LITMIR.BIZ

      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.