NEW/OLD PHOTOS......ALWAYS A GOOD REASON FOR A POST.....from Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario....

On Hot Rods and Jalopies, there is always a reason for a good story/post....be it that someone put an idea in my head, someone sent me some new old photos from around Fort William and Port Arthur, the guys our age got together to discuss one specific incident from our former younger days or even putting a group of stories together into one.  Well, this post kind of covers all of that.  These were our young cruising days, these were the 1960's....how lucky we were to have lived our teen years and early twenties during one of the most colourful eras of the 20th century.
Most of the photos in this post were donated by Joe (Joey as we used to call him) Cooper.  Joe was a neighbour of mine in our younger years, and as we grew into our driving years we hung around service stations to learn and to see what the other guys were driving which of course later became what they were driving on the dirt track as well.  Well, Joe ended up working for one owned by Charlie Miller and Ray Defoy (Ray Charles Texaco) which was on the corner of Victoria and now McKellar St....we all hung around there a lot....so thanks Joe for loaning me these photos most of which I had never seen before...but the stories I remembered very well!
We first start out here with something we all love to hate, and that is the Victoriville Centre.  The city built this monstrosity right in the middle of our cruising strip.  Yes, you heard this story many times before and it has been written about many time on this blog.....well let's get to it!!

MR. MAYOR....TEAR THIS PLACE DOWN....WE WANT OUR CRUISIN' STRIP BACK!!!

 Oh Well!  We have to say it anyway pretty much with a smile now ☺..because we know it will never happen.  OK..this following couple of B&W pictures is of my '55 Chev Sedan Delivery...which for a time in the '60s was my Shaggin' Waggin' ☺ "Oh, be-have", my motor home, my Saturday night cruiser, and my stock car hauler.  I hauled many other stock cars with it as well.  I added these photos as they were only two of a very few I had until Joe found the other photos of it shown below.
I must say this...click on ALL of the photos or groups to make them screen size.

My '55 Chev Sedan Deliver circa 1968

Well...here we are in front of Ray Charles Texaco in about 1968, and the car on the trailer behind me is Ken Pawluk's Camaro late model stock car getting ready for an outing at our new fabulous dirt track Riverview Raceways.  The brown brick structure in the background was at the time, the Pilkington Glass building.
Note...the redish coloured license plate on the front...well, a sedan delivery was considered a commercial vehicle and you were allowed to license it quarterly.  Quarterly plates were all different colours, not the typical black on white and white on black.  I also could never decide whether the car should have the front bumper on or off. ☺

Here we have the same scene 46 years later...well actually not too much has changed.  Ray Charles Texaco is now Dave Knight Optical and the old Pilkington Glass building is now re-purposed for something else.....at least some great structures stay around for awhile.

Here is the second picture of the group from Joe that I never knew existed....another great colour picture of my Sedan Delivery with Ken's stock car in tow....but the interesting thing here is the Canadian Tire Store on the other side of Victoria Ave., and White's Drug Store to the left of CTC.
Another thing that was from the time frame is that if you had a commercial vehicle, you would need to actually put your name on the side.....as shown here.  The Canadian Tire Store as you will see below was firstly a Safeway Grocery store in the early 1950's.....and the photo below shows what is is now.

The Canadian Tire Store much later to become the Sylvan Learning Centre with a variety of different offices along the east side of the building.  The old White's Drug Store would later become a restaurant, a video store, a card collector store etc. etc., but now looks pretty quiet.

Be sure to click on the above to read the story attached.

 Now...looking towards the north and east is a fantastic photo of Bruce Tiboni's Camaro, Drapkin and Son's delivery vehicle (probably being serviced at Ray Charles), a fantastic to die for Texaco Porcelain sign, beautiful red pump with Fire Chief Gas sign, a Starburst Bonus sign just above the Camaro....the handy as hell Liquor Control Board store across the street, Hurtig Furriers, Nu-Fashon Beauty Salon and of course Chapples Store and a Victoria Avenue that went straight through Syndicate Avenue....we were so lucky then. ☺

.........and here it is now....a huge Courthouse....no Chapples, No liquor store, and NO DAMN VICTORIA AVE. to drive through!☺

 

Well....in the middle of Joe's photos is a picture of my '57 Chevy which I actually sold before I got the '55....well, they are Joe's photos.  I'm not sure where it was taken....likely Boulevard Lake or Chippewa Park.    I'm leaving it in anyway!  Scroll down for more good stuff.

This picture was in with the bunch too.....it is a young picture of Joe Cooper pumping gas one winter day in front of Ray Charles Texaco.  I love calling him Mr. Texaco....with the Buddy Holly glasses, the Texaco coveralls and no mustache....LOL  Sorry Joe!

This next group of photos is pretty much self explanatory....so click to enlarge screen size and read away......

I'm adding this pretty blurry couple of cuts from two of the photos above.  If any of you out there have a copy of this poster in any condition, I would like to get a copy of it for future Riverview Posts.

This is the final collage photo set which is also self explanatory...be sure to read the whole story....it's the best one yet!!!

Thank you to everyone who watch a follow Hot Rods and Jalopies....its been over 5 years of writing and I am sorry I have been falling behind as of late, but there are literally hundreds of posts that you can go back to read......look at the cloud list to the right as you scroll down to reference anything that is in this complete blog.

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!"♫♪♪♪♫

The Cooper's '52 Chevy Fleetline....

Here's a great post of Joe(in full mustache) and Patti Cooper taken with their beautiful '52 Chevy Fleetline taken at the George Jeffries car show, submitted by their son Ryan. I have known Joey for many years as proof from two photos below titled "Ray Charles Texaco" and "Summer of 1958"(scroll way down to see). Joe has been a great mechanic for many years, starting with his apprenticeship with Ray Charles Texaco back in the mid '60's and sharing the car hobby with his family all these years. Hey Joe...make sure you drive it this year...never mind how cold it is or how busy you are...and you probably have a heater anyway. The Cooper's car was also featured in Canadian Classics magazine a few years back. Thanks again Ryan for sending the picture of your dad and mom....Dave