INDEX Business NORTH SHORE NEWS COMMURITY LIFE Photo sparks Earlier this year, the North Shore News ran a photo of a Shelley’s Bakery bread truck in ats Time Traveller feature. In response, Walter John Vine — who was a driver’s “helper” From the age of three to age 16, from 1929 to 1942 — told this story to the North Vancouver Museum and Archives. His father Walter Henry Vine was the driver. SHELLEY started the 4X Bakery with only 40 dollars to his name, hence the 4X logo (four 10-dolliar bills). The bakery was at Ash and ‘1th Avenue in Vancouver with a branch at 13th and Lonsdale in North Vancouver for the North Shore drivers to come and pick up their goods for their daily routes. I was three years old in 1929 when Dad got a job dri- ving the 4X Bakery truck. His daily route was in North Vancouver from Lonsdale and - 27th north, and from Grand - Boulevard east and on into Lynn Valley. . '_ ‘The truck was a brand new Model T Ford. It had a bench seat covered with a black horse-hair-filled cushioa. The gas tank was under the seat so the scat top had to be lifted to fill the gas tank. I had often seen my dad check the level of gas by holding his cigarette lighter over the filler hole of the yas tank. He later used a stick, marked off by the gallon. Where the . wooden stick was wet, that’s where the gas level was. ‘Inside the back of the truck there were built-in trays approximately every 10 inchcs from the bed to the ceiling. They would be filled with bread, buns, cakes and cookies when we picked up the truck in the morning. Dad had a six-foot-long pole with a nail in the end that was used for reaching in, snagging, and pulling the unwrapped bread out to the doors as - we needed it. ; - In those days, you could drive around upper _ North Vancouver and Lynn -Valley all day and never see another moving vehicle. Most bread deliveries were paid for by the month so a book had to be kept of each customer the floor. The left one was the high- and low-gear pedal which remained in neutral if the emergency rake was on. ' When the gear pedal was depressed and the hand brake slowly released, it would take off in low gear. Releasing the gear pedal would put it in high gear. That would enable us to reach 20 mph with a good tail wind. The middle pedal was depressed for reverse with the same action of the hand-emer- gency brake. The right pedal was the brake which often had to be assisted by depressing the gear pedal to low as required. Just below the steering wheel were two levers. The one on the left was the “spark” and had to be up whenever you cranked to start the motor. The one on the right was the gas. Up was off, down was supposed to make you go faster but was often off too. . There vas a permanent crank on the front of the Model T, just beneath the radiator. You had to be careful when you cranked it, and keep your thumb on the same side of the crank handle as your hand. Sometimes the engine would backfire and if you had your thumb on the wrong side it would ‘send up either dislocated or broken. lel-T SER 2, photo North Vanceuver Museum snd Archives WALTER Henry Vine and his three-year-old son and “nelper,’"John, in front of thelr home as they start off on another day of bread deliveries in 1929. Several times on hot summer days, we wouid get to our Lynn Valley house for lunch in the mid- dle of deliveries. Dad would turn off the truck key but the engine would continue to run, dieseling. We'd go in for lunch, come out and the engine would still be running, we’d turn the key on and continue they day’s work. Model T’s kad minds of their own. . In the beginning, I started out helping Dad drive by standing on the seat steering while he worked the pedals. (And worked on his books.) Later, I remember pushing my backside against the seat as I tried and succeeded in working the differ- ent pedals. I had to steer at this point by hanging my head out the entrance opening because I coul not see over the windshield. There were no doors on the truck. This was a wonderful truck; it didn’t matter what you did with the pedals and Severs, the old girl would shudder and shake, moan and groan, and then reluctantly take off. I loved her. She was like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a way, for she had sounds all her own, and I don’t remember her See Bakery page 18 niak tech Money moves ie Net ‘Michael Becker News Editor mbecker@nsnews.com THE incessant buzz about €-commerce is loud and getting louder. Some see 1999 as the watershed year for the com- mercialization of the Taternet. Those .cyber-venturers who came before are considered pioneers. Those who come after — the mainstream com- petitive hoards. It is Mark Pavan’s job to . pay attention to those building the e-commerce infrastructure and those hitting their stride in the explosive world of online enterprise. In an earlier incarnation Pavan, 32, worked on the North Shore for a few years with the West Vancouver School District. As a high school teacher he taught computer science, com- puter drafting and design at Sentinel. He left teaching to move into information tech- nology and computer systems Management. 7 Four years ago he’ moved from North Vancouver to Toronto to start working for Yorkton Securities ‘as their Internet analyst. Said Pavan of the inipe behind the career . si if “J starte: layi around in stocks End invested in Netscape and a couple of other things and I got interested in the stock t as it affected © the Intemet T had been - working in for a decade or so. “It got me interested in the amount of wealth and the. potential of the Internet from a commercial perspective rather than a technical perspective.” - He met the president of - See World page 12 * SPRING FLOWER VASE FLACON WITH. CRYSTALS CHRISTMAS MAGIC IS IN THE AIR Basy . . GIRAFFE ~~" SUITCASE WITH PICTURE FRAME pele chek a4 Laat os