For reasons that escape me I was never able to tell my mother that I really did not like root beer. She would buy the stuff and put glasses in the freezer and then serve me the drink. In the last few years of her life she lived with my Rosemary and me. Rosemary noticed. When we came to Canada Rosemary started buying A&W root beer just for me. I did not have the heart to tell her.

Two months ago my friend Ian Bateson and I went to Picasso show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. After the viewing we went our separate ways. It was a sweltering day. I spotted an A&W on Robson and ordered a root beer. The attendant poured it into a frosty mug. I sat outside and I have to admit I almost enjoyed the concoction. I remembered my mother but I also remembered a couple of events that happened in Vancouver/Burnaby.

Many years ago when Art Bergmann was part of a band called (Originally Los Rádicos Popularos) Los Popularos I decided to photograph them as Mexican bandits in my Burnaby garage studio. The story is here.

I had to pick up within Burnaby bassist Tony Bardach and guitarist Art Bergmann. Bardach gave me an address on Lougheed Highway near Willingdon. Both were waiting for me but then I noticed a legion of stuffed A&W bears drying in the sun. I looked at Bardach who told me, “It’s my father’s business.”

In the late 70s I used to take photographs of variety shows at the CBC. My fave subjects were the jazz dancers. One of them, she drove a Mercedes sports car had a patrician nose. I found out that she was the A&W Bear in the TV adds!

 In the late 80s I took my family back to Mexico City for a little vacation. We ate ever possible kind of Mexican food we could find. We ate at corners where little old ladies served us tacos and boiled corn with mayonnaise and chilli. On the last day we dined at A&W. I never could figure out which idiot came up with the idea of naming burgers after a family. Imagine this: “Señorita quiero una mamcitaburrger con papitas fritas y quechúp.”