Tailored Suit

Vancouver Dept: Remarkable to modern eyes, too, is that a 22-year-old fellow would wear a tailored suit, shiny dress shoes and a Windsor-knotted silk tie with silver clip on any Saturday afternoon, let alone January 4, 1958, according to Vancouver Sun. Now, back to the fellows in the goofy cowboy hats at Spanish Bank - not "banks," as many Vancouver folk said then, and still do. The two would likely have earned $2 to $2.50 an hour at easy-to-obtain jobs, which could sup-port a single-income family. Laying their firearms in clear sight on the back seat, they'd have driven into town past plenty of houses available for $13,000 or so. Even up in Kerrisdale, $25,000 would buy a fine home on a commodious lot. Their cigarettes cost 35 cents a pack, or $3 for a carton of 10. The now-late Ray Salt's custom-tailored suit was $70 women would pay $55 for "the smartest suit ever" at Saba Bros. . Don Starling's wind-breaker and cotton pants cost $12.88. His glistening Oxfords: $6.95 and wAY BACK NOW: Did young men routinely tote unloaded rifles and shotguns on the shoulder on Northwest Marine Drive in 1958? No, they didn't. But they could have, and no one would have paid a scrap of attention. Why 1958? This newspaper is making much of its centennial year. But 1958 was when British Columbia itself turned 100, and celebratory projects were undertaken everywhere. Two of Vancouver's most enduring were the Maritime Museum and a civic theatre that was named, not for Telus then the B.C. Telephone Co. , but for Queen Elizabeth. Neither opened to the public that year. Nor did the third bridge to cross Burrard Inlet's second narrows. Parts of it collapsed June 17, a month before B.C.'s July 13 birthday. The bridge officially opened Aug. 25, 1960, and was named later to commemorate 18 ironworkers killed in the 1958 fall. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.