INVOLUNTARY COSMOPOLITANISM.

VANCOUVER BRITISH COLUMBIA IS A COSMOPOLITAN CITY. MONTREAL WHERE I WAS BORN, WAS VERY COSMOPOLITAN WHEN I LIVED THERE BEFORE 1966.

THERE WERE MANY LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL POPULATIONS AND NEIGHBORHOODS.

ACCEPTANCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE INTERMINGLING SOLITUDES WAS SIMPLY PART OF NORMAL LIFE. 

THERE WERE SOME CULTURAL GROUPS AND NEIGHBORHOODS WHICH MIGHT HAVE TO BE AVOIDED FOR REASONS OF PERSONAL OR PROPERTY SAFETY.

CARE WOULD HAVE TO BE EXERCISED IF ONE WAS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED TO BE A PART OF THE DANGEROUS POPULATION, PARTICULARLY IF ONE HAPPENED TO LIVE IN OR EVEN NEAR A NEIGHBORHOOD OF ILL REPUTE. LOW INCOME PERSONS WOULD HAVE TO RESIDE IN OR NEAR THE LOW PROPERTY VALUE LOW RENT DISTRICT.

I WAS NOT CAPABLE OF BUYING OR RENTING IN ANY REALLY DESIRABLE NEIGHBORHOODS. UNLESS I MOVED TO A LOW PRICED RURAL AREA I WOULD BE STUCK WITH THE STIGMA OF AND SUBJECTED TO THE PREDATION WHICH OCCURRED IN UNDESIRABLE URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS. 

THE SOLUTION INVOLVED MOVING THROUGH MANY CULTURES WITHOUT CAUSING FRICTION OR CONFLICT AND THEN GOING TO YOUR HOME OR HOME CULTURAL NEIGHBORHOOD AND FITTING IN. 

IT WAS CONSIDERED TO BE "COOL" TO REFUSE TO SO THIS BY CITIZENS WHO PROFESSED TO HAVE "ATTITUDE", WHICH WAS JUST RUDE VERY OFTEN.

I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE AND COULD SUBJECT A PERSON TO BAD TREATMENT IF THEY APPEARED TO BE UNDESIRABLES.

I MADE AN EFFORT BY THE TIME I WAS THIRTY YEARS OLD TO DRESS AND ACT IN A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE MANNER.

WHEN I HAD TO TAKE A JOB SELLING CARS IN VICTORIA I HAD TO DRESS AND TO GROOM MY HAIR LIKE A REGULAR OFFICE WORKER WHICH VICTORIA WAS FULL OF. I WAS ALSO SUPPLIED WITH A BASIC BUT NEW VOLVO.

I WAS CALLED A YUPPIE BY THE REDNECK NEIGHBORS IN THE SOOKE REGION AND PARTICULARLY THE PEOPLE LIVING UP THE ROAD TOWARDS TOWN. THEY DID NOT EVEN DRIVE PAST MY HOUSE WHICH I WAS FINISHING.

I HAD BEEN EVICTED BY FRAUD FROM MY SUBURBAN "PERMANENT RENTAL" FROM THE BRITISH COLUMBIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION AND I HAD TO SELL MY JEWELRY FACTORY TO BUY A HOME SO I WAS ALONE AND I WAS NO LONGER PART OF ANY CULTURE.

I DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE REDNECK NEIGHBORS EVEN SAW ME AS I WORKED ON THE HALF FINISHED HOUSE I HAD BOUGHT. I KNOW THEY WENT THROUGH MY HOUSE AND MY POSSESSIONS, BUT I WAS NOT THERE, OFF IN MY SCHOOL BUS TO BUY MATERIALS FOR THE HOUSE.

EVERYTHING I HAD OR DID OR SEEMED TO BE WAS TOO COSMOPOLITAN FOR THE NEIGHBORS WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY CLEANED THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE TWO LAST OWNERS OF THE PROPERTY AS NOT BELONGING IN LOGGER COUNTRY. THEY STOLE MY JEWELRY INVENTORY AND STOLE MY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WHILE I WAS GETTING THE FAMILY FROM VANCOUVER AND WHEN THEY THOUGHT I WAS LEAVING AGAIN EARLY IN THE EVENING ON JUNE 20, I980 THEY OR ONE OF THEM, THE PALFY GRANDSON HAD THREATENED TO BURN THE HOUSE DOWN I FOUND OUT YEARS LATER, BURNED DOWN THE HOUSE. MY WIFE AND CHILD HAD NOT PREVIOUSLY BEEN LIVING THERE, AND THEY THOUGHT THE HOUSE WAS VACANT OR THEY DID NOT CARE IF IT WAS OCCUPIED.

I WAS LABELED AS A "YUPPIE" WITH MY NEW VOLVO AND MY SUITS AND THE CHEAP BUT LARGE AND STYLISH HOUSE, I WAS TOO COSMOPOLITAN FOR THEM.