On This Page:
Growing Up in West Vancouver
Gay Family Members
Self Portrait
Page 1
Chapter 2
Of Mentors, Mae West, and Messy May
| Although born in Vancouver in 1949, K** was raised across
English Bay, in West Vancouver. Formerly an architectural assistant with
the Vancouver firm of Thompson, Berwick, and Pratt, he now resides in Lone
Butte, B.C.
Growing up in West Vancouver I grew up in West Van in the early fifties. West Van wasn’t really the community it is now. We still had Tiddly Cove and Ambleside. As the years went by, one tended to move a little further up the hill and get involved with the "Chi Chi" people: the country club, the skating club, that kind of thing. In the late fifties early sixties, as my Dad rose (up) the corporate ladder, it was party time pretty well every Friday (and) Saturday. My sister and I were to introduced to society - we’re not talking young ladies come out to be presented, we weren’t involved in that kind of thing - but, we were always taken out to different people’s places (to) make friends and find out about community. Gay Family Members On my Dad’s side, one of his brothers was a "confirmed bachelor." One winter, [while on visit to relatives in Ontario], the uncle approached me: "Do you have a girlfriend, do you go out, do you do this, do you do that?" and I said, |
"No, I’m just kind of playing it by ear, not doing
much of anything really, just enjoying my situation."
He said "You’ll probably find out one day that I’m a little bit different from the rest of your aunts and uncles. I enjoy going to Detroit to private clubs quite often." And it really didn’t do much for me. A year and a half or so later, I understood what he meant. In those days, in the late 50’s early 60’s, gay people were known, but they were never a topic, really. I can recall being told "If you go downtown with your friend, stay away from certain parts of Stanley Park, don’t talk to strangers, don’t put on any airs around people you’re not sure of. Don’t get carried away." That kind of thing. "Watch your step, watch where you go, don’t walk on any lonely dark trails. " And of course that was the first thing I would do. Self-portrait I was always a little nelly. I’d heard people say that "How much you act like your mother." For the record, I had always known, from a very early age, as early as five, that I was a bit different. Always had male company. Always played with the boys. I hated Phys-Ed. I didn’t know what I was going to do with 23 naked young men in the showers at the same time, so I avoided that like the plague. |