How the Term "Hooker" Came About


Towards Downtown from Yaletown

As one heads north along Hamilton, an occasional glance down the street will lock one's view on one of Vancouver's most riveting landmarks - the public library I visited in report no .1. After giving the full treatment to Hamilton and Mainland, it was time to leave this section of Yaletown in order to let Barbara have her first look at this Romanesque structure. Designed with the participation of Moishe Safdie, located near Homer and Georgia, (see Report No. 1) it is a must see on any tour of Vancouver.

Downtown

At this point we wanted to give Vancouver's downtown another brief walk through.

We are on our way to Burrrard St. and along the way we pass Granville Street. It is of course also an interesting walk as one of the cities busiest downtown shopping streets, along with Robson Street.

Along Granville, south of Robson Street to Nelson Street is the city s Entertainment District known for its concentration of cinemas, theatres, restaurants and bars. If you want more entertainment ,
south of Nelson to Davie Street is a two block area with lots of entertainment stores .

Most of the cities downtown shopping malls are just a few blocks from this area and include the Pacific Center, Royal Center, Sinclair Center and Waterfront Center Shops. None are particularly impressive when compared with those in a lot of other cities

The sparkling business district of downtown is located along Burrard Street, between Hastings and West Georgia. This is where the symbols of corporate Vancouver are most prevalent. Eye-catching at the moment is the new Bell Mobility building which is slowly rising to its full sparkling height. We are duly impressed, the whole street is a sparkling example of what free enterprise can achieve, but we have never been to Shanghai.

From our next Vancouver destination, we took the Millennium Line of the Sky Train, east from the Burrard Street station to the E. Broadway Station. This 10 minute ride brought us to another neighbourhood - Commercial Street .



Commercial Drive

I have previously seen this street on television during various parades and festivities such as the Canada Day and Gay Pride Day celebrations. We were eager to find an area outside the center of the city that would be interesting to explore.

From the E. Broadway Station we headed south along Commercial Drive, also known as "The Drive", to 12th Ave. E. This section seems to be the south end of The Drive, and proved to be of little interest.

We then headed in a northerly direction for about two kilometers to near Hastings. As we walked along, the street became more and more intense in its concentration of stores, little shops, snack bars and restaurants. The multi-ethnicity of Vancouver was alive and well along this stretch of road and one could spend much time exploring the various cultural culinary aspects which are available here .

On a sunny day, it made for an interesting walk. Short forays into surrounding streets revealed a solid "blue collar" working class type of neighbourhood. Having said that, I am sure that most of these modest houses would have a value of over $600,000, in today's real estate market.

Conclusion on Commercial Drive: interesting, bustling but not unique in the manner of commercial Yaletown

Downtown East Vancouver

This is really not on the list of Vancouver Neighbourhoods issued by the tourist office, as it is an area to be avoided to put it bluntly.

Taking Bus 20 along E. Hastings back to downtown to Waterfront Station was the closest we got to infamous Downtown East Vancouver. It is an area largely disadvantaged through years of neglect and partly abandoned to street people who make their presence felt on the sidewalks of Hastings . use is often open, rampant and to a large extent out of the control of the authorities.

I really have the urge to delve more into this social phenomena a lot more, but with Barbara even saying that she felt "uncomfortable" along parts of Commercial Drive, this may have been the place to explore Downtown East Vancouver in greater depth, but not the time.

North Vancouver

Speaking of time, as usual we were rapidly running out of it, but we did want to, on this sunny afternoon, have the pleasure of taking the Sea Bus across Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver.

Waiting for the Sea Bus, which crosses every 15 min., we were firstly greeted by the presence of two majestic cruise ships leaving Canada Place on their way to Alaska. Their presence on the water made the sight of North Vancouver's profile across Burrard Inlet even more spectacular. The fabulous mix of naval opulence, sparking high rises and the stellar green Coastal Mountains as a backdrop was a scene that can only be described as vintage Vancouver .

Unfortunately we only had time to look around Lonsbury Quai to where the Sea Bus terminal is located. There was not even time to look for the pretzels I mentioned in report No. 1.

Lonsbury Quai is similar to Granville Market with its diversity of fruit and vegetable vendors as well as many arts and crafts boutiques. Of course was the location of our afternoon coffee stop which we enjoyed outdoors while gazing back at Vancouver.

I am sorry to say we passed up on an Ottawa institution in the food court - the so-called "Beaver Tails" started by Grant of Ottawa. They are made of dough, shaped like a beaver tails that is deep-fried and spread with jam or anything else to make them taste better.

They are very popular in The Market in Ottawa, and I was always fascinated with the fact that Grant was a relative of a certain General who fought in the American Civil War . He must have been kind to his troops for he provided women to be brought in to help his men overcome their ual frustrations. They became known as "Hooker's s" - adding the term "hookers" to today's language.
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Update: Jan. 13,2007

I have since come across the following entry at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/meanings.htm

British sailors got in the habit of referring to a particular as a "hooker", indicating that although she had been around a while, she was still serviceable. There is NO truth to the rumor that the term came from the American Civil war. General 's s (camp followers) were called such because of the convenient similarity of the names, they did not get the name from him.
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Well anyway it makes for an interesting story back in Ottawa at %
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It was the "deep fried" part that made us pass up on the Beaver Tails one more time, although they are delicious .

Life at Lonsbury Quai is somewhat dictated by a large red digital clock which counts down the minutes, starting from 15, till the departure of the next Sea Bus to Vancouver.

Barbara had left to do some bead shopping while I took some photos, so it was with trepidation that I stood there still waiting for Barbara with 2 minutes to go before the Sea Bus' departure with not sign of her. She showed up seconds later and off we were to catch bus 601 back to Ladner Exchange and Bus 620 back to Tawwasssan.

With Barbara's encouragement we decided to take the last bus from downtown, as opposed to the second last, which gave an extra half hour to walk Burrard St. one more time, this time in the beautiful late afternoon sun.

We experienced phenomena which must warm up the hearts of solar power advocates. Walking along the sidewalk, near the corner of Burrard and Hastings around 18:00 on a sunny day, we were caught in the beam of the sun's reflections off the Bell Mobility glass tower under construction . It was an intense and highly uncomfortable feeling of heat and brightness that was overpowering and that is best avoided. How can this power not be harnessed?

Our quick walk also took us inside the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and to come to the conclusion that it did not hold the same charm, class and sophistication that is evidenced in The Empress in Victoria.

Our one day visit had of course again been brief and rushed. Barb commented however, that in that in one day, we had seen more than a lot of people in Victoria we had spoken to and who had lived in the area for many years.