scottish, and my best friend, who was Lithuanian, lived a few blocks away. The Chinese lived further toward Chinatown. The Yugoslavs moved further east toward the Burrard Inlet area, and Italians moved to the east Commercial Drive area.

Raymur Avenue was a small, quiet, one-block street I would often roller skate along. I walked along the railroad tracks behind our house, up to Campbell Avenue to the Croatian Educational Home for Yugoslavian tamburitza orchestra rehearsals. The tamburitza is a type of mandolin. I often walked to Main and Hastings to what is now the Carnegie Centre. I walked to the York Movie Theatre, to Grandview Park, to Seymour Elementary School, and to Templeton Junior High School. I later attended Grandview High School of Commerce at First and Commercial, where today there is a shopping mall.

Our house had no backyard. The grass grew tall in the front yard, and when I walked down the narrow sidewalk in the middle of the yard, I was often frightened by the garter snakes in the grasses. Across the street was a grassy plain, extending for many miles, with bullrushes, yellow wild broom flower bushes, salmon berry bushes and wild flowers. Far in the distance were cows and the Canada Packers building. Every evening at dusk bats would come darting in and out, and I made sure I was home in time because I was frightened of them.

Every night a melodious symphony of a thousand singing, croaking frogs was heard. They helped lull me to sleep, about midnight when the steam engine train behind our house passed with its thunderous wailing whistle.

Today the houses are gone from Raymur Avenue, and the General Paint Factory is situated there.