Thank you to everyone that has come to visit this site and for the comments and stories.
The corner of Edward and Yonge in the early 1980's with the Edison Hotel in the BG.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Cummins.
A Google map shot of the same corner in 2010 before the Edison burned to the ground.
Posts
Although I haven't lived in Toronto since the sixties, I love coming to this blog & maybe that is why. I mean the last times I really visited much was in the 70's & 80's so maybe that is why I enjoy the photos as they are more of the Toronto I knew. Anyway please keep posting as I am sure there are others like me they are just shy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. I have fond memories of the city from the 70's and 80's as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these postings, especially the ones of Yonge Street. I started working in 1981 and was a courier for a small law firm. During this time I discovered Yonge Street. This was an enchanting time as I was a green-as-grass eighteen year old fool who felt like he had stumbled across THE place where it all happened. And that was a daytime perspective. The place really lit up at night, though, with all the sights and sounds and smells, which solidified my sense that this was undeniably the centre of the universe. If you were bored or had nothing to do on a Friday or Saturday night a trip down Yonge Street was just the ticket. But there was nothing like Yonge Street between Dundas and college. You got out of the subway and started walking north. The Mr. Submarine was the first thing you saw, then Frank's Hamburgers, then you came across the first pinball arcade (and there were several on Yonge Street at the time). There were camera shops, head shops (Flash Jacks-remember that one), gadget shops (downtown was always the place to go for the latest version of the Sony Walkman), but best of all there were music stores (Sam The Record Man,A & As, Music World, and Sunrise music came on board towards the end of the 1980s. Sam's and A & As are the ones I clearly remember the most in the early eighties, however; shopping for the best price on records used to be fun and easy as they were all maybe a minute's walk from each other). There were also bookstores (The World's Biggest Bookstore you could get lost in for hours) as well as stero shops. I don't remember much in the way of denim shops that lasted long but there were certainly enough in close proximity along with fast food joints. And it was a strip where teenagers would get in their cars to go cruising with their steros blaring. Seriously, it had almost a carnival feel to it, something close to the CNE's midway but without the rides. But that was forty years ago and I still reflect warmly on those days. Being young at the time helped a lot but those were the days when the economy was good and you could go out and get a job, when it was all in front of us and we had every reason to be optimistic about our future, and when there was a spring in our step and hope in our heart. Sadly, it's all gone now but these posts help those of us with a reflective streak. Each decade of Yonge Street has a special meaning to those of us who were there. Hey, time marches on and as Rush once wrote in a song, "I know progress has no patience but something's got to give." It's true and that only makes me glad that I was born to the generation I was. Yonge Street during the 1980s was a lot of fun and was often referred to as being the heart of the city. Not anymore. Toronto The Good was another expression you used to hear. I can't remember the last time I heard that. Still, these posts offer a glimpse at what once was and I see them as generational snapshots of time, conveying different meanings to different generations. Oh for the good old days.
ReplyDeleteAll best,
Mark