My parent's first little home in Burnaby BC.

I've always loved this photo of my Mom, Susie (Brutke) Williams standing outside her first little home at 4683 Union Street in Burnaby. Until today I didn't know the actual address, so I phoned my Mom and asked if she knew it off the top of her head. (she has a phenomenal head even if she is 81!) She remembered, as she verified it later after looking up an old mortgage receipt. 

My parents were married in Sept 1955 and lived at 131 W 12th Ave in Vancouver until they saved up enough money to put a down payment down on this house in 1956. The house was $6,350 for two double lots! After the down payment they owed $4,900 and paid $50 each month on it. They lived here until buying another home in Vancouver in 1959.

There is a neat online website which features terrific aerial photos of BC.

I realized that the Brentwood Mall area might have my parent's first house in it, if only I could figure out where it was, which I did by using Google maps. It was a little tricky as I needed the hundred block of Union Street and then I needed to figure out where Union Street was!

The white arrow shows where the house is. It's totally amazing how much this area has changed in the past 60 years.

This is getting closer to the house. I didn't recognize Hastings Street at all.

Can you? I counted down from Hastings, to Pender, to Frances, to Georgia and then Union.

Next I needed to know which direction the house faced, and what was next to it. I remember my Mom saying that they were on a double lot, but couldn't remember if it was on the corner. I asked my Dad today, and he remembered the corner street; Beta.

A closer zoom in. My Mom told me today that when they went to finalize the deal and sign the papers, the school just a block away burned down and had to be rebuilt. She was worried as it was quite close to their house. I'd never heard this story before.

By confirming the address with my Mom today, and checking Google maps to get the odd numbered side of the street correct (facing South) and also using the 1958 photo up above so I knew what the house next door looked like, I could pinpoint my parent's first little home. I assume that it was built in the 1920's era. I can verify that by double checking the BC directories and seeing who lived there.

I feel extremely pleased with myself! I also feel like a really good detective...

By Loretta Houben

Christmas Eve 45 years ago in 1969!

The other day I found an image someone had put online from a page of the Simpson Sears Christmas catalogue from 1969. The doll above, "B" and $6.98 was the one I got for Christmas that year. Here I am holding her. We loved getting dolls for Christmas! Each year brought a new doll until we outgrew them. Aren't we cute?

We always opened our gifts on Christmas Eve which is a German tradition.

Right after supper at 5:30 pm we would scurry and get changed into a pretty dress.

Our Christmas tree was real, and was bought from Simpson Sears in Burnaby BC for the grand sum of $2.00 - $4.00. We loved our tree! We helped decorate it, and Mom hung the tinsel while we were at school. Dad put on the lights. The Santa Claus in the middle of the tree was a gift given to me in 1960 when I was a baby, and was always put in the middle each year.

The grand mess of the Christmas wrappings! My parents would carefully fold up all the paper and reuse it the next Christmas. Anything that was too badly torn was burned in the fireplace. 

This is a snippet from the above picture, showing Leona playing with her new doll, and myself playing with a neat Barbie sized grocery play set which had small sized food and a scale etc.

Leona got the little lantern that's on the coffee table, which ran on a battery. Later that night, she crept out of bed, went and got her full bulging stocking from the mantle, brought it back to bed, TURNED ON THE LIGHT, and opened her stocking! She was 7 years old. She woke me up of course, and proceeded to describe all the items in her stocking. I crawled under my covers and plugged my ears as we both got identical presents in our stockings. Then she put everything back and took her stocking back to the living room. I've never forgotten it! One of the items was a cute Winnie the Pooh cookie tin from England, filled with delicious little biscuits.

I have many fond memories of Christmas!

By Loretta Houben