Boy, things sure were different back in the day.

Actor Ryan Reynolds has a lot of his Instagram followers amazed at a throwback photo the Vancouver-born star shared that was clipped from his “hometown newspaper” back in the summer of 1980.

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“This is Ryan Reynolds, 3, and he’s enjoying the water at Kits Community Centre wading pool. Ryan lives at 2382 Oliver Cr. This playground and others have supervised programs for tots and kids in summer,” reads the caption on the newspaper clipping.

Yes, they did publish this cherubic little boy’s home address.

Kits, of course, is Vancouver’s Kitsilano, and the Oliver Cr. address is to the south in Arbutus Ridge. So what “hometown paper” would have been so folksy as to share a three-year-old’s home address?

We’ve been trying to figure that out for ourselves. There’s the Vancouver Sun and Province, of course, covering the city at the time. But the real local stuff, the real “hometown” neighbourhood stuff, was primarily the turf of publications like the Vancouver Courier (which was once the Kerrisdale Courier) as well as eventual sibling publication the Westender. Here’s a great backgrounder on the Courier’s history.

Since V.I.A. is also siblings with the Courier, we stopped by their newsroom to see if the photog’s name, Shirley Nicholls, rang a bell. Sadly it did not, and our internet sleuthing is coming up dry on this one at first pass.

While we keep trying to puzzle this one out (hey @vancityreynolds, give us a shout!), we can all enjoy the OMG-ness of the published address, the witty quips of the commenters, and the absolute cuteness of local pool-loving “tot” Reynolds. Thanks for the throwback, kid!

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