Canadian Poncho wrote:

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How about now?:

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 I see it now; I didn't before. Definitely Canadian iron in the shot.

I'm finding the Halifax street scenes very interesting.  I've had reason to spend a lot of time there recently and in fact stayed at the Atlantica hotel - formerly the Holiday Inn at Robie and Quinpool - which is under construction in one of these pictures. 

Also great to see the early pics of the Halifax and Dartmouth shopping centres, and of Citadel Motors which I recall from when I was Halifax  many years ago. 

It was in 1954 that my parents bought a half acre of land in Scarborough from the farmer.  Dad built a garage and under the cover of darkness (some government ruling prevented us from living there is what I remember.) and once we were in they could not evict us.  Dad called in an excavator and had the hole dug for the basement of our new house.   As summer progressed we got the walls up and a roof on. We finally transferred over to the house and continued on with the build process.  A couple of summers later it was decided that we would put up a stone face on the house out of field stone.   Many trips to the country and lots of splitting rocks to get the right dimensions to fit on the walls of the house.  Finally we had collected enough stone to begin the process.  As you can see in the photo we were nicely underway, with a good stock of rocks to make a beautiful stone front. 

As with the bureaucracy we were paid a visit by the building inspector and he looked at our plans and determined that the plans did not call for the stone face and we had to remove it.  He claimed the footings would not support the extra load, but my dad had put every piece of scrap bed rails and anything else he could find into the footings, berried into the concrete.

The house eventually ended up with 24 inch long bricks in a sandstone colour.  I have a fond memory of my father finishing off the chimney up on the roof hollering for more motar.  That was my job, to mix the motor, climb the ladder, scale my way to the peak and deliver a fresh tub of motor.  We live there for many years and the subdivisions grew around us in Wexford.

The address was 47 Sherwood Ave  Scarborough.   The house later had an addition to the second floor added....... I dont think they had the same building inspector.

Cliff

CdnGMfan wrote:

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MC wrote:

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Halifax, NS, May 1, 1973, near the corner of Quinpool and Robie during construction of the (then) Holiday Inn.  Looks like a '65 CS with fog lights installed?

 

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 The little car following the 65 Parisienne Custom Sport appears to be a 1970 Epic, sold at Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealers. The Epic was the same as the Vauxhall Viva that was sold at Pontiac-Buick dealers except for the nameplates (obviously) and the Epic had a little vertical bar added to the center of the grille. I find this ironic since it was Pontiac trying to capitalize on the split grille theme, not Chevy. The Epic was sold at Chevy dealers through 70, then was dropped for 71 with the debut of the Vega. Meanwhile the Viva was rechristened Firenza for the Canadian market (Viva remained elsewhere; Firenza was just the sporty coupe model Viva in the U.K.) After the poor workmanship debacle that had GM hastily withdraw the Firenza from Canada near the end of the 1972 run, the Vega-based Pontiac Astre was developed quickly to replace it.

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 Thanks for the history lesson!  I remember them being sold through GM dealers, but honestly never really knew much about them.

Now I do! 

Hey MC, I'm digging that old GM franchise avatar! Neat old GM sign.

oshawacliff wrote:

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...

Cliff

 

 

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 That is a great recount of building the family homestead yourselves back in the early 50s. We have a similar story growing up in Ancaster. I know there were pictures somewhere, but after the folks moved into assisted living for a few years, eventually passing on, the whereabouts of the photos are in question. Hopefully they didn't get tossed. Dad had a Model A (embarrassing to drive circa 1955 if it wasn't a rod), plus I did see a picture of dad's new 1957 Plymouth Savoy in the driveway of that house. I came home from the hospital as a newborn in dad's new 1961 Biscayne.

Dad and his father built the 2nd house to appear in Ancaster Heights back around 1951~52. This was after dad graduated from U of T in 1950. At that time the Heights was an apple orchard. Highway 2 (The King's Highway) had been straightened somewhat (landfill cut off Mill Street between Henry Lane & Old Dundas). Dad and his father spent a year building the house themselves (working in wintertime was grueling). His father would look at the plans then start cutting lumber and handing it up to my dad. Dad said that each joist fit perfectly, and a 90 degree corner was exactly that. It was simple, modest house that was very well built. When we moved out from there in 1970 it still had the original roof in good shape. I still remember the barn on Henry Lane that sort of fell down in the 1970s (there were a few old derelict late 50s Virgil Exner Chryslers on the farmlands). We had a dam a little ways to the east and a pond full of frogs & salamanders to the west. The dam was also a private driveway that led to the secluded residence of Dr. Banting (his dad discovered penicillin re: Banting & Best). Through the thick woods out back was General Mewburn's homestead. In 1969 the Firestones built what at the time we considered a mansion adjacent to the Mewburn property. As kids we were free to roam and the neighbors were trusted and could discipline us as they saw fit. Just be home for dinner.

Circa 1968 photo with dad's 66 Biscayne in view:

As it appears today:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.2364568,-79.9633208,3a,75y,186.05h,90.57t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1syNeSLFcQlZTIG7S5Zoo3KQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DyNeSLFcQlZTIG7S5Zoo3KQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D191.46318%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

...San Bernardino, Calif 1956

Glenrio, Texas....Route 66.......68 Catalina

https://neverquitelost.com/2017/06/17/the-glenrio-pontiac/

-- Edited by bjburnout on Sunday 2nd of July 2017 08:28:27 AM