Fora great many Vancouverites,
the affection they have for their city
is rooted in memories of
how it used to be, before the vast
changes of the last two decades rad-
ically altered the skyline.

Especially through the central
core of Vancouver, it is easy to find

’ landmarks — older buildings, fac-
tories, a cobbled street, a park —
which give 50 or more years of con-
tinuity to the parts of the city we
have known.

For others, who may react neg-
atively to the current magazine im-
age of Vancouver as some kind of
west coast playground where fri-
volity and decadence abound,
those landmarks are a reminder
that Vancouver was — and re-
mains — essentially working class.

Of course, staring up at the peni-
tentiary-like exterior of the Roger’s
Sugar refinery or watching the
shipyard workers stream into the
Princeton beer parlor can’t really
give a feeling of working class life in
Vancouver more than 30 years ago.

Vancouver’s Rolf Knight has
opened a window on at least part of
that existence with his latest New
Star Books publication, Along the
No. 20 Line.

It is an admittedly personal view
of Vancouver from Knight who
has compiled his reminiscences of
life as a teenager along the city
waterfront about 1949,

What he remembers most vivid-
ly is the No. 20 streetcar (not to be
confused with today’s Granville
bus) which for a seven cent fare
would pick him up near his Wall St.
home and head down Powell St. to
the downtown core.

That old streetcar line has been
resurrected for Along the No. 20
Line and made the vehicle for
Knight to describe the people,
places and memories associated
with the stops along the route.

It is a unique approach, and
largely successful. Knight’s remin-
iscences have acommonality which
make them relevant to both those
who themselves may have stomped
over the same ground, or who
know the waterfront only in its re-
cent period.

For Knight, what Vancouver
was all about was loggers, seamen
and railroads. From Hastings Park
to the Princeton pub at ‘‘Cedar
Cove,’”’ at the foot of Victoria
Drive, downtown to the logger’s
district around Carrall and Cor-
dova, most things along the street-
car line reflected the resource in-
dustries from which the city grew.

One chapter departs from the
old streetcar and goes aboard the
steamships which transported

camp workers to Vancouver Island -

and the Queen Charlottes; another
trips in and out of the downtown
loggers’ hotels, the Metropole,
West and Rainier, and along to the
Hub clothers and the Pierre Paris
boot shop.

were ultimately a lumpen proletar- é

iat, Knight suggests, but some of
the families lived for two or more
generations in the boathouses.
However when the authorities de-
cided it was time for the
three days to knock the houses
be sighted off New Brighton or

‘iding the No.

west along Commissioner Ave.,
the only remnants of that forgotten
community.

This is the sixth publication to
the credit of Knight, and it un-
doubtedly marks a new plateau for
him as a writer. Indians at Work,
his last book, was an anthropologi-
cal study, detailed and empirical in
style, and hardly comparable to the
descriptive imagery which brings
the No. 20 line to life. It is a clear
advance over A Very Ordinary

20 in Vancouver East

ALONG THE NO. 20 LINE, by Rolph Knight. Published by New Star Books, Van-
couver. $6.50 paper; $13.95 cloth. Available from People’s Co-op Bookstore, 341

W. Pender, Van.

reddish glow reflected for miles in
the water at night, the boneyard at
the foot of Victoria Drive where
tugs and freighters were gutted and
broken up, or the huge ships dock-
ing in the fog at Terminal Dock and
clanging anchor chains into the
water . . . these and other scenes

The other Voices are really extracts
from oral histories recorded in
other places. And although some
of the people who add their recol-
lections to Knight’s, like docker
Alex Will or shipyard union leader
Bill White, are interesting in their
own right, their voices seem almost

line are dated. This reviewer foun?
himself skipping over much A
those middle 70 pages to rejoin
streetcar in the concluding
CoE ff the No. 20
ore getting off the NO. “”
which itself was taken off thetracls
in 1950, Knight ae a fi
affection for ‘‘that a
vital strip along the industial
waterfront,’”’ an affection Wi
could border on ‘‘a local
ism.”’

> to go, it took only *

Life, his best known previous are well crafted. : out of place in what is otherwise a Along the No. 20 Line is hardly
book. In fact, the quality of Knight’s' consistently developed theme and chauvinistic, but it does make for
. - > .
The sights and sounds of the style makes it hard to understand - style. Some of the other voices are i working
: sty! good feelings about the
waterfront are perhaps thestrength _ why he chose to interrupt the trav- removed in time substantially from _ class life that was, and is, Vancou"
of this effort. The bee hive burner. els of the No. 20 line with 70 pages the immediate postwar period ver East.
at the foot of Renfrew St. with its of what is termed “other voices.” when Knight’s travels on the No. 20 —Fred Wils0!
—_—.
B.C. pledges near $100,000
aor New Westminster Club,

In the few months since the firebomb gutted the historic Norman Beth- - CPC 1600 oe
une Centre in Toronto, more than $300,000 has been raised across Canada to _Nilsson, B. & J. ocd ’
begin the task of rebuilding — to create a new centre which, when com. _'Connor, Pat & Wendy nd .
pleted, will stand as a monument to two great Canadians, Tim Buck and Soran rae fs Hees 250
Norman Bethune and to the Communist Party of which both were pas- Onfechal: ‘Andy 40 40
sionate advocates. O'Shaughnessy, Helen 200 200

Of that money, more than $97,000 is from British Columbia, from over 125 _Packota, Peter 250 250
donors who have put their names to a pledge. And we expect.to exceed the _Padgham, Olive & Stan 2000 a
$100,000 very soon. =: Paliwoda, John 200 200

; 4 Parker, Eunice 500 =
scaneee are the names of those who have contributed to the rebuilding Péleshaty: Peter 30 30
: Peressini, Eliseo 150 50
Name Pledged Turned !n Frayne, Mr. 5 5 Perkins, Roger 100 100
Aksenczuk, Andrew 1000 1000 Garneau, Ray & Tillie 350 350 Person, Alice , 200 200
Alcock, Sam = 50 50 Gawrycki, Mary & Walter 1000 1000  Pesonen, Henry 50 50
Assn. of United Ukrainian Canadians, Gee, Wm. 500 500 Phillips, Jack 1000 =
Women’s Branch 275 275 —Georgis, Demitris 1000 1000 _—~Piilutik, John 100 100
Bader, Kate & Mike 500 500. Planodin, John 25 25
Ball, Harry 300 100  Gidora, George 500 100  Podovinnikoff, Elaine
Bartko, Pauline 20 20 ~~ Girczic, Joe 50 50 & Nick 2000 * 1000
Beaumont, Bernard Griffin, Betty & Hal 2000 1000 Polaski, Bill = 100 100
& Gladys 25 25 «Griffin, Sean & Libby 100 - Popiel, Eugene 300 300
Beynon, Christine & Jim 3000 2500 4H. Dan 20 20 Port Alberni Club, CPC 3000 -
Bianco, Fred 1000 = Hames, Aubrey 1000 1000 = Pribanich, John _1000 1000
Bird, Jean’ & Harry 200 200 Hanson, George 20 20 ~~ Pritchett, Craig & Eileen 1000 500
Bjarnason, Emil Harper, John 10 10 Pritchett, Harold & Jean 500 500
& Gladise 1000 1000 Harris, Janice 300 _ Puska, Anna & Marvin 25 25
Bell, Vera 25 25-- Hewison, George 1000 _ Radosevic, Esther &
Bjarnason, Paul 120 _ Hewison, Mildred (70th 2 John (Sr.) 100 100
Blackburn, Richard 1000 250 birthday gifts) 130 130. Robbert, Martin 100 100
Brimacombe, Verne 1000 _ Hewlett, A.W. 20 20 ~—- Rush, Maurice 250 250 —
Brown, Vernon 100 100 Hocking, Ross & Lorraine 100 100 . Sadowinchik, Anton 20 20
Campbell, Carol & Family 100 100 Holbech, ‘Anna 120 ao Sedgewick, Mr. & Mrs. J. 300 300
Carey, Valerie 20 20  Hykaway, Peter 200 200 ~ Sharpe, George 25 25
Carlson, Gunnar 100 — Jacobs, Walt 100 100  Slank, Mr. & Mrs. F. 120 =
Check, William 50 50 Johansson, Karl 30 30 Slemco, Nancy 50 50
Chernoff, Gertrude & Nick 1000 _ Kadylak, M. & C. 100 100 Smith, George 1000 1000
Chitrenky, John 500 500 Kamloops Club, CPC 1000 — __ Smith, Marty 1000. ~—- 1000
Chobotuck, Beth 1000 1000 =‘ Keeley, Heather 900 — Smith, Ruth 500 ==
Chunn, Peggy & Allan 1000 ~ Kerr, Constance & Robt. 200 200 = Snihur, Paul 2000 2000
Cordoni, Pete (Sr.) 2450 1000 ~=Koski, Anna 10 10 Stecko, Fred 25 25
Cordoni, Tony 900 _ Krasnikov, John 100 100 = Stelp, Julius 20 20
Dean, Elsie, Barry, Gale, Kushner, Frank In memory of Bill Stewart 1000 -
Karen, Tim 2000 ~ Legebokoff, George 1000 1000  Stoochnov, Nick 10 10
Dean, Nels 3 3 In memory of Barbara Supren, E. 25 25
Delaney, Gerry 2000 2000 _Lindsay, who awed the Swann, Vi 1000 - 1000
Deo, Machan 50 50 child, and inspired the : Tanche; Rita & John 2000 2000
An Old Friend 100 100 woman 50 50 =‘ Tapio, A. 20 20
Doherty, Ruth—In Memory of In memory of Sam Lynas 1000 200 A Friend in Terrace 1000 -
Nigel Morgan 570 570 ~=Mcinnis, R. 100 10 - Taylor, Zella 25 25
Doherty, Wm. & Gudrune 500 500 Mcintosh, Dian 1000 - Tolman, Charles 75 75
Doran, Velda & Rod 1050 1050 McKay, Doug & Edna 100 50 ~=—s Treliving, Jack & Pearl 1000 250
Dorland, Fel 100 = McKay, Hamish 25 25 ~—-Ursel, Phyllis wey) 25
Dorosow, Harry 50 50 McKitch, A. & L. 500 500  Viaud, Donalda & Ray 1000 =
Dotzler, Ed 1000 1000 Mackie, Doreen & Victoria Club, CPC :
Drabiuk, Mervin 100 -- Langford 1000 90 (Picnic) 269 269
East Fraser Valley Malanchuk, Steve 200. _ Vint, Dorothy & Sam 1000 350
Region, CPC 200 ' 200 Marcus, Peter 2 1000 1000 Walker, H. 200 200
East, Jack 4 4 Margolese, Ben 100 100 Wallace, Cecil 1000 -
Engel, Eli 25 25 Masianka, Steve 200 200 Waugh, Eric 500 . 200.
Fairey, Dave 300 _ Mattersdorfer, F. 100 100 In memory of John >
Federation of Russian Mines, Sender 20 20 Wigdor 500 500
Canadians 5000 - Mitchell, .Frank 500° 500 Wilson, Fred & Pat 500 _
Frankham, D. 1000 1000 In memory of Nigei Worobetz, Sid 200 200
Finnish Org. (Sampo Morgan 2025 2025 + Woroniuk, Nick 1000 200
Hall) 50 50 Motturi, W. J. 60 60 —=s A Friend : 500 500
Frasery Valley Club, CPC 1800 600 Mozcdir, Bill 3000 3000. Yorke, Bruce 500 _
Fraser Valley South Regional Neita, Ray 10 10 Yugoslav Pensioners Club 1000 1000
C’ttee CPC 400 400 Nelson, George 100. 100 Zander, Kim 100 100
a . . 97,121
Tim Buck — Norman Bethune

Educational Centre Rebuilding Fund
To make a donation or to make a pledge for the future, contact Betty Griffin, 408-193 East Hastings
Street, Vancouver. V6A 1N7. Tel. 684-4321. /

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 26, 1980—Page 70

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