Metrotown station about to change
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city May not be ready for cyclists
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Voter turnout better this tiMe
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friday
May 31 2013 www.burnabynewsleader.com
irene Mccutcheon says it’s time burnaby had a world-class art gallery. see page a3
Sears aims to build seven towers Owns 8.9 acres next to Metropolis Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
Wanda ChoW/neWsleader
former second street school student buzz henshaw, 86, shares some laughs with current grade 7 students at the school, from left, Kathrina Pillay, christy cheung and dalia ananga following the 43rd annual Pioneer tea event.
Memories of a Burnaby gone by Former students and staff among senior guests at Second Street Pioneer Tea
and off, on and off. “The teachers made us stop,” said Henshaw, 86, with a laugh. After all, back then the Henshaw Wanda Chow family lived on a farm close to wchow@burnabynewsleader.com where the freeway is now where they On his first day at Burnaby’s had no running water or electricity. Second Street elementary as a sixThose were among the memories year-old, Clarence “Buzz” Henshaw Henshaw shared with students at and his brothers “stood in the toilet Second Street school last Friday at stall and flushed the toilet just its 43rd annual pioneer tea. to watch the water go down,” he Girl students wearing pioneer recalled. dresses served tea and baking Same with the light switches. They while other schoolkids visited with were the push-button type back in the seniors, among former 4x1.25_small_appliances_ad_final.pdf 1 12-03-05them 1:20 PM 1933 and they pushed the lights on students and teachers, grandparents
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and even great-grandparents. Raymond Beaton, 82, started Grade 1 there in 1937 (there was no kindergarten in those days) and said the wood floors were all oiled back then. “Every time I smell that particular smell it takes me back to Second Street school,” Beaton recalled. By then, the school was already on its second building, operating as a four-room school for grades 1 to 6 in an area surrounded by bush. Of course, early school memories vary for each individual. Beaton recalled being bullied
incessantly in Grade 5 but after picking up boxing tips from a movie he punched his tormentor in the face and “he never bothered me again.” And there was the first time he got the strap. It was only his second-ever day of school and it was because he didn’t bring in a picture of an aster flower as he’d been instructed, despite him having no idea what one looked like and no way to look it up in those pre-Internet days. Please see ‘I WIsh I Was young’, a8
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If anyone’s ever wondered why it seemed Sears hardly changed a bit when Metropolis at Metrotown mall was developed, here’s the answer: the department store owns its own parcel at the site. An 8.9-acre parcel, in fact. And now it plans to redevelop. In a big way. Sears Canada Inc. has applied to Burnaby city hall to establish a conceptual master plan for the site that would guide later rezoning applications for individual phases of the project, according to a city staff report. The company’s vision for its site includes a new flagship Sears store, and five mixeduse, high-density residential towers and two office towers on top of podiums containing retail and commercial space. Despite its store being highly integrated into Metropolis, Sears owns its own store, the space where Toys R Us is located see CoMpany, a3