Chubby Self Portraits, International Dirt at the CLE, a Wringer Washer and some local History all from Fort William and Port Arthur Ontario....

OK...here we go.  Yes, this is me circa 1946.  My dad had recently returned from England after the WWII years and we were on a typical Sunday outing in the car.  The car he had then was a Studebaker Erskine.  

After my father recently passed away, I started searching through our family photos again and came up with a couple of interesting ones of yours truly.  This photo was taken in front of the original McKenzie Inn on Lakeshore Drive.  I was a pretty chunky kid when I was little...but the cool thing is that I am standing beside a very rare double visible gas pump..."A Wade #2".  I wish there was a picture of the whole pump, but the fact that it has two hoses is a dead giveaway.  I guess I was more important than the pump was in those days.

The two pumps shown here are very similar to the pump shown in the photo of myself above.  I'm not sure what brand of fuel was sold at the McKenzie Inn.....it could have very well been B/A with the old bow tie logo shown at the left.  It definitely was not Gilmore as shown on the right, which was a very popular American Brand in the day.  I'm just adding these photos to show you what a double visible looked like.

Sorry....here's one more old 1946 photo of myself, taken at Boulevard Lake in about 1946 as well....the interesting find in this photo was the fact that I was drinking chocolate milk from a Thunder Bay Co-op Dairy milk bottle.

Here are the three sizes of Co-op milk bottles that are presently in my collection.  The Chocolate milk was sold at corner stores mainly in the smallest bottle, and the other sizes as well.  My dad's good friend Bub Kellough also sold cherry milk at his "Dairybest" dairy.

Some stories about the Thunder Bay Co-op Dairy are shown in a couple of posts on my blog pages here - Click on this link then return for more - THUNDER BAY CO-OP DAIRY  

MORE RACING AT THE OLD CLE

I loved going to the dirt track races at the CLE...and obviously you know that, but when the Championships came, the excitement was overwhelming to a young gear head like myself.  The International Dirt Track Stock Car Races at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Grounds were the best anywhere.  Here is a cover page from a Sept 25, 1957 program....I was 13 when this program came out, and the next print here was on the first inside page of the program stating only 25 cents to go to the races, which was very affordable for a kid in those days.

The following two rare colour photos are favourites of mine...not too crisp but you get the idea.  At the beginning of the race day in 1957, the cars and drivers would angle park at the rub-rail and in front of the Grandstand, so that you could get a glance of your favourite drivers and cars.  

The red and white '34 Ford in the middle of the first photo and lined up for the first race in the second photo was none other than my favourite of the day, Barry Kettering.....there are many photos and stories in my blog pages about Barry and more of many of the other drivers, so if you haven't already.......search out all the pictures and stories.

Here is the Roster for the above race day....you can see all the drivers names who participated as well as the fact that they came from near and far to race for the big money.  Literally thousands of spectators would cram the old grandstand to watch the thrills and spills.

NEXT - My mother's old BEATTY

This is an actual photo of my mother's Christmas present in about 1947, just before we moved into our first NEW house.  It looks and sounds a bit sexist, but my mother loved her new washing machine.  The one she had before this was a gas motor powered one that you had to kick start.......and hopefully it would start.  When it was running, it would vibrate itself from one side of the back porch to the other....she hated the old one, so this was pretty much a miracle for her.

The photo of my mom's Beatty is a little fuzzy....but I can't improve it...  The Beatty ad is a real 1940's magazine ad and the colour photo of the lady with the "Connor" brand washer is from our friends at Shorpy.com. The big thing was to keep your fingers out of the wringers....

NEXT - A Rare Local Photo

This next local historical photo was a puzzle to me for a few years,  It is of a visit from Lord Willingdon, Governor General of Canada's visit in the 1930s.  I started searching building tops in and around the Port Arthur downtown area and where dignitaries came and went from our Lakehead cities.  I have come to the conclusion that comparing the two following photos, the picture was taken on Syndicate Avenue in front of the CPR station facing Cronos cafe.....Check it out for yourself!!  It is a wonderful and fairly crisp old photo with some great billboards shown on the store in the background and to its right.

The last picture for this post below is also quite interesting as not many people have noticed what advertising was painted on the south side of the James Murphy Coal Company building to the right of their signage.  On close scrutiny you can recognize a big arrow...and definitely see that it is a Wrigley's Spearmint advertisement.  

We hope you enjoyed this post and as usual be sure to click on all the pictures for enlargements.  

A huge thank you to all the people through the years that took some of the wonderful photos that you see on these blog pages as well as those who have graciously donated historic photos to this site.

Thanks, Dave

Fort William and Port Arthur.....more old and new!

Fort William's first town hall 1892-1903 was actually located in front courtyard of the present city hall property. In those days it was a multi purpose building and also used for live theatre until the motion picture industry started in 1912. It was constantly being updated with newer plumbing and lighting through those years, however the structure burned down on Mar 6, 1903 devastating extremely important documents of the day, such as papers between the city and the Canadian Pacific Railway. The fire was a terrible blow to the community.
The generosity of sister city Port Arthur proved very helpful with the rebuilding of a new city hall which was completed only 2 years later in 1905. This was a much more decorative and ornate structure than the first.(The original photo of this building with the tower is shown in the top right corner.)
The tower of the new city hall was removed in the 1940's as the building had deteriorated somewhat by then. Many updates and renovations took place through the years and it stood as a testimony of strength until 1966. The current city hall building was built behind the old structure and was torn down when the new one was completed. In 1970 when Fort William and Port Arthur amalgamated, the newer building became Thunder Bay's one and only city hall. The new city hall was completely renovated last year in 2009 and is shown in the bottom left corner of the photo.

On November 11, 1916 after a number of name changes and ownerships, the Port Arthur "News Chronicle" came into existence. It was originally located on Lorne Street in Port Arthur for 39 years and in 1955 was moved into the former Customs Building which was built in 1914, shown above behind the Pagota. This location is Water and Red River Road(formerly Arthur Street). It continued there and in 1972, 2 years after the cities amalgamated the Port Arthur News Chronicle merged with the Fort William Times Journal to become the present day Thunder Bay "Chronicle Journal". The paper continued in this location until 1977 to 75 S. Cumberland Street and continues there to this day. The colour photo in the top corner shows the relatively new government building in its place. A Pagota story will be coming soon.

Ten acres of land was donated to the Parks and Cemetery Committee of 1902 by Catherine Vickers, with the stipulation that the park be a memoriam for her late husband John Joseph Vickers. In 1912, four large boulders were placed on the corners of the property and inscribed with the names John Vickers, Catherine Vickers, John McKellar and John McIntyre as a memorial of Catherine, her husband and their friends. The careers of these gentlemen were pivotal in the early years of the City of Fort William's development. Vickers Park remains one of the oldest parks in the former city of Fort William and the boulders are in place to this day.

No fewer than 8 people have claimed they are the mother and daughter in this photo, but in fact they are Verlie(child) and Sally Umpherson. Sally was a close friend of my mother and father in the 1930's and 1940's and still lives a healthy life to this day. I knew Verlie in high school and Sally's son Ken and his wife Sue are old friends of ours as well.

This first photo here shows a photo of Boulevard Lake from the bluffs extracted from a 1960 Ontario Travel brochure and the fall shot on the right was taken in the last couple of years. We are very fortunate to have wonderful scenery around our city as long as these parks and views are kept up and not forgotten by our city fathers.
Click on photos once or twice to enlarge!

Submarine Races..... :-)

No, not really....but if you're my age or maybe even a little younger, you would have watched many (tongue in cheek) submarine races around Boulevard Lake Park back in the late 1950's and into the 1960's.

This is a postcard photo(sorry about the black mark) taken in 1957, and pretty much shows the eastern end of Boulevard Lake, only a few years before I had my driver's license. Note the peninsula on the left. You could actually drive your car around the total perimeter of the lake. Now, the north side of the lake is mainly hiking or walking paths. Click on the historical data on the right. Off in the distance in the first photo, you can see The Sleeping Giant, Thunder Bay's major Landmark.

These two photos were taken from THE BLUFFS. A very well known Submarine Race vantage point. The black and white photo on the left was also taken in 1957 and the coloured one was taken recently showing the beautiful fall colours. These both photos also show the Black Bay Bridge which is now designated as an Ontario Heritage Property. The bridge is on Arundel St near Lyon Blvd. It spans the Current River. It was designated heritage on Dec 18/1989.

The "Black Bay Bridge" was constructed in 1912 by Seaman and Penniman. It was a single span bridge designed by Joachim Antonisen to harmonize with the beauty and grandeur of the landscape. It features arch ribs and open spandrels. Its unadorned functionalism and use of reinforced concrete were usual for this early period. In 1963 the bridge was doubled in width with only minor design alterations.

Here is a lower west facing view of the "Black Bay Bridge" and an aerial view of Boulevard Lake facing west also. At the top of the blue line at the top of the picture would be this bridge, and the red circle above it is THE BLUFFS. Now the bluffs are renowned for its many parking spots and there was even a streaker or two through the years, but as said before...its fame is due to the many couples including myself checking out the Submarine Races.....If you are too young or haven't figured it out by now....email me for an uncensored explanation!

As mentioned in the Boulevard Lake history above, here are two views of the Current River Dam. The smooth green space in the last photo was the site of the famed "Casino Dine and Dance" which was written about in this blog some time ago. You can click here to read about the "Casino Dine and Dance"

http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/search?q=Casino+dine

Click on photos to enlarge! .... and thanks to the photographers!