Happy New Year 2017...starts with an 80 year old Greeting....and ends with a Shift.

A Very Happy New Year to all our friends and followers here on Hot Rods and Jalopies and on Dave's Facebook page.  More posts to follow in the New Year.....

Here's an 80 Year Old Happy New Year greeting....and yes there is a car on it.

Now for a few good old "Happy New Year" cards and photos for you to enjoy, plus a wee little bit of history.  Firstly is my namesake Minion "Dave" wishing you a Happy New Year.

 And now a little history....let's go dancing tonight to ROY (not Ray as it says) CORAN and his ORCHESTRA....at the CLE Auditorium for only .50c.....and right next to Roy's advertisement is a 1935 Happy New Year January 1935 calendar cover with Shirley Temple...Does anyone remember this wonder child?

A Very Happy New Year from the Munsters have one....."just one now" ...on us......we'll never know how the Munsters celebrated on New Years Eve.

As we get older.....here's the type of drink I would prefer on New Years Eve.....some clever person made a marshmallow snow man in a hot tub of Hot Chocolate.   I can see the Baileys in it....can't you??

 A few more Minions wishing you "All the Best".....and the Peanuts Gang playing musical chairs at their New Years Eve party....

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Start the New Year Right with someone you truly love.......and know that with all our troubles and sorrows........

And FINALLY........hope you all have a fabulous year ahead...thanks for watching and keep in touch...it's easy.

Christmas and Other Winter Memories mainly from Our Home Towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ont. Last one for 2016....

Be sure to check back on the last two posts to view the 2016 group of Christmas Memories on our blog pages then come back to read this one.
Dave and his entire family wish that your holiday be blessed with Love, Peace, Joy, and Happiness, and may it extend the whole year through.  MERRY CHRISTMAS.

   
      This old 1939/40 Christmas Telegram is one of my favorite Christmas pieces.  It was a very important means of communication particularly overseas through the early years of WWII.  Obviously I removed some of the personal data.  Click on all to enlarge.

Here are a couple of old CPR Telegraph office signs...the second being a bit older than the first.

The CPR Telegraph office in Fort William was located on the corner of George St., and May St. in the old Royal Edward Hotel building.  The corner later became a restaurant which is presently closed after the building was renamed The Royal Edward Arms. 

 "The Royal Eddy" still stands without the CP Telegraph office to this day....a few pieces are broken off the top facade of the building but it still stands like a fortress from our old town of Fort William, Ontario.  The Queen actually stayed in this building.






Quite a few years later in about 1961 we were celebrating our Christmas at home like every typical middle class family did with our tree, usually cut down in the Oliver Lake area and an abundance of gifts that we were supposed to be extra good to receive, but even if we weren't so "good", we would receive them anyway.  We were very fortunate kids and never got too greedy with our Christmas requests.  My kid brother Corey and I loved trains since we were small, as our uncles and grandfather had worked for the CPR.  We still both share the interest.  With left overs from my own model trains, in about 1961, I built a little layout for my kid bro, and as you will see he was overjoyed with his gift.

Christmas Eve circa 1961

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Now for some history circa 1949....The photo below is of my wife's Aunt Phoebe Bishop with her two sons Martin and Billy.  You have to imagine where they are today with only a few landmarks available to locate the spot.  They are sitting on a snow pile about where the lobby area of the Fort William Gardens is today.  The building on the left is the Fort William Armory,  and there are three buildings in this photo which still exist today to help us locate the spot.....the two houses on the right are on the corner of Leith and McKellar St., and a little store on the corner of Archibald and Leith St., near the right center of the photo.

 The photo to the right courtesy of Google Maps shows the two homes that are in the photo above, however the store is not visible here but shows up in the next two.














This one shows Syd Bishop with his two sons Martin and Billy as mentioned above.  They are standing beside a Brill Bus Float waiting for the start of the 1949 Winter Carnival Parade here in Fort William, Ontario.  In the Orange Square is Min's Grocery Store and Confectionery at 220 Archibald Street on the N/E corner of Archibald and Leith Sts. in the day.  That building still exists today.

Syd Bishop was the Fort William Transit manager for many years.  He is shown in the far right of the photo below near the original spot where the transit building was located on the south side of Walsh St., between Selkirk and Franklin Sts.

The new Thunder Bay Transit Building on Fort William Road is dedicated to my wife's uncle Syd Bishop.

 Most of the Fort William parades during the winter time and/or summer always began where this skating rink was located in the middle 1900's.  This is McKellar Park where McKellar Park school stands today.  Many kids hockey games were played on this rink and many other rinks around our twin cities in the day.  I played goal for the Elks Pee Wee Hockey organization in the early 1950's, just before I found an affinity for downhill skiing.

The following picture was also taken on the same ice surface as the one above....you can see the high windows of the old Armory building....the kids are having some fun with an ice skating race.

 

 One more last family picture of our Christmas mornings back in about 1958.  Pay close attention, not to my kid brother playing with my service station again but to the box on the left top of the photos which reads....yes you guessed it...."Hot Rod Kit".  I think every kid my age got one of these at least once in their life for a Christmas gift....and as you know, the words "Hot Rod" never left my vocabulary ever since these days....LOL   That is me in my jammies on the left and my kid sister above my kid brother....but wait, what was in that box.  Here is a present day photo that someone had on ebay for sale...Imagine someone keeping it all these years.  I never kept mine or my service station, but I've found a Marx service station which I still have.

This is what was inside that box.

One more Christmas treasure....a 1952 Woolworth's Christmas book dated 1952....A Trip in Santa's Ribbon Candy Rocket.  Many people don't even know what Ribbon Candy is....














There is one more story to tell, but I won't tell it, It's about what the "Ford Rotunda" was.  The image below says Christmas at the Ford Rotunda.  The final three images below are free books that a kid would receive if they actually visited the Fort Rotunda during the Christmas Season.  Please Click on this link to view the Wikipedia story of the Ford Rotunda - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Rotunda

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THANKS FOR WATCHING ALL YEAR.....Many more posts to come in the new year including some local stock car photos not yet seen..... D.

Christmas Memories part 2 and other Winter Events from our home towns of FORT WILLIAM & PORT ARTHUR, Ont....

While celebrating the upcoming Christmas season I'm happy to say that The Hotrods and Jalopies Blog pages are also celebrating that we have had more than 3/4 of a million views since the beginning in 2009...and while doing this for fun and enjoyment never expected the response we have received.....so with thanks HR&J continues as long as it can to reach the one million mark.  This site has also inspired many other local history pages in the last few years on line and on facebook as well.  If you are a facebook fan, visit the Dave Cano FB page to view more historical and interesting happenings.  Also be sure to visit the other history pages on FB as well.  Thanks again for the support. D.

CHRISTMAS 2016 post #2 .... click on all to enlarge

 Christmas has always been a great time to advertise many things .... such as automobiles.  There is a 1946 post war ad for Nash, about six months after VE day WWII.  Everyone was so happy the war was over.










Traditions are so important at Christmastime.  One such tradition through the years were "Japanese" oranges or "Mandarin" oranges.  They were originally wrapped in green rice paper and shipped in wooden boxes....in later years the oranges lost their green rice paper for the most part and are shipped in cardboard boxes mainly and come from China and a few other countries as well.  As a child you may have found one in the toe of your Christmas stocking.  The Seiko box to the right was in my garage for years filled with old car parts....



From my favorite Christmas film "A Christmas Story" comes the Daisy Red Ryder 1000 shot saddle carbine....and for only $2.95 (plus duty in Canada it says..LOL)  To the right of the ad is my very own Red Ryder wood stock rifle that I've owned for ....well....uh...oh.... "many" years, and haven't shot my eye out yet.

I have to tease my kid brother Corey as he wasn't born quite yet when this next photo was taken......my kid sister and I call those times "Christmases BC" (before Corey)   :) :)
This photo is circa 1955/6....we always had a beautiful tree that I remember and my dad would put on all the old "lead" tinsel.....we all survived lead poisoning.
We were very fortunate....My mother always make Christmas extra special with her baking and tons of love for the three of us until we lost her at a much too young age in 1974.


This next one of yours truly is the costume I used playing one of The Three Kings in our Christmas pageant in grade 6, and right next to me is our first DuMont B&W Television set....in later years in our rec room my future wife and I watched Elvis and The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show on that old TV.

This circa 1960 Christmas with my brother Corey playing with his Matchbox toy cars....and my sister is astonished at how those toys kept him quiet for a few seconds.....sorry bro...just kidding.  My brother still has that old Eaton's Hi Fi set on the left....In the day it was top of the line for musical and radio entertainment...it even had a short wave....I remembered hearing programs in many languages late at night...... Yes...Christmas helps bring back all those great memories.

Below is the last family Christmas photo on this post....It was taken after Santa Claus came in about 1957, with my sisters doll and doll house but also my treasured MARX service station, that was on every boys wish list in those days.

Jumping ahead past the 1962 Christmas season are these few February 1963 Winter Carnival photos.  Many photos such as these exist of this carnival but these are the ones my father took and I recently scanned the slides to extract them to digital.   They are quite good as far as quality.  The sign an button below are in my own collection.  The sign is about 10" diameter and the button is about 2 1/4".

As mentioned way above, click on all these smaller photos to enlarge them.  The photo above is the Lakehead Stock Car Club parade float.  On the float is Albert Massaro's #88 Popcorn Special modified dirt track racer coated with float flowers and sporting the number of the year of the carnival.  Albert and his pit crew are also on board.  The photo is taken just in front of The Dunbar Sign Store...the building to the left is the old Simpson Hotel on the corner of Dease and Simpson St.  That building is long gone now to a present day empty lot.

 The photo to the left is taken just a little more north of the old Dunbar Sign store.  The larger building you see is 411 Simpson and listed as The Coronation Block in 1959.  Nick Matwin(barber) was located there, as well as many tenants upstairs.
The photo is the old Fort William Fire Dept. Steam pumper.  That pumper is in need of restoration today and resides in the glassed in area adjacent to the Museum today.

The Canadian Foresters float is shown here also with the year 1963 emblazoned on the rocket, and taken in front of the Coronation Block as well.

In the same location is Port Arthur's Hammarskjold High School's Viking Ship float.....it's great to see floats decorated like these.  I totally miss these old parades.  It was a time when our twin cities (as two cities) would compete to see who would have the best shows and parades....then after amalgamation in 1970, it seemed that the competition ended and the quality of these events ended with that.


The present day photo below is the same location shown above....all the buildings are there except the Simpson Hotel and Simpson Taxi stand.  The businesses today are Import Auto Sales and Trims Barber shop.

In Christmas posts in the last few years I made up some tongue in cheek fake magazine covers with Hotrods and Jalopies as the title.   Here's one of the two I did for this year, and I will post all 7 from the last few years in an upcoming post.
Hope you still enjoy reading HR&J posts....I've rounded up many more vintage local racing photos and they will be posted with stories in coming weeks and months.  Thanks again for making these blog pages a fun success.  Merry Christmas to all....

Christmas Memories and a bit of Then and Now from our Home Towns of Fort William and Port Arthur.....

The Hot Rods and Jalopies generation is about memories, flashbacks, and reminiscing, and what better time of the year to dive into the past than Christmas..so here we are again celebrating everyone's favourite season with our first post of December 2016.

     Yes I do occasionally re-use the odd photo from past years but they are needed to add to new stories and posts for interest sake.  Here is my father in 1958 loading a pile of trees that he just chopped down, likely in the Oliver Lake area...one of which will be used for the Annual Kam Motors Limited Christmas party.  As you history buffs know, Kam Motors was located on Leith St. in Fort William....the building still exists to this day, but Kam Motors had a depot as well....later located at May and Bethune St. across from the old Spicer's Tire store but before that it was located on the north/east corner of May and Donald Street.....as you will see in the photos below.

The first of three photos I found in my slide archives show the inside of Kam Motors Depot during the 1958 annual Christmas Party.  Hubert Badanai Sr. would regularly play Santa, but I can't positively say that is he as Santa here.  My father would also play Santa on occasion.  To the left of Santa I believe is Vince Marsonet who worked for Kam in the day, and the elves are Patricia Kempinski(Kam's accountant) and Theresa Dika(Kam's bookkeeper).  When Kam Motors closed, Theresa ran the "Tobacco Pleasure" smoke shop near the southern entrance to Victoriaville., but notice out the window is the western wall of St. Andrew's Church and the edge of the white building you see was Gibson Motors.  Gibson's was located on the south/east corner of Syndicate and Donald Street, later to be torn down to build the IBM building.....note the 1958 Chevrolet banner on the wall.

      Here you can see the present day photo of St. Andrew's church wall as well as the new multi use office building that stands today which was originally the IBM building.
The next Christmas Party picture below was taken in a similar position but has myself in the photo at the far left assisting with the distribution of presents, with Vince Marsonet next, Theresa Dika then my kid sister Daryle on Santa's knee, Pat Kempinski and an unknown child in the foreground

 The next photo is taken at a completely different angle showing the south/west 1958 intersection of Donald St. and Syndicate Ave.   An old house is still on that corner (later to become McLeods Hardware store)...next is the old First Baptist Church, torn down a year later, and the old St. Patrick's Cathedral torn down to build the new Cathedral soon after.  I'm the kid in the front row with his arms folded and to my right (your left) is Donna Bodnarchuck.  Donna and I were close friends through the years as our parents were best friends also.  I like the little Chevrolet advertising hanging from the ceiling, as this area was used as a new car showroom.

The picture to the right is how this corner looks today....the old McLeod's store used as a bar on and off for years, the new St. Pat's Cathedral in the background and the stairs to the Victoriaville parking to the right. 

     The photo below shows how this corner looked when King George VI visited in 1939.  It was a Red Indian (McColl Frontenac) service station called "Nolls Motor Company"  and was also a Studebaker dealer in the day.  The Imperial sign shown is actually on the opposite side of Donald St., and would be where Gibson Motors was.

       When Kam Motors purchased the property in 1950, it looked much like it did when Nolls was there, but was totally remodeled at the front and side to completely enclose that portion to make for a larger showroom.  Over time the building was changed over and over many times.  It was once owned by Dominion Motors as well as Bourke's Drug Store and The March of Dimes.  The photo below shows what the building looks like today.
The photo on the right shows a not so clear Gibson Motors in the day and what has become of that property across from the old Kam Motors Depot.  Be sure to click on all the photos to enlarge them for better viewing.

 Two more interesting photos here at the end of this post....the first is what would be under a hot rod/gear head's Christmas tree....an internet find, but thought it to be hilarious.

 ......And Finally....a news clipping advertising the Chapples Annual Santa Claus Show....something we couldn't wait for year after year that would put us all in the Christmas Spirit....
I hope this post put you in the Christmas Spirit............
Click on this link for one more post from my younger days at Kam Motors Depot... http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2012/11/1955-chevrolet-dream-possibility-and.html