Ralph Darling's Service Station 1954 and it's Significance at 906 Victoria Ave in our home town of Fort William, Ontario....

Looking back through photos and documents in my archives I had some photos that mentioned Darling's Service and I knew where it was located but the best help was in finding this photo clipping of Darling's Service Station's Grand Opening from a local Facebook page (Sorry I don't recall whose...but thank you).  The address at 906 Victoria Ave. has had a plethora of service stations including the most important in my life span as Ray Charles Texaco owned and operated by old friends Ray Defoy and Charlie Miller.  But on to this May 22, 1954 clipping that someone saved from our Fort William Times Journal.  Those years were extremely significant due to the resurgence of organized Stock Car Racing the year before in 1953 by the Lakehead Stock Car Club.

Mayor Gordon Carson was the Fort William Mayor of the day, and here we see him cutting the ribbon with Ralph Darling and staff for the grand opening with the old Pilkington Glass building in the background. 

Here is a clipping cut from the main one showing the expertise of the lessee and his staff all under the Texaco Sign.  “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star, the big bright Texaco star.” ....remember that one?

Ok now...It's important to know a few things here, Ralph Darling ran the service station for the owner Bud Heidrick.  Bud personally sponsored Barry Kettering's first and many stock car jalopies with the number 47 on the side, hence the words "Bud's Thing" on all the #47 cars that Barry drove.  When Barry changed his colour combination to red and white and his number to #57 in 1957, was when Norm Hogan (noted here as a member of the staff) took over the 47 number, then no longer sponsored by Bud.  Hope this makes sense...and the story continues.
Click all pictures to enlarge.




Below is one of or possibly the first Barry Kettering piloted "Bud's Thing" #47 with an unknown person at the front.  If you know who this person is, let me know.  The tall building in the background is Chapples Ltd and you can read Hurtig Furs on the sign just across Victoria Ave.  This is the present day corner of McKellar St. and Victoria Ave.  The original name of McKellar St. was John St. which was changed after the amalgamation to Thunder Bay in 1970.  The similar photo directly below this is one with the one and only "Bud" Heidrick, and as mentioned, the owner of Darling's Service and the sponsor/owner of the #47 car.

"Bud Heidrick" with his sponsored Barry Kettering car

Here's a fairly recent photo of the old Hurtig Furs building with the light green trim and the new courthouse being built behind the old Chapples building and sitting partially on the old YMCA property.

This photo of the "Bass Ackward" #47 was taken along what was John St. in the day, now McKellar with a number of old homes which were removed to build Centennial Plaza...this would be the rear portion of the stores originally with a bank building on the corner.  The photo to the right shows how the street looks today.

This one was also taken along McKellar St, with none other than Norm Hogan looking on to the right.  In 1957 Norm would then drive the famed #47 himself.  Also in the picture on the right behind Norm is the original Fort William Clinic....later to be rebuilt then after that moving in recent years near our new Regional Hospital.  Royal Triton Motor Oil was THE racing oil of the day...it was actually purple in colour and was actually endorsed in commercials by Marilyn Monroe.  There is much more about Marilyn and Royal Triton in another post here on Hotrods and Jalopies.

This is how the very spot looks today with the newer Fort William Clinic building in the background now I believe empty.  Most of the trees that decorate the above photo are long gone.

Here's one last photo of Norm Hogan sitting in Barry's car parked a little closer to Victoria Ave.  The old home in the background was replaced by the Bank Building on that corner.

The next phase of this story is the #10 car which was driven by Ross "Pappy" Fowler.  Here you can see it parked right in front of Darling's Service.  Pappy's #10 car was directly sponsored by Darling's Service, so both the #47 and the #10 cars resided here for a year or two.  Pappy drove the #10 car for a couple of years then also a #98 car.
Pappy would later quit racing and be the flagman for a few years as well.  When Pappy quit driving the #10 car, it would be taken over by Don Marsh who had tremendous success with his #10.

While looking at the pictures of Pappy's car here, you can see other landmarks such as Billboard row on the north/east corner of what was called John St. and Victoria Ave. with the YMCA in the background...of course now long gone to accommodate the court house downtown Fort William.  Be sure to click on all the photos big and small to get them screen size.

There have been many tenants in the old Safeway building that was on Victoria Ave., including Canadian Tire.

Here is the last photo of Pappy Fowler's #10 again on the original corner of Victoria and John St. in Fort William.  There was also a small grocery store called Star Fruit and Vegetable Market just a little down the street toward where Victoriaville is today and you can just make out the large Buckingham cigarette sign on the side of that building, and right on the corner a Mr. Bill Smith lived.  (Information from Henderson's Directory)

How Darling's looked from the front....

Darling's model "B" service truck with R "Pappy" Fowlers name.

How the property looks today....The building is the same structure.

Across the street is the old Safeway/Canadian Tire building...today photo

Next is an overview of the area to help you recognize the area as it looks today and what was there.

Finally a huge thank you to the people who took the marvelous photos so that we can spend time reminiscing about our past.......
.....“You can trust your car to the man who wears the Star, the big bright Texaco Star” It would be nice to have real "service" like we had in the day.    

As once mentioned, I don't do as many posts as I used to do, but they are much longer with more story content....hope you enjoyed this post.  thanks, Dave

A Trip West in 1934....Not local photos but a local family!

We complain about a few potholes in our paved roads and getting a little dust on our prides of joy, but we never had to encounter anything like this in our travels....well not in my memory anyway.
My friend Bob Gill loaned me these next 6 incredible photos from 1934 showing his aunt and uncle Doris and Alfred McFarlane as well as his grandmother on a road trip from Fort William and Port Arthur west to a little place in southern Saskatchewan called Arcola. The best photos and stories are from our own family photo albums and this was obviously quite the trip.

Starting on a dry road on the ever-so-flat Canadian prairies in 1934...looks like just west of Winnipeg, it got a little greasy.....

Then it got REAL GREASY......, as Bob's uncle is trying to get the cars past each other. I guess a mud road would be OK if you didn't have to encounter any on-coming traffic.

Finally driving on by and on their way to Arcola.... Here's what Arcola's Main Street looked like in 1934.

Here's how Arcola looks today with a 2006 census population of a whopping 504 people(probably not that many more were there in 1934). Arcola's claim to fame was that it served as the location for the Allan King film feature of W.O. Mitchell's "Who Has Seen The Wind", and the town also has the distinction as being the place where Canadian author James Sinclair Ross wrote his 1941 novel "As For Me And My House". You can read about the film stated above by clicking here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076919/
The following two photos are also from Arcola but taken about 20 years earlier that Bob's pictures(1914 and 1915). I found these following two photos on the Arcola museum web page.

This one is titled "A. R. Carefoot's Garage 1914" and the last one is titled "Main Street Arcola 1915"
Thanks to Bob for the great photos and story. There are literally millions of stories out there like this, but the family connection to Fort William, Port Arthur and old cars make it a great piece. Hope you enjoyed this.
Click on photos to enlarge!

Beautiful Middle Falls near Fort William and Port Arthur(Thunder Bay) Ontario!

Another Provincial Blunder has taken place over the last number of years. It was the closing of Middle Falls Provincial Park, campground and picnic area. It is open as only hiking trails today but has grown over and fallen into disrepair due to the lack of funding by the Provincial Gov't. It used to be on the main highway 61 on route to the USA about 35 minutes from Thunder Bay, but when the new border crossing was constructed, the powers to be claimed that re-routing highway 61 hurt business. This park is only about 1/2 mile from the newer highway, and the fact that the government let it go into disrepair was the reason for it's demise.

This first photo from an Ontario travel brochure, taken in about 1960 shows the park in its heyday with a family enjoying a picnic there. There used to be a number of campsites, a gift shop, a swimming area and pool and many picnic tables, washroom and shower facilities. I have many fond memories of my own family spending many a Sunday afternoon there and also camping weekends when I was a child and when I was first married. The second photo shows the ever-flowing and beautiful Middle Falls taken a few weeks ago now almost forgotten by most of the population of Thunder Bay.

In the left photo you can see picnic tables and an outdoor fireplace to cook, and the right photo shows the walkway to the falls and a predominant highway 61 sign with a historical marker. These photos were taken in the late 1940's. Behind the family standing there, a pool and swimming area was also constructed(you can just see the edge of the kids pool) and off to the right was a gift shop and small restaurant. It is almost unrecognizable that any of this existed if you visit the park today.

Here are a couple of great before and after shots showing how it was in about 1950 and how it is so grown over and abandoned today. These photos were taking from approximately the same spot, coming down the hill before the park on the way home from the old Pigeon River border crossing.

Here you can see the remnants of the swimming pool that kids once enjoyed including myself. The photo to the right shows the plaque, the only thing the Ontario Government left on the property.

Here on the plaque is a little historical note and the areas I circled on the map show where Middle Falls is in relation to the newer Canada/US border crossing. On the American side they are building a very beautiful and completely new modern camping facility, typically showing up the Canadians. Shame on our Provincial Government and MPP's for letting this beautiful spot go to ruin. Lets tell our government officials to restore this park to its original beauty as it truly deserves so we can continue to enjoy it for years to come.
Click on most photos to enlarge!

MERV DOVE - A Gentleman to be Admired!!

Merv Dove's racing career started at a very young age when the scent of oil, gasoline and dirt got into his blood and for a whole lifetime, never waned.

Here is a man outstanding in his field(no pun intended here). Merv was always a racer to be reckoned with. This first picture was taken just in front of the home stretch at the CLE racetrack here in Fort William, Ontario in about 1952. Although Merv never really won a championship at the CLE(well.....he did come a close second), his name was always in the top 10 roster, with a few time trial track records under his belt. Throughout all this, Merv was always a true gentleman. Proving this was to win a very prestigious award many years running in the 1950's as "The Most Gentlemanly Driver". The next picture above shows one of his early cars taken in about 1952 when dirt track racing was really taking hold here at The Lakehead.

A pit and home stretch shot here, taken from the Grandstand at about the same time as the photo above shows Merv's famed #31 car and extra bleachers below to accommodate the thousands of fans that frequented the track on race days. The next two photos were newspaper shots from his younger years....proving that Merv had many fan's, myself included.

This news clipping in the mid 1950's starts the Maple Leaf Service years as Merv's main sponsor. Merv, you said you never wrecked a '32 Ford...and the cars you drove were always '34 Fords....well what have we here....but a "little Deuce Coupe".

Here is Merv up against the fence with Pappy Fowler(Pappy drove #98 for awhile). Next to that is another Maple Leaf Service newspaper ad.

Be sure to click twice on this news clipping from a later 1950's local newspaper to get a great story about Merv. The next photo was taken 2 days ago and is the former site of Maple Leaf Service on Cumberland Street. The last photo above here is of Conrad Trombelli #49 and....Yes, that's Merv on the far right. I think he's adjusting his windshield wipers!!

The Crew during the Maple Leaf Service years. They are left to right, Merv in western hat(very common in those days), Pete Knights, Bruce Larson, and Merv's brother Reg.

The word "gentleman" surely runs in the Dove family as I worked for about 7 years with his brother Reg, shown above, at Shell Canada in the late 60's and early 70's. During this time Reg purchased an old 1948 Mercury(I remember it well). Reg's son Randy finished the hot rod many years after this photo was taken, and you can see a photo of it below. Randy aptly licensed the car in his fathers memory as "DADZ 48". A wonderful tribute to a great guy.

The clipping above spelled Merv's name wrong(damn those type-setters)...but showed him as one of the top dogs to have to deal with!

Merv worked for Jessiman Motors in the parts department in the early years, and from about 1963 when he started flagging at Riverview, until 1998 you could always see his happy face at Amco Machine. Throughout his life's trial and tribulations, Merv always had a smile on his face, and a friendly greeting for you no matter where or when.

NEXT - The Riverview Years

Merv retired from the CLE track after about 11 years of racing, but as noted above, the magnetism of the dirt was too much to hold back. Merv became the all new "Riverview Raceways" flagman for the first 5 years of racing there from 1967 to about 1971. Check out the high jumps and the high jinx.

As mentioned before, always a gentleman. When I was racing in 1968, Merv would check every car to be sure the seat belts were secure and to scold you if your arm was hanging out of the side window(as Al Yahn would say). He would also give good driving advice as he poked his head inside your car just before a race and say, "Hey Dave, you're leading in points....just take it cool and you'll be OK." .......it seems like yesterday!!

Here is Merv handing Stan Anderson the checkered flag after a win, and another high jump with the Checkered Flag.

Here is a photo of Merv and Louis Tocheri holding models of their cars I had built many years before the photo, and also how they looked years before. This one was taken about 8 years ago in Ron Limbrick's garage. Ron started the July 1st "back yard 500" Barbeque which lasted for many years in Ron's garage, then later on continued as a regular dinner evening and still does to this day, thanks to Merv. I always look forward to his call and getting together with all the guys. This is one of my favourite photos of myself with Merv.

Some of the guys that attend the present day Back Yard 500 dinners are Bob Walker, Tom Kusznier, Richard Spooner, Ron Limbrick, Dave Cano, Volker Lehmann, Denis Winko, Gary Jansekovich, Jim Hamer and Allan Yahn. Earlier on, all the above plus, Red Marsonet, Louis Tocheri, Bud Heidrick, Glen Kettering, Jugger Brown, Roydon Williamson, Gord Adams, Don Colosimo, Bob Kostyniuk, Jordan Calonego and others attended Ron's Barbeque. There were also many surprise visitors through the years. Thanks to Merv for keeping it going.

Here is the picture of Merv's nephew Randy's beautiful Mercury with "DADZ 48" on the plate.

Last but not least is a recent picture of Merv...still going strong. Merv and his wife Dolly travel all over the states sight seeing and....you guessed it....going to the races.

Merv has a long life yet to live, and of course always a gentleman and a great friend.

Ending with an Irish proverb.....Merv, May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, and may good luck pursue you each morning and night.

Be sure to click on most photos(some twice) to enlarge!