Heritage Oshawa Web Scrape - Memories of Oshawa - 1960's - 1970's Part 2

The Heritage Department of the City of Oshawa had a Memories of Oshawa web page.  It was taken down when they re-did their website and the content wasn't saved, but I web-scraped it to keep the memories of Oshawa alive during the time as Neil Young put it, when "all our changes were there".  Oshawa has changed drastically since those halcyon 1970's and my time at OCHS .  This is part 2 of the web scrape. More to come.

Posted by Jackie 
My father grew up on Athol street and I believe he went to Eastdale high school in the mid-late 60's. He met my mom Beth at some point. My grandparents on my mom side owned Coulters. I'm not sure if that's the right name but that's what my mom called it. My grandparents on my fathers side worked at Coulters.

While looking back into my family history I realized I have a lot of family connections in this town;

Posted by Steve
We live in the Old train ticket station on Knights Roadd in cedardale is this true house was buillt in 1900.

Posted by Robert
Almost certain that the station wagon used by the "Popcorn man" was a Vauxhall.
- Otto Schwartz a gunsmith shop located across from the Cenotaph on Simcoe South. A true master craftsman.
- Hanging out at the Sunset Variety on Hortop St. Drove the shop keeper Mike crazy trying to keep the kids out of the way of paying customers. Only years later have I now grown to appreciate his amazing tolerance of youth.
Wish I knew his last name.
- Waiting in the car wash across from the A&W on Simcoe North for someone worthy to drag race down Simcoe.
Possibly a Mustang GTA from Brambley Motors or a Camaro Z/28 from GM's Experimental Workshop by the North Plant.
- Oshawa was car crazy.
- Hordes of Honda's, 20 or more in packs buzzing up and down Simcoe St. in the evenings.

Posted by Allen
Do you remember Crown Taxi It was operated by Mr Gamagi?

Posted by Kathy
I was raised in Cedardale. I went to Cedardale Public School and lived on Conant Street. I loved Gangemi's icecream cones. The icecream was in cardboard rolls. The flavors were vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. They were 5 cents each. I was born in 1958. I also went to Donevan Collegiate.

Posted by Allen
I remember the chip truck parked in the evening on weekends in front of the post office at Simcoe S and Athol St. My friend Gus and I would work in the truck for an hour or so while the owner went to the Lancaster Hotel to have a few beer.

We knew nothing about making French Fries and I never forgot what he said. "when the potatoes float in the hot oil they are done". Our pay was a PAPER bag of chips. We did it 3 or 4 times. FUN when you are 14 or 15 years old.

Posted by Allan
I worked on Mike's Chip truck for 3 years. He would pick us up at Cedardale school at 4 pm and then we would drive all the neighborhoods til we finished at the Queen's Hotel on Simcoe North at around midnight then walk home to Cedardale at midnight munching on a big bag of fries, what else, all the way home. Mike lived off of Bloor St., and we would go in Sat. morning and peel & cut the fries to cook. Can you imagine the govt. allowing anyone to drive around with kids in an old truck with boiling oil today. What a great memory.

Posted by Frank

It's fun to read all of the old memories of this wonderful town. We all love it.  My best memory is the GET(OCVI), Rose Bowl, Barn Hears, the hardware store on King Street where you could get nails by the pound and the drive-in theater. Remember CKLB radio?

Posted by Allen
There was a pool hall involved in the Fashion Village Fire and guess what? One of the pool tables was sold and quess to who? The Oshawa Fire Department union, and the pool table was moved to the Fire Hall at 111 Simcoe N. Ironic!!

1972 Oshawa Generals - Two OCHS Students on the Team

(Click picture to enlarge)

Two students from OCHS were on the Oshawa Generals Team in 1972.  Goalie Rick St. Croix who is seated in the first row, second from right, went on to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL, and Larry Hopkins, 3rd from right in the second row, went on to play for the Winnipeg Jets.  Both Rick and Larry were a year ahead of me in high school, in my brother's class. Quite amazing since we were a small school.

Heritage Oshawa Web Scrape - Memories of Oshawa - 1960's - 1970's Part 1

The Heritage Department of the City of Oshawa had a Memories of Oshawa web page.  It was taken down when they re-did their website and the content wasn't saved, but I web-scraped it to keep the memories of Oshawa alive during the time as Neil Young put it, when "all our changes were there".  Oshawa has changed drastically since those halcyon 1970's and my time at OCHS .  This is part 1 of the web scrape. More to come.

Posted by Mike
I've been thinking about this one for some time, does anyone remember trampolines outside at the south end ? of the Oshawa Centre. you paid a small amount and could bounce away ! I also remember going for groceries on fridays with my parents at Loblaws in the centre. there was a booth inside and I'd be treated to a hot dog and orange crush, my favourite.

Posted by John
I remember taking my CCM bicycle to Mr. Drayton's bicycle repair on Kenneth where ACE Upholstery is. It was dark inside, and he could fix it , but had I been riding over curbs, was his question. I assured him I had not of course a lie. He was as dark and foreboding as his shop.

Posted by John 
You could walk down Mary Street and look into the GM factory and watch them wet sanding the car bodies and staging them for the paint booth. Go on down to Karns Drug's lunch counter and have a hot dog & coke for 25 cents. Then to Regent theatre for the latest movie for 15 cents.

Posted by John 
Anyone remember Zolies Forum? Was a Disco in the OC back in the 70s, lights under the dance floor and the whole thing. :-) Learned a thing or two there when I was in public school maybe 11-12 years old. Buddy's older brother was the bouncer so we got in. What a blast, heard Blondie's Heart of glass for the first time there!

Posted by Jon
Incredible how things have changed for children. We rode our bikes without helmets and rode in cars without seatbelts. We could own a .22 rifle at age ten and a BB gun before that.

I thought nothing of going to the movies by myself at age eight(15 cents),and you could buy a pretty good balsa and tissue paper Easy Built model airplane kit (manufactured in Oshawa on Switzer Drive) for 25 cents at Joe Flynn's Sportsman's Shop or Pollards Hobby Shop.
We spent many an happy hour in the "Hills and Dales", a beautiful, wild meadow bounded by Rossland Road, Ritson, Hillcroft and the tracks of the Oshawa Railway's electric trolley line behind the backyards of Grierson Street. It seemed to run to the horizons to us,and was filled with milkweed,wild asparagus, mushrooms, dock, nettles and wild creatures of all kinds; a paradise for kids.Google tells me the little bit left is called Centennial Park...sigh.

Posted by Maralyn
One of the garage bands that I remember was the DuKanes with Frank Pollard, Bob Smerage, Bob Mitchel, Paul Scarko,( all from Oshawa) Billy Gogan and Bobby Rae. Another one was The Linconaires with many Oshawa boys in it. I went to two high schools there and lived there from the time I was two until I got married at twenty one and moved to Toronto. We are back in Durham now. Love the memories

Posted by Luke 
...have enjoyed reading many of the other entries....grew up near Connaught Park....attend SJ Philips and O'Neill...nice to see Karns Drugs posts....I remember Mr. Andrews from the 1960's and the delicious milkshakes from the "fountain" at the rear of the store...haven't seen any reference to Virginia's Fish and Chips (near Ontario Motor Sales) or Dancey's Shoes (Doug Wilson's now I believe)....any memories or photos of these two places...thanks again

Posted by Hendy 
I was born in Oshawa ..went to Holy Cross,OCCI,Port Perry High for one year them back to OCCI. Have memories of Ward's pool room, the "Four Corners" , Genosha Hotel(Harry's Hideaway)..Biltmore,Marks,& Regent theatres...lived most of the time on Cloverdale St. Barnhart's, The Jube, The Get, UAW dances on Sat afternoons...Geneva Park...Weekends at Greenhurst...LOL this has been fun! Thanks for the memories!

If you have a memory of Oshawa during these days, please leave a comment.

Scan From Heritage '71

This football picture was scanned from OCHS Heritage 1971 yearbook.  It was featured prominently in the yearbook.  I was on the Yearbook committee but I can't remember why this pic was included.  It doesn't appear to be an OCHS team from what I can tell (if someone knows better, please leave a comment).  Also the building in the background suggests this was an away game.  This photo was taken by either Paul Gimpelj, John Marinzel or Graham See.

Note (update): Upon closer examination, I am beginning to think that it may be an OCHS team.  Number 34 in front may be David Cooper.

Scans from 1971 Yearbook

The frontispiece picture of this blog comes from the 1971 OCHS yearbook.  I was a camera buff and was collecting old cameras at flea markets and auction sales. I actually made the picture with the chess set in the winter of 1971 when I was bored and decided to shoot some film.

When I started putting up these pics, I was in the Bahamas, and just had an external hard drive with my scanned negatives.  I didn't have access to most of my stuff and the yearbook.

Now that things have quieted down, I will start scanning pics that I missed from this yearbook. On a whim, I scanned the cover of the yearbook itself. In the sepia-toned black and white pic, you wouldn't know that the paper was gold-coloured.

The hockey pic above actually made it into the yearbook, even though it is out of focus and washed out. I think that it was because there was a dearth of sports and hockey pictures.  Even though it is blurry, I think that the player attempting a slapshot is Jim Nemish.

Yearbook Executive - 1971

(click on pic for larger image)

Left to Right: John Marinzel (Photo Editor), Sister Marie Howorth (Staff Advisor), Joanne Bond (Editor in Chief), Kevin O'Shea (Copy Editor), Liz Walsh (Art Editor), Frances Schillings (Business Editor).

Football Team Visits Bowmanville Highschool

Here our Saints went on the road to play Bowmanville Highschool Redmen in late 1970. We beat them convincingly.

Dance Pic from 1971 Yearbook

This washed out photo was in the 1971 year book. All of the people in this photo were in the graduating class of 1971 with the exception of Lucy Jana who was in my class.

Left to right: Geraldine O'Brien, Lucy Jana, Tom Adamcewicz, and NOT Maureen Kirkland. (My sources say that Gisele Cormier is the next bet. Sorry to Maureen for the mis-identification.)

Marc Adams - Quarterback

In a previous blog entry, (see a few earlier), I outlined the trailer in the back of the 1971 yearbook, where the lyrics to "A Place In The Sun", by Stevie Wonder and Englebert Humperdinck, was profiled with pictures of the student body during the year.

This was one such photo, of the rear end of Number 10, the quarterback Marc Adams, finding his place in the sun.

Andy Tass - Winter Carnival

During the Winter Carnival of 1970-1971, tricycle races were held in the hallways as part of the festivities. Here Andy Tass shows his form while Willie Cannavan laughs in the background and Liz Walsh is shown at the far right.

Initiation 1970

This ritualized hazing called student initiation would never be allowed these days.  Essentially the Grade 10 students got to initiate and humiliate the Minor Niners or incoming Grade 9 class.  Here Dale Irwin is being tormented by Mike Goreski while Victor Suppan laughs in the background.  Dale's face is covered with black shoe polish. He is being made to eat some bitter berries while being sprayed with hairspray while Mike Goreski applies wood glue on him.  All in fun?

The 1971 Yearbook Committee

(Click on pic to make larger)

This is a continuation of the scans of the 1971 yearbook. There is damage to the pic in the upper right.

Back row (left to right): Carol McLaughlin, Margaret Walsh, Sally Howson, Linda McCabe, Liz Martenyk, Brenda McNeely, Cathy Broadbent, Cathy Coros, Tim McKenna

Middle row (left to right): Joan Yanch, Julie Price, Sue Meringer, Carol Nemeth, Peggi Levandoski, Anne Fegan, Mary McGeown.

Front row (left to right): Glenn McLaughlin, Stephen O'Shea, yours truly, Deidre Fegan, Mary Ellen Van de Valk, Lynn Fournier.

Winter of 1970-71 - Skating at Oshawa Civic Auditorium

(click for larger image)

This photo was part of the "Place in the Sun" trailer of the 1971 yearbook. (See the post a few down with Cindy Germanis' pic).

The only person that I can positively identify is Len MacAvoy in the front foreground. I think that I see Paul Coros, Kathy Andrews, George Dragota and Mary Tass in the line, but I can't be sure.

The Oshawa Civic Auditorium was a landmark. I saw Bobby Orr play there with the Oshawa Generals. I saw the Green Gaels play lacrosse there. Of course we went skating there, and to watch hocky games by such teams as the Flying Fathers and other local hockey teams. Our school hockey team played there on occasion as well. As a kid, I also saw the circus there.

The Civic was demolished in the 2010 timeframe.  Like everything, time waits for no man.  Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

The Remembrance Day Play

This was a dramatic Remembrance Day on the stage of the OCHS auditorium by senior students (at least senior to me -- meaning older than Grade 10). There are soldiers lying on makeshift straw beds  in a chapel during the world war. It was quite a production.

Sharon Benson Gets Her Diploma

The year is 1971. Sharon Benson gets her diploma at the graduation ceremony. Handing out the diplomas (face just barely visible far upper right) is Father Philip Wiley, parish priest at St. Gregory the Great. Monsignor Dwyer must have been busy, because he usually did the honours of handing out the diploma for years.

I am in awe of Sharon's hairstyle. Although it is more a 1960's style, it is truly a creation held together by hairspray.  Let us spray.

Claude D'Allaire Accepts Diploma

The year is 1971. Claude D'Allaire (also known as Dallaire) accepts his diploma. I believe that the gentleman giving out the diplomas is an old time school inspector named Mr. Finan (possibly Mr. Ed Finan).  I remember him visiting the school at St. Joe's when I was a primary student there.

After The Hockey Game

I don't know what restaurant this was shot at, but I think this is a meal after a hockey game.  Left is Matt Masternak, center is Mike Noonan and Mike Murphy wears the hat on the right.  It looks like a meal of burgers and fries and the year is 1971.

New Scans From 1971 Yearbook - Cindy Germanis

When I first started this blog, I was based in Nassau, the Bahamas, and the content that I had with me, was a disk full of scanned negatives from my high school daze.  All of my stuff was in storage, including yearbooks.  Just lately I started going through my stuff, and came across the 1971 yearbook that appears in the frontispiece photo of this blog.

I had just joined the photo club in 1971, and Paul Gimpelj was the president.  He had taken a lot of the photos in the 1971 yearbook. However many were taken by John Marinzel, and strangely enough, I have pics gleaned from negatives which were 126 format. That is the format for an Instamatic film cartridge - a cheapie camera.  Gimpelj et al had Asahi Pentax Spotmatics, which I consider to be one of the nicest 35 mm SLR cameras designed.  It fit in to your hand. It had a smaller footprint than most, and the precision came through everywhere.

The 1971 yearbook had a trailer of sorts -- song lyrics with photographs.  The song was "A Place In The Sun" -- a hit first made famous by Stevie Wonder in 1963.  The lyrics are:

Like a long, lonely stream,

I keep runnin' towards a dream.

Movin' on, movin' on.

Like a branch on a tree,

I keep reachin' to be free.

Movin' on, movin' on.

There's a place in the sun,

Where there's hope for everyone,

Where my poor, restless heart's got to run.

There's a place in the sun,

And before my life is done,

Gotta find me a place in the sun.

Like an old dusty road,

I get weary from the load.

Movin' on, movin' on.

Like this tired, troubled Earth,

I been rollin' since my birth.

Movin' on, movin' on.

There's a place in the sun,

Where there's hope for everyone,

Where my poor, restless heart's gotta run.

There's a place in the sun,

And before my life is done,

Gotta find me a place in the sun.

Gotta find me a place in the sun.

The trailer in the 1971 yearbook was just the chorus -- "  There's a place in the sun,   " and the very first picture was of Cindy Germanis -- pictured above.  She is dressed up for the Sadie Hawkins Day dance.  Sadie Hawkins Day is a cultural icon that has passed into oblivion.  If you don't know what Sadie Hawkins Day means, here is a Wikipedia explainer:

The Sadie Hawkins dance is named after the very popular Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins, created by cartoonist Al Capp.  In the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day fell on a given day in November (Capp never specified an exact date). The unmarried women of Dogpatch got to chase the bachelors and "marry up" with the ones that they caught.  The event was introduced in a daily strip which ran on November 15, 1937. This is unlike traditional dances, where the men chase the women, this empowers women to chase after what they want and not just wait for it to walk their way.

In the U.S. and Canada, this concept was popularized by establishing dance events to which the woman invited a man of her choosing, instead of demurely waiting for a man to ask her. The first known such event was held on November 9, 1938.  Within a year, hundreds of similar events followed suit. By 1952, the event was reportedly celebrated at 40,000 known venues.  It became a woman-empowering rite at high school and college campuses, and the tradition continues in some regional cultures.

Wow - never thought that I would need a cultural explainer for a simple photograph.  If you click on the Sadie Hawkins tag below this entry, you will get pictures of Marrying Sam, another character from the cartoon strip -- who was played by Leo Barrett. This faux wedding ceremony at the dance, was to complete the Sadie Hawkins tradition of a woman catching a man for marriage.

Over the coming weeks, I will try and digitize the 1971 yearbook.  At last, more content for this blog.

Before his death, Joe Pender used to chide me for not including news about Dwyer in general.  I reminded him that this blog was named My OCHS, or the high school of my era, and not what it became after I left. So the concentration is of content of the time that I walked those halls.

More Found Negatives - Frank Sachetti - Physics Teacher

I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but I went to the discard pile of my negatives from my school year, and found some that didn't quite make the grade.  These were virtually unprintable with a darkroom on photographic paper, but with a negative scanner and digital manipulation, you can at least get some sort of primitive image.

Frank Sachetti was a very cool guy and a good physics teacher.

Vintage Stella Barnett

(Click on photo for larger image)

I haven't written an entry in a dog's age.  Not only have I been busy, but the premise of this blog is My OCHS or the high school from my era.  I have pretty much run out of content from the mounds of negatives of the photos that I took when I occupied those halls on Stevenson Road North in Oshawa.  I still get over 1,500 hits a month, but it has really slowed down since I started, and the 50th Anniversary of the school has come and gone.

As of late, I have written a software bot to troll through online records, and it was harvesting some newspaper archives from 1962.  More specifically, it was the Canadian Statesman newspaper out of Bowmanville.  My grandparents lived north of Bowmanville and the local correspondent wrote up the weekly goings-on of the village.  It was like the Facebook of olden days.

So the bot harvested a copy of the paper from Wednesday July 11th, 1962.  The bot puts them in a directory after finding a key word, and then I manually look through the paper.

Imagine my surprise, when I saw a picture of my typing teacher, Stella Barnett.  She was younger than when I encountered her.  I guess that previous to her stint at teaching OCHS, she taught at Oshawa Business College located at 10 Simcoe Street North in Oshawa. With that address it was just a stone's throw from the Four Corners (King and Simcoe).

The ad was for Oshawa Business College, and this is a transcript of it:

MRS. STELLA BARNETT --

Joined the staff of the Oshawa Business College in September 1954 as Registrar and College Secretary.  She is the head of the Typewriting Department and gives expert instruction in typing and duplicating machines and is Manager of the College Public Stenographic Department.

She is Registrar of the College and is responsible for student registrations, accounts and supplies.  She is Placement Officer of the College and maintains a constant contact with future employers of the College graduates.

She too, brings to the classrooms some years of experience in telephone technique, banking, bookkeeping and procedural experience.

Further bios in the ad showed one for Mr. M.C. Barnett. It must have been her husband.  He was the owner of the Oshawa Business College and had a branch office in Lindsay, Ontario.

Running across this satisfied a curiosity on the background of teachers that were seminal in my life.  I am grateful today for the ability to type. I type accurately and quickly and it has been a boon in my tech career.

Addendum:
Further digging around newspaper archives shows that ("Stella") May Estelle Barnett (née Pursel) died in Oshawa on January 17th, 1975.  Her husband, Malcolm C. Barnett died on January 16, 1983 in Oshawa.

Just got a note from Len S. staying that he knew that Stella Barnett was still alive in 1981.  I guess that my research source (below) is wrong.