Stories

Video and Photography by Suzanne Ahearne:

Paul Livingston lived in Kitsilano for the first 10 years of his life, brought up in what he considered a “conservative” family.

He says this about Kits in the ’60s: “Kits was a beautiful place to live until I was about five. Then, the hippies moved in. The neighborhood became very colourful and noisy. Mixed in with families like mine, were the free-spirted transients. These were exciting times for many. but for me—a conservatively-raised kid—they were turbulent, troublesome times. I went to Henry Hudson Elementary and I was having a rough time of it myself.”

Shortly before he and his sister and their family moved to Burnaby, an incident happened that has stayed with him ever since. He visited his old school and brings us inside to re-live the moment with him.

Photographs by Paul and Suzanne. Paul wrote and recorded the intro to the story and Suzanne recorded him in the school yard telling the story about the staircase incident. The video was produced part of the Vancouver Stories 125 project in the summer of 2011.