A Story of Vancouver in the ‘70s, part 2

We had to work to pay the rent on our Vancouver house. The money we had pooled together for our trip to the US had barely lasted until we reached Canadian soil again. I got a job downtown in an office, I think Bradley had an office job as well. I am not sure where Christine worked then, was that when she was a server in a bar? It was Blaine who made the first friendly contact with one of his fellow managers, Colin, in the restaurant where he found a job. 

It was the decade of the luxurious van. You know, the ones with the curtains and a bed in the back. Colin had a particularly fine one. I can remember seeing the streets of Vancouver through the van windows many a night while perched on bed in the back of the van. The rest of the crew would be there too, with Colin behind the wheel and his girlfriend, Diane, pointing out the sights from the front passenger seat. 

Sometimes when I am standing in the back of a bus going down town on Hastings Street I almost catch a glimpse of Vancouver as it was back then. Gritty and faintly industrial but trying to rise above it all. But the Vancouver of the 70s is only a memory. The Vancouver of today is world class and sophisticated with a tawdry underbelly that is easy to see the further down Hastings that bus goes.