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49

We celebrated with dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory

(which is still there, beside our existing flagship store).

Fox & Fluevog was a revolutionary shop in Vancouver,

maybe in the world. It was located in a vintage building

in the most historic part of the city, Gastown, a neigh-

bourhood of cobblestone streets and brick low-rises

that date back to the nineteenth century. It’s named

for a saloonkeeper, “Gassy Jack” Deighton. This is

where the city began, but for a long time it was pretty

rough—in the Dirty Thirties it was all warehouses and

hobo camps; after the Second World War it was the

city’s skid row. Then in the 1960s, the city planned to

put a freeway through here. That woke everyone up, and

people began to realize how beautiful the old buildings

were, and they decided to preserve them instead.

In the 1960s and ’70s, Gastown was really interesting.

It was really fun. It was revolutionary. It was that sense

that we could change the world. Hippies, peaceniks

and draft dodgers came to Vancouver from all over

North America, and everyone hung out here. My first

employee, Robert, lived in a commune, and they all had

multiple partners. It’s just the way it was back then.

Gastown was filled with bars and pubs and boutiques,

and I remember a hip vegetarian restaurant called the

Aspidistra that used to play LGFM, the alternative radio

station. Hip was different back then; it was a little

hippier, a little grungier. There was lots of Grateful Dead.

There was lots of pot, too, and other drugs. In 1971,

a bunch of hippies held a “Grasstown Smoke-in,” which

was busted up by the cops—it became known as the

Gastown riot, and it happened right outside our store.

Anyway, Fox & Fluevog was really funky. It had these

sixteen-foot ceilings, stylin’ with all vintage and antique

furniture and old books, thousands of them, that we

bought for five cents a pop from the Opportunity

Rehabilitation Workshop. The interior design was loosely

based on the library scene in the 1938 movie Pygmalion.

They tell me now that I

seemed so arrogant back

then, but it was because

I was insecure.

49

Director Robert Altman buys a

knee-high boot while filming the movie

McCabe & Mrs. Miller in Vancouver.

In August, after weeks of unrest, the

Gastown riot breaks out right outside

Fox & Fluevog.

John and Kecia travel to Mexico, where

they discover a warehouse full of

vintage children’s shoes. They come

back and sell them with the motto

Brand-New 50-year-old Shoes.

Not long after Fox & Fluevog opens,

international supermodel Kecia Nyman

walks into the store and walks out

with John’s heart. Three months

later, they’re married, and John is

hobnobbing with the jet set.