I suddenly appeared in Vancouver in 1948, and with immense gratitude, I must sincerely credit my Mother for that miracle. I was labelled Robert Bruce Macdonald, but as an ageing Mount Pleasant historian, I am pleased to simply rebrand myself as Old Bruce.
I am old and having been a civil engineer, then a school teacher and then a labourer, it all culminated into spending 10,000 hours of my time writing a book on the history of Vancouver, Vancouver: A Visual History. That made me a dedicated historian, who is now thrilled to move on from the old book form into the wonderful newer realm of videos.
One of my earliest childhood memories c1952 was my first experience being away from home for a week, when I was left with an elderly babysitter in Mount Pleasant. She lived in a dark, unchanged 1912 house still firmly embedded in the Edwardian period. For me it felt like time-travelling back to the world of 1912, and this immersive experience in a different time made a big impression on my 4-year old mind.
Please, allow me to try to take you back there — to the original, pioneer Mount Pleasant, to its exciting youthful years.
— Old Bruce, Mount Pleasant historian