1949 Old cars and Brill Busses in Fort William

If you scroll down to "Our old cruisin' strip", you will see a coloured photo there taken in 1962 showing Victoria and Syndicate Ave.(the two main streets in Fort William). The Fort William downtown core was pretty much destroyed by the city by building Victoriaville Mall, as explained there, closing off the two busiest streets. Here are a few more photos taken in 1949 showing the brill buses when they first took over from the rail trolleys which ended the same year. The top left would be right inside the most eastern end of Victoriaville. The bottom left is the actual corner of Syndicate and Victoria Avenues near the original Chapples Ltd.(grain exchange building), where the dropped courtyard in Victoriaville is today. The top right photo is further down towards the most eastern end of Victoria Avenue. The top left and right photos show an English Thames panel truck(Beacon's Bread and Cakes), a new '49 Studebaker(the cars you couldn't tell the front from the back), and a number of Fords, Chrysler and GM vehicles. The hustle and bustle of our downtown is long gone with most buildings for rent or lease. The rare sight of any vehicles down there are the ones crossing Victoria Avenue at May Street. Again...I could say much more! Click on photos.

My First Car

Here is the only known photograph taken of my first car, a 1949 Chevrolet 2-door coach. My dad had purchased it for $100. for my 16th birthday, had it all polished up and running like a Swiss watch. It was royal blue and it didn't take long for me to add wide whites, full moon disks, and a visor. I had tons of fun with this car and was immediately popular with the girls. Cars were and still are a chick magnet. I drove it summer and winter from 1960 and traded it in for my '57 Chev in 1964, when I got my first full time job. While owning this car I worked at a local grocery store making about 12 bucks a week. That paid for my gas, maintenance and dates. I dated my future wife Rosemary in high school while I still had this car, and I taught her how to drive in it! Once you learn 3 in the tree(are you old enough to remember what that means?) you can drive any standard or automatic.