Building my Model "A" sedan.....

The final clip at the very bottom of this post is a 13 minute film that my son Jay took during and after construction of the Model "A", a few years back.
A newer engine and a few more current pieces have been added since. 
Firstly here are a few pictures of my beautiful niece Sarah with the car.  At the request of Ol' Skool Rodz magazine, we sent an article and some pictures of the car with Sarah but I guess she didn't have enough tattoos for the magazine so they only used one picture.  These pictures were taken near the rowing club on the Kaministiquia River.   Click on all to enlarge.

Sorry guys, Sarah is presently engaged to Trevor and will be married next year...you're a lucky guy Trevor.

Here is how the article in Ol' Skool Rodz came out back then........click twice on these to view full screen.

And finally the 13 minute film - it is a combination of photos and video......It's not super clear but the content is there and the surf music is great.  This film was actually misplaced for a bit but has since been found, added to my YouTube pages and now added to Hot Rods and Jalopies.  Hope you enjoy it.

Give Them Blood and Thunder and They Will Pack the Joint - Jalopy Tidbits in Fort William Ontario 1953 - 1962 and the Lyn McIntosh story.

Here are a few clippings from the 1953 to 1962 Stock Car Racing seasons at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track from Barry Kettering's own scrapbook.  These were the peak years at the track when ups to 5,500 fans crowded the old wooden grandstand to overflowing to view the best entertainment that ever graced the fairgrounds to this day. 
They are all interesting reads and hope you gear heads will take some time and reminisce about the good ol' days at the intercity dirt track here in Thunder Bay, formerly Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario.  Click on each clipping twice to get an extra large reading format.

 WOW...5,500 fans watch the stock cars at the old CLE track!

This is a 1953 advertisement showing tons of people in the grandstand.....more people per week than Silver City Movie Theatres ever got!!  By the way...Silver City is in the exact same place as this grandstand building was.

They always smile when they win and Tom Dow is no exception a he takes the 1954 Point Standings trophy.

 Here is smiling Conrad Trombelli after equaling the track record back in 1955.  The next photo is none other than Merv Dove, who is still kickin' today and also a good friend.

 Controversy always surrounded Louis Tocheri (The Witch Doctor) during those exciting days at the CLE track.  Most of the mayhem was staged between many of the drivers including the Massaro brothers, but Louis would say that staged or not, tempers did rise and there were many fist fights on the track directly in front of the grandstand to the delight of thousands of patrons.  I spoke to Louis this past week and he said that all the neck pain he has now was definitely caused by all the rollovers and wrecks he endured back then....not to mention the fist fights.

This was May 26, 1956 and the beginning of the racing season with no let up in the popularity of stock car racing here at the Lakehead.  "The Lakehead" is a short form for our city now as well as the two cities it once was.  If the voting was different back in 1969, the new amalgamated city in 1970 might have been called "The Lakehead" or maybe just "Lakehead".....were you old enough to vote back then?

 This is Barry and Glen Kettering on either side of their good luck horseshoe welded to the back bumper of their '34 Ford coupe with the nickname "POOPSIE".  Do you remember?
The next picture in 1958 was the rookie year for Jim "Chicken" Herron.

Lyn McIntosh was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame this past year (2011).  Here are a couple of clippings of his early years on the CLE racing circuit in his home town here in Fort William, Ontario as it was called back then.  He always had the passion for speed as I recall hanging around his home as a kid being best friends with his brother Dwight.  Between the Racing passion and Skiing passion(basically just a need for speed), Lyn has accomplished much in his life that he can be very proud of.  Much can be read about Lyn on many Internet sites.  Congratulations on all your accomplishments Lyn.
Click above to view Lyn's story.

......and finally, many thanks to Rene Kettering for the loan of Barry's Scrap Book, and to all the drivers that gave us such enjoyment back in those days.  They boys of the Lakehead Stock Car Club will never be forgotten.

Kettering Brothers and Lacey's Taxi....441 S. Syndicate Ave., Fort William, Ontario

441 South Syndicate Avenue, Fort William Ontario, across from the C.P.R Station,

Was Once Kettering Brothers Husky Service Station

Glen and Barry were part sponsors of Barry's Famous #47 Stock Cars here in Fort William, Ontario.....how convenient was that............

Here are those two famous #47 Cars racing on the dirt at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Track back in the 1950's.  There is much more about Barry and Glen that you'll have to search for in this blog, or click on this LINK to get all the Kettering related posts. http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/search?q=Barry+Kettering

This is what a Husky Service gas pump would have looked like in those days, and also a Husky Heavy Duty Oil Can, with the famous Husky Dog and Northern Lights featured on it.

Here's a Kettering Brother's Husky Sign as it would have appeared at their station, soon to be replaced in the late 1950's by a Lacey's Taxi Sign.  Lacey's Taxi has been around for decades and presently occupies the old Kam Motors building on Leith Street, on the Fort William side of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

This is a very early Lacey's Taxi ad actually before they were at 441 S. Syndicate as noted by the year of the cars in this ad.

This is how their ad and the famous phone number 3-3-4-2-3 looked in a 1960 phone book.

Finally here are a couple more ads for Lacey's in 1962, after we added the 6-2 prefix to our phone numbers here in Fort William.  Be Sure to click on all the ads and photos for an up-close look.

Port Arthur Motors, Kam Motors, "old" and "new" cars......Gary Spence Photos

These photos aren't really from the old Hot Rods or Jalopy era but it is a time when the old style business fronts were coming to an end.  You don't see many businesses today with this type of design.  A big thank you to Gary Spence for the use of these great early 1980's photos and Google for the 2009 ones.  We start off with a 1981 photo of Port Arthur Motors on the corner of Court and Pearl Streets in Thunder Bay postal station "P" as they used to say (formerly Port Arthur, Ontario).

The picture on the left is how that corner looks today...it has been a couple of restaurants once Port Arthur Motors closed but now it is Tony & Adams Restaurant.  That beautiful "new" Camaro in the first picture is shown close up here.

This is a very nice picture of Gary's beautiful 1956 Chevy Belair 4-door hardtop, taken just across Court Street in 1981 in the Port Arthur Motors new car lot. 

I had a '57 Chevy Belair 4-door hardtop back in the 1960's and always liked the roof lines better on the 4 than the 2 door model.  Nice car Gary!!

On the left you can click for a larger photo to see the spot where Gary's '56 was parked and how the lot looks today.  On the right is what you would see in Port Arthur Motors used car lot in 1964.  My favourite car there is the 1959 Pontiac Parisienne 4-door hardtop......I want to go back.....!!!

This is how the PAM used car lot looked in 2009...not sure who uses it or why!  The gable roofed house in the background of this photo and the old b&w photo is still there!

Here is Gary's '56 again in front of the place I spent many weekends.  This is Kam Motors on the Thunder Bay postal station "F" (Fort William, Ontario) side of town where my dad was the Body Shop Mgr. for over 30 years of his life.  It was "THE" place to go and view all the new Chev/Olds and Cadillac cars each year in late September when all the new models were released.  I purchased many of my old Chevy's from Kam back then.  The guy vacuuming out the taxi is parked pretty much in the same place as Gary's car, and look how the building changed by 2009.  It is presently the home of Diamond/Lacey's Taxi and Ace Automotive......well at least the building is still standing...not like so many other historic structures here.  Diamond Taxi and Lacey's Taxi are each very well known taxi stands dating back to the 1940's here at the Lakehead.

Check out the "new" "Z's" in Kam Motors new car lot directly across the street from the Show Room photo above.....and here is how the lot pretty much looked in 2009 and today its full of much more junk.

Now were are standing down inside the new car lot looking towards the Show Room.  We are looking at those great early 1980's Chevrolet's....This became pretty much the end of an era....as car design started to take on that smooth rounded look making all cars look like clones of each other.  The last photo on the right is taken near the same spot as Gary's photo....showing all the changes and deterioration from time.  Click on all photos for enlargements.

Gary, thanks again for the photos.  I hope you all enjoy them as much as I have.

Fort William Winter Carnival Buttons and one Thunder Bay.....

I just thought it would be interesting to add a photo of my buttons from the various winter carnivals here in Fort William and Port Arthur(Thunder Bay), since the next post is all about the Fort William Winter Carnival of 1949.  Unfortunately the button my dad wore in the picture in the next post has long since been misplaced, but above you will see a larger wooden advertising from the 1963 winter carnival as well as a matching button, one from the Fort William Rendezvous 1951, one from the 1956 Fort William Winter Carnival as well as a functional wooden nickel from the same year.  Finally a button from the Thunder Bay Winter Carnival in 1985.  It would be nice to get a scan or photo of any other carnival buttons from Fort William or Port Arthur.  Please send me photos if you have any.  Thanks, Dave

The 1949 Fort William Winter Carnival -- with old cars, old buildings and great memories!!

Well, here we are January 31, 1949 with probably the best winter carnival Fort William Ontario ever had....there were others in later years but this to me was the best.  I was about 5 years old and I still remember it.  This picture to the right is my father who entered the beard growing contest then with the quintessential carnival chapeau, plaid fur lined jacket and a carnival pin stating that he had won the contest for the best "Van Dyke" beard.  My dad is still kicking today at 92 years young....you looked great pop.  Hard to believe that this carnival was 63 years ago and my dad was a mere 29.  This is the largest post I have ever done but I couldn't do it justice in pieces and had to add all the photos to one BIG blog post......hope you don't mind!

Would you look at that, 3 Chevy's and 1 Ford in the old photo....here is the 1949 picture of the Victoria Block done up like an old trading post during the carnival.  It was incredible how the businesses went out of their way to add to the carnival excitement.  In contrast is a 2010 photo of the same building.....hard to believe that it is actually the same place with the urban deterioration going on here!  FOOTNOTE:  A very sharp observer noted that there were post 1949 cars in the above photo, and with further research, realized that that particular photo was from the 1956 Fort William Winter Carnival....click on comments at the end of this post!

 Be sure to click on all of these to enjoy them enlarged.  This is the corner of Brodie Street and Donald Street as you can see from the present day photo....the big church in the photo is St. Andrews and the city hall old and new would be just to the left of all these pictures.  Shaw's bakery was one of  "the" business icons in those days, as well as Ogilvie Oats, depicted in the float picture to the right.  The Ogilvie elevator now closed and deteriorated was just south of the CPR station on Syndicate Ave.

2010 Photo of Brodie and Donald Streets.

When I first saw these photos, I had to really think about where they were, but the givaway was the Noll's Motor Car building on the right.  It was a Studebaker dealer then.  It later became Kam Motors depot in the 1950's and after that was a drug store, the March of Dimes and a few other businesses.  You are looking at the corner of Donald and Syndicate ave., facing west and a bit north.  All the houses that you see except for a few way down the block are long gone to build...(you guessed it) ....the parkade for Victoriaville.  If you turn right at the street(Syndicate Ave.), you would drive right up the Parkade ramp or or go around it to go to the Income Tax office.

This left photo is the Kangaroo Court float and the one with the Bull on the front is the Great Lakes Paper Company float.  Another reminder to click on all the photos,

 Look at all the people that supported the city events in those days.  The photo to the right is how that corner looks today....what a contrast.

The is how the side of Noll Motors(Later Kam Motors depot) looked in 1949.

The float is the other Bread Company Parnell's "Mr Butternut, the best loafer

in town.

This is how the side of the building looks today.

Here's a nice photo of the Victoria Grill and Hotel decked out as Death Valley Scotty's as well as the barber shop next door as Silver Spur Barber.  Look at the optician next door.  The windows are like a pair of glasses....DO YOU REMEMBER??

This is the same corner as above but taken from a different angle.  Yes, the "Vic" was on the corner of Victoria Ave and Syndicate Ave....the same spot as the Royal Bank building shown here in 2010.  Well even the Royal Bank is gone from there now.....Time to tear it all down and rebuild the "VIC"  ....I doubt that!!!

This is the "White's Drug Store"corner of May Street(NE corner) and Victoria Ave, all decked out for the carnival.  The next small photo shows the complete corner in 1949 and how the corner looks today after a devistating fire back in 1963 that destroyed all the businesses and more that are shown in the first small picture here. 

Before the fire, many of the business had already changed names, but it was a drug store here called Drug World.  I remember going with my dad to see this spectacular fire and how it looked the next day....like an ice palace.  It's bad enough that we lose so many historic buildings to fires but too many are blatantly torn dorn for a parking lot or other meaningless reasons.

This is the flip side (SW corner) of the old White's Drug Store building above and how it looked in 1949 and 2010.

This is the next corner west of May Street.  It is Victoria Ave and Brodie Street how it looked with all those 1949 parade supporters and the Kresge store on the left and how that same corner looks today.

Here is how Willson's Stationery and Rutledge Stationery stores decorated for the carnival and how that corner looked in 2010

Here's the Paul Bunyan Band marching right through what is now Victoriaville Mall.....note the Chapples Department Store in the background.

This is part of the Chapples Limited float parked behing Chapples with a big smoking Voyageur on board.  He is wearing the 1949 tam just as my dad and his friend did in the very last photo below.  The Ice Fort photo on the right is of unknowns(let me know if you recognize anyone in this picture).  The picture was taken in front of the old City Hall.  The picture below with the Ice Palace in the background was taken at the old McKellar Park, which was behind the present day Fort William Gardens and Curling Club.  It was a popular spot to gather and start parades from in those days.  There was a baseball diamond, a football field and small bleechers there.  The present day McKellar Park School occupies some of the large piece of property that is once was.

This final picture is of my dad John Cano and his friend and work associate at Kam Motors Archie Bott, taken just in front of the almost completed Ice Palace shown above at McKellar Park.  Wool Pants...itchy or what!!

  I must thank "Gateway to Northern Ontario History" for some of the wonderful pictures above but most of all I have to thank the original photographers of these pictures as without them, we wouldn't have these great historical shots.  Click on pictures to enlarge!