In today’s vlog, I revisit a place I’ve known as long as I can remember. My dad, although he was born in Montreal, was brought up in a unique live/work situation. They had a building on the south side of Dundas, east of Runnymede. It was their glove factory – they made gloves for the railwaymen. The Junction got its name because it was the junction of 4 rail lines. Grandpa also had a retail outlet in the same building, called the Queen’s City Leatherworks. They sold the gloves they made, which they also wholesaled and as well they supplied rail workers witih overalls and work socks and so on. Behind the retail and the glove-making equipment, there was an open large dining room and a kitchen. Bedrooms were upstairs.
When my father decided to start his own storm window business he set up shop across the street. I remember Frank Lynett, from the funeral home across the way, coming into the window shop. He just stopped by for some chit-chat. My dad called out, “put that measuring tape away Frankie, I’m not ready to go yet!”
In those days, when Dad’s business was running full tilt, my mom was helping out at the shop. She was very good at assembling sash. There was no daycare. They brought me in to work. I had to stay away from all the glass and machines so I played in the vacant lot next door and in the lanes with the Junction kids.
In this video, I walk by the place where my dad’s business was located, and continue on a loop including the laneway between Dundas and Maria Streets. Lynett’s is still there, though they sold out many years ago. Marsh’s Stoves, once Marsh’s Hardware, is still there. The Nissan, formerly Datsun dealership have been around for a long time. So has the barbershop, though likely different people running both now. Jumbo Burger is still on Runnymede, but the original guys who ran it have sold.
Today’s Vlog takes place in the east side of Toronto. My dentist is on Parliament St near Carlton and I had an appointment to get a crown repaired. Before the appointment I filmed a walk from Gerrard St. north to Winchester before getting the work done. After, I walked east to Riverdale Farms.
If you are as old as I am and grew up in Toronto, you will remember that until 1974 it was Riverdale Zoo. Riverdale Farm opened 4 years after the zoo closed. Walking through here at the time I did, there didn’t seem to be a lot of farm activity beyond a few farm animals around.
Next time I’m in this area, I’ll take you on a walk through Necropolis Cemetery where many prominent Torontonians are buried. It is located just to the north of Riverdale Farm.
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At Queen St W., we turned east, past Bathurst, past Spadina and ending the walk after meeting Reg Hartt over by where the Bamboo Club used to be, back in the day.
It seems that much of that stretch of Queen West has changed a lot since I last spent any kind of time there. During the 80s and 90s I lived on Ossington Avenue and on Niagara Street. Queen West seems to have become more upscale. I didn’t recognize many of the businesses.
We were surprised at all the magic mushroom shops that have opened up on the north side of Queen St. When did that happen?
Once we passed Spadina I could hear the sound of somebody stapling papers up to street poles. This turned out to be none other than film presenter Reg Hartt. He and his street posters have been around this part of the city as long as I can remember. Mr. Hartt left us with some advice.
I was out shooting video along Queen W for Rediscovering my Toronto with my buddy Stagg. We decided to stop at On Third Thought, a gem serving up yummy gelato, including various boozified gelatos.
On Third Thought is located just off Queen St W near Bathurst at 6 Markham Street. It’s a great spot to relax, enjoy some amazing gelato or a glass of wine and watch the Queen Street West streetlife.
27th Street Recommended!
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My guest today is an artist from Chicago known as Stagg. In today’s video he shares his thoughts on how Queen West has changed over the years.
Listen to the latest episode of The Agency Podcast right here or find it on your phone and in all the best podcast places.
In this episode The Agents hold a rambling discussion ranging from affordable housing, universal basic income, YouTubing, the heyday of blogging, Facebook memes, to the Bata girls, Edmonton in winter, and the Lake Shore West Garden Tour. Also in this episode, Agent Candy sees a friend of the podcast perform and Agent Eugene cannot remember the name of the town of Prescott, Ontario. Apologies to Prescott.
In the 90s, I had a live-in painting studio in a building at Niagara and Tecumseth Streets in Toronto. This is in the King and Bathurst area, which today has to a remarkable degree been taken over by new condo buildings. None of us were supposed to live at Niagara St but almost everyone did. One Christmas morning after a few years there, the Super slid an envelope under my door. It was a rent increase notice. I called up the owner of the building and told him if he wanted me to stay he would have to lower my rent. He was having none of that so I moved on. My father was aging and needed more and more support so I moved in with him to provide the support he needed. As it turned out, the landlord had no difficulty at all renting the space after I left. A few years ago I read the building was going to be turned into condos, with new towers skirted by some renovated version of the original building. I decided to gap back and check out the current state.
I returned to the building today and shot some video as part of my Rediscovering My Toronto video series.
A walk in the King/Bathurst area of Toronto
When I first moved into 101 Niagara, one of the neighbours in a house just down the street had chickens, which he could often be seen chasing around Niagara St. At one point, a huge remediation project took place involving buildings behind the Casket Factory. Imagine men in space suits holding hoses, washing down the building. There was once a lead smelter there.
The building attracted quite the assortment of interesting characters. There was a lot of art made there and plenty of music too. It was quite a time.
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Here is the second video in my Rediscovering My Toronto project. I started filming at Bloor and Lansdowne and walked east. It seems as if this area has been undergoing fairly constant change over the past few years. It features a robust ethnic mix and at the same time, the gentrification occurring was obvious to me as I walked along, with occasional fancier eateries and a broad area of solid crane action.
Please let me know what you think of these videos. Are there areas you would like me to explore? This is a long-term project rediscovering my Toronto – if you are enjoying what you see, please subscribe.
The pandemic changed the lifestyles of so many people, me included. Since we were “locked down”, I find I don’t get out and about in the city nearly as much as I used to. At the same time, I recognize my city is changing quickly underfoot. It’s time for me to get out and visit old haunts to see what’s become of them and to sally forth into unknown Toronto and have some little adventures.
How far are you from me?
I created the Rediscovering my Toronto YouTube channel as a way of documenting my effort to re-engage with my city, and to share what I encounter along the way. The first video takes place close to home at a Toronto treasure, Col. Sam Smith Park, located along Lake Shore Blvd W. at Kipling.
I hope you enjoy this video and the ones that follow. I’m aiming for 1-2 videos each week, each set somewhere in the Toronto area. You can help me out by subscribing to the channel. If you have something to say about the videos, or have suggestions for future locations, please leave a comment with the video on YouTube.
A few years ago, I was fortunate to meet Bob Carlin at Midwest Banjo Camp, a yearly gathering of old time music freaks like me, then located near Lansing Michigan. By then, a copy of Carlin’s CD, Banging and Sawing, had a semi-permanent place in my car (I still love to listen to it while driving). I participated in Bob’s workshops and jams – I recall one night I was involved in a jam session that included Bob Carlin and Joe Newberry on guitars and John Herrmann on fiddle. I remember that jam very well. I had taken one of John Herrmann’s workshops all about how to participate in jams when you don’t know the tune, and it had a profound effect on me. At that time, I could get around playing clawhammer banjo decently well, but I was always paralyzed by my mind trying to figure everything out, leaving me well behind the beat when I tried to jam. After John Herrmann’s workshop I was determined to play in the moment, and trust my skills and go for it. I’m sure that playing with such excellent musicians helped my cause a lot, but I had one of my best ever jams. At times during that jam I felt kind of ecstatic, outside of myself, watching myself play. It was a remarkable experience because I found myself playing things I had never even thought of attempting before. When the jam wrapped up, Joe Newberry gave me a few words of encouragement, something to the effect of, ‘you did good tonight’. I was over the moon, of course. Not only had I managed to play with 3 titans of the old time tradition without getting death stares or polite requests to try the beginners’ jam, but one of my musical heroes actually noticed my playing and offered some good words.
The next morning, Bob Carlin joined me for breakfast at the camp cafeteria. Turns out, Bob is a great storyteller. I remember Bob talking about teaching with Dwight Diller – Bob said Diller called himself Dee-wight and wanted things done the Dee-Wight way (as opposed to dee-wrong way). I’m sure Bob doesn’t remember me at all, though I did meet him again here in Toronto where he played with Chris Coole and his group at the Dakota Tavern in my old Ossington neighbourhood.
I saw online a while back that Bob Carlin had authored My Memories of John Hartford. I think it was available for “pre-sale”. I knew Bob’s work with John Hartford and I had read and appreciated his historical work about the banjo, so I ordered the book up right away then promptly forgot about it. What a pleasant surprise when it arrived the other day by post. I gobbled it up right away.
Carlin spends the first part of the book talking about the first 2/3 of John Hartford’s career, then launches into his experiences working with Hartford playing live during Hartford’s last several years on the planet, but also as road manager, recording supervisor and the guy in charge of selling merch. I particularly enjoyed reading about an idea he called “windows”, which John had developed for arranging for the stringband based on what instruments participate in different “windows” or sections of each piece. Fascinating.
My Memories of John Hartford paints a portrait of a complex and intensely creative individual, who, faced with a grim medical diagnosis, threw himself into his music with some abandon, while at the same time seeing a dip in his mainstream popularity. One of the things that struck me is that Bob Carlin thought of Hartford as a “famous” person who lived a kind of charmed life in which he didn’t have to ever worry about doing things like cutting the lawn or other chores around the house. Hartford had the luxury of focusing solely on his music, in part because of the luxury of fame and because Hartford also used his temper to get his way. Carlin compared that to what he considered his own “middle-class” lifestyle.
Working with John Hartford was clearly a life-changing experience for Bob Carlin. From the book:
“When I began working alongside John Hartford, I thought I knew something abut music and performing. It turns out that I only knew a fraction of what I was about to learn in his musical workshop. I came out the other end a much better entertainer and musician than before my experience with John.
John’s shows were unpredictable. He would read the audience to determine what he felt he needed to perform in that moment. John had such a large repertoire that you didn’t know what he’d play for any particular performance. Each night, there would always be a song or two that the band didn’t know. Playing with John was always one big experimental continuum. Everyone involved, if they left themselves open, always learned something new. And that was the whole point”.
My Memories of John Hartford was published this year by The University Press of Mississippi. It offers plenty of personal insight into John Hartford the person and the musician and it’s a wonderful tale of Bob Carlin’s adventure working with Hartford and the others in the Hartford Stringband. Recommended. Support Bob and go buy his book.
Here is Bob Carlin and friends performing Turn Your Radio On by John Hartford along with a dose of Old Time Hey Jude…
Here’s Hartford and the boys from 1998…
Mr. Hartford solo singing and dancing – Gum Tree Canoe
27th Street 