School Days at St. Mary's RC School..... 1950's in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario.......

I've been waiting for some time to do this post, but a photo of the original St. Mary's School had eluded me for quite some time.  Thanks to facebook friend Keiran Patrick, I now have a photo of the original school.  This building was originally built as an army barracks for the WWI years and also was used during the WWII era as well.  There were two buildings built, one set further back on the eastern end of the property and was later used as St. Mary's School (not sure the exact year), and the other building closer to the Selkirk and Victoria corner was an "old folks" home as we called it then named The Fort William Manor.  The red markings on the current overhead photo below shows the approximate position of the two buildings.  St. Mary's built a newer school in the early 1960's on the same property and removed the two old barracks buildings.  When St. Mary's finally closed, the building was vacant for a few years and later became (and still is) The Nu-Wave School of Hair Design.

Here is the Google Maps photo showing approximately where the two old buildings were.  Victoria Ave. runs along the bottom and Selkirk St. runs up and down along the right side of the photo.

This class photo is from the 1952/53 School year.  It is grade 2 and 3.  I actually remember lining up for these pictures.  Most of my years in St. Mary's were double grade classes, and if you were in the lower grade and a little on the ball, you could pick up some extra learning from the advanced side of the classroom.  As noted in the photo yours truly is the second from the left on the top row.  If you click on this photo and all the others, you can zoom in and see that I had a couple of front teeth missing.....likely because I was such a sweet tooth and still am.   However, it was the typical age to begin to grow our adult teen....and as the year progressed most kids had a few front teeth missing. As noted in the names, Bill Hay, the 6th kid from the left in the front row, lives right across the street from me today.....so many of us didn't end up too far from each other over 60 years later here in our home town we now call Thunder Bay.

The Fun with Dick and Jane books were typical readers in the first 6 of our elementary school years.  

As you know I try to add an old car or vehicle of some sort to each of my blog posts and this one is no exception.  Here you see Baby Sally driving her cute little green pedal car(her being a little older in the third pane at the top with a bit newer one) in a few of the pictures in this collage.  Dick, Jane and Sally's parents had a typical looking late 1940's vehicle to drive as well...do you remember what their pet's names were????  Answer at the bottom of this post.  Click on all photos to enlarge them. 

.....now I would never admit this was my Grade 3 report card but as you can see the name was removed to protect the innocent..... We had two teachers that year, Mrs. Connolly and Mrs. Begin.  All my grade school teachers were great, especially Mrs. Begin as you will read about as you scroll way down below.

NOT BAD EH??

This next picture is our grades 5 and 6 class.  In that particular year, I was in the senior class and had to listen to all the lessons all over again that I had done the year before.   In this picture, I was the handsome guy third from the right in the back row.  I always seemed to be in the back row....guess it was my height.  If you are in any of these photos, please make comments to this blog post or at least on my facebook page.  Also, if you know anyone in this photo that isn't named, let me know and we can add them.  Mrs. Marigold was also an excellent teacher.

In those days there was no such thing as Junior High School....you went to the same elementary school from grades 1-8.  This is our grade 7 and 8 class and I do recall when these pictures came back that Mrs. Marigold was so upset because she didn't remember to remove here feathered hat.....we teased her about that all year.  Yours truly at the back again just to the right of Mrs. Marigold with the halo around his head....LOL.  Again in Grade 8, I was in the senior class and had to listen to Grade 7 stuff all year.

Look how low the classrooms were....In the 6th grade, I could touch the ceiling, and the lighting was very limited.  In today's standards, it was not a very healthy environment for learning, but we did fine.

Here's a clipping from our Field Day after graduating from the 8th grade in 1958.  My dad took the day off work to volunteer for this.

Unlike today with the fancy graduation from grade 6 and then again from grade 8, we attended all years at the same school and had a nice field day at the end of the 8th grade school year, and for the whole school as well.

As mentioned above, one of my favourite teachers was Thelma Begin.  The most incredible thing about her is that she had a wooden leg....YES a REAL WOODEN leg.  She would even take it off and show it to us.  There was a monthly publication from "The Fraternity of the Wooden Leg" called "Courage".

The article in "Courage" is a must read to see how important this wonderful lady was to us, and co-incidentally she was also my good friend Roger Rickard's aunt.  I write about Roger's cool Christmases in these blog pages.  Click once or twice on all these to be able to read them.

All Roman Catholic Schools in Fort William and Port Arthur were always connected to a Parish, and St. Mary's was part and parcel of St. Patrick's Church and Cathedral.  St. Pat's was and is located on the South/West corner of Archibald and Donald St.  Here's the then and now photo of this corner.  As you scroll down, you will see why these pictures were added.

THE LITTLE HOLY ROLLERS......

Nearing the end of our Grade 1 year, we celebrated our First Holy Communion with our sister school St. Stanislaus which was located on Miles St. east.  That building still exists today.  It's too bad we don't have all the names so, if you are here, let me know.  Yours truly again in the back row 2nd from the left.....I was a chunky monkey until about mid year in grade 2....LOL.  

Funny but for whatever reason a have a great recollection to this day of posing for these photos.  It's odd that we remember stuff like that but can't remember what we had for dinner yesterday....LOL again.

The little girls even got their chance.....they all looked like little brides with the veils.....all adorable.  It was different times from today but great times to remember.  Help us to fill in some blanks.

REMEMBER AND ENJOY...................................

A final thank you to all the wonderful teachers who put up with us kids in those days and for all the people who took such wonderful photos for us to remember our roots.  Thanks once more to Keiran Patrick for his photo of the original St. Mary's building.      thanks, Dave
PS....answer from the Dick and Jane question      SPOT AND PUFF.

A Young Man's Dreams Dashed with Tragedy in our home town of Fort William, Ontario

HR&J doesn't usually delve into subjects like this, however this sad story is part of Canadian Lakehead Exhibition racing history, and after some research and donated photos, we can read about the most serious local accident in racing history here in our Lakehead cities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  NOTE: IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU CLICK ONCE OR TWICE ON ALL THE PHOTOS AND ESPECIALLY THE NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS TO ENLARGE THEM.

We start with the dream.

In the photo below, taken in front of Wes and Jerry's Service station on 231 N. May St. (The Service Station is behind the photographer) is Wes Inkster, Jerry Whittaker, a very young Lorne Hay, and in the cockpit of Wes' 1934 Plymouth Jalopy (stock car) is also a very young Lyn McIntosh.  The car was just built and sported a new paint job with #13 and even white wall tires.

 The building in the background of the above photo no longer exists...there is presently an empty lot on the north/east corner of Cummings and May streets as shown here.

The photo below was taken at the same time as the one above, and shows that Wes & Jerry's was a White Rose station....and kitty corner across the street was Gibson's Bowladrome which still exists today as Superior Bowladrome.  Sitting in Wes' car is a very young Lyn McIntosh who would later go on to an incredible racing career of his own.

 Gibson's Bowladrome and in the today photo Superior Bowladrome, as mentioned is still there, but the restaurant that is there used to be separate from the bowling alley.  It was named Uncle Frank's Top Hat Coffee Bar and Billiards and was located at 214 N. May St.

Wes and Jerry's Service from the front and still yet another rear angle photo of Wes' #13.  The Service Station was located at 231 N. May Street here in Fort William, Ontario.

 This corner is and has been completely vacant for some time now, and will likely be used as a parking facility for the new Court House as needed.
A huge thank you to my friend DENNIS WINKO for donating the above photos for use on HR&J.

Another friend of mine who also acts as a proof reader for me, ALAN YAHN put together the following history of the addresses surrounding Wes and Jerry's Service.

Wes and Jerry's would be to the right (north/west corner), Jessiman Motors would be to the right (north) of Wes and Jerry's and on the south/west corner would have been Tom's Texaco at the time.

Here is Wes' car at the CLE track the first day he raced it.

 This is what an original 1934 Plymouth Coupe would look like brand new and the picture I edited below it is a "what if" photo.....
Wes had dreams just as we all have.  He wanted to be a great driver like all the rest of the guys who entertained thousands of people at the old CLE track such as Merv Dove, Louis Tocheri, Tom Dow, Barry Kettering, Louis Tocheri and the Massaro Brothers.
Sadly this would not happen.
Read on to see and read the clippings, well done by the editors of our newspaper back in the 1950's.  The following clippings appeared in local newspapers after that fateful night back in the summer of 1957.......

 

After the accident, many fund raising events were planned to assist Wes and his family with the huge medical bills, such as raffles, dances, dinners and concerts.  The beautiful dolls below were raffled off and someone made tons of little cars to sell that kids could paint up with their favourite driver's numbers and names...some shown below....

Here's a young fellow showing off his wooden car collection all painted up.  If someone knows who built these cars for the fund raiser, I would like to know who it was.....Thanks

The above clipping was taken from the Fort William Gardens roster of 1957.  The benefit concert held at the Gardens was incredibly well attended and local artists gave of their time to help the Inkster family.  Our cities of Fort William and Port Arthur always came together to assist others through the years.

 This final clipping was taken from the 1957 CLE racing program showing a thank you from the Wes Inkster Benefit Fund Committee

Wes' #13 Car shown below with some of the damage from his accident never stopped racing however, as Junior (Fran) Speer took over the car sponsored later by Master Cleaners and Tailors on Victoria Ave.  Junior raced this car for only one year as #13, and later changed the number to #21. 

Junior Speer continued to race the car for many racing seasons thereafter and even headed across the border to race on occasion.

 A year later this advertisement with an earlier photo of Wes taken before his accident appeared in the News Chronicle.  At that time Wes was the sole proprietor.

This photo of the same car as #21 and still driven by Junior Speer may have been taken in Superior Wisconsin at their track.
Wes had moved out west many years ago.
After much research we believe that Wes passed away in Medicine Hat Alberta on October 2, 2013 at the age of 78 years.
1957 however was an extremely sad ending to a promising racing career at the old Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Track in Fort William Ontario.
RIP Wes Inkster....Your story lives on............

Christmas Season Post #4 - Roger's Childhood Christmases 1948-62 here in Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario......

All of you may recall that last Christmas I did a few posts as well, one featuring my good friend Roger Rickards and all the wonderful toys he received when he was a child here in Fort William, Ontario.  Have a look again at last years post (link below) then come back to see more of Roger's childhood at Christmastime.
Last Years Christmas Post - Roger
....then scroll down for some more photos and we will decipher what is under the Christmas tree as well as a surprise way down at the end of this post.

Here is Roger in 1948 about 1 year old and under his family's Christmas tree opening up his treasures..... In Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario back then, times were simpler, and of course as a child you had nary a care in the world....but like any child then and now, you could barely wait until Christmas to open up your presents.

The first of the toys Roger unwrapped was this wooden toy...I think every child must have had one of these at one time or another.  They were made by many manufacturers as well and called a toy lawn mower, clickety clack toy or whatever.

Be sure again to click on all the photos in this post once or twice to enlarge....

In this next 1948 photo Roger has many more toy presents opened including a whistling top, a riding steam engine and a wagon full of great treasures....some to be explained below....

The following collage is that of a number of riding steam engine toys of the era, and none of which were actually identical to his....

...Then the whistling top.....every child had one or more of these in their lifetime....

I have always appreciated vintage ornaments, especially the blown glass ones.  The vintage pine cone ones shown below were quite common for their day, but when my kid brother Corey was little, our parents put only plastic decorations on the bottom two feet of the tree, because there would be none left intact by the time Christmas came.

Here's Roger looking totally content riding on his train.... and look at all the wonderful items in the background....The American Beauty wagon, the tree light reflectors, the vintage (likely Zenith) upright radio that the family gathered around to listen to Christmas music and shows, and the toys inside the wagon.

Lastly, the icicles on the tree (we called them tinsel) that actually had lead content.

My uncle Wally had the most perfect tree of anyone I ever knew.  year to year he would actually iron the tinsel so they hung perfectly straight.  It would take him weeks to finish decorating the tree.

Below is a colour photos of what the American Beauty wagon would look like, and in the wagon was this fantastic little Ferry Boat toy complete with little 1940's plastic toy cars.  We're not sure exactly what the other items in Roger's wagon are.

The next two items are fairly close to what is shown in the black and white photo above.  Here we have a Zenith upright radio, which was an absolutely beautiful piece of furniture in the day, where the family would gather round every evening, sit together and enjoy all the excellent broadcasting that was available in those days.  Then there were the light reflectors (metal of course).  You would unscrew a bulb, place the reflector over the base of the bulb and screw the bulb back in.  I was always leery about getting an electric shock from these babies....and as I recall my dad did once or twice.

In this next photo, we are jumping ahead to 1953....Roger's brother Bob was just an infant (I don't see any toys for Bob...I guess Roger got all of the incredible toys shown here.  Bob was even too young for an abacus....well maybe the Bobo Clown was his....LOL

Their dog Panda also raked in a ton of his favourite canned treat "Pard Dog Food".

OK...here's the abacus and the slush cast RED tractor, likely by the Tootsie Toy Company.

.....and here is the Junior Doctor Kit, the Binoculars and the Bobo Clown which might have been Bob's...

Finally from the picture above we get to the PARD dog food....I'm thinking....could this be Roger'stoo?  Roger said his dog's name was Panda, but I don't see any dogs in any of the photos.  

                                              Forgive me Roger, I couldn't resist.... :-)

For these final few Christmastime photos and graphic items we jump to 1962...Roger would be about 15 years old, smack dab in the age of adolescence.  Yes...now we have colour photos.  

I truly loved the decorating in that era here in the Lakehead cities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  I remember my parents home looking almost exactly the same inside...similar nick-knacks, furniture and draperies.

BUT.....look what is just to Roger's left on the chair... It's an AMT model kit.....not just any model kit, but George Barris' New for 1962 Ala-Kart double kit....build the Ala-Kart and the stock model A in one kit.....WOW

We all loved our model car kits....so much so that I still build 1;25 scale model cars to this day.

OK....there is one more photo below.........SCROLL DOWN to see how we view Roger today........

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014 - There will only be one more small post before Christmas Day - from Dave and his entire family at Hot Rods and Jalopies!!!