You're a Vernonite if you can remember . . .

[shoo]

I think Boultbee,Sweet and Nutter was an insurance office,not a sweet shop.

[CR250R40]

Book Stores, Drug Stores [Malls Excluded] and Churches listed in the "1981 Vernon Phone Book."

K & K Book Store- 3010 34th St
Margaret’s Books- 3204 30th Ave
Bookland- 3101 30th St
Centreville Tape & Book Exchange- 2901 34th St

MacKay’s Prescriptions Ltd- 3309 30th Ave
Vernon Drug Ltd- 3005 30th Ave
Boots Drug Store- 3302 32nd St
Nolan Drugs Ltd- 3101 30th Ave
Shoppers Drug Mart- 3401 30th Ave

Anglican Church All Saints- 3205 27th St
Alliance Church- 2601 43rd Ave
Christian Reformed Church- 3607 12th St
Trinity United Church- 2602 30th Ave
Seventh Day Adventist Church- 1802 27th St
Ukrainian Orthodox Church- 4100 26th St
Elim Tabernacle- 3906 35a St
Full Gospel Tabernacle- 3902 27th St
Church Of Christ [Coldstream]- Kal Lake Rd
Church Of Christ [Vernon]- 4207 27th St
Church Of God [German]- 2506 44th Ave
Church Of God Pleasant Valley- PV Rd
Vernon Assembly Of God- 3606 27th St
Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints- 1506 35st St
First Baptist Church- 1406 32nd Ave
Full Gospel Tabernacle- 3902 27th St
Mennonite Church Of Vernon- 3705 27th St
Slavic Christians Of Evangelical Faith- 2301 39th Ave
Pleasant Valley Church Of God- PV Rd
Catholic Church- 1705 32nd Ave
Community Baptist Church- Silver Star Rd
Emmanuel Baptist Church- 3412 15th Ave
Faith Baptist Church- 3908 27th St
Jehovah’s Witnesses- 1370 Mission Rd
Knox Presbyterian Church- Alexis Park Drive
Lutheran Peace- 1204 30th Ave
Mennonite Church Of Vernon- 3705 27th St
St Johns Lutheran Church- 4300 27th St
Vernon Baptist Temple- 3506a 25th Ave
Vernon Full Gospel Fellowship- 2001 45th Ave
Vernon Gospel Chapel- 4106 PV Rd

[CR250R40]

I think Boultbee,Sweet and Nutter was an insurance office,not a sweet shop.

Thanks for clarifying. Too funny. Sounded like a sweet shop.

Nick's Candy Kitchen isn't in the 1981 phone book. Anybody recall if it closed prior to 1981?

[Verminator]

We moved to Vernon in the mid-70s and IIRC Nick's Candy Kitchen closed 4 or 5 years later. I could be off by a year or two but I think it closed in '78 or '79.

[superbee]

Thank you, CR, for posting all this, it is wonderful to go down memory lane, and remember going into alot of these places when I lived there. Yes, BS&N was an insurance place, I think near the show (Capitol Theatre). I remember MacLeod's, I think it was across the street from where Herbie's is now? Faced north anyway. Harry Stann (of the bee people) worked in there. I was at Seaton with Harry. Years later at Macleod's, he sold me 2 True Temper rakes and 2 True Temper shovels and I brought them up here. I have been using one of Harry's 40 year old TT rakes to do yard work lately. A $10 well spent!! Up here we have to work fast outside in the Spring before the mosquito hordes descend. Thanks, again, CR, your old photos are wonderful, and so are your lists of businesses. Vernon was a wonderful place to grow up. Please pull a mainer for me!

[superbee]

Does anyone remember Gita Leather? It was behind the show, behind the Towne Theatre I think it had become by then. Early '70's. I bought a leather saddlebag purse at Gita for $15. Still going strong 40 years later, I still use it all the time. I often wonder what happened to the Gita gang. They sure had lovely leather goods in their shop.

[CR250R40]

Thank you, CR, for posting all this, it is wonderful to go down memory lane, and remember going into alot of these places when I lived there. Yes, BS&N was an insurance place, I think near the show (Capitol Theatre). I remember MacLeod's, I think it was across the street from where Herbie's is now? Faced north anyway. Harry Stann (of the bee people) worked in there. I was at Seaton with Harry. Years later at Macleod's, he sold me 2 True Temper rakes and 2 True Temper shovels and I brought them up here. I have been using one of Harry's 40 year old TT rakes to do yard work lately. A $10 well spent!! Up here we have to work fast outside in the Spring before the mosquito hordes descend. Thanks, again, CR, your old photos are wonderful, and so are your lists of businesses. Vernon was a wonderful place to grow up. Please pull a mainer for me!

Everyone is welcome. I enjoyed posting retro [And still budding] businesses. A name can spark lost memories. My Uncle owned MacLeods in the 1980s. MacLeods indeed was across from Surplus Herbie's. I also recall Stann's Honey. We hauled hay off land he had on PV Road. My memory is off, but was it spelled Stawn? Or am I thinking of another Stawn's Honey outfit? We'll do mainers for you -- be mindful with fewer lanes alot is lost. [Pout] Oh, as for Gita Leather, I'm sorry, no memories of it. Happy summer to all.

[superbee]

CR, I was puzzled by the Stann and Stawn too. I'm pretty sure when Harry was with us at Seaton he spelled his last name as Stann. And he lived out on that piece of land between the highway to Armstrong and Pleasant Valley Road. I think what may have happened is--Harry spelled his name Stann, and after his dad died, his mum kept the honey business going and changed the spelling abit to Stawn. Maybe it was the original European spelling?

It's a shame that Macleod's disappeared. As I mentioned before, I have the 4 TT rakes and shovels here that I bought in the mid-70's and they're still going strong. I remembered Macleod's as being across from where Surplus is now, so thank you for confirming my memory. And thanks for pulling some mainers for me, I know the route is messed up now with all those plantings but in our hearts there are still 2 lanes up and 2 lanes down!

[CR250R40]

Superbee, how cool is it that you still use your MacLeods purchases today. My parents used garden tools [Spades bought in the early '70s] from MacLeods up until the late 1990s.

What I loved about MacLeods was the toy section downstairs. This was around 1973, I was 9 -- my eyes always locked on a "COX gas-powered Dune Buggy" whenever visiting the store. The Buggy was too expensive for my $1 allowance. [Sigh]

Surplus Herby's to the left... the former MacLeods building to the right. When it was MacLeods the side of the building was all tan [Yellowish] brick with no windows or doorways.

[CR250R40]

This past May weekend I was outside the Vernon Post Office and snapped a photo of it. Back in March I bought a 1962 postcard featuring the Vernon Post Office. I tried getting the same angle to compare 1962 to 2012. I love how back in the day the windows are open! Smoking and perhaps drinking going on inside Mad Men style.

[zookeeper]

Nice pics CR! Interesting about the windows, true though. I drove through Vernon a while back and noticed you can't get in to Polson Park from Hwy 97. I remember driving through the whole park and you could park by the pond and along that road and then carry out through the exit by the floral clock. Is there still a clock? Wouldn't mind a pic or two of the park one day when you're out

[Fritzthecat]

[quote="CR250R40"]This past May weekend I was outside the Vernon Post Office and snapped a photo of it. Back in March I bought a 1962 postcard featuring the Vernon Post Office. I tried getting the same angle to compare 1962 to 2012. I love how back in the day the windows are open! Smoking and perhaps drinking going on inside Mad Men style.

Up until the 80's most of these places smelled of smoke inside: Post Office, all the banks, Eatons, the K mart and Woolworths lunch counters etc. The old velvet ropes in the banks all had little ash trays on the ends of them and in Eatons there were ash trays all thorough out the store! Imagine the cries of safety today if you did that! Can you imagine the fire insureance alone? In the Polson and Village Green Mall there were seat with ash trays (filled with that vile white sand) all through out the mall. They too frequently smelled of smoke. How times have changed.

[CR250R40]

Zookeeper, I’ll post contemporary pics of Polson Park soon. Last summer I snapped over 6,000 photos of Vernon. So far this spring.. about 2,500. I take my camera everywhere, every day. I try taking shots of buildings and icons that my parent’s snapped back in the day. I’m into comparison.

You can still drive through Polson Park just the way as you remember. You just can’t enter the park off highway 97. Highway traffic is too great. Best way to enter is off highway 6, across from the old Tastee-Freeze. The floral clock still operates today.

Fritzthecat, thanks for the memory refresher. I totally forgot about the acrid odor of stale tobacco within banks and lunch counters. I also now recall the white sand ashtrays – most overflowing. Sand ashtrays were everywhere, as you expressed. I guess smoking has decreased over the years. This is a good thing. I’m not saying this to flame. I’ve unfortunately lost too many relatives to tobacco.

[Fritzthecat]

Zookeeper, I’ll post contemporary pics of Polson Park soon. Last summer I snapped over 6,000 photos of Vernon. So far this spring.. about 2,500. I take my camera everywhere, every day. I try taking shots of buildings and icons that my parent’s snapped back in the day. I’m into comparison.

You can still drive through Polson Park just the way as you remember. You just can’t enter the park off highway 97. Highway traffic is too great. Best way to enter is off highway 6, across from the old Tastee-Freeze. The floral clock still operates today.

Fritzthecat, thanks for the memory refresher. I totally forgot about the acrid odor of stale tobacco within banks and lunch counters. I also now recall the white sand ashtrays – most overflowing. Sand ashtrays were everywhere, as you expressed. I guess smoking has decreased over the years. This is a good thing. I’m not saying this to flame. I’ve unfortunately lost too many relatives to tobacco.

When I first started at the hospital around 2008-09, in the basement there was an old round ash tray still attached to the wall in the basement near the service elevator. Imagine that today: smoking IN the hospital! I remember waiting rooms in the hospitals being for smoking.
How restaurants and other places requesting no cigars or pipes? There used to be one of those signs (it was red and white) in the stairwell at Eatons.

[zookeeper]

Zookeeper, I’ll post contemporary pics of Polson Park soon. Last summer I snapped over 6,000 photos of Vernon. So far this spring.. about 2,500. I take my camera everywhere, every day. I try taking shots of buildings and icons that my parent’s snapped back in the day. I’m into comparison.

Thanks CR, sure would love one of the Japanese gardens. We're all packed up to move (for a while now : ( ), I'll have to see if there is any pics in the old box from the 60's and 70's. I'm pretty sure there's one of me as a kid in front of the windmill by the pond in the 60's, and then one with my own kid, same place, in the 90's (we were visiting). I think I remember hearing the old grandstand burnt down a few years back, did they rebuild it?