Cruisin' The Dub has finally come to Thunder Bay....Check out the local A&W History right here!!

I received an E-mail yesterday from A&W Memorial Ave. owner/operator Lawrence Deswiage to let us know that Cruisin' the Dub http://www.aw.ca/cruisin-the-dub.nsf/home will start here in Thunder Bay on Friday, May 28, 2010 from 7PM til 9PM until Sept. 3rd, with great old music playing and nightly prizes for Cruisin' the Dub merchandise. Also starting in July they will be having Car Hop Days - serving to the cars, just like the 50's. These will be on Tuesday's 11:30 to 1:30 and Saturday nights from 5 til 7or8PM, depending on weather. There will be 8 available car hop spots.
Lawrence also graciously forwarded a number of vintage photos for us to look at here!....This post is a little long but very much worth the view.

Here's where it will be held.....526 Memorial Avenue in Thunder Bay!
Next...the old 10th Ave address and vintage photos...

This is how the 10th Avenue address looked last summer and next is how it looked when it opened in late 1957.

This is an up close look at the last photo and next we have The Rodney Brown Band in front of the A&W and also in front of a cool old VW Van. I believe these musical attractions were for their "Grand Opening".
Here's an April 9th 2010 post script to the Rodney Brown band photo. Bob Riddell, blog friend, follower and former CKPR TV staffer sent me an email today to add to this photo. Bob says, "I attended elementary school with the three guys in the front row. Tom Cruickshank(drums), Tom Kelly(vocals and guitar) and Morley Mitchell on banjo. Tom C. the drummer would later play for The Jarvis Street Revue of Flamingo Club fame....also nice to see my old friend Gerry Isherwood...he was a lot of fun to be around." Thanks Bob...much appreciated, D.

Local Sweetheart and International Country Music Star Myrna Lorrie(holding the guitar)is also playing in front of our first A&W accompanied by an unknown(if you know who that is, let me know). I am the proud owner of the old autographed photo that you see above in the group of photos. Myrna was and still is a great local country music star that has done quite well for herself through the years. I had also attended grade 9 at Selkirk High with her brother John. If you click on the above picture group, you can read a little about Myrna's musical career.

Here are a couple of photos of Gerry Isherwood, well liked and well known CKPR television and radio personality. The first picture is Gerry with two other VW guys and the next is Gerry guzzling down a pint of that great A&W root beer in front of that huge old CKPR TV camera with the first A&W manager and a car hop....Check out The Mug, The Jug, The Carton, The Burgers, and the old black phone...cool!

A scene we all remember well was parking on Friday nights with your honey at the A&W. Also there are some samples of coupons that the restaurant gave out through the years.
One of the other things I do remember is that on occasion a local band or two would come out and play live, perched on the top of the A&W building.
Do you recognize your car in the night photo??

This is a photo taken a few years after the first A&W opened on 10th Ave. It is the Cumberland Street A&W then and now it is a little drive in called Chachi's

Finally, we have a couple of, what Lawrence called, training menus. Check out the prices back in 1957.....oh! to have those prices today....we can only dream. Thanks again to Lawrence for getting the Cruise to Thunder Bay and for letting us use the great vintage photos.

Sooooo Guys and Dolls, cruise your Hot Rod, Custom Car, Muscle Car, Sports Car or Rat Rod down to the A&W on 526 Memorial Avenue on May 28th and all summer long for those great tasting A&W burgers, fries and the famous A&W Root Beer.......see you at the Dub! .....Dave

as usual, click on all photos to enlarge...some will need 2 clicks!

Lawrence is Waiting for You - Don't Forget "Cruisin the Dub"....Memorial Ave. A&W, Friday May 28th...7PM Sharp!

Don't forget, its Thunder Bay's(you know...the old Fort William and Port Arthur) first A&W "Cruisin the Dub" cruise night on May 28th...one week from this Friday and every week all summer long. Below you will see some more A&W classic photos from our fair cities taken back in the 1960's and you can connect with the last post we did introducing the cruise by clicking here - http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/search?q=A%26W and scrolling down!

Here are two of the most famous logos that we never forget!!

And here.....since 1956 "the Frosted Mug", "the Car Hop", and the best fast food burger ever made..."the Teen Burger"(that's my quote...not theirs...I love the Teen...LOL). Come out and enjoy these with all us gear heads on the 28th!

I found this coupon in my own collection and on the back it actually tells you what is in the famous A&W Root Beer. Next is the Great Root Bear, who will be on hand for the opening night. The last photo here shows a real car hop at the 10th Ave A&W circa 1960.

Is this you??? If it is, or you know who it is...please email me!! An unknown cook/chef waving at us from the 10th Ave A&W in 1961 as noted along side of the photo. The photo on the right is that of the Cumberland Street restaurant taken in the mid 1960's as noted by the year of the vehicles.

This photo taken by myself in 1980 shows the A&W on the corner of James and Arthur street in Fort William. The music students from most of the local high schools got together for a 50's tribute and needed a number of hot rods for props. In the back row from left to right is Jerry McKenzie's green Model "A" Ford Coupe, Art Lee's yellow "33 Ford Coupe(now Rick Stokaluk's totally re-done car), my own Red and Black '32 Hudson Terraplane 2-door sedan, Gord Wall's black Model "A" 2-door Sedan and in the front was "Dinger" Bell's red T-Bucket....note the camera man on the left.

The last photo shows the Metro Store today where this A&W used to be.

Owner/Operator Laurence Deswiage says that he has had a number of phone calls about the cruise. He has had the parking lot resealed and new spaces painted. Speakers have been installed outside and there is also great oldies music piped into the parking lot. "The Great Root Bear" will also be there on opening night as mentioned above.

Thanks to Lawrence for the vintage photos and for started the long awaited cruise night at the A&W here in Thunder Bay.

Click on the photos to enlarge.......and......SEE YOU AT THE DUB ON MAY 28TH, 2010!

CRUISIN' THE DUB 2011....Don't miss Sunday nights at the A & W!!

A new season starts this Sunday night at 6:30pm at the A&W on Memorial Ave. right here in Thunder Bay. Also be sure to get your entry in to win a specially prepared Harley Motorcycle before the closing date on May 29. Click here for more details and to enter http://www.aw.ca/



Here is Larry's letter on the details. NEXT here and continued below is a bit of A&W History that some of you many not know about!!




Here are a couple of old A&W photos from somewhere in North America showing the original Cruise Night drive-ins....Gotta love the logo in the first picture, "If you Drive, Drink A&W Root Beer". That's a great motto for today as well. Also check out some of the prices on the front of the drive-in in the second photo here.


To add to the interest here in Canada, is a little A&W Canadian history too. The last picture here is of my grand-daughter and Patrick Wilson's daughter taken last year at "Cruising the Dub 2010".
I am going to try a few more links here...hope they work! First is an old A&W Radio jingle heard in the late 1950's click here http://www.radiowest.ca/sound/a&w.mp3
The next is a link to local vintage A&W photos and items of interest on this blog done last year http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/search?q=a%26w ...be sure to view them and come back.
Thanks to Lawrence at A&W for hosting the long awaited "Cruisin' the Dub" right here in Thunder Bay!
Click on all pictures and stories to enlarge them(some twice)!!

May Street and Southern...from The Royal Fort to the DQ

More memories abound with this group of photos from an important corner of our cruisin' hot rod days. Do you remember the Royal Fort Tourist Camp on the corner of Southern and May Street? If you do you must be at least 60 years old. My friend Ron Limbrick lived there with his mom and dad back in the 50's. His dad was alderman Hubert Limbrick. Ron lived on the above property and played with '32 Fords, Austins and what have you, at a very young age(well he looked like he was 10 years old when he was 16).

The Royal Fort Tourist Camp property was purchased by Mike and Jennie Petlow, who were the owners of the popular Columbia Grill at the time and was soon to construct one of the first 50's drive-in restaurants in Fort William on the same property, called the Millionaire Drive Inn. I don't have a photo of the drive inn,(now I do...thanks Gary) but I do own one of their mugs as shown in the photo above. I have great memories as a teenager at the Millionaire as my future wife Rosemary and I had entered a dance-a-thon contest in high school which began at the drive-in and ended up at the CLE Coliseum. We never did win or even come close but it was my best memory of the Millionaire.

The next company to take over the property was the A&W. I believe it was the second A&W here at the lakehead. I will talk about the very first A&W in the next post.

The building was left vacant for quite a few years after the A&W closed(My friend Clarence Merko and I always thought it would be great to open up a new business there but never did. Finally the place was completely retrofitted into what is presently the Dairy Queen. Don't forget that May Street used to actually be Highway 17, right on the Trans Canada Highway, and long before the expressway was built.

My friend Ron says that he met his first love way back on the property near the river and near a culvert......yes!!!...but it was his '32 Ford Coupe. I may add more to this post later.

Click on all to enlarge.