Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend October 31-November 2, 2014

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt
Enormous carved pumpkin in Mount Pleasant
Photo credit: Ruth Hartnup on Flickr

Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend

Events that run for longer than three days in a row are highlighted in green below.

Friday, October 31, 2014
Trick or Treat Parade at Willowbrook
Halloween at Lonsdale Quay
Halloween SkyTrain Party
Richmond Olympic Oval Halloween Skate
Showcase From The Crypt at the Rio Theatre
Halloween at Vancouver TheatreSports
Yelloween Veuve Clicquot Presents The Annual Halloween Party
Creepy Columbia Crawl, New Westminster
Day of the Dead at Townhall in South Surrey
Halloween Street and Fireworks in Richmond
Burnaby Pirate House
The Beat Presents Barcardi Boo Ha Ha at the Commodore
Scarytales Halloween for Make-A-Wish
Hamlet at The Shop Theatre
Chinatown Haunted House
Haunted Vancouver Trolley Tours
Evil Dead: The Musical
Stanley Park Halloween Ghost Train
Bear Creek Haunted Forest Scream Train
Fright Nights at Playland
Pacific Theatre Presents: The Rainmaker
11th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival
Hunter Gatherers by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb at Havana Theatre
Vancouver International Flamenco Festival

Saturday, November 1, 2014
Parade of Lost Souls, East Vancouver
Dia de Muertos at La Mezcaleria with DJ Lejos
Museum of Anthropology Film Screening: Raza
15th Annual Rockin’ for Research Gala
Halloween Hangover Show with Elizabeth, Electric Oak, Altona at The Biltmore Cabaret
65 Roses Gala for Cystic Fibrosis Vancouver
Gunilla Klingberg at the Contemporary Art Gallery
Vancouver Opera: Stickboy
Vancouver Winter Farmers Market at Nat Bailey Stadium
Saturday Book Club at Vancouver Public Libraries

Sunday, November 2, 2014
Time Change! Turn Your Clocks Back 1 Hour
GDay for Girls
Creme de la Creme Wedding Show
Marketing for Hippies 101 Workshop
Vancouver Public Space Network: Last Candidate Standing
Quatuor Mosaïques in Recital
North Vancouver Arts Council Workshop: DIY Masquerade
All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver
Vancouver Archives Film Screenings
WW1: Vancouver’s WW1 Commemorative Places Bus Tour
Koerner Quartet: Nothing But The Classics
The Buffy Musical

View the full monthly event list to plan ahead at any time. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for frequent updates about local events and community happenings.

Halloween SkyTrain Party

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt

If you’re out celebrating tonight the wise choice for getting around would be public transit and if you’re up for a party anyway, why not have it right on the SkyTrain? The Vancouver Public Spaces Network (“VPSN”) hosts the Halloween SkyTrain Party for all ghosts and ghouls tonight.

Halloween aboard the SkyTrain, 2009
Photo credit: VPSN on Flickr

What: 9th Annual Halloween SkyTrain Party
Where/When: Meet on the Canada Line platform at Waterfront Station. The party will be leaving shortly after 8:00pm, so don’t be late.
Admission: Your price of admission is a $2.75 transit ticket, or your U-pass (kids, high school students and 65+ = $1.75). This event is all about celebrating transit, so please remember to buy a transit ticket.

TransLink passed on info to VPSN about safety at the event: Racing between trains at stops can be a real safety issue, so please try to respect that. The party will be making stops at every station between Waterfront and Richmond Brighouse and picking people up along the way who will probably have no idea what’s going on. They are all welcome to join in the fun so be courteous and pass along a fun attitude.

Once the party train returns to Waterfront Station, participants are invited to a covered public space one block south to continue the festivities. DJ Rocky Fi$her will provide your soundtrack and treats will be served. If you need any more information follow VPSN on Twitter and Facebook.

November Events in Metro Vancouver

Comments 3 by Rebecca Bollwitt

Leaves disappear from branches, lapels sport poppies, and we cruise into the holiday season with returning festivals and craft markets around the region. This November I invite readers to join me in celebrating 10 years of Miss604 at my anniversary party on November 13th. Two days later, I encourage everyone to vote on Election Day in Vancouver. The full event list for the month is below and if you have anything to add, send details my way at any time as the list is updated every day.

Snow Geese Migration
Photo credit: Ann Hung on Flickr

November Events in Metro Vancouver

Jump to: Saturday, November 1st to Sunday, November 2nd, 2014
Jump to: Monday, November 3rd to Sunday, November 9th, 2014
Jump to: Monday, November 10th to Sunday, November 16th, 2014
Jump to: Monday, November 17th to Sunday, November 23rd, 2014
Jump to: Monday, November 24th to Sunday, November 30th, 2014

Multi-Day Events

Events that run for longer than three days in a row are highlighted in green below.

Saturday, November 1, 2014
Parade of Lost Souls, East Vancouver
Dia de Muertos at La Mezcaleria with DJ Lejos
Museum of Anthropology Film Screening: Raza
15th Annual Rockin’ for Research Gala
Halloween Hangover Show with Elizabeth, Electric Oak, Altona at The Biltmore Cabaret
65 Roses Gala for Cystic Fibrosis Vancouver
Gunilla Klingberg at the Contemporary Art Gallery
Vancouver Opera: Stickboy
Vancouver Winter Farmers Market at Nat Bailey Stadium
Saturday Book Club at Vancouver Public Libraries
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Time Change! Turn Your Clocks Back 1 Hour
GDay for Girls
Creme de la Creme Wedding Show
Marketing for Hippies 101 Workshop
Vancouver Public Space Network: Last Candidate Standing
Quatuor Mosaïques in Recital
North Vancouver Arts Council Workshop: DIY Masquerade
All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver
Vancouver Archives Film Screenings
WW1: Vancouver’s WW1 Commemorative Places Bus Tour
Koerner Quartet: Nothing But The Classics
The Buffy Musical Continue reading this post ⟩⟩

Archive Photos of the Day: On The Job

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt

I began assembling this collection of photos from the City of Vancouver Archives on Labour Day, hence the theme, and while it didn’t get published then, I still love these “on the job” photos of Vancouver workers throughout the years:


1887: C.P.R. crossing under construction on Cordova between Seymour and Granville Streets. Archives# Can P25.


1944: Workers cleaning the exterior of the Dominion Bank Building. Archives# CVA 1184-225.


1941: Workers processing salmon. Archives# CVA 586-700.


1910: Interior of Vancouver Map and Blueprint Company Limited at 441 Seymour Street. Archives# Misc P3.


1940s: Woman using the pneumatic tube delivery system at the offices of Kelly Douglas Ltd. & B.C. Telephone employee using a large adding machine. Archives# CVA 1184-2097 & CVA 1184-2882.


1914: Workers with sections of the facade of the Credit Foncier Building at 850 West Hastings which is under construction. Archives# M-14-93.


1947: B.C. Telephone workers at Robson Street. Archives# CVA 1184-2894.


1942: Workers assembling airplane parts at the Boeing plant on Sea Island. Archives# CVA 1184-1143.


1912: Interior of the real estate office of Lawson and Shepherd. Archives# Bu P681.


1947: United Airlines reservation staff at work. Archives# CVA 1184-2919. Photo by Jack Lindsay.


1946: Parsons, Brown [Limited office at 535 Homer Street. Archives# CVA 586-4166 & CVA 586-4170.


1909: Bridge workers on the second Granville Bridge during construction. Archives# CVA 1376-451. Bullen Photo Co.


1900: Letter carriers and inside workers in the post office at Pender Street and Granville Street. Archives# Port P957.


1930s: Railroad workers and B.C.E.R. engine number 981. Archives# CVA 677-384.


1900s: Interior of an unidentified office. Archives# CVA 371-146.


1943: Woman washing CPR car. Archives# CVA 586-1157.

Vancouver History: The Creche

Comments 2 by Rebecca Bollwitt

104 years ago a philanthropic institution in Vancouver offered daycare for the children of working mothers for 10 cents a day. The Creche, first located at 752 Thurlow Street downtown, received children of women who have to go out to work “when their mothers are unable to give them personal care,”1 and it was Canada’s first such public institution.


1916: Children and supervisors at The Creche at Pender and Cambie. Archives# Bu P48.

The Vancouver City Creche was established in 1910 by the Associated Charities to provide a daycare centre for the children of working women. In 1912 the Creche became a public institution under the Health Department and new quarters were provided.2

The crèche began as the private undertaking of women from Vancouver’s small but influential network of suffragists and social reform activists. Its “founding mothers” included Helen Gregory MacGill, Mary Ellen Smith, Mrs. T.E. Aikins, and Mrs J.O. Perry. MacGill, a member of the University Women’s Club, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (wctu), and the Local Council of Women, was an outspoken advocate for women and children’s legal rights and the province’s first female juvenile court judge.3

According to The Progress Club, not only did The Creche care for children of working mothers, but it also had an employment bureau to find work for women.4 Eight months after it opened, 123 children from 95 families attended The Creche and 2,000 working positions were filled through the mediums of this bureau.

In 1917 the Creche building was transferred to the Infant’s Hospital and Creche was moved into the former Old Peoples’ Home on Cambie Street. In 1919, it stopped providing employment placement services and became solely a child care institution. And, throughout the 1920s, the public focus of the crèche was on the interests of neglected children. 5

The average daily attendance in January 1929 was 47 children per day. In 1932 the Creche was closed and the activities taken over by the foster home plan of the Vancouver Day Nursery Association which provided home-based child care for the city’s working mothers.

Sources:
1, 4: The Progress Club
2, 5: City of Vancouver Archives
3: “A Proper Independent Spirit”: Working Mothers and the Vancouver City Crèche, 1909-20 by Lisa Pasolli