Chance Meetings

(Written Friday February 19th, 2016)

I’ve always been the chatty type with total strangers it seems. It’s my natural curiosity I guess. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Meeting #1

Last Saturday night Linda and I went to a beer and burger fund raiser for The Vancouver Island Mental Health Society. She is employed by the society and we’ve been to a number of these events over the years. This one was at a local Nanaimo pub called The Wellington which many refer to as “The Well” which makes sense. The plan before we got there was whoever got to the pub first between Linda and I and her co-worker Donna and her husband Tom, would try and secure a couple of tables that 6 people could sit at.

We got to the pub first and managed to secure 2 tables. It was about 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon. We could see instruments set up on the stage in front of us for a live band that would play later in the evening. I noticed a couple in between us and the stage who seemed to be holding a table for some friends who hadn’t arrived like we were. It turned out that the friends they were waiting for were Donna and Tom. Introductions were made. We had already ordered our food and a beer before Donna and Tom turned up. I had one eye on the Canucks hockey game on TV and they were taking another thrashing. So much for that I thought.

Donna and Tom’s friend’s names are Laraine and John. My guess is that they are somewhere near 40 years of age. I asked both of them individually what they did for a living. I believe Laraine works in labour relations on behalf of the BC government. Donna and Laraine have been friends for years. They met when they were both newly divorced. John has written and published a number of books and magazines about kayaking and hiking on the west coast of British Columbia. As an avid kayaker myself (albeit with just a 14’ boat) I was very keen on asking John a number of questions. I learned a lot in talking to him. I was particularly impressed that he didn’t brag about his successes. It was Laraine (spelling?) that told me that John had kayaked all the way to Alaska from Vancouver Island. I was bowled over by that. There are not a lot of people who can say they have accomplished that feat.

Last summer I was on a 3 day camping/kayaking ocean trip with a friend when I got into some trouble trying to paddle against a very strong current. The area was south of a camping spot at Blackberry Point some distance south of Nanaimo. I asked John about the pass between two islands that we were close to that day. John told me that the currents in that area are some of the most treacherous on the southern BC coast. He said that sometimes small boats can end up going in circles drawn by the currents. I guess I was one lucky bastard that day. Luckily I got some help in the form of a tow from the friend I was kayaking with. A 14’ kayak isn’t made for that kind of ocean.

We didn’t hang around the pub to see the band. 8 hours in a pub is a bit too long for me, at least these days. I really enjoyed the 3 or 4 hours that we did stay.

To find out more about John Kimantas google any of the following….his name, Coastal Guide Books, Wild Coast Magazine, or Coast & Kayak Magazine. This guy knows his stuff!

 

Meeting #2

It’s Sunday February 14^th, Valentine’s Day, the day after the night at the pub. Linda and I have decided to head over to our favourite sushi place for lunch, a spot called Nori Sushi. We usually stop in about twice a month. The place is almost always packed and jazz is always playing on the sound system. People come from all over Vancouver Island to eat here. There is a bit of wait, probably because it’s Valentine’s Day, but there are some empty seats at the bar. Sitting on a stool is fine with me. It’s close to the action.

We soon realize that they don’t have Bento boxes on Sundays. A couple in their sixties sitting next to us confirms that fact. The gal in the couple gives us an overview of the menu. They are frequent visitors to the place and know the head sushi guy on the other side of the counter whose name is John. John asks Linda and I our names and a while later he addresses me by my name, pretty impressive. This is the way to run a successful restaurant.

We got into a conversation with the couple. They are retired and bought a small beachfront house in Qualicum Beach about a year ago. Qualicum Beach is about a 45 minute drive north of where we live. Their house is about 1000 square feet and they have been doing reno work for some time. They mentioned waves hitting the house one day.

Their names are Brian and Mary. Brian told us he had held a number of jobs before retiring including being a cop for about 20 years and selling boats. His politics are to the right and mine are more to the left but we didn’t talk about that stuff much.

While they were eating the sushi guy John gave Mary a single rose. Does this guy know how to run a restaurant or what? Later on John also gave Linda a single rose. Does this guy know how to run……….

Brian and Mary invited us to drop in at their place in Qualicum Beach and we asked them to do the same when they were down our way. For some reason we forgot to exchange phone numbers. Linda is laid up for a week or two after a toe operation but we will drop in in the next few weeks. Nice couple.

 

Meeting #3

Linda went in for her toe operation (a minor thing really other than a bit of pain) this past Tuesday. I had some time to kill and instead of sitting in the waiting room I took a walk across the street to investigate a Scandinavian furniture place. I’m kind of in the market for a couple of bar stools.

I was a bit surprised how big the store was. After wandering around for several minutes I ended up in a downstairs showroom. I spotted a gal who appeared to be in early to mid-thirties in what looked like a black cocktail dress. It was the first sign of life in the place. I probably could have walked out of the joint with a sofa if I was a criminal type and had some assistance and nobody would have been the wiser other than finding a vacant space.

The gal in the black dress is a sales associate and while I was poking about we got into a conversation about music and David Bowie in particular. Right away I noticed that she had a very positive upbeat personality. She also had a touch of blue or was it light green in her blonde hair. I asked her where she was from and she answered “all over the place” which included various spots on Vancouver Island and Gabriola Island which is close to Nanaimo.

Altogether I guess that we chatted for about 20 minutes. She is a singer and guitar player who has appeared on stage with and without a band. From what I understand her musical niche is “alternative country rock”. She has appeared with Jim Byrnes, The Beach Boys, and Mike Reno (Everbody’s Working For The Weekend). Her real name is Shauna McAllister and she goes by the name Jupiter Jill when it comes to music.

As I said, I only talked to her for a short while but I could tell she has a big heart. This was reaffirmed when I checked out a video of her and her children. I think she is what the kids today (and others) call today an “indie” performer meaning she has recorded some music but not with a major label.

I checked her out on YouTube and really enjoyed her singing. Music is a hard business to make a living in a smaller city like Nanaimo. I am going to keep my eye open and hopefully see her perform in the next few months.

You go girl!

 

 

Taking A Break

I have been writing my short stories for about 4 years now. For the most part it has been fun, particularly taking a walk down memory lane. I have enjoyed the e-mail comments from people I haven’t seen in years or others who have connected to a certain time and place.

I’m not dying, at least I don’t think I am, but I’ve been having a few health problems lately that hopefully will be corrected in the near future. Lately it seems I have been putting some pressure on myself to complete at least 2 or 3 stories a month. I’ve actually almost completed a number of stories that just need another page or two or some more editing. These stories include titles like The Slow Death of R & B Music. Trump and Hillary and the Other Crazy Bastards in the US Running For President, Montreal Verses Vancouver, Old Vancouver - From the 60s to the 80s, and Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.

There is no shortage of things I would like to write about. I just want to give it a rest for a while. Who wants to deal with deadlines when they are retired?

I expect to start putting new stories up on my blog in April, maybe sooner.

Thanks for reading my stuff.

Catch you on the flip side.

David Bowie

 

 

The first time I heard a David Bowie song was way back in 1969. I had no idea what he looked like at the time. The song was called Space Oddity and one of the lyrics was “Ground control to Major Tom…..” A lot of pot was smoked by a lot of people listening to that song. It had a lot of imagery. 1969 was also the year when the first man stepped onto the moon.

Bowie passed away a several days ago after a year and a half battle with cancer. My guess is that some of those that were the hardest hit are the folks close to his age. His death was a reminder for some of us getting up in years that nothing lasts forever. As if we need more reminders. (I’m 68.)

Who is next? A lot of the greats in rock music are getting on in years. There are still some rockers from the 50s who are still alive including Chuck Berry (89), Fats Domino (87), Jerry Lee Lewis (80) and Little Richard ((83). Others that are getting up there in age include Bob Dylan (74), Boz Scaggs (71), Mark Knopfler (66), Don Henley (68), Paul Simon (74), Billy Joel (66), Rod Stewart (71), Neil Young (70), Bruce Springsteen (66), Van Morrison (70) and Paul McCartney (73).

Mick Jagger (72), Keith Richards (72) and The Stones are going on tour this year in South America for 2 months. It seems that other than Mick and particularly Keith, most of the older rockers who are still around stuck with pot and booze over the years and mostly avoided heavier drugs.

David Bowie faded from view over the last several years. The general public had no idea that he was dying. I looked up his last song and watched the video. He looked quite ill. The song he sung reminded me of Johnny Cash’s last song. Not many entertainers, never mind the rest of us, get to say their goodbyes in quite this fashion. It was a bit on the creepy side.

It is kind of amazing how much of British rock, starting in the mid-1960s, was influenced by people who had attended British art schools. It was kind of a badge of honour, and a cool place to be back then I guess. Brian Eno, Mick Jones, Keith Richards, Roger Waters. Freddy Mercury, John Lennon, Ray Davies, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, and….David Bowie all went to art schools. Often these guys came from backgrounds where many of their friends ended up working at dead end jobs. A lot of women over the years have been sympathetic to the starving artists in this world.

By the time Bowie came along rock music had gone through the pretty boys like Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson in the late 50s, folk music, the British Invasion, message songs about peace and love, the psychedelic stuff, and a fair amount of bubble gum music and cheesy stuff. Often why we liked a song was because of the “hook”. It could be the beat, a sax solo, or even one word repeated over and over again.

Mostly what we saw was a singer or singers, with or without a band, playing their music and getting off of the stage. This includes the Beatles and the Beach Boys. There wasn’t a lot of moving around the stage for members of these 2 groups. Mike Love of the Beach Boys would bob his head, snap his fingers, and shuffle his feet a bit but that was about it.  “Good night Cleveland!”

This isn’t to say that nobody back in the earlier days of rock put on a show besides playing their music. There were a few like Jackie Wilson, Roy Head, and Elvis in his early years before he got cleaned up. One of the first singers from the British Invasion to put on a show was Mick Jagger from the Stones. He never stopped moving and we were transfixed as he strutted around. Mick added things like wearing a feather boa and was one of the first to do some gender bending.  There wasn’t much masculine to his dancing. Pete Townsend in a different way got a lot of attention by smashing his guitar to smithereens.

3 of the biggest hits on the music charts in 1970 were A Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel, Close To You by The Carpenters, and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by B.J. Thomas. These were the songs that many younger people’s parents also liked. Popular music had split in a number of ways. There were the popular bands of the time like America, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, The Doobie Brothers, but Glitter Rock and Heavy Metal were starting to emerge. A few years later Punk Rock started to be noticed.

A certain amount of rebelliousness had disappeared from rock and roll and Glam (Glitter) Rock, Heavy Metal, and Punk were an answer to that. In some ways Heavy Metal was like the “Primal Scream”, the louder the better. Being a fan of Glam Rock or Heavy Metal kind of made a person an outsider and being an outsider for some was a cool thing in its own right.

Gender bending wasn’t anything new in the world of entertainment. Wrestling star Gorgeous George was doing this shtick back in the 40s and 50s. It was pretty obvious that Little Richard was more than a bit effeminate in the 50s. In the same decade most people didn’t know that Rock Hudson, Tony Perkins, or Tab Hunter were gay. Liberace once sued an English newspaper for claiming he was gay and he won even though he couldn’t have been gayer.

Freddy Mercury came out as being gay in 1975 and Elton John in 1976. There is a long history for some in the gay community of dressing up in wild costumes and pretending to be famous people. In the early 70s Alice Cooper started wearing makeup including mascara. Nobody thought he was gay. Both Mick Jagger and David Bowie figured out that they could use effeminate actions in their shows that could add some mystery and make fans wonder. Were they straight and just acting, were they bi-sexual, or were they simply gay?

In the 70s Bowie was a complete narcissist. He wasn’t alone. He did a lot of cocaine and thought he was invincible. His fans adored him. It seems that he thought he could do pretty well anything he wanted and this included participating in a number of orgies and treating groupies like shit. In between acting out these fantasies Bowie early on figured out that music was a business. His good pal Mick Jagger most likely influenced him on that. The big money in rock music was filling stadiums. To accomplish that one had to put on a big show that would make people talk about it. Having a whole slew of hits didn’t hurt either.

To me Bowie played his fans back then. In 1972 Bowie came out as being gay. He claimed that he had always been gay. In 1976 he then claimed to be bi-sexual. Then in 1983 he claimed that he was heterosexual and blamed the idea that he was anything else on his managers as if he didn’t have a mind of his own. Basically he pulled the wool over gay people’s eyes for more than 10 years.

Rumours about Bowie have been around for years about him being in bed with Mick Jagger. Some of these claims came from Bowie’s ex-wife who set him up with young girls (often underaged), orgies, and threesomes where she was often a participant. I don’t doubt that a lot of famous entertainers have slept with people of the same sex over the years.

It is hard to think about Bowie without including the sex stuff. Bowie himself created the image. When he and Jagger sang Dancing In The Streets they were nose to nose at times.

 

To me Bowie was always kind of creepy but it would be difficult to say that he didn’t produce a lot of great music including songs like Rebel, Rebel, Young Americans, Fame, Fashion, Under Pressure, Let’s Dance, China Girl, Modern Girl, Dancing In The Street, and Never Let Me Down, to name just some of his great tunes.

Although he didn’t sing Lou Reed’s Take A Walk On The Wild Side, that song to me describes Bowie in a nutshell. And then again there was that kind of touching moment when Bowie sang a Christmas duet with the old crooner Bing Crosby. That was two worlds colliding…..quietly.

 

I’ve never been a big fan of cults of any kind including people who totally idolize entertainer(s), politicians, or religious nuts. Bowie did have a cult following. I think people limit themselves when they restrict their open mindedness to one form of music.

From what I’ve read Bowie was a lonely man by the time he got to his early forties. My guess he was “sexed out” by that point. He kind of reminds me in a way of Warren Beatty who slept with an awful lot of famous and not so famous women in his time. Beatty got married when he was 60 years old and is now 78 years old and has 4 kids.

Although David Bowie died at 69 he was also one lucky guy. He got a second chance in life. By all reports he had a happy and loving marriage that lasted close to 24 years. He seems to have had a good relationship with his kids. One thing I didn’t know about Bowie (and probably a lot of other stuff) is that before meeting Bowie his wife Iman was married to former Seattle Supersonics basketball star Spencer Heywood for 10 years. This is just an opinion but I think in the last 20 years of his life Bowie learned how not to take himself too seriously. You could see his sense of humour on some of the old Conan O’Brien interviews.

 

What is David Bowie’s legacy? He mixed art with music and pushed the envelope, had a great singing voice and moved with the times, had an influence on there being a wider acceptance of the LGBT community.

I don’t think he was ready to leave when his time came.

 

 

 

 

Montreal Trivia Quiz For Old Farts......Answers

Montreal Trivia For Old Farts Answers

#1 French Prime Minister Charles De Gaulle said it on a balcony at Montreal City Hall in 1967.

#2 Camp Kanawana. It is still in operation.

#3 Pom Bakery. It was located on the corner of Ste. Catherine Street and The Glen in Westmount. Was owned by the Harrison brothers.

#4 The insert was called The Weekend Magazine and Andy O’Brien was the sports editor.

 

#5 Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau.

 

#6 Chuck Hunsinger (Montreal) and Jackie Parker (Edmonton). Parker was one of the CFL’s all-time quarterback greats. Back then some players played both offense and defense.

#7 Michigan Red Hots. If you wanted curb service you turned your car headlights on.

#8 Bock beer. Dow Breweries.

#9 Franklin W. Dixon. First 10 published…..#1 The Tower Treasure, #2 The House On The Cliff, #3 The Secret Of The Old Mill, #4 The Missing Chums, #5  Hunting For Hidden Gold, #6 The Shore Road Mystery, #7  The Secret Of The Caves, #8 The Mystery Of Cabin Island, #9 The Great Airport Mystery, #10 What Happened At Midnight? Brothers Frank and Joe. Their best friend was Chet Morton. They lived in the city of Bayport on Barnet Bay. Father Fenton Hardy was a Detective. They had an Aunt Gertrude. Ring any bells?

 

#10 The Ritz Carlton and The Berkley.

#11 Walter Alston. Jackie Robinson and Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) played for the Royals as did Roberto Clemente for part of 1 season.

#12 The Magic Carpet Ride, The Whirl-Away, The Wild Mouse, The Salt And Pepper. The House Of Mirrors (not really a ride).

#13 Richard Blass. Blass and his crew locked 10 men and 3 women in a bar locker and killed all 13 of them.

#14 Denny Vaughan.

#15 Brother Andre’s heart. Construction of the dome was completed in 1939.

#16 Sarto Fournier. Lived in a fourplex. Two domed lights were installed near the walk up to the house.

#17 The Quebec Rifles who later became the Toronto Rifles. Sam’s nick name was “The Rifle”. He played QB for the Alouettes and the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL.

 

#18 To work on construction of high rise buildings and bridges. They seemed to have no fear of heights. They made pretty good money for the times. Several died in car accidents on their way back to Montreal on weekends while being drunk.

#19 Marcel Bonin. He has 4 Stanley Cup Rings, 3 with Montreal and 1 with Detroit.

 

#20 McKenna’s Flowers. They opened a greenhouse that sold wholesale in 1852 and then opened their first retail store in 1878. They are thought to be Canada’s first flower store. Being close to the Mount Royal Cemetery was handy.

#21 Dankoff’s. Knockwurst on rye 35 cents. Maple Leaf goalie Johnny Bower ate there.

#22 Alan (The Weasel) Ross. Went to Willingdon School in NDG.  I knew him when I was a kid.

#23 Friday. Payday.

#24 Dan Gerber in a Cobra. He wore a tux with pin striped pants while racing sometimes.

#25 Walnut, Avenue, University, Regent, Murray, Hunter, Crescent, Dupont, Victor, Pontiac.

#26 Sally (younger sister), Puff (cat), Spot (dog) and Uncle Zeke.

#27 Two zippers in the front. Made of brown leather.

#28 Playland. Was owned by Moe Yacknin.

#29 Baby Huey, Casper The Friendly Ghost, Sad Sack, Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, Little Audrey.

 

#30 Manny Mota. Drafted from the Pittsburg Pirates.

#31 1959. There are stories that General Motors had a plan to get rid of streetcars in major Canadian and US cities and replace them with busses made by GM.

#32 Ground carp, whitefish or pike. About the only Jewish food I haven’t eaten.

#33 Murray Hill. Same name as the tour bus company.

#34 Ivanhoe, The Last Of The Mohicans, The Three Musketeers, A Tale Of Two Cities, Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, The Pathfinder, The Deer Hunter, Lorna Doone, Silas Marner, The Invisible Man. The cost 15 cents. Other comics cost a dime.

 

#35 Mike fink was “king of the river”  an ornery keel boat operator in one of Walt Disney’s TV stories about Davey Crockett.

#36 NBC Plattsburgh, New York, CBS Burlington, Vermont, ABC Poland Springs, Maine (once owned by Jack Paar). Who?

#37 Honda City. You could buy a red 90cc there. I remember one night in the 60s three of us coming home drunk on a 90cc Honda.

 

#38 Banks and department stores.

#39 Stripper Lili St. Cyr. She wore pasties.

 

#40 CCM, Raleigh, Norton, not very many Schwinn’s.

#41The Plouffe Family. This was before The Pill.

#42 Dorval near the Dorval Circle.

#43 American born Joe Pyne and Montreal born Pat Burns. I’d like a nickel for every time they called someone a liar.

Joe Pyne

#44 Montreal mayor Camillean Houde. Wasn’t keen on conscription.

#45 Miss Montreal.

 

#46 The Kent Theatre on Sherbrooke Street in NDG.

#47 Magic Tom Auburn entertained regularly at the Piazza Tomasso Restaurant on Decarie Boulevard. At one time he lived on Marcil Ave. near Monkland in NDG.

#48 Jim McKean. Went to Monkland High.

 

#49 #15

#50 “idiot mittens” had a string attached to them. The string ran from one mitten up the inside of one arm of a coat and down the inside of the other arm to the other mitten. The idea was that mittens wouldn’t be lost if a child pulled one off of their hand.

#51 Dick Duff, Frank Mahovlich, Bert Olmstead, Ed Litzenberger, Larry Hillman, Dickie Moore.

Dick Duff in middle.

#52 Sportsman. Plain ends. My father smoked them.

 

#53 Pow Pow. I had a Pow Pow puppet when I was a kid. His head was made of rubber and for some reason I chewed on it.

#54 Myrtle Cook. She won a gold medal in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam in running.

#55 Your Father’s Mustache. Bill Conrod and Stuart McLean once worked there at one time.

#56 A small flat wooden spoon. There was a picture on the back of the round cardboard cover.

#57 A US breakfast cereal that looked like mud. Their TV ads had a cartoon of a spoiled child who always said “I WANT MY MAYPO!!!!!”

 

#58 Yvon Durelle from Bai Ste. Anne, New Brunswick. Durelle knocked the champion Archie Moore down 3 times in the first round. By today’s rules the fight would have been over. Moore knocked Durelle out in the 11^th round. Moore played the role of the runaway slave Jim in the 1960 movie The Adventures of Huckleberry Flynn.

#59 The Autostade. (The Automotive Stadium. Capacity just over 33,000 people.)

#60 Mighty Manfred.

#61 The Sun Life Building. Once the tallest building in the British Empire

#62. Gary Eisenkraft. He opened his first Montreal folkie club in 1963 when he was 18. Between 1963 and 1968 he owned 3 night clubs. People he brought to Montreal include Ian & Sylvia, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Frank Zappa, James Cotton, and Paul Butterfield. Eisenkraft later lived in California and Hawaii. He is buried on Mount Royal.

#63 Hespeler, CCM, Sherwood, Easton, Bauer, Victoriaville, Northland.

#64 Poutine didn’t exist in 1955. Trick question?

#65 Oscar Peterson and Maynard Ferguson. Saw Ferguson once in Hamilton, Ontario.

 

#66 Boston Bruin Hal Laycoe. He wore eyeglasses while playing hockey as did Al Arbour.

#67 Gerry Snyder. He also owned a sporting goods store.

#68 The Sonny and Cher Show.

#69 Lucien Rivard.

#70 The Boiler Room.

#71 Damned if I know?

#72 The Queen Elizabeth. Saw Frank Sinatra Jr. walk through the lobby there once with an ape like bodyguard.

#73 Tex Coulter. Lived in NDG.

#74 The Ice Capades and The Shriner’s Circus. Remember 32 clowns getting out of a small car?

#75 The Chalet Bar-B-Q on Sherbrooke Street near Girouard. They opened for business in 1944. 15 cents for double bagged greasy fries up  until the early 70s.

 

#76 John Wilkes Booth who assassinated US president Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

#77 Pax Plante.

#78 Michel Pagliaro.

#79 Dr. Wilder Penfield.

#80 It was located on Mansfield Street near Sherbrooke. They took your car away in an elevator and parked it.

#81 Sen-sen.

 

#82 Loews, The Capital, The Princess, The System, The York, The Palace, The Strand.

#83 Delorimier Stadium. They stopped playing in Montrreal in 1960 and moved to Syacuse, New York in 1961.

#84 A French Canadian singer.

#85 Caughnawaga.

#86 Humpty Dumpty.

 

#87 LCC on Royal Avenue in NDG.

#88 A 1000 leaves. It is a pastry.

 

#89 Red and yellow.

#90 Cott Beverages.

#91 Jim Trimble. I remember hearing about some guy pressing his bare ass up against a window in a restaurant in St. Sauveur where Trimble and QB Bernie Faloney and their wives were having dinner. I think it was called “a pressed ham”.

#92 The Inn, Nadeau’s and Nymark’s Lodge.

#93 Streeter and Quarles.

#94 Actress Norma Shearer. She retired from the movies in 1942 and married a former ski instructor.

 

#95 Canadair.

#96 Redpath Sugar.

#97 The Montreal Voyageurs. They moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

#98 Lafontaine Park.

#99 Fort William Henry.

#100 The Empress Of Britain. There were 3 versions of this ship over the years. My father was on one of them in 1926. Some guy asked him if he would be interested in doing some rum running.

Colin T Paterson-Left Coast Mumblings December 2015.

Montreal Trivia Quiz For Old Farts

Bigger print for easy reading.

Trivia answers will be disclosed in 1 week.

 

 

#1 Who said “Viva La Quebec Libre” and where did he say it in Montreal?

#2 What was the name of the Montreal YMCA camp near St. Sauveur?

#3 What was the name of the bakery that did home deliveries in green trucks and where did they bake their bread?

#4 in the 1950s there was an insert in the Saturday Montreal Star. In the insert during the winter there was a large picture of an NHL hockey player each week. What was the name of the insert and who was the sports editor?

#5 Who chose the name of the the Place Ville Marie?

#6 In 1954 the Montreal Alouettes football team played the Edmonton Eskimos for the Grey Cup. Montreal was up by 5 points and had possession of the ball at the Edmonton 10 yard line with just a few minutes left in the game. What Montreal player fumbled the ball and what Edmonton player picked up the ball and ran it back ran the for the winning touchdown?

#7 What did the Bonfire Restaurant on Decarie Boulevard call their chili dogs and what did you do if you wanted curb service?

#8 What kind of beer was only available in the springtime in Montreal?

#9 In the 1950s a lot of kids read the Hardy Boys books. Many of those stories were written by a Canadian woman. What pen name did she and others who wrote the books use?

#10 What 2 hotels had outdoor restaurants on Sherbrooke Street in the 1950s?

#11 Who was the manager of the Montreal Royals baseball team from 1950-1953 who later went on to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Los Angeles Dodgers for 22 years?

#12 Name 4 rides at Belmont Park.

#13 Who was the criminal and mass murderer the Quebec police shot to death in 1975?

#14 What was the name of the band leader who lived in Hampstead, had a long gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, and later became the musical director of The Smothers Brothers Show and The Glenn Campbell Good Time Hour in the US?

#15 What was stolen from St. Joseph’s Oratory in 1973 and recovered a year later?

#16 What Montreal mayor once lived in NDG on Marcil Avenue?

#17 What other team did Sam Etcheverry coach in Montreal other than the Alouettes?  

#18 Why did so many First Nations men from the Montreal area go to New York City in the 1950s?

#19 What Montreal Canadien hockey player once wrestled a bear?

#20 What was the name of the florist on Cote de Neige Road near the Mount Royal Cemetery and what distinction did it have?

#21 What was the name of the deli next door to the Seagram’s Building?

#22 Who took over the West End Gang after Dunie Ryan was killed?

#23 What day of the week did bank robberies occur most in Montreal in the 1950s?

#24 What was the name of the American auto racer who raced at St. Jovite in the 1960s whose family owned a baby food company? What car did he race in?

#25 Name 5 Montreal phone number prefixes from the 1950s. (Example: Dexter 7095).  

#26 In the Dick and Jane books in grade school they had a younger sister, a cat, a dog, and an uncle. Can you name all 4 of them?

#27 Back in the day in Montreal some boys wore “flying boots” in the winter. Did they have zippers or snaps and how many?

#28 There used to be a pinball arcade on Ste. Catherine Street a few blocks east of Atwater around 1960. Do you know what it was called?

#29 Name 3 characters who were featured in Harvey comics.

#30 Who was the first player picked by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft in 1968?

#31 What year did the streetcars stop running in Montreal?

#32 What kind of fish is gefilte fish?

#33 What was the name of the hill in Westmount where some kids learned how to ski in the 50s?

#34 Name 5 “Classic” comic books and how much did they cost in the 50s?

#35 Who was Mike Fink?

#36 Back in the 50s Montrealers first started getting US American TV stations with their antennas. Where were the US cities and towns located and what US networks did they belong to?

#37 In the early 1960s Japanese motorcycles started to be marketed in Montreal. What was the name of the big motorcycle store in downtown Montreal?

#38 What two types of businesses did the most advertising in Montreal high school yearbooks in the 50s and 60s?

#39 Who was called “the most famous woman in Montreal” in the 1940s and 1950s?

#40 Name 3 two wheel bike manufacturers whose bikes were sold in Montreal in the 1950s.

#41 What was the name of the French Canadian family shown on TV in Montreal in the 1950s in both French and English?

#42 In what suburb of Montreal was the first A & W restaurant located?

#43 Years ago Montreal radio station CKGM had at different times two shit disturbers who liked to rile people up including French Canadians. One of them was American and the other was born in Montreal. Can you name them?

#44 What famous Montrealer spent part of WW2 in an internment camp?

#45 What Montreal restaurant was known for their “Pu-Pu Platter”?

#46 At what movie theatre in Montreal did Clayton Moore AKA The Lone Ranger make a personal appearance in the 1950s?

#47 What was Magic Tom’s last name and at what restaurant did he regularly entertain?

#48 What ex-Montrealer played football in the CFL and later became an American League baseball umpire?

#49 What number did the busses that ran along Ste. Catherine Street have on them?

#50 How do “idiot mittens” work?

#51 Name 4 hockey players who played for both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens between 1955 and 1975.

#52 What cigarette brand had fly fishing as a theme on their packages?

#53 What was the name of the puppet on early Montreal TV who was dressed as a convict?

#54 What was CFCF TV’s Don McGowan’s mother’s maiden name and what did she do in 1928?

#55 What was the name of the Montreal nightclub that specialized in Dixieland music in the 1960s?

#56 What were you given when you ordered a Dixie Cup ice cream?

#57 What was Maypo?

#58 What Canadian boxer fought light-heavyweight Archie Moore for the world championship at the Montreal Forum in 1958?

#59 What was the name of the stadium built for Expo 67?

#60 What was Tom Terrific’s dog’s name?

#61 In what building in Montreal were Britain’s gold reserves stored during WW2?

#62 Who owned the Montreal folkie nightclub The New Penelope in the 1960s?

#63 Name 3 companies that made wooden hockey sticks.

#64 What was the best place to order poutine in Montreal in 1955?

#65 Two jazz greats were born in Montreal. One played piano and the other played the trumpet. What were their names?

#66 The Richard hockey riot happened in 1955. Who did Rocket Richard fight in the hockey game that night and what was noticeable about that player that made him look different than most other hockey players?

#67 What Montreal city councillor was instrumental in getting a major league baseball team (the Expos) for the city?

#68 Ted Zeigler, AKA Johnny Jellybean, was a regular on what US TV show in the 1970s?

#69 In 1965 a Montreal gangster broke out of prison and wrote then Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson a letter while he was on the lam. What was the gangster’s name?

#70 In 1967 the Winston Churchill Pub opened for business on Crescent Street. About a year or so later another nightclub opened next door that was rowdier than the Churchill and had cheaper beer. What was it called?

#71 What was the name of the pub near or on St. Lawrence boulevard that catered to the lunch crowd by carving hefty portions of roast beef?Birds flew around the pub and the rumour was that your beer was free if a bird crapped in it.

#72 Before they were a big deal on TV the comedy team of Rowan and Martin performed at what hotel in Montreal?

#73 What Montreal Alouette football player became well known for his portrait paintings?

#74 Name two events other than hockey, wrestling, and boxing that happened every year at the old Montreal Forum?

#75 What Montreal bar-b-que chicken restaurant has been in business the longest and when did it open?

#76 What famous American visited Montreal for 9 days in the 1860s?

#77 Who is credited with “cleaning up” Montreal in the 1940s and 1950s?

#78 What Montreal born singer had hit songs with “Lovin You Ain’t Easy” in 1971 and “What The Hell I Got” in 1975?

#79 Who founded The Montreal Neurological Institute?

#80 On what street was “Pigeon Hole Parking” located and what was unique about the place?

#81 What was the name of those tiny candy pellets that set your mouth on fire?

#82 Name 5 movie theatres that were located on Ste. Catherine Street in the 1950s.

#83 What field did the Montreal Royals play baseball on, what year did they cease operating in Montreal, and where did they move to?

#84 Who was Pierre Lalonde?

#85 What was the old name for Kahnawake?

#86 In 2006 Old Dutch Potato Chips acquired a potato chip company that was originated in Portland, Maine. The brand they bought was very popular in Montreal for decades starting in the late 1940s.. What was the brand name Old Dutch bought (and never used)?

#87 What high school did CBC radio story teller Stuart McLean attend when he was growing up in Montreal?

#88 What does “mille-feuille” mean in English and what is it?

#89 What colours were the match covers from Ben’s Delicatessen?

#90 What bottling company had a huge sign by the old Decarie Boulevard underpass?

#91 What former Montreal Alouette football coach was partly responsible for introducing the single post goal post?

#92 Name 3 bars in St. Sauveur from the 1950s and 1960s.

#93 What Montreal sporting goods chain went bankrupt in 1973? At one time they had stores in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, New York, and San Francisco.

#94 What Hollywood actress who was born in Montreal had a brother named Douglas who was instrumental in the development of sound in movies?

#95 What Canadian aviation company manufactured planes in St. Laurent, Quebec starting in 1944?

#96 What Montreal sugar company was established in 1844?

#97 From 1969-1971 the Montreal Canadiens hockey team had a minor league team that also played at the Montreal Forum. What were they called and where did they move to?

#98 What Montreal park was once known as Logan Park?

#99 In the 1950s and 1960s many Montrealers vacationed at Lake George, New York. What was the name of the reconstructed fort there?

#100 What ship brought more English immigrants to Montreal and Canada than any other?