British Columbia History through Collectables: Let's start this blog site off with a bang, why don't we !

Just heard a couple of firecrackers.....
Halloween is kicking in now that it is 6pm and getting dark...

Not like the old days back in the 1960s & 70s here in North Vancouver BC though, when it was really something as that that sulphur smell filled the air and everything.

Firecrackers got banned years ago but still somehow some find a way to get them today. Now you can't even have regular fireworks in City of North Van though up in the District and in Vancouver you are allowed with a permit. Only firecrackers allowed in Canada now are by permit for use in Chinatown New Year festivities.

In the early 70s when firecrackers weren't allowed here anymore, you could still get them out in Port Moody and beyond. All the little Chinese corner stores with those cool pop signs all over them used to clear out their little deli counters and cram them full of bricks of firecrackers.

I know this because my best friend's Dad had bought a property out near Stave Falls and we;d go out there on the weekends when his Dad was going to work on his family retirement cabin.

So we got the chance to buy firecrackers along the way. Then. back in town, we would sell them here to our school buddies and with the profits be able to afford to buy bricks for our ownselves in the following weeks.

The first one we'd stop in at was Eddie's Market in downtown Port Moody, then I recall there was the Mary Hill Market in PoCo, and the Webster's Corner General Store then Iron Mountain Store & Gas Station almost out to my friend's property which was run by a younger fellow named Dick who was just the nicest, friendliest guy with a big smile and always had time to talk with us.

A couple places I remember that had firecrackers for sale in those days: Lions Gate Market on Marine Drive by Bowser, the Windmill Hobby Shop at Park Royal, and at Jim's Market at 25th & Lonsdale at the sw corner of the Trans Canada Highway--at that place you had to say a certain code word know just for them to decide to sell them to you. There were a couple of stores up in Lynn Valley that sold them too, the Jack and Jill Market and maybe Mountain Highway Martket at Frederick. Not sure if the ones at the top of Lynn Valley Road or the Allan Road stores had them, it wouldn't surprise me though.

I guess the last time I bought firecrackers here in North Van was probably at Halloween time 1973 . I heard from a girl in my art class who lived down at the Squamish Nation Reserve that a little cigarette shop called The Tomahawk, next to St. Paul's Catholic Church on the Mission Reserve was getting them in off the ships in the harbour. I told a couple neighbour friends a couple years older then me who had cars so we went down there. There was a lineup at the cigarette shack but we had got there early. Word was that it would be about another half hour maybe at that point.

The lineup kept building up and then it started getting rowdy. A lot of pushing and shoving around and you had to just stand up to it. Finally this station wagon pulled up and everyone cheered as boxes of bricks of firecrackers were being passed through the door. Tons of them. My friends and I got what we could with the money we brought and had a great time.

A guy I knew who was the last guy to run Queensbury Market at the bottom of the Boulevard in North Van who is about my age (mid-50s) told me they used to sell firecrackers at his store too. He remembers going with his Dad and Uncle over to east Hastings Street to a big place that was a big seller of them. I forget the name of it but I remember going by on the bus in those days and seeing the giant banners advertising firecrackers. Gary the guy from Queensbury Market remembers it was a massive warehouse full of them.

From my collection --a couple of letterheads from a Vancouver fireworks & firecrackers firm: