A true "Canadian Graffiti" story..(Where were you in '62)...

Here are two very interesting guys formerly of Fort William, Bob Cross(a former "Road Gent") with his '40 Ford and George Rogers with his '48 Chevy. The photos were taken in 1962 and 1960. They both follow this blog and I had no idea they knew each other until Bob sent me the following short but very sweet old 8mm film clip of a very cool Olds Rocket powered '28/29 red Ford Roadster with a '32 grill. This started an incredible story because George had sent me the same clip a couple of months ago. Click on the video just below.
Bob said that the owner of the car, about 5 or so years older than he, was a fellow who's last name was Slobodzian who had two brothers and a '57 Ford. Their father let Bob use the family garage and welding equipment so he could work on his '40 Ford. Bob also said, "I did do a little work on the roadster, I can't remember what, but we experimented with painting with a vacuum cleaner(blower end) and a spray gun." Bob didn't say how successful it was however.
The boys borrowed the car for a weekend....sooo Bob Cross is the driver and riding shotgun is George Rogers. Now....the video clip of the roadster is taken by a fellow named Larry Pugh at his home a little way out Arthur Street(Hwy 17) in Fort William. Small co-incidence is that my friend Volker Lehmann lives on that property today in a new home he had built there a few years back. The roadster backs out of the property and heads east down Hwy17 towards Fort William.

Here is the film...click on the arrow to view. Next is a better photo of George's Chevy with full moons!

NEXT - More connected stories.....It gets better yet!!

The garage where Bob mentions working on the roadster is near the corner of Vickers, Weigand and River Ave(River Ave is now Rosedale Ave since the cities amalgamated in 1970 to become Thunder Bay). Thanks to my friend Allan Yahn, he has determined that the spot that the garage was located is circled. The slab is still there with a BFI container on top.

Connecting stories abound with these two guys as Bob related the following story to me(that's why the Millionaire photo is above): "At the Millionaire Drive In they held a hamburger eating contest. I ate 12 hamburgers, but another guy ate 13, so I came in second, but he threw-up, so I should have won. Maybe if my mother hadn't made me eat a salad before hand, I might have eaten more. I did get in our school yearbook as "hamburger bob"......It was a long time ago."
NEXT - More stories.....

Here is a photo of the 8mm film maker Larry Pugh with his very red '33 Plymouth coupe, nicely chopped and powered by a hot Mercury flathead....photo taken in 1961 on the same property the film was taken.

The next photo is a picture of George Rogers 1952 Ford Victoria with distinctive Mercury side trim and cool mauve paint(actually 1960 Ford Iridiscent Orchid Grey).

A NEW STORY added later today...George emailed me today to ad another little saga to our stories here. "Looking at all the pictures brought back a memory to me of one long ago summer night when Bob borrowed a torch(from Slobodzian I'd bet) to repair the rusted floor in my '52 Victoria. We went north of Slobodzian's to a field where a '50 Dodge(maybe a Plymouth) was abandoned. Bob cut out a section of the roof. We did a little trimming and welded in a new driver's side floor for the Ford, and a fine job it was! The next day Bob informed me that later that night the Fire Department had been summoned to put out a mysterious fire in the donor car!" Thanks for the update George...

NEXT - an ISETTA??

George Rogers titled these photos "Lunch Hour Shenanigans at FWCI". FWCI stood for Fort William Collegiate Institute. "Institute" was such a harsh word..why didn't they just say High School?

Now...All these guys piled into the Isetta, you know....kinda like the phone booth stacking they did back in the 1940's. The owner of the Isetta is Ted Lake who is third from the left and George is third from the right........Are you in this photo???

The final fairly recent picture is of George and as he states almost 50 years after the above photos......Holy crap George...you still look pretty good after all these years.

Be sure to see the video and click on all the photos to enlarge!!

Special thanks to Bob and George for these wonderful photos and stories of our teen years. I'm sure everyone our age has great stories such as these.....BUT the only thing missing is the Girls.....where are the girls??

Thanks again guys and also thanks to Larry Pugh for taking the 8mm film...to Volker for filling me in on who he purchased his house from, to Allan for detailed information as usual, and last but not least to Dave Corbett(George's cousin) who lives here in Thunder Bay for making the original connection to George.

We have "Canadian Graffiti" too!

Bob now lives in Parksville B. C. on Vancouver Island and George now lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.