Saturday, December 16, 2017

My Annual Fake Magazine Covers...for HR&J...or call it Fake News...😁

MERRY CHRISTMAS all our family, friends and Facebook friends in Canada and the USA as well.
   In case you didn't know, The Hot Rods and Jalopies Generation Blog was actually the very first local photo history site which later evolved into many different Facebook history sites in the past few years years.  It was started in April of 2009, almost 9 years ago and we have almost one million hits.  I have tried to add as much historic content to all the photos posted to the best of my ability and with the help of some very knowledgeable friends...you know who you are.  I was laid up a bit this year and in the process of finishing my final...YES...my final hot rod build.  I have also been spending more...actually too much time on my Facebook page and I want to get back here to where we started.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported and helped me with this project (family and friends).  I still enjoy local history, vintage racing, vintage advertising etc etc as much as ever and hope to bring more interesting things to these pages.

My latest hot rod may be my swan song, or my thesis in the car world but I will continue to write on these pages as often as I can and far into the future.
Have a great Holiday Season with your Family and stay safe in our crazy world.

So...here we go with another Christmas post.  In the past number of years I did some fictitious magazine covers for HR&J ....and this year is no exception.  The first two are brand new this year and the rest were from past years.  There are ten in all and I will add more each Christmas.  The final one is my favorite.  I hope you enjoy them.  Click on each once or twice more for X-large viewing.

FAKE NEWS...

...however all the buy lines or article content has some local flair.     Enjoy!
Reminiscent of the old PDW Railroad.

My dad always wanted to own a Buick or Oldsmobile and never did.

Christmas time at the old CPR or CNR station in the day

Santa is a daredevil in so many ways....

I always loved pedal cars but sadly my dad could never afford one...

First of Three covers with beautiful ladies behind the wheel....Independent Women in the 1920's

Here's a 1933 dilemma for youngsters coming home from college for Christmas.

Another 1920's Classy Independent Woman

Tom Medley art is Iconic in the Hot Rod world....this mag cover is so Hot Rod.

My all time favorite cover I did dated December 1922 with this beautiful young lady driving a huge touring car in the day and bringing Christmas gifts home to her family.

Thanks for watching and keep in touch,
Dave Cano

Friday, November 24, 2017

Christmas Pre-Season Favourite Old Photos from our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario.....

This is probably my all time favourite seasonal photo of downtown Fort William.  It was taken on Dec 1, 1969, the last year that Fort William would be a city.  
Fort William would be changed forever, firstly because our city, as well as our twin city Port Arthur in one month would become the new city of Thunder Bay, and secondly because our downtown district would soon be blocked off to traffic due to the construction of an all new state of the art mall called Victoriaville, a controversial decision that never seems to go away.  
This photo was taken from atop the Cooper Stitt block, which would soon to burn to the ground, leaving a huge void on this important shopping corner.  
The new landmarks you already see are the new City Hall which was to cover Thunder Bay city business, the Holiday Inn and just to the right of it you can see a small portion of the new IBM building on the corner of Donald St. and Syndicate Ave.
Some re-posted photos are here for new viewers to enjoy...be sure to click on each photo once or twice to enlarge.


This was a very interesting corner through the years as the next photo will show. (Sorry they are not winter shots).  It is difficult to believe that only about 30 years before the above photo was taken, the Agnew Surpass store in the Medical Arts building as it was called, was a wooden structure called Shop-Easy as shown below, and the other adjoining wooded structures would also be long gone.  The tower on the left in the photo below is the fire lookout at the Brodie St. fire station.  The recent photo to the right is the old Medical Arts building(the same place in the above picture) showing its deterioration through the years despite the efforts of many to rejuvenate that portion of downtown.


Looking a little further south down May Street in the 1915 post card photo below, the only recognizable structure would be the spire of the original Fort William City Hall.  The Royal Edward Hotel had not yet been built when this was taken.

Moving over to the corner of Victoria Ave. and Syndicate Ave. in about 1940 is this fabulous photo showing the old Victoria Hotel, Gillespie Drug Store, Rudil's Restaurant, McCartney Jewelers, and Mahon Electric.  A late 1930's vehicle is waiting for the light to change in very cold weather.  The black things above are the frogs to inter-connect all the trolley lines for this corner which today resides right smack dab in the middle of what is now Victoriaville Mall.

Here is an interesting circa 1930s photo loaned to us from the Ken Crooks collection.  It is taken from the roof of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Station on Syndicate Ave.  It vividly shows a streetcar heading south down Syndicate Ave.  The street branching off to the right is Isabella St.  Note the pretty lady in winter clothing on the billboard advertising Winchester Cigarettes.
 Fort William's city hall in all its glory decorated for the Christmas Season in the 1950's.

We all remember Elk's Peewee hockey.  Here, one lucky player looks like he has a breakaway and is heading to to score a goal.  This photo is taken at the city rink at McKellar Park...pretty much where the McKellar Park school is now.

There are a bunch of old memories in this old Port Arthur photo on Arthur St., now called Red River Road(renamed after the two cities amalgamation).  You would be standing on the corner of Court St. and Arthur St. facing east and towards Lake Superior.  Many of the structures you see here still exist today.

Back to Fort William just south of the corner of Donald and May Sts. in the 1940s is the city of Fort William's first snow blower, helping to remove snow from the streets and haul it away not just pack it all up along the side of the road.  S. J. O'Brien and Sons Sand and Gravel did a great business with the city handling much of the hauling.  Blake Funeral Home is the only building still standing on this block today.

Here's a couple of family photos taken while heading out for Christmas trees.  The first is my uncle Henry sitting on the hood of my dad's 1929 Erskine(later to become Studebaker) taken in about 1939 and the second is my son Darren in the blue toque and his cousin Jason....all of us out getting trees near Kakabeka Falls in about 1979.

Here's a re-do of my friend Roger Rickards just completing his snowman on the corner of Lillie St. and Victoria Ave. in the early 1950s.  Checking out the today photos and where the buildings are now gives you an idea how much the Victoria Park area had grown since then.

Remembering incinerators.... everyone had a 45 gallon drum that they used to burn unwanted scraps.  It greatly reduced the amount of garbage that would head to the dump...in my mind, still a good idea today....but just put a screen on top.  :-)

The boys of Loch Lomond.  A nice photo here of myself with ski buds circa 1960.  Left to right are John Ritchie, Dwight McIntosh, myself and Scott McCallum.  Dwight and Scott were both in my wedding party years after this photo was taken and John Ritchie became the coach of the Crazy Canucks, the famous Canadian Olympic Ski Team of the late 1970s.  Sorry for the quality of the old photo.

Below is a photo of Mary and Bill Irwin  looking out from the top of the Giant Slalom at the Loch Lomond Ski Club, circa 1960's. They were the original builders, owners and proprietors of Loch Lomond here in Fort William. I spent many years skiing here and actually helped in my small way to build the South side. To read a little more about Bill and his family click on this link, then come back and enjoy the photos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Irwin_(skier)

Finally in this post we have the swing bridge heading to the Mission with Mount McKay in the background.  We are still waiting for it to open to vehicular traffic after a fire that destroyed a portion of it.  Hope you enjoyed some of these winter shots in my home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur.


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

"Lest We Forget"....pre-Remembrance Day 2017 - some Fort William and Port Arthur Memories and War Effort Advertising....

Lest We Forget.....This is such a compelling photo of the Lake Superior Regiment marching to the trains at the most eastern end of Arthur St. (now Red River Road) in Port Arthur, Ontario in 1940.  (these are two photos stitched together from the north and south side of Arthur St. Port Arthur, On.)...click on all photos once or twice to enlarge them.

 "In Flanders Fields" was what we memorized and recited every year when remembrance day rolled around.  It made us realize the utmost sacrifice our soldiers of war made to make our country free, so that we could live in peace with prosperity and love.....most of our fathers served and this is a tribute to all of you.


I was given a number of newspapers recently dating from my birth year during the second world war by Maureen Croissant/Prairie and Brian Prairie of which I am very grateful.  The following are some of the advertising pieces in them...note that they are all related to the war effort in the day.   On the left is an ad for the Canadian Lakehead (Victory) Exhibition.  The photo on the right shows Joe DiMaggio and Peewee Reese autographing baseballs for Admiral Ghormley.






This one shows a recruitment advertisement for the Canadian Women's Army Corps.....claiming that women are also needed like never before, and another asking everyone to save waste paper for the war effort.























Here's another from August 1944 advertising B.F. Goodrich Tires, advertising that the mileage you can get from the new design is equivalent to pre-war.

Another familiar sign of quality was Coca Cola and just as it would be today.....a welcome home from a weary soldier would include a Coca Cola.  The Prestone Anti-Freeze advertisement states that it is more important for it to serve all military vehicles before the common automobile.  Click on each.





One final note on this upcoming remembrance day on November 11, 2017



Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Final Notice - October 13th "When There Was Thunder" in your home town.


Don't miss this historic two day event in your home town Friday evening October 13th THIS WEEK at the CLE Coliseum from 6:30pm until 11:00pm....Saturday the second day is the self guided tours to Russ Wanzuk's from 10:00am til 12:00noon and to the Duke Hunt Museum's racing collection from 1:30pm to 4:30pm.  MAPS will be available at the Coliseum for day 2.

Prizes from Sponsors will be given away at the Coliseum and at the Duke Hunt museum.

Tickets are available for from the CLE office on Northern Ave.,  from Dave Cano, Lil Stieh, Ron Hebert or anyone else on the committee, or at the door. $5.00

In case you haven't read the article in this past Sunday's Chronicle Journal...here is a copy.  Click on Each of the images TWICE to enlarge to screen size to read.
DON'T MISS OUT!

Monday, October 2, 2017

"WHEN THERE WAS THUNDER" an historic event in your home town...don't miss it.....

Read the poster below and all of this post to see 4 generations of racing photos.  Be sure to free up the time to attend this historic event being held at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Coliseum in your home town, Thunder Bay.






We start off with a couple of original Murillo Speedway photos from 1950.
In these two photos you can see the huge Murillo grandstand packed with people.  The fan base in Fort William, Port Arthur and Murillo Ontario was always very supportive.  Click on each picture to enlarge them for more detail.
#77 was Clyde Ditmars of Kakabeka and #37 was Glen Kettering

The 00 Snitch Special Plymouth was none other than Barry Kettering
 Next came the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition and the Lakehead Stock Car Club in 1952

Then came the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition track in 1952 to the delight of local race fans who did have to or want to travel out to Murillo in the day.  This famous logo became the benchmark iconic sign of The Lakehead Stock Car Club, which appeared on numerous programs and racing jackets in the 1950's and 1960's

The Massaro Brothers Tony 87 and Albert 88..photo circa 1953/4



 The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition half mile race track.  Most of the homes and businesses in the area are still there.  You can still see the Memorial Ave trees, and in this particular picture, the rides at the CLE across the river.



This photo of the track was taken from the May Street side....look close and you can see the old Arch between Fort William and Port Arthur, and this one was also during fair week.  The course of the river was changed over time due to the construction of the new McIntyre flood-way.


In 1967 came a new state of the art track built by the combined efforts of The Northern Ontario Timing Association and E. J. Bernosky

 A 3/8 mile oval which was the pride of our organization...a perfect location.
Here's high flying Merv Dove, former Lakehead Stock Car Club driver and Riverview flagman, flagging Stan Anderson to a Victory.  Merv claims to this day that he can still jump that high.

Yours truly picking up a checkered flag in 1968....the photo on the right is #98 Al Brescia and #17 Lonal Lajoie.  You vintage Sprint car guys have to fill me in as to who the driver below of #2 was...(was it Jerry Richert?...He drove the #2 Super Mod for a few years).                             The last photo of the group is one of the early fall Championship races at Riverview.


Finally, we have Mosquito Speedway who now hosts a fan filled fall classic early each fall.
You can see by the number of cars and fans at Mosquito Speedway that the need for speed has not slowed down at all in our home town of Thunder Bay....so be sure to come out and support this great two day event, meet some of your old friends and meet some of the great guys that started it all back at Murillo and the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track.

















Finally....please note that Jeff Caldwell will have his final run of hats from Murillo, CLE and Riverview available for sale at the event....don't miss out.

 
Thank You