Meet Me at the Dev...

Well, here we go with the last installment of Jane's 1976 photo spread. New Year's Eve in Vancouver, B.C. at the Hotel Devonshire. But first, a brief discussion of the role of Vancouver in our collegiate lives is in order.

Babes in the city. Jane Ellis, and Terry Harrigan at the Devonshire Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. on December 31, 1976.

A number of us attended Western Washington University in Bellingham. For late-teen/early twenty-somethings Bellingham in the 1970's was a fine community; but not what the doctor ordered when one was racked by Boogie Fever. Fortunately, Vancouver, B.C. is only a short drive from Bellingham.

Vancouver then, as now, was a thriving cosmopolitan city with frequent big-name concerts, theaters, museums, nightclubs and fine dining. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - the drinking age was nineteen.

For many of us living in a dorm and without a car, transportation was a serious problem in those days and the lights of the city might have remained out of reach but for the innate creativity of disco-deprived freshmen and the entrepreneurial spirit of Greyhound Buslines. It was very common on late Friday afternoon to see a Greyhound bus parked in front of a dorm with "Charter" or "Vancouver B.C." in the destination window and rapidly filling-up with kids in their boogie togs.

A quick hop across the border and before you know it - cocktail time in Vancouver - almost always beginning at the pub in the Hotel Devonshire. Cocktails at this time of our lives meant schooners of good Canadian beer...and lots of them...followed by supper, often in Chinatown, and then dance, dance, dance. Then back to the bus for nappy time as our intrepid bus driver hauled us back to the dorms.

And intrepid is not an exaggeration - since returning to Bellingham necessarily meant crossing the U.S./Canadian border with a busload of mostly intoxicated persons most of whom were minors in the eyes of U.S. Officialdom. Greyhound bus drivers take their responsibilities very seriously, however, and these guys were silver tongued devils with the Customs guys. I never heard of any of these boozy sorties coming to grief although, upon further reflection, the Greyhound legal department was certainly asleep at the wheel for countenancing these trips in the first place.

As we got older and some of us obtained wheels, Vancouver nonetheless retained its allure. And the Hotel Devonshire was always our headquarters. Such was the case on New Year's Eve 1976 when Jane Ellis, Terry Harrigan, Carl Swanson, Tim Wilson, and I rang-in 1977 with great enthusiasm.

Ready for a night on the town. I have absolutely no recollection of where we went. Terry remembers it well, however, particularly the part where the gal with the 4 inch spikes impaled her big toe on the dance floor. Ouch!

New Year's Day follows New Year's Eve just as the inevitable hang-over follows the night on the town. We were pretty subdued the next morning - I believe we are watching cartoons.

All of Jane's 1976 photos (including some not posted on the blog) are available for your viewing at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/elmerlindstrom/jellis

Also, check out the 1970's quiz on the right of the blog.