When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I remember my grandmother taking my brother and me all over Vancouver to check out cool sh*t (unfortunately, my sister was excluded from these activities and I regret that). At the time, BC Hydro was running the electric busses all over the city and we rode the hell out of them. They were the obalong units that smelled of grease, incandescent light bulbs, and burning metal (I’m assuming the electric busses were old when I was on them). The bus drivers were the coolest people on the road. My kindergarten mind marveled at how they kept these metal beasts on the road. I suspect it was manual steering so the drivers had to horse the massive wheel this way and that. The sound of air brakes popping off added to the mechanistic marvel. Holy shit, when the overhead arms jumped the wires, I was impressed how the driver donned gloves, hopped out and realigned the overhead poles. And if there were some weirdos on the bus, if my grandmother didn’t tear a strip off them, the driver would deal with the rude boys. My granny kept my brother and I firmly at the front of the bus — the weirdos remained at the back of the bus. Even back in the 1970s, East Hastings, Granville Street and Drake Street were down and dirty. Stanley Park was always awesome. My bus driver adoration cooled off when I saw drivers be nasty to passengers who were running after the bus (slow the bus down to let them catch up, slam the doors on them, and roll off).
OUR PAVILION’S NOW ONLINE — WITH BUGS HATCHING!
If you can view this document using WordPress’ embedded PDF viewer, that’s dandy (I tried exporting it from Google Drawing… to jpeg and png. It was a pixelated mess. WordPress won’t show SVG files).
Yesterday, we had a sunny day… and we heard the hum of hatching flying insects. Including cluster flies and blackflies. The bug screens were installed just in time for us JUICY homeowners.
The collage didn’t translate well, so here’s a gallery of images that you can view. With meta-captions.
The pavillion is now enclosed against vermin and humans can use it without getting eaten alive by the bugs. If an elderly housepanther zips out the door, they can’t go anywhere. We’re asking Tim Casson for guidance with installing plexiglass windows, frames, and metal bug screens. If you can suggest a Grey Bruce window manufacturer, please drop us a note!
BCB&B, neemtree, bdb, and blog 
Did you know “BC Hydro bought the entire fleet of Kitchener trolley buses in 1973.In April 1973, immediately following the end of trolley service in Kitchener, Ontario, on March 26, 1973, the city sold all 20 of its remaining CCF-Brill trolley coaches and spare parts to BC Hydro in Vancouver for $48,420
Kitchener PUC Trolley :New Year’s Day 1947 saw the introduction of trolley coach operation on a single 4.5 mile route along King Street in the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo. (The City of Waterloo purchases its transit service from the City of Kitchener).
Initially ten Brill T44 trolley coaches were obtained from Canadian Car & Foundry to implement trolley coach service. As the result of a higher than expected increase in ridership, another five were purchased in 1948 and one more in 1949. When Ottawa shut down their trolley coach operation, Kitchener PUC picked up five T48A coaches from there. These came in September 1959 and were destined to be the last trolley coaches purchased by Kitchener. All trolley coaches remained in service, until replaced by diesel buses in 1973, with one exception. An electrical fire caused heavy damage to #119 on December 28, 1970 and it was scrapped as a result.
Following the morning rush hour on March 26, 1973, diesel buses replaced the trolleys as they arrived at the Kitchener end of the route. With the arrival of trolley coach #107, the era of electric public transit in the city of Kitchener drew to a close.
The disposal of the trolley coaches and dismantling of the overhead wires was swift. All 20 remaining trolley coaches were sold to BC Hydro, Vancouver, BC in April 1973, along with a collection of new and used parts for $48,420 (Kitchener newspaper – ‘The Record’, April 27, 1998). The coaches were placed on railway flatcars for shipment to British Columbia. None ever operated in Vancouver to my knowledge, but supplied components for new Flyer trolley coaches in the 2601-2650 series. Galt Iron & Metal Co. purchased the approx. 36 miles of copper over-head trolley wire for $43,640 (Kitchener newspaper – ‘The Record’, April 27, 1998).
(Canada built its own shit back then, it wasnt until Brian Mulroney sold the country out to the usa in 1987 when are manufacturing base was gutted in 6 yrs)
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