The East End

a photo essay/walk

November 5, 2007 Down near the water, the jumble of tracks and trucks, freighters just off shore, spewing something into the inlet. Tymac cutting across the narrows and under the bridge where there is framed... no, carved out of the forest, a great dominance of condominiums somewhere on that relentless north slope before Indian Arm. Where there were picnics on the beach; bean salads and buns, hot dogs and fruit drink mix in those days forever locked in past decades, there is still the cutting green of the bridge, and Lynnterm, still the warnings not to swim. The grass seems greener now to the look, but greener then to the mind. The bits of decaying styrofoam that wash up on the beach from who knows where, alongside rusty barnacle encrusted "treasure chest" or flat of decayed plywood. It's almost too clean now, and every bit of the rustic yore commands attention like the ramshackle house on the block. And suddenly, there is the otherwordliness of the smooth, tall, grungy stained cylinders, tightly fused together, home to many seagulls, and many mysterious, insanely austere windows. There is a tree house just then too, scrawls of tags of everyone who has climbed it. There's Sarah, the Bassman, Frank, Derek, reminders to riot, orders to jump, warnings to "bike nerds". I learned to "Live free", "Don't let em take u alive!" and that "Rent is for chumps!" And just between the alder and cedars and beyond the dangling blue splotchy tarp you can see mountains of a million shades of green, late afternoon sun of November pummeling their hue. Between us is the narrows, blue and cold, and an empty rail bridge, enticing me to cross it just as I climbed up to the treehouse. And all these images, like the plastic bag in that movie, are just too much to take in. And the camera captures what it can. And a thousand forgotten memories, stories and dreams are demanding to be heard now through it. You can dismiss this if it pleases you, but it's truth. It's my East End.

All photos copyright Keith Freeman
Prints available upon request

10:45am - Parking warning near Chinatown.
A guy who never lived here once told me 'they' marked up prices in the shop windows for non-Chinese.
I reacted strongly, defensively, swiftly. I took the accusation personally, even though I couldn't prove
he was wrong. This has always been home to the Chinese people-- as long as Vancouver's been around anyway.
I was minority growing up here, on a true local level. Where's the worry in this?

10:47am - Wet leaves on Keefer Street
The little rise that leads to the gravel school field at left was a fun slide in any time of year. Winter especially, on the
few occasions we got snow. In fall, tumbling down one could smell the crispness of the leaves.

10:53am - Bald eagle atop church. Pender and Princess.
First saw them from my apartment window back in 2001. How many years before that they had been coming here I don't know.
They are absent for months on end sometimes, but return in the fall and spring months, especially. This morning, there was
a lone pair of eyes, often there are two.
Every possible symbolism seems to have passed through the mind, but there is just the stark beauty of the scene to behold, ultimately.

10:56am - November light hits Heatley Block.
For about five years, various members of my family lived in the red house against the alley.
Part of the 1994 Canucks run to the cup I watched on a tiny black and white TV
at the back of the building.
I understand a Save the Heatley Block Committee has sprung up. There are two
contacts I have been trying to arrange an interview with for quite some time, which is
proving problematic.

11:02am - Coolite Bamboo Products

11:04am - Yard beside Hastings Overpass

11:05am - Hastings mountain views (1).
When it's cloudy or foggy the mountains are usually invisible. Their apparent distance to the eye fluctuates
according to the atmospheric conditions and state of mind, I believe.
1995 - On a Hastings bus, coming home from work. Eastbound over the viaduct. Standing room only, and
I can hunch my tall, teenaged frame over a bit to see pyramidal peaks far to the northeast. Romance.

11:09am - Vancouver B.C (east)
It's sooty in places, downright unusual in others. But it's all part of a balanced city. This does not have to be a
mutually exclusive concept from, say, Yaletown.

11:10am - Hastings mountain view (2)
A former parking lot for a former crematorium which was beside a meat processing place, which was beside a fish warehouse.

11:18am - The Science of Reincarnation.

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