Vancouver Secrets (1983)

I have a penchant for antique guidebooks. Specifically those focused on the Lower Mainland of B.C., where I was born and raised.

The business of guidebooks has been all but taken over by phone apps, though occasionally we see locally-produced books designed for those who live in a city they think they know, and want to know more of. Guy's Guide to the Flipside (self-published, 1990; republished, Arsenal Pulp Press, 1992) was one such book -- a book that had less to do with new discoveries than testing the metal of its reader/adventurer.

Some of the places (situations?) Bennett describes are dangerous; what makes them irresistible is the manner in which they are written. I forget the place Bennett was referring to, but the last line ended with this: "... where everything you value is meaningless." I took inspiration from this clause when devising a motto for the Malcolm Lowry Room (1993-1997): "Sometimes you want to go where nobody knows your name."

A recent discovery is Anne Petrie's Vancouver Secrets (Toronto: Key Porter, 1983). What attracted me to Petrie's book was the date of its publication: the year I turned 21 and, by that time, had explored some of the city's deeper recesses. Not that I expected to find them in Secrets, only that I was old enough by then to have experienced things which are no longer there -- restaurants like Gladys's on 4th Avenue (just west of Arbutus), or the Avenue Grill in Kerrisdale (also a block west of Arbutus, at 41st).

Yet some places endure. Consider this opening to the WESTERN FRONT LODGE entry in the "Stepping Out" chapter: "For many years the Western Front was on the cutting edge of Dadaism, but the days of Dr. Brute the Leopard Skin Man and one-time mayoralty candidate Mr. Peanut seem to be gone." Or this impolitic suggestion from "Urban Outings", entitled NORTH VANCOUVER INDIAN CEMETERY: "Obviously not a picnic spot, this is rather a quiet spot you'll come to treasure." Some places provide incorrect information. In QUILCHENA PARK TO RAVINE PARK, you could never "reach Ravine Park" and have "a panoramic view of the city." As for SMALL CLAIMS COURT, "You won't get murders or big libel cases ... but small dramas of everyday domestic life are just as compelling." From there Petrie provides this (parenthetic) quote: "I didn't paint your car because you wouldn't marry my sister who doesn't like green anyway."

Curious to see if the author herself is still around, I googled "Anne Petrie writer" and found her to be living on Vancouver Island, where she is focused on studio practice. Below is a recent work, entitled How to Live Now (n.d.):