City of Vancouver Archives: BC Telephone Victory Garden CVA 586-1546Yesterday I chatted with Michael Levenston at City Farmer. My neighbor Catherine had remembered meeting a Vancouver Victory Gardener with Michael and I was curious about the details. Michael said he might be able to find an article about the Victory Gardner and lo and behold he has hit the jackpot and you can read the piece on his blog. The "Last Victory Gardener" was Dr. Donald Flather and he had a Victory garden on the boulevard facing his house in Kerrisdale. My favorite part of the article, written by Kerry Banks for City Farmer in 1979, is when he asks if the Flathers have to buy any vegetables. The answer: "Yes, avocados. But not too often, we’re really not that fond of them.” Dr. Flather remembers that it was a common practice for people to grow potatoes on their front lawns and there was a time when he said there was a Victory Garden on almost every block in Vancouver. Truly amazing. Then there's also the story of his passion for painting. He sounds like a wonderful man. I wish I could have met Dr. Flather.
Another exciting discovery I made is that Ian Mosby, a Phd candidate at York University, (currently doing his post-doc at the U. of Guelph) just handed in his thesis called "Food Will Win the War: The Politics and Culture of Food and Nutrition During the Second World War" which includes interesting research on Victory Gardens. He gave me a sneak peek at one of the chapters and it's fascinating. I really hope he publishes it as a book.
So now, dear readers, I want you to do a bit of detective work. Can you figure out where that photo of the B.C. Telephone Victory Garden was taken? What is that building in the back ground? Is it city hall? If you follow this link to the digital collection from the City of Vancouver Archives you can see more photos of the gardens, so maybe you can find a few more clues. Happy detecting!
ETA: I wonder if the photo got flipped. Maybe it should be printed the other way around.
No comments:
Post a Comment