Retro Toronto Thread for Nostalgia Purposes.

essguy_

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Nov 1, 2001
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I'm going to really date myself here - RUSH played at my high school one year before I entered in Grade 10. Also - I'm old enough to remember when the an Argo/Ticats football game was a sold out event. How's that for nolstalgia? In fact, high school buddies and I would go to Hamilton to see the Argo/Ticat game every year and we took a bus before we could drive... Anybody remember Pigskin Pete? I bet he's long buried - maybe in his bumblebee jersey.
 

mandrill

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2001
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Yeah forgot about "Brave New Waves" - that was a great show. Host was a woman - Augusta Le Paix. I still have some tapes of this show made with a Sony DAT recorder. Anybody remember those? Only lasted a few years before people started recording direct to CD. I still have the tapes and the recorder in a box somewhere....

Remembered the host's name - Brent Banbury. It used to broadcast from Montreal.
 

unassuming

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Feb 11, 2017
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I'm going to really date myself here - RUSH played at my high school one year before I entered in Grade 10. Also - I'm old enough to remember when the an Argo/Ticats football game was a sold out event. How's that for nolstalgia? In fact, high school buddies and I would go to Hamilton to see the Argo/Ticat game every year and we took a bus before we could drive... Anybody remember Pigskin Pete? I bet he's long buried - maybe in his bumblebee jersey.

Guess I'm not as old as you, lol, never heard of pig skin pete.

Definitely remember when Argo games were sold out!

Did anyone else go to NFL stars vs CFL stars flag football game for Christian Athletes In Action at CNE stadium in circa 1975?....Terry Bradshaw, and Ken Houston were the only NFL players I can remember being there as I got their auto graphs lol
 

mandrill

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2001
76,740
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I'm going to really date myself here - RUSH played at my high school one year before I entered in Grade 10. Also - I'm old enough to remember when the an Argo/Ticats football game was a sold out event. How's that for nolstalgia? In fact, high school buddies and I would go to Hamilton to see the Argo/Ticat game every year and we took a bus before we could drive... Anybody remember Pigskin Pete? I bet he's long buried - maybe in his bumblebee jersey.

I can beat you in terms of dating myself. I remember going to my first high school dance at Richview C.I., tagging along with cooler, older guys. Lighthouse was playing the dance. And the girls were wearing hot pants and miniskirts.
 

Grimnul

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May 15, 2018
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Man, that video of the CNE really took me back. I went last summer on a date and it was so crowded we could barely move, overpriced as all hell (I remember when you could actually get great deals on stuff at the craft pavilion!), and the staff were just generally a mess. Took us like 45 minutes to even get through the damn gates because the guides kept giving us bad directions. Really not what it used to be.
 

Insidious Von

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Sep 12, 2007
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The "Toronto Metro-Croatia" soccer team , with the great Eusebio, winning the NASL championship in 1976, was another fond memory.
My family was very close to the team, my cousin started his professional with TMC. Eusebio and his family were invited to Easter dinner, to make him feel welcome in Toronto. I didn't know who he was at the time, he must have been a VIP with the way the family treated him.

Who didn't have a crush on Teresa Roncon, never heard of the Moses connection. She went on to do a travel show on Discovery, I've never forgotten the image of her in a bikini. Atlantic City is one of my favorite films.

 

Butler1000

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Oct 31, 2011
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I'm trying to remember all the old rock venues. I got taken to Larry's Hideaway to see the Specials one night when they were almost unknown. My friends were cool and "downtown" and I was still going to law school in the burbs and had a stache and mullet. I was shunned by the rest of the crowd and no girls would talk to me. I was taken aside by my buddies the next day and read the riot act about my appearance!
Don't forget the Gasworks.........
 

Butler1000

Well-known member
Oct 31, 2011
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I'm going to really date myself here - RUSH played at my high school one year before I entered in Grade 10. Also - I'm old enough to remember when the an Argo/Ticats football game was a sold out event. How's that for nolstalgia? In fact, high school buddies and I would go to Hamilton to see the Argo/Ticat game every year and we took a bus before we could drive... Anybody remember Pigskin Pete? I bet he's long buried - maybe in his bumblebee jersey.
Right around the time Max Webster and Triumph were playing at High Schools.
 
May 21, 2008
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Nuts n Bolts
The Diamond Club (now the Phoenix I believe)
ALL those great clubs in the early 80s
11 Oz draft beer at most bars for less than a buck

The Brunswick House

Oh to go back in time for one week, month......fuck it a YEAR!

CB
 

unassuming

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What I miss is the "Lick's" that was across the street (block demolished to make way for Dundas Sq) from the "Hard Rock Cafe", they made a great veggie burger, it tasted like real meat.
 

franci

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Aug 15, 2013
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The Diamond
RPM
The Copa

Mr Pongs sandwich boards on delivery cars downtown

Ernie the hot dog vendor at Ryerson

The Red Barn

Biway and Towers

The 50's style lunch counter at Kresge's

Night Heat tv show filmed in Toronto
 

essguy_

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Nov 1, 2001
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Here's some more Toronto Nostalgia: Anybody else remember when the subway only went to Eglington? I grew up in Don Mills, so to get downtown - had to take the Lawrence Bus, which turned South down Leslie. The bus would stop near the Inn on the Park (another memory) so that the driver could walk through the bus and make sure that everybody had a transfer. Then the bus would continue West on Eglinton to the subway station. Back then there were transit zones, so if you went through a zone you needed to pay more (and get a transfer to prove you paid).

Other transit memories: Dial a Bus. In the early to mid 70's, this ran in my parent's neighbourhood as a pilot project. You would call, and a TTC minibus (which they have transformed into Wheel Trans) would arrive right at your door. It was incredibly wasteful as the buses typically had only a handful of passengers, so the program was cancelled.
 

mandrill

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2001
76,740
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Here's some more Toronto Nostalgia: Anybody else remember when the subway only went to Eglington? I grew up in Don Mills, so to get downtown - had to take the Lawrence Bus, which turned South down Leslie. The bus would stop near the Inn on the Park (another memory) so that the driver could walk through the bus and make sure that everybody had a transfer. Then the bus would continue West on Eglinton to the subway station. Back then there were transit zones, so if you went through a zone you needed to pay more (and get a transfer to prove you paid).

Other transit memories: Dial a Bus. In the early to mid 70's, this ran in my parent's neighbourhood as a pilot project. You would call, and a TTC minibus (which they have transformed into Wheel Trans) would arrive right at your door. It was incredibly wasteful as the buses typically had only a handful of passengers, so the program was cancelled.

I used to take the Leslie bus and make the same trip. There was a "zone" boundary at Leslie and Eglinton and you had to pay another fare to cross it. If you paid 2 fares upon entering the bus, you got an extra transfer that you could surrender as PoP at Eglinton. Unless you had a student transit ID card and then you could only pay once.

I used the Dial-a-bus once or twice. But by that time, the subway went north to York Mills and it was just quicker to take the York Mills bus over to Leslie and walk home from there.

Paiinful memories - Standing on the 51 Bus platform on a January evening at Eglinton station. It would be about -10 with added wind chill. And by 5:30, travellers would be backed up along the platform and down the stairs into the subway station concourse and it would take about 15 minutes of waiting and 2 or 3 buses before you could finally get on and leave.

Remember when the University subway was closed on Sundays?
 

mandrill

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2001
76,740
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The Diamond
RPM
The Copa

Mr Pongs sandwich boards on delivery cars downtown

Ernie the hot dog vendor at Ryerson

The Red Barn

Biway and Towers

The 50's style lunch counter at Kresge's

Night Heat tv show filmed in Toronto

They all had lunch counters - Woolworth's, Zeller's, Kresge's, K-Mart. I used to be fascinated by the orange pop dispenser which used to flow the liquid around inside this type of clear plastic dome. No ethnic food back then. Just burgers, hot dogs and fries. And all those lunch counters stank of french fry grease.

Was "Night Heat" the show about the cop who was also a vampire? (I kid you not! That was the concept!)
 

unassuming

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"Sam the Chinese Food Man" and the Wax Museum just a few doors north at Yonge and Gerrard.

"Mr Gamesway Ark" on Yonge just below Bloor where the McDonald's is now.

Yellow coloured police cruisers
 
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