Joey(Joe) Cooper and Ray Charles Texaco, Fort William Ontario days......

This story is not about me, but I managed to get into a couple of photos here with Joey(Joe) Cooper, as back in the day 1958 Joe was always my push mobile(buggy) driver, so gear heads - YES....it even started way before this first picture was taken.  As you will see later in this post, Joe later worked for our good friends to this day, Charlie Miller and Ray DeFoy at Ray Charles Texaco.  Charlie and Ray and of course the Kettering brothers and all the other stock car jockeys had a high hand in turning us regular kids into car freaks, hot rod nuts, or as we affectionately call ourselves gear-heads.
You will occasionally see same photos throughout my blog posts, but are published to fit into different stories.  Click on all for enlargements.

Dave Cano and Joey Cooper Summer of 1958 and typically the photo was developed much later.

The photo on the left is a 55/56 Pontiac Coach many of which we destroyed at Riverview Raceways in the late 1960s.  This was of course one of "Cheatin" Charlie Miller's early stock cars being shown at a car show in the Fort William Gardens in the late 1960's.  The '57 Chevrolet on the right with both myself and Joe has been on this blog many times already, but as you can tell, I really like the photo....LOL
In those early years, Charlie used the old Barry Kettering paint scheme and also his number during those years.

    
This next car is a bit of a mystery because even Charlie can hardly remember it.  It would likely be a 1969 car, as the service station would later become "Charles" Texaco.  The two guys standing behind the #57 car are unknowns but my guess would be Finn Sorensen on the left and "Boots" Wagh on the right.....correct me if I'm wrong.

This next photo is a very cool early Riverview Raceways Fall Championship race, possibly in 1969 as well due to the fact that it says "Charles" Texaco again on the push truck.  I am not too sure who's sprint car is being pushed.  Another sprint car is also being push started by the Lakeside Husky tow truck. 

 

Well, here he is, Mister Texaco, Joe Cooper....a photo obviously taken early in his career at Ray Charles Texaco.  This one is the close-up and the next one will help us determine where it was taken.

 

 

This next picture is a larger/wider version of the former showing Joe in Ray Charles Texaco's office just waiting to get busy on an engine rebuild or waiting for the "ding-ding" to pump some gas.  The building outside the window and across McKellar Street from the service station is present day Philpot and Delgaty Insurance.  A few present day photos will help determine where this picture was taken exactly.

Here are the same little windows on the building today with added shutters

On the left is Philpot and Delgaty and on the right is Dave Knight Optical, formerly Ray Charles Texaco, on the present day corner of Victoria Ave and McKellar street.

 Looking north now from McKellar Street is Philpot and Delgaty on the right and the side of Dave Knight optical on the left.  The photo of Joe was taken from the office which would have likely been the furthest window shown on the Dave Knight building.
Here are a couple of links to check out about the Ray Charles Texaco address and another about Joe Cooper.
 -  http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2011/09/906-victoria-avea-hot-rod-and-jalopy.html
 -  http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2009/05/heres-great-post-of-joey-and-patti.html
I sincerely hope that Joe is still talking to me after this post....not sure if he would have wanted this picture published or not.....Oh Well....It makes a great story anyway.
He and I thank Charlie Miller of Ray Charles Texaco fame for the great photos, and I thank Google for the rest.☺ ♪♪♫♪"Those were the days, my friend....I thought they'd never end!"♫♪♪♪♫