28. Kelowna, B.C. Feb 2000 to the Present

We have lived in this large 3 Bedroom, 1400 sq. ft. condo smack in the middle of Kelowna for almost 7 years now.

For me it's great, no maintenance and a short walk to work if I want, an even shorter drive. We have a pool and hot tub and total security. And it's value keeps increasing rapidly. For right now, its all I want.

27. Kelowna, B.C. 400 Sutton Crescent Sept. '99 to Feb 2000

Until our places sold in the Shuswap we had to revert back to renting. We found this 800 square foot apartment in the Glenmore area of Kelowna. Man it was so small and we had a 63" big screen TV to fit in it.

We signed a 6 month lease.

Then we were blessed with some great luck! Both our places sold! One in December, the other in January.

We were now able to look for our own place in Kelowna and move out of the apartment just as our lease would expired.

26. Sorrento, B.C. TC Highway, Nov. '98 to Sept. '99

This was the first "trailer" I had ever lived in and we had fun calling each other "Trailer Park Trash". I liked the idea because of the low maintenance it required.

We thought selling our Hopes Way home would be easy. We were wrong. We hardly had a nibble for months on end, the market was that bad.

I came to the conclusion that we needed a major change. I quit my job in Chase in March of 1999 and took the summer off as I had before. It was lovely!

We put the Trailer up for sale shortly after that, intending to move back to Kelowna where we had started our lives together.

We left both places mortgaged, uninsured, abandoned and up for sale on Labour Day 1999.

25. Sorrento, B.C. 2201 Hopes Way, July 1990 to Sept. 1999

We found this incredible house overlooking Shuswap Lake. Four Bedroom, 3000 square feet with a third acre lot in the forest. It had a massive living room with vista windows, a workshop, big rec room downstairs and a pantry for Marie.

There weren't a lot of jobs in the area but I did work in Chase, at the Safety Mart there, about 17 miles to the west.

As you can see by the dates we owned this place that we liked it a lot.

Eventually though I got tired of the maintenance of a place this big. It seemed I was forever cutting lawns or shoveling snow.

In November of 1998 we purchased a Manufactured Home in a Trailer Park nearby. For a period of almost a year, while we waited to sell this house we owned both places.

24. Surrey, B.C. 13114 62B Ave June '88 to July '90

I was doing such a great job working at the Fredelle Division of Kinney Corp that they once again offered me a new store, the largest one in the Chain located in Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver.

Finally I was getting back to BC! Not only that but back to an area where I grew up.

The problem was that property values in Vancouver were much higher than in Alberta. The closer you got to downtown Vancouver the more expensive the housing got.

So we had to live in Surrey. Luckily we found this nice house on a cul-de-sac in a pretty nice neighborhood. It was a 3 Bedroom split with Garage, all fenced with a Cedar Shake Roof.

We enjoyed our time in this area but it was pretty busy with lots of traffic. Plus I was getting fed up with working for Kinney, I just didn't feel the hunger to get ahead any more, I felt I had everything I needed. I just needed a permanent place to settle down for a while.

In March of 1990 I quit my job and took the summer off. Marie kept working for a while then in June of that year we set off to find our dream home somewhere in the province.

23. St. Albert, Alberta, 1 Wordsworh Place, May '87 to June '88

We had hardly started to enjoy our first Spring in Calgary when I got the call to move back to the Edmonton area and work at The West Edmonton Mall. I really did not like Edmonton, but I remembered that St. Albert was a nice community and so we set our sights there.

We found a very nice rather large 4 level split in a good area (well all of St. Albert is good). This was a very high quality and newish home that I think we bought for about $100,000.

Still I had never planned to spend any large part of my life in northern Alberta.

22. Calgary, 5723 18th Ave N.E. Oct. '86 to May '87

It seems we had just settled in Red Deer when I got the call to move to Calgary. So once again we put our house up for sale, I think we sold the Red Deer house for $85,000 which is pretty much what we paid for this Calgary house.

This house also had a large heated Garage in back that also exited to an alley. The big plus side of this house was a wonderfully finished basement, complete with wet bar and fireplace.

And Calgary is a hell of a lot nicer city than Edmonton and its surrounding areas.

As you can see by the dates we pretty much just spent one winter there when I got the call to move back to Edmonton, ugh!

21. Red Deer, Alberta, 31 Anders Close, Feb. '86 to Sept. '86

Sadly I was asked to leave Kelowna and transfer to Red Deer, Alberta. I really thought I would not have to live in Alberta again but it was a promotion and if I was to go anywhere with Kinney, I pretty much had to do what they asked.

Fortunately, the company policy was to guarantee you would not lose money on your house and to cover all moving expenses, including lawyers.

We found this modest three bedroom Bungalow in a nice neighbourhood. I think we paid about $78,000. It had a nice Bay Window out front and a huge garden in back.

The thing I liked was a huge detached 2 car heated garage that entered off the back lane.

if you didn't mind the biting cold in winter and the biting mosquitoes in summer, Red Deer wasn't so bad.

20. Black Mountain, Kelowna, 1329 Shaunna Rd Sept. '83 to Feb. '86

This is a pic of Marie that I really like while sitting before our fireplace in our very first house that we owned.

We purchased it for $65,000 as I recall, its still there and looking good.

19. Kelowna, 1283 Bernard Avenue, May '83 to Sept '84

Marie and I moved into this two story apartment, Cheam Gardens (still there) on Bernard Avenue in the Spring of 1983. It wasn't long after, June 19th to be exact, that we got married. Hence the photo taken in the backyard of my in-laws place in Rutland.

Fortunately, Marie had stashed away a little Nest Egg and we were prepared to look for our own house to buy in the Fall of that year.

18. Winfield, B.C. Nov. '82 to May '83

This is my engagement picture to Marie Mayes (yes we are still married). We met while I lived in a dumpy cold small cabin in Winfield near Woods Lake.

I don't know what possessed me to move there. The rent was something like $125/month but it was costing me over $100/mth for heat and hot water, the place wasn't insulated.

It was rustic and dirty and just not very nice at all.

17. Kelowna, B.C. Harvey Avenue, May 1982 to Oct 1982

In the Spring of 1982 I was thankfully let out of Trail when I was transferred to open a new Woolco in the Orchard Park Mall in Kelowna.

It was the beginning of an incredible upswing of good fortune for me. The 2 bedroom apartment that I lived in isn't there anymore, it wasn't all that old but they must have torn it down. It was located very near the Capri Centre Mall.

It was a really nice apartment, but for some crazy reason, I think maybe because the rent was over $400/month, I moved out in the Fall of 1982.

16. Fruitvale, B.C. June 1981 to April 1982

In June of 1981 I was transferred to Trail, B.C. where I worked at the Woolco in the Waneta Plaza. I found a fourplex in Fruitvale, about 8 miles outside of town. I always went to the first place I found, an unfortunate habit.

It was my first position as Manager of a Kinney Department and I was feeling pretty good about things. Thats me in the picture sitting in that fourplex on my sofa that I had purchased in Edmonton.

There was not a lot in Trail but they did have Funky John's. The best peeler bar I have ever been in, ever.

15. Edmonton, 120nd Ave NW, Nov 1980 to June 1981

This was the absolute worst place I ever lived. A creepy bottom floor apartment that was tiny and I had no furniture other that a mattress and a 10' B&W TV. I eventually bought a coffee table and sofa.

I had been transferred to the Woolco at Capilano Mall and this was a lot closer. I should have stayed in St. Albert.

I spent most of my nights after work drinking in the Rex Hotel Tavern, just beside the Woolco. Not a good time.

I was already 26 years old and all I had in the world was a 1968 Oldsmobile, a mattress, a coffee table and a sofa. So I put most of my energy into working and drinking.

14. St. Albert, Alberta, Montcalm Crescent, May 1980 to Oct 1980

I moved into this house that was co-owned by two young Bachelors who fancied themselves as real jock/studs. Not long after a young female joined us which one of the young studs promptly serviced.

I worked at the Woolco in the St. Albert Mall.

It was a nice place in a nice neighborhood but they really weren't my type of people. I remember one of the Studs was a constant channel surfer, every 30 seconds he would switch. It was his TV so what could you say?

13. Calgary, 101st Ave SW, April 1980

Again no picture. I left my previous Calgary place amid a bit of hard feelings between myself and Valerie, my overweight admirer. She thought I was a cold-hearted asshole for not having sex with her I think. Whatever.

So I moved in with two young women in this house, I am guessing at the address, it was somewhere around there.

They were a pair of real party girls. There were strange people over almost every night and a party every weekend. Lot's of pot. I remember going to an Easter Mass with one of them, so totally stoned, we couldn't stop giggling.

They were a bit upset with me because just a month after I moved in I was transferred north to St. Albert, just outside of Edmonton.

12. Calgary, 14th Ave SW, Sept '79 to March '80

I'm still looking for some kind of picture from this era. It was another shared accommodation thing. This time my female roommate had a crush on me, I think her name was Valerie Frost. The problem was that she was about 5'2 and must have tipped the scales at well over 200 lbs.

Ain't that the way it goes.

We had a married couple downstairs, the Hendersons that owned the house. They were "Born Again" Christian types. Karen Henderson was a Suzanne Sommers look alike and never stopped teasing and flirting with me.

Mr. Henderson was an ex Pastor and when he showed me his Hand Gun, well no amount of teasing or flirting could sway me to lay as much as a finger on Mrs. Henderson.

It was at this time I got my first "Real Job", getting hired with Kinney Shoes and working at the Woolco in the McLeod Mall.

11. Vancouver, University Of British Columbia June to September, 1979

As mentioned I needed a couple of courses to complete my Bachelor of Arts Degree from UBC. So I stayed in the dorm there for that summer semester. My classes were over by 2 PM each afternoon so I would sometimes descend to Wreck Beach to bask about nude and, um..study.

10. Edmonton, Millwoods Area Feb 1979 to June 1979

I shared this duplex with the main renter, Eva (shown in the picture with her dog), an Austrian Cosmetician that I quickly developed a huge crush on (unrequited). We had a couple of third party males that came and went.





At that time Millwoods was a newly developed treeless part of Edmonton and that winter was miserable. Apart from having Eva there, there was nothing good about it.

In June of that year I decided it would be best to head back to Vancouver for the summer to complete my University Degree in which I was short two courses.

9. Edmonton, 101st Street NW, Sept 1978 to Feb 1979

I endured a very cold winter in this shack of a house at the foot of downtown Edmonton.

The unusual thing about it was my Roommate who also owned the place. She was a die hard Feminist/Lesbian (and looked like one) at a time and in a place where such a lifestyle was not welcomed at all.

But what did I care? It seemed ok and she seemed nice. And she let me smoke my pot.

What she didn't like was my stash of Penthouse Magazines I had a habit of leaving around. She was an ultra Feminist and was into the thinking that these magazines were degrading to women rather than my view that they were therapy for single men.

So she asked me to leave in Feb of 1979.

8. Vancouver, West 12th Avenue 1978, Summer

Anyone familiar with Vancouver knows that this upscale and well established part of the city was and is really a desirable place to live. I think that's why I migrated to it.

Unfortunately I rented a basement suite of some old widow's grand house and it was pretty dismal for me. I spent most of my time at my former room mate's new place in Richmond where he was renting from a horney older divorcee.

The picture is of me and Paul Hare (I'm in the forground) smoking a joint and drinking at his place in Richmond, summer, 1978.






Anyway I was just here in the summer before I decided I needed to break away from familiar surroundings. I moved to Edmonton in September of 1978.

7. Burnaby, B.C. Stratford Avenue 1976 to 1978

I finally moved out on my own into this house in North Burnaby which I shared with various other room mates. We finally settled on me, Paul Hare, Dorothy Murdoch and Marg Koetsier. Where they are now I have no idea. I do remember us having a lot of fun together, just like a real family.

I have a lot of very happy memories of this place.

For some reason in the spring of 1978 we all decided to go our separate ways, too bad.

6. Richmond, BC, Gilmour Road 1973 to 1976

By 1973 my sister was married and had moved out.

I think it was in the early Spring of 1973 that we got the news we were getting booted out of our Jacombs Road House. Some radio executive wanted it for himself.

So we moved into this 3 bedroom two story apartment on Gilmour Road, in the heart of Richmond. Location wise it was great! However after having lived in the wide open spaces of east Richmond it sure seemed cramped.

I was attending UBC at the time.

These apartments have been in the news lately because the owners want to boot the tenants out, renovate it and then double the rent if they want to come back.

5. Richmond BC, 456 Jacombs Road Sept 1964 to 1973

I guess this is the place during my "Formative Years" as they say. I lived her from ages 10 to 19. It's not there any more, there is a large Honda Warehouse sitting where this house was.

The top picture shows the spilt level house, my bedroom was the top right. In the winter the storms would slam into the house and it's uninsulated windows. It was cold and damp.

It was a pretty cool place. The deal was that my parents would pay $100 per month rent if they took care of the property, which was owned by CKWX radio. There was a huge transmitter station right next to us with twin 50,000 watt transmitter towers.

The bottom pictures shows a bit of our large driveway and the Transmitter Station on the right background. Check out the cool 1963 Chev Impala! That's what we drove out west in the spring of 1964.

There were farms we could play around in and a Bog in which to build forts and do other kid's stuff.

The area was huge and we had to cut about 3 acres of lawn. "We" meaning mostly ME. There was a 75 acre pasture in back that also footed the twin towers of Death.

Unfortunately the radiation that was emitted from the towers seemed to have caused an extremely high incidence of cancers on our road. Including both my parents, R.I.P.

4. Pendrell Street, Vancouver, BC Feb to Sept 1964

It looked sort of like this, a two bedroom furnished apartment in the West End of Vancouver. My mother and new Step-Father had actually wanted to move to Bellingham, Washington for some unknown reason. We lived in a Hotel there for a few weeks until it was realized that my Step-Father, Gordon, could not acquire a visa.

So we moved back to Canada and landed in this creepy place, there was a Hooker that lived next door I later found out. I remember finding quantities of drugs in the back alleys.

Thankfully we weren't there for long.

3. Montreal, 4550 Walkley Avenue 1960 to Feb. 1964

The picture is actually of my Grandparents House within walking distance of the apartment that my mother, sister and I lived in after my Father died. My mother worked full time and I spent a lot of time at my Grandmother's Place so it was kind of like home to me. It was located in the NDG part of Montreal (Notre Dame de Grace) which, at the time, was predominately English Speaking.





That's me when I was 6. Cute eh?

2. Dorval, Quebec 1956 to 1960

I'm the chubby fellow on the left.

From the Dates above I lived here.
Apparently my mother was given a three bedroom Bungalow at 44 Green Circle, Dorval by my rich Uncle Ken of Annacortes, Washington, US.

Naturally I don't remember anything about Dorval but I do have many memories of this place, and not too fond ones at that. But that's another story.

We lived her until 1960 when my Father died of some rare disease whose name always escapes me.

1. Montreal 1954 to 1956

I was born on February 9th, 1954 somewhere in Montreal, Quebec. I'm not sure where I spent my first two years to be honest. I think it was on Lachine Street, some apartment. My parents were John Michael and Doreen Ryan (nee English). Both of Irish Catholic descent.