Nestor Berg, 72, can remember when parts of Glenbrooke North were dense forest and there was little traffic.
He and his neighbourhood friends would hit the dusty streets, looking for fun.
"We used to go everywhere on our bicycles," Berg recalls. "On the weekends, we'd go up over Eighth Avenue, there were no roads there then. It was all bush.
"All McBride, down there," he says, pointing east, "it was all bush."
For almost all of his life - from the time he was four years old - Berg lived in Glenbrooke. His family home was in the 300-block of Eighth Avenue. Today, he lives one block behind on Durham Street.
Berg recalls riding his bike down to Sapperton to hop on the tram and head to Deer Lake to swim.
It was in the days when an eight-year-old could go outside and play all day without being watched.
"No matter where we went, there were no parents," Berg says. "We had the freedom. It was fun."
The neigbourhood was a lot quieter in the 1940s and '50s.
"You never heard traffic on Eighth Avenue like you hear it now," says Berg, who started at Herbert Spencer Elementary in the '40s.
As an adult, Berg worked at Fraser Mill, where his father once worked as well. He bought the Durham Street house in 1978. They picked the house for the area and the fact that it was close to his dad's house (his mother had passed away at that point). His two kids, son, Kevin, and daughter, Tracie, also went to Spencer.
Over the years, Berg has seen some changes. Today, those moving into the neighbourhood tend to be more educated professionals (there's lots of teachers, he says) and less blue-collar workers like him and his dad.
Berg wonders how young families do it today with the price of real estate being so high. Like many who have lived for years in Glenbrooke, he can't believe how much his home has risen in value.
Laughing, he says if he'd known how much property would go up, he would have bought a few more houses along Durham Street.
But the retiree isn't doing too bad. He and his wife own a lovely home, with a stunning garden in their spacious yard.
Berg says they always thought they'd head up to Tulameen (where they have a vacation home) in their golden years, but so far they are staying put - close to their family and their Glenbrooke garden.
Larry Wright, The Record / In my backyard: Nestor Berg, right, with his wife Ellen Berg, has lived in Glenbrooke North since he was four.;
