No 1 shows a Northbound Blue Bonnets streetcar just past the crossover the Southward Track and the curved spur into Blue Bonnets Raceway to the West/ Right..
No 2 Shows soutbound streetcar having just crossed road at West end of Jean Talon/Namur into Blue Bonnets. Crossover for streetcars into BB can be seen behind, with spur diverging to West/Left in distance.
No 4 Westbound car on Rte 91 Lachine at St Pierre ( Bascule Bridge )
No 5 Nice View @ Youville Shops near the end.
That building with the huge "Spaghetti" sign is, of course, the Bonfire restaurant located at 7450 Decarie --later to be renamed 77 Sunset Strip--before subsequently being demolished circa 1964 for the construction of the depressway.
ReplyDeleteAt 7575 just north of the Bonfire was a Petrofina service station, now a Petro Canada.
On today's map the Bonfire's would be about where that Bell Canada building is now.
The 1955 Lovell's Directory shows Miss Montreal restaurant at 7600 and the original Orange Julep then at 8000 Decarie just north of Ferrier Street which by the way is named after James Ferrier (rhyming with Scottish Terrier!) of Scottish descent. See:
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ferrier_james_11E.html
* * *
Mr. MP&I must surely remember the railway strike of 1950. See this:
http://www.exporail.org/can_rail/Canadian%20Rail_no478_2000.pdf
Thank You, Sir! I could not remember the NAME of the restaurant, but, DID know it was not Miss Montreal, which was further North. Ruby Foos was on the other side of the street.
ReplyDeleteI see I did not proof read my own caption. The northbound streetcar in photo No 1 is a Cartierville car, not a Blue Bonnets one, as it has aready PASSED the crossover to enter the raceway spur to the right/West.
There is a view of a B B car 'crossing over' to enter the spur and I was thinking about that, I guess?
Getting old.
Sorry.
Photo No 2 is taken from a concrete-edged ramp with sloped ends where once horses were unloaded from railway boxcars brought by a Tramways' electric locomotive, a small siding once there for that purpose.
I do remember the Railway Strike, and Saturday postal delivery and phones within the city that could only be reached by going thru the Operator from dial phones.
They, in turn, had to lift their receiver and ask the Operator to plug in and ring other subscribers on their own exchange, or ask the Operator to dial the number on dial exchanges, their telephones having an Apparatus Blank in hole where dial would go.
We had dial on Saranac and the set was a metal 302 w/cloth cords.
Many employees worked a half-day on Sat into the Fifties.
Horses still pulled bread and milk wagons, altho' POM had trucks as did ice delivery for home ice boxes.
Just some views to show the changes from the way things were back when.
Thank You.
Correction: Circa the 1950s the Petrofina was on the EAST side of Decarie at address 7575 just south of Pare Street.
ReplyDeleteBlue Bonnets' actual address was 7400 Decarie in point of fact!
Dominion Lock at 7301 Decarie is still there although it has since been renamed Kaba Ilco.
I once took a Caribbean cruise on the Mardi Gras (formerly Empress of Canada) and noticed that my cabin's lock was made by Dominion Lock!
Royal Stewart Beverages bottling works was at 7335 Decarie, later to become Cott.
Not sure if EVERY 514 telephone exchange required Operator assistance for certain local connections. Some research with Bell would be needed to identify such timelines.
Although TouchTone was introduced in Montreal around 1967, it was still not available to all 514 area subscribers until the mid to late 1970s and, of course, was more expensive than dial service for years afterwards.
Many old exchanges in Montreal were Manual where the Operator inserted plug cords and moved keys to ring and connect subscribers.
ReplyDeleteAs technology progressed, automatic switching equipment was deveoped to complete calls, usually with a Rotary 'Dial' on a telephone instrument.
This equipment was blended in at first, then totally new 'all dial' exchanges were constructed
The first 'all-dial' exchange in Montreal c. 1923?? I did not check.
So, SOME exchanges in 514 did indeed used Operators at first, and later dial, but many COs were built later as all-dial.
The day may already be here, in a large city context, where 'COs' are All-Cellular without cables, poles or drops at all, and 'Land Line' service NOT availabe.
It would be interesting to see a good map of exchange areas and what streets were covered by, HUnter on Monkland, and WEllington and old POntiac. let say.
Obviously, where exchanges abutted, one side of the street would be HU and the other WE at the exchange cable outer limits.
There was a Relay Test number, 1181? for coin phones which caused the coin relay to sequence to accept coins deposited above it.
When this number was dialled from a home phone, it returned a lovely Click-Clack sound. NOW, if one dialled a far away exchange, say St Therese, a local call, which routed the call thru several step-by-step exchanges en route, an AWSOME string of Click-Clacks ensued as relays sequenced in all the COs on the line.
Did not work on Cross Bar, which was new at the time as in HUnter 2
1111 As I recall, produced a high-pitched tone, back then.
1186 or 1187, later 41096 07 were to activate ringers on either side of the line to ground in Ring or Tip party service. 41091 would ring both sides of the line in sequence.
You could, as a joke, wire one telephone to the Ring side of the line and another to the Tip side in the same house.
41091 would ring the telephones separately in sequence.
Magneto Telephones were used in Huberdeau area into 1960s
There used to be a White Rose at Guelph and Westminster.
The folks on Hudson, next over, were choked when the street was cut and made into loops btwn Guelph and Kildare.
Many years ago.
Thank You.
The photo of the 3500-series PCC cars piled in a heap at the scrap yard is particularly sad.
ReplyDeleteI remember how fascinating it was to ride a PCC on the "29 Outremont" line. They were a huge change from the usual noisy, boxy, old-looking and heavy Montreal cars. The PCCs were much quieter, streamlined, modern-looking, with foam rubber seats instead of rattan and they had all those metal stanchions inside the car! They also accelerated like jackrabbits. The most fascinating part was how the operator controlled the car with foot pedals instead of the hand controller used on all other Montreal cars. Many motormen would be punching holes in transfers with their hands while simultaneously operating the car with their foot!
Until 1962 -- three years after the PCCs stopped running -- they sat in back of the Youville Shops where some tracks had been kept intact to store the cars. When the MTC was unsuccessful in finding buyers for the cars, they were finally trucked to the scrap yard.
Built in late 1943 and early 1944, they had only been in service for 15 years before being retired in 1959. Even in 1962, they were still only 18 years old, young for a streetcar.
Oddly Toronto never showed an interest in the Montreal cars even though they had one of the largest PCC fleets in North America. Then again, there was a glut of PCCs on the market at the time as many U.S. cities were also getting rid of their PCC streetcars.
Although Montreal Tramway Company officials had participated in the Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC), a group of North American transit executives set up to design a new modern streetcar, they weren't that excited about actually buying PCC cars. Some felt the lighter PCC cars might not operate too well in the city's renowned heavy winter snowfalls.
The war changed all that. Every available streetcar and more were pressed into service to handle the huge crowds working at war plants at a time when gasoline and tires were strictly rationed.
Originally Montreal was supposed to get 25 PCC cars but the wartime Transit Controller's Office later reduced the order to 18. Vancouver also received their first PCC cars as part of that same order.
The bodies came from the St. Louis Car Company and final assembly was done at the Canadian Car & Foundry plant, the large building seen in the distance on the right in the photo of the "91 Lachine" car at the St. Pierre stop.
Streetcars from the plant were often tested on the private right-of-way used by the Lachine cars. It wasn't unusual for a Montreal Tramways car to be followed by a red Vancouver car lettered for the B.C. Electric Railway! Interestingly, the red exterior of the Vancouver cars and their interiors were that of the Toronto PCC cars. Vancouver cars were normally painted in a different shade of red.
Only 17 of the 18 in Montreal's 3500-3517 class were sent to the scrap yard with number 3517 being saved for the Canadian Railway Historical Association's eventual museum at St. Constant/ Delson. 3517 was the last car built for Montreal. (Incidentally Delson is an appropriately "railroady" name, being a contraction of DELaware & HudSON, a railroad that has a junction there. CP owns the company today.)
Further to my last posting about the PCCs...
ReplyDeleteWhile my family rode them often, I never had a chance to ride them in their final assignments. That was too far from home.
When the "29 Outremont" route was converted to buses on August 31, 1958, the PCCs were moved to the east end.
By then, only a few streetcar routes were left and even fewer could accommodate the PCCs because of operating rules as explained later.
Most often they were used on the "54 Rosemont" route but they also occasionally served the "10 Delormier" line until that route was converted to buses July 19, 1959, just a month and a half before all streetcar service ended.
The Rosemont and Papineau routes were the last two streetcar routes in the city operating until August 30, 1959.
While the "45 Papineau" route shared a good portion of its route with the "54 Rosemont," the PCCs were only used on the Rosemont route.
The PCCs required a turning loop at the ends of their routes, something the Papineau route only had on its south end. There was a "wye" at the north end -- a track arrangement that allowed a car to make a three-point turn to reverse direction.
Therefore older one-man cars were used on the Papineau route. MTC regulations only permitted streetcars to run in reverse for short movements if there was a lookout at the back of the car to watch for pedestrians and other traffic. So how did they do that with the older one-man cars?
Several of those cars had been modified with an ingenious system. The shop forces had rigged up a small duplicate control station hidden behind the rearmost passenger seats. At the end of the route, the motorman would remove his controller handle and reverser and take them to the back of the car and insert them into the slots of the small rear end control station. This way he had a view of traffic behind the car and could also make sure the collector wheel at the end of the trolley pole would get through the switches in the overhead trolley wire while the car moved in reverse.
The PCCs did not have this system and furthermore, their rear windows didn't open so the motorman couldn't guide the trolley pole with the retriever rope if necessary.
The Outremont line had been chosen as the PCCs' primary route since the cars' introduction because its middle segment had long stretches without traffic lights and older streetcars only shared the route at either end. This allowed the motormen to really take advantage of the PCC's quick acceleration and braking. The route also travelled through a great variety of neighbourhoods giving Montrealers of many backgrounds a chance to ride the new cars.
It is unlikely that landline telephone networks will ever be discontinued for the simple reason of security, as it has already been proven that cellphone service has frequently failed due to overloading during emergencies. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/04/5-reasons-to-keep-a-landline-phone/index.htm
One way to determine central office exchange boundaries between districts is to compare adjacent building addresses alongside their subscribers' respective telephone numbers in the directory.
I once did this to determine the "cut-off point" on a certain street where one resident of a duplex or house had a different exchange than his next door neighbour. This requires a bit of work if one wants to spend the time.
Exchange maps do exist, of course, to telco staff. I doubt if they're considered "classified", however, so a bit of dedicated library researching should turn them up.
Click-clacks, eh? A treasury of the many mysterious sounds made by telephone exchanges can be found here:
http://www.wideweb.com/phonetrips/
Enjoy!
One story I heard was that a railfan group, CRHA?? chartered a PCC car for an excursion on Route 91 Lachine on the last day or day after service ended.
ReplyDeleteAs there was a wye at Dominion Bridge, PCCs could not be used as one-man cars as explained above.
Probably a Tramways Official or an Inspector rode the excursion in a supervisory sense, and to possibly tell the Company when they could shut the power off.
The power was turned on and off as needed later to allow work crews to remove rails, etc with electric work equipment.
A friend's Dad apparently has the Tramways station sign from Turcot? which they stopped and 'Rescued' with a switch iron on the way in.
The only PCC I ever rode was on Route 29 Outremont. We also rode a Duplex car somewhere, as my Father knew where they were running and we went and waited for one.
I rode in the hinge part for a while and marvelled how the cars 'bent' on curves and switches. ( TO has a fleet of Duplex cars in 4200 series ) We also went and rode a Train of two streetcars coupled, one Motorman, two Conductors just before they came off, and Rte 45 Papineau a day or so before it, too, was done.
We were at the final parade, got caught in the rain, and hid in the car barn.
Memories.
Thank You.
I do remember in the early 1950s riding those PCC streetcars on route 29 Outremont with their row of padded single seats on the left side.
ReplyDeleteThat seating arrangement changed with the Brill busses with their single seats installed on the right side--a situation switched over again to the left side with subsequent bus models.
Of course, one can still ride PCCs in San Francisco--and underground, too, beneath Market Street, as well as the remaining PCCs in Toronto during certain parades and on public demonstration days.
In fact, a few months ago I got lucky when visiting Toronto for a few days and happened to pick up a newspaper from the floor of an LRV streetcar to see an article mentioning a demo that very day at an east end tram car barn featuring a Peter Witt, a PCC (which took groups of fans for a ride around the block) as well as the sleek new single-ender Flexity Outlook streetcars which are scheduled to enter service this coming August 31st. See several relevant YouTube videos and this link:
http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/11/this_is_what_the_new_ttc_streetcar_looks_like/
These new trams are built by Bombardier and are similar to the basic double-ender model Flexity Classic which I rode in Adelaide a few years back like these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexity_Classic
The downside to these people-movers is that because the windows cannot be opened, the air conditioning in summer and heating in winter determines the internal environment for passengers, so that if on very hot humid days the A/C should conk out, it becomes very uncomfortable and potentially even deadly for seniors and infants. Regulations require that everyone must then disembark and board the next tram following.
In Adelaide where outside temps can go as high as 50 degrees near the pavement, I boarded a Flexity whose A/C failed and even though the majority of the acclimatized local-resident passengers stayed put roasting in their seats and no announcement to evacuate was actually made, I could not bear the heat any longer and got off sooner than I had planned. Phew!
Anyway, as a TTC official pointed out to me: Toronto is not Adelaide. Still, I would not enjoy having to leave a TTC Flexity at evening rush hour during a heat wave in the pouring rain and wait for the next one (arrgh!) so I'll stick to riding off-peak, thanks!
By the way, has anyone noticed that Toronto's 1970s-80s LRV trams have very little to prevent anyone from sticking their arm or head out and have it potentially ripped off by a speeding dump truck? Even the "warning signs" are virtually in fine print!
MP&I and Urban Legend...
ReplyDeleteApparently there was a story years ago about a Toronto motorman who learned an embarrassing lesson about the PCCs needing a loop to turn back at the end of their routes.
Supposedly the motorman, operating a new PCC, was working a route he didn't normally work. He missed turning into the loop which was supposed to be his turnaround point and kept going.
In short order he realized his mistake but it was too late. There were no further loops, junctions or wyes where he could return even if a supervisor could be his backup lookout.
It was decided to let the PCC car go to the end of the line where it would park until the end of the service day. At that time, a heavy-duty transit company truck would tow it back to a point where it could be turned.
While I can't remember the details of this tale -- but if it happened -- it would have had to have been on the old Weston line. Avon Loop at Weston near Rogers Road was the last loop after which the line continued as a double-track route. Beyond St. John's Road, it became single-track with a passing siding just north of Lawrence. After the Avon Loop, there were no other loops, junctions or wyes where a car could be turned.
I lived in Torrana for a while when the last stubs of the Bloor and the Danforth streetcars were still in use. Trolley busses were still post-war Brills and CP 8921 just up from Montreal and the Hochelaga Hill.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was a member of the Don Mills Library @ Lawrence ( 54 ) and Don Mills ( 25 ) and within, at the time, was a great soft cover book on the TTC.
As I remember, the PCC went North on Yonge to end of track and was brought back by a Witt? it having trolley poles, etc, on both ends for that service up Sheppard way.
Long time ago, could be wrong.
TTC streetcars are Wide Gauge, and somewhere else up there they had dual gauge trackage and a standard gauge freight express motor to interchange railway freight a short distance on TTC.
The spur from the CNR into the shops on the Toranna Montreal line is/was dual gauge for CNR and TTC locomotives.
On eBay recently?? was a photo of a TTC 4-wheel shop switcher with a Pantograph!! used by shop forces to add/remove Witt trailers to motor cars.
I loved it!
Lots to see in TO back then, Ned Hanlan was still in the water, a TTC Mack bus was in a scrap yard near Ned's pier, Can Car busses with windows in the roof, 1950 class I think, were in rush hour service on Spadina. Spadina Roundhouse was the place to go, Tempo just introduced with CN 3150s, the last of CLC and the Turbo Train, too, but I still hated the place.
Bitch, Bitch, Bitch. ( U.L. knows the drill. )
A heart turned to stone since Saranac.
Now a lifetime ago.
Sorry.
Thank You.
A few years ago, I rode the trams in Adelaide - at that time just one line to Glenelg - a beach community a few km from the city centre. They were using only 1920'a-vinrage stock, so it was more a sightseeing route rather than a commute. They have mostly been replaced by more modern ones.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Adelaide#mediaviewer/File:Tram351_Adelaide.jpg
Re: phone exchanges - the HUnter (48x) exchange tended to cover HDG, CSL, Montreal West, Hampstead, and parts of Westmount. If you look at Sherbrooke West in the 1960 Lovell's, you can see a mixture of WEllington and HUnter numbers in Westmount.
http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/lovell/src/1962/8.Annuaire_montr%E9alais_des_rues/S/6.Sc/110780_1962_2389.pdf
Victoria Ave. north of Sherbrooke had HU on one side and WE on the other. Above Sote St-Antoine, they are all HU until Mira, when they become HU on one side and REgent on the other. Before Queen Mary, they are all REgent.
With the help of those Lovell's which have phone numbers (1960 and later), you could create a phone exchange map. Unfortunately - exchanges such as WAlnut, DExter, and ELwood would be unavailable.
On the page Completed NPA Relief Planning - 514 the "Final Planning Document" of 2000-08-28 contains maps with all the central office boundaries in 514 as of 2000. I opened the clearest one of these in LibreOffice Draw and was pleased to discover that it's all vector artwork, and that the lines can be overlaid on a map with enough accuracy to determine which streets the boundaries run down. Sometime when I have a moment I'll import them into mapping software to produce something that can be consulted easily.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I have pinned the central offices themselves (current and historical) at Montreal telephone central offices.
I have dates for the changeover from manual to dial across the city (in my files, not on the web). The process lasted from 1925 to 1957. (The first dial CO, Lancaster (Ontario/Saint-Urbain), opened in December 1923 with manual service; it went automatic in April 1925.)
Also old exchange names (2L-5N and 2L-4N) at Montreal telephone exchange geography.
Thank You, Sir Justin. Anything along those lines is of great interest to those who worked in the Step-by Step Era
ReplyDeleteWhen the Dial was disappearing. In BSP-Speak it was called a 'Fingerwheel.'
I am not going to get too elaborate here, so Mr. Urban legend will not nit pick on, and attempt to condescend on anything HE did not write.
All blogs have this, on Steam Locomotives, Air Brakes and such. I know!!
There are those who can compile, a VERY necessary skill, and those that have DONE of which they write.
Quick to condemn, never praise in so many cases, on Blogs
The cat door story was fluffy, but true, and I was there. Hiss! Woof! went Mr. Bear. He was shot a few nights later at the mill, in a pump room.
If the readership does NOT want this type of thing, they should say so.
Its not all about addresses and arguing ad nauseum if PCC cars ever went to La Tuque.
I am NOT an expert, but, DID work for Bell in 514 as it became known as the Electronic Era was beginning.
Out across Pont Mercier in Caughnawaga beyond Seagrams was another story and I am glad I was NOT sent there, often.
I do NOT know the last SxS office installed in 514, OXford on the Lakeshore??? or TRiangle?? c. 1959.
DOminic in LaSalle was electronic?? Could be wrong.
Many large businesses had Private Branch Exchanges, PBX and they often had a Telephone Room with a mini Central Office w/Line Finders Selectors and Connectors in-plant and own dial tone machines.
Dominion Engineering on 1st. in Lachine had one.
There was a sort of new 'cloud' type technology in one of the new buildings on Dorchester, where a whole prefix was set up at Bell, and all switching was done at the Bell CO rather than a big PBX on site. All pairs represented in long terminals all binding posts. I think, and could be wrong, it was 277???
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Anyway, My Father's Brother, killed 1929, worked for Bell and he had photos of the interior of the new Dial exchange in which he worked.
I MIGHT still have them, as so much got tossed after my Father died.
Some of that stuff today still makes me cry, as my Grandfather was a Hoarder and had all sorts of trivial from the Dearly Departed, including the coinage in his pocket at the time his calling was terminated.
CRescent used ALL ten digits 1 thru O for Operator, all step.
When I Hired On, the 'word' was LAfontaine was still using Line Boards to connect the call in lieu of Line Finders, a later Technology.
I meant to go look at them, but, never did.
You could 'Badge your way in' to most Bell facilities w/ one's photo ID card to access the lunch room and washrooms, if necessary.
Nice place to go when cold and snowing.
We had a real shitty job in the cold in Lachine in MElrose,and hid in that exchange to warm up.
That would concur with your info that the first Dial Echange in Mtl. was LAfontaine, with the oldest 'plant' still in use into the Sixties.
I do NOT know what a Line Board is, and would like to know, but worked for days on Linefinders, etc. @ HUnter on Monkland, out of the snow and cold.
The equipment to operate the coin relay on pay telephones was quite different than that for 1FR lines.
Many pay phones used 00 as first two digits in the last four, as in WAlnut 0079.
Big business having more than one telephone line and number would be shown on billboards something like CL 2301-02-03 and the calls would 'cascade' in the CO.
All based on 'Looking for Ground'.
Had I not been in Quebec, I may well have stayed with Bell.
Mais.
ReplyDeleteI have NOT looked at the info closely, but, wonder when the last Step CO was silenced in Bell?? In Canada?
I worked one winter in HUnter when things were slow, and only HUnter 2 with Cross Bar was not Step on Monkland, it too obsolete already.
One had to work in a BIG CO to understand what seemed Mechanicized Chaos, but, in reality, was orderly.
Great Gong signalling over the noise various faults, along with coloured lights on the ends of equipment racks. Nifty roller ladders on tracks on the ceiling that applied their brake as one put weight on them, a pull-cable to release brake if you were on ladder way up. 48 Volt light plugged in for illumination, and a soldering iron on the step.
Amazing!!!, and I am glad to have seen and participated in it.
Ditto watching the end of Steam Locomotives, the Lachine and Soulange Canals, Montreal Tramways and so much more, as in sending a Telegram by key..
Thank You for letting me voice my thoughts before my life is 'Hung Up' for the last time.
Hope some, at least, like the scrawlings??
P.S.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to inveigle Mr. U. L. to Gollumize himself and go to Terminal Rear of 5956 Snowdon back of the big Synagogue on CSL to see if the bricks are all still broken as they were almost 50 years ago when the then-new PIC Terminal was so damagingly installed.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.
What an Ass I am?
Thank You.
Not to "condescend" (as some mysteriously claim) but I will take a wild guess that somewhere deep within the catacombs of the Almighty Internet is a "Telephone Geezer Blog" where the legions of Bell Canada retirees regularly gather to spout, reminisce, and rant about this fascinating topic. Nothing "wrong" with that, of course.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, since there is surely no one alive today who can claim to know everything there is to know about telephone circuitry and the exact dates on which certain events took place, we are each of us therefore left to our own memories and research to share what we DO know without it seeming as if we are throwing pies in one another's faces.
On that note, the other day I watched an old Columbo episode (Agenda For Murder: first aired on February 10, 1990) in which the great detective (whose first name was Frank, by the way) became fascinated with a fax machine--the first time he had ever seen one--and the fact that a document could be "phoned" to anywhere in the world.
I, for one, can remember the old Desk Fax back in the late 1960s which incorporated a small spinning tube upon which one placed a sheet of green paper coated with what looked and smelled like a kid's burned out cap-gun roll to send and receive a message.
But surely in 1990, Columbo was well-aware of the Telex machine which did virtually the same thing, as did its predecessor the teletype decades earlier.
Sadly, however, we shall all go to our graves not knowing everything (but still wishing we had!).
One thing I find upsetting about some of Mr. Urban Legend's postings is the valuable and very informative information often comes with a sermon of sorts which frequently is a large RANT about whats wrong with the World, or Quebec, or Montreal.
ReplyDeleteI have had a hard life, being almost killed in two MVAs, the earlier one in which I went off the road in a snow storm in a 4X4 as travelling too fast for road conditions, and down a 150-foot cliff, got thrown out, and was pinned for almost an hour underneath the truck @ +9 F.
Broken leg, too, and surgery to follow.
Anyway.
Spent much of that year and the one to follow in the hospital, then almost another year in 1970 when the whole NYGH, went Code Blue, or whatever as the airliner had crashed at the Toronto Airport.
Sorrow and pain, for me and so many.
I grew up in Montreal and was subject to all the BS with the bombs in the mailboxes and elsewhere. Our neighbour was a teacher in the school adjacent and looking out the east window at what was going on when the bomb exploded injuring Mr. Leja.
I'm tired in age, and body, now. Just getting over Pneumonia.
Enough sorrow around me with folks I know dying almost every week, making MY life even more lonely.
Several once-good friends are lost to alcohol, another to AIDS from too much excess 'both ways' in the free and easy seventies when all jobs were good, and paid well.
I would like to see the great data continue, but, less ranting.
Its NOT a Soap Box.
Maybe one should get out a bit more? and smell the coffee a bit.
I HATE, too, at times, but a blog is not the place for it.
I also cry, at times, too much.
I wish my Father and I were getting on the 48 at Snowdon Ave. to go explore the Harbour when real ocean liners still docked and canallers locked thru into the Lachine Canal and up thru the Lakes to the rest of Canada.
Was at Port Arthur and Fort William when the were still separate, on a cold windy day. Depressing.
We used to go down the east end and that short tunnel next to the fire station on Notre Dame was still in use and we would drive thru it once we had a car.
( Was this the tunnel featured in the movie 'Jesus of Montreal'? )
In winter it would be blocked as ice backed up in the river from Lac St. Pierre and into the harbour.
So much to remember, so much to recount, but not in an agressive and rantful way.
Had enough of that for one life time, from others, Please?
Your talents are wasted complaining and being so negative all the time.
Where is that airliner? What is Ebola going to do?
There is much outside the land of Blog to think about.
Thank You, Sir.
If I was unable to tolerate what is wrong with the world, Quebec, and Montreal in particular I would gladly request that Scotty beam me up aboard the Enterprise.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I am quite happy to have grown up, gone to school, and worked in this city and still quite content to live here and enjoy what it has to offer and therefore have little to "rant" about.
This is certainly in sharp contrast to others who for their own reasons--valid or not--scurried away down the 401 to end up in the "safety" of some overpriced Mississauga condo or retirement home where they are presumably still enraged and seething, even to the point where they actually create "hate Montreal and Quebec" blogs so that they can gleefully direct their fury at those of us who were, in their opinion, "too stupid to leave".
Personally, I have no use for such "angryphones", but it is still a free country and they can certainly say whatever they wish. Good luck to them.
As for "getting out more", I have been fortunate to travel the world, trekking in the Himalayas, visiting relatives in Australia several times (and will again), been to Mexico, New Zealand, London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Miami, the Caribbean, etc., so I believe that I do not fit the stereotype of a grumbling, armchair curmudgeon, stick-in-the-mud with an axe to grind.
If that is what some seem to be "reading between the lines" of my Coolopolis postings, perhaps they should read them again--or avoid reading them in the first place.
I rest my case.
My, My, My!
ReplyDeleteI used to like 'Pushing Buttons' but, no longer.
A 'Lose-lose' situation.
Something inside of ME has changed the last year or so.
Too many funerals and very sick people to worry about.
Is there an easy cure for unhappiness?
Take 6 hours of Blog a day?
Doesn't see to work in all cases.
I'm going for a bike ride, and to think about steam engines and whistles in the night.
Thank You.
Hmm.
ReplyDeletePushing Buttons without Touch Tone Service, and still cannot get thru.
Hmmmm.
Call Repair @ 611 and send a guy out in an International to find the fault was not Bell's but, beyond the demarcation, within the subscriber.
No fix for that in the BSPs
Anyway, another story, which has nothing to do with Montreal other than I was born there In the Homeopathic Hospital of Montreal way back when.
At one point I lived way out in the bush, nearest town w Post Office Pop. 64 on a good day. Was there for ten 10 years.
The location of the 'cat door'. Berries were ripe one year, and there were three 3 bears scarfing them down out my door one day at sunrise. I made a noise, and they left, peacefully.
The Company sent me a new-hire by train and asked me by telephone if he could stay with me as I had an extra room. He had neither a Driver's License nor a Vehicle.
Anyway, he was about 5 foot 6 and knew everything, never shut up, and would word-fight about anything. Perfect candidate for a Blog.
Being small protected him, as only a real jerk would hurt him, as it would be like hitting a yapping puppy.
But, Gosh, was he ever a PEST. Knew absolutely everything!
I could see there was more to him than what he showed and he was CLEAN, did not smell, except when we were having farting contests, we were 'Men', remember, and it was forty five years ago, cleaned up after himself and paid for 'my' stuff he used such as ketchup, sugar, soap and chipped in for gas to town and paid for all his booze,
I could have hated him on sight, but he and I had a thread in common!!!!
We both liked to DRINK! and shoot guns in the air, the target, the moon and the stars, usually.
He liked to smoke weed.
A natural piss tank buddy, but still knew Everything and let everyone know all the time, Perfect Blog material, as mentioned. Most things said in a chip on the shoulder and most abrasive way possible.
He would never shut up!
We used to pile into my truck, Chevy 1/2 Ton, V8, 3 on the tree shift. no power steering nor brakes, and roar off like the Pukes of Hazard. Drunk 'Men' in a truck, booze and long GUNS, too. Shot Gun ammo was cheap.
At night we would go out in the bush, park, lie in the back on a blanket, and drink and look at the heavens, the AM radio in the cab, NOT factory, as bare bones truck, but, from a scrap yard, playing great tunes from afar US Clear Channel stations.
Dr. Hook was big, then.
Often we used to go to the lake near by, and as usually the only ones within 20 miles, go skinny dipping, and drink, etc. of course.
This one day I was in a bad mood over something and he knew it, and went out to really 'Push MY buttons', the phone at home still Step by Step and you had to only dial 4 numbers for a local call, CO too new to have ever have a 'Name' such as WAlnut, 400 subscribers on the exchange, max.
ReplyDeleteWe stripped off ( neither of us really 'measured up' when that still mattered ) and jumped in. He splashed me in the face with his hand and would not quit, so I went ashore.
He followed and was obnoxious, and then threw sand. My chin would rest on his forehead and he called me names.
He knew he was getting thru.
I grabbed him from behind, one arm behind his knees, one around his neck, and threw him into the lake.
He was yelping as his head went under.
He drank most of the lake, which was scudgy and green at the far end, and stormed ashore, stopping about 2 inches from me, his spittle running down my breast bone, and called me every nasty word in the book, many of them true, Ass Hole being a compliment amongst the rest.
He then started poking me in the chest with his dialling finger and I said to quit it.
He looked at my eyes, and got the message, Direct Dial.
He stormed off to a safer distance, still muttering deprecations. I feinted to chase him, and he ran.
I sat down on a towel, and he came back, his lip out like a shelf, and his arms crossed.
Super Pout, Himself.
I had the beer, and he knew it.
I handed him a cool one, and asked if he wanted one.
He said Please! and our eyes met, as in a movie.
I smiled, and he said Sorry!
It was over.
A month or so later it was payday and he was going 'to town' about 40 miles away, Pop. around 8000, then, and get his ashes hauled and have a great time!
Yessir. Friday Night was here.
I had to work.
( He worked 0700-1500, I worked 1500-2300, so we did not do much together in the week.)
About 0300 Sat morning I heard a car pull up. There were no units ( locomotives ) on hand that night, so I could hear. I looked out and it was a taxi w/ a roof light, a $20 trip from town. and he stumbled in, having puked outside, mostly booze, and had pissed his pants, mostly booze, by then.
( Gosh! we used to do things with the units, and the Fairmont belt-drive track speeder, but, another time???. )
I made him strip to his shorts in the kitchen on the linoleum, got a bucket for the clothes and put in water and soap, then made him go shower.
He came out with a towel and he started to cry.
I sat him down on his bed and put my arm around him, and he cried and cried and cried, his tears running down my chest.
He told me about his childhood, and abuse, and drunkeness and that this girl had just laughed at him at the dance for being too short, after taking him for a bundle on booze, thence the taxi ride home.
He cried himself out, and, being one armed hugged by another man was no longer cool, and went to bed.
He was very easy to handle after that, as the need to hurt was lessened, at least between us.
Thirty years later I ran into him.
The Company had sent him to the Spin Dry for the booze.
He had a good lady as a partner, and was doing well.
Some guys have a reason to be mean.
Could others be Ass Holes and ignorant just by nature?
I'm going to the local Suicide thing in the park on Sept. 10th.
Looking for solace?
Hurts to be human.
Hmmmm.
Thank You
For bascule bridge research completists, here is a short video of Victoria, B.C.'s aging Johnson Street Bridge which is slated for replacement.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU_qtwiEp18
Other relevant videos about Johnson Street Bridge can be found on YouTube.