Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Msn Chat to become subscription service !!!!!!

And you'll have to provide personal details !!
 
(Oct 14 in US/Canada/Japan)
 
Anywhere else..........msn is closing chat rooms.
 
Guess this will affect this board too eh ?
 
 
All details are here
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480062183&p=1012571727088

Monday, September 22, 2003

Chat at 8:30

Is anybody going to be there???
 

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Verdun newspapers

Is there a paper publish in Verdun about Verdun? Seems to me there used
to be one.
Also, when I lived in Verdun the mayor had a flat on Woodland Avenue
(?) I think. The entrance had two lampposts on either side. Maybe I'm
posting too much already. I'll slow down some.
Bill Cooper

Friday, September 19, 2003

Class photos

Any Verdunite with a Verdun High year book from the 50s and 60s, please
check out the 'great' class photo web sites in LINKS, and please posts
your collections. Unfortunately, I did not saved one V.H. picture.
What a shame!
Bill Cooper

Halloween

Halloween was a trip in the 40s and 50s. Us preteens used to knock on
doors, and when the occupant answered, we'd all sing together, "charity
please". We'd go home after a night of roaming the streets, with more
candy than God intended for one human being.
I still connect the great voice of Fats Domino singing 'My Blue Heaven'
with October 31st for some forgotten reason.
Bill Cooper

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Broom ball



I remember our city's favorite sport in the early 60s:



'On the ice in zero weather, falling down drunk, while our young
beautiful wives hated our guts, broom ball'.



Good fun for the early twenty-something crowd. It would probably kill
me today however.

Bill Cooper


Monday, September 15, 2003

The Great Antonio

Hi everybody,  I wonder how many of you remember the Great Antonio always pulling buses at the Atwater bus station. He died this past week. I think he lived in Verdun at one time when I was a kid on Ethel Street. He pulled four buses full of people down St.Catherine and wresled fourty people at the same time and won. Was on Johnny Carson. He was quite the caracter. There are articals on the net about him.  Dannyb
 

Friday, September 12, 2003

General : Remembering Verdun


General : Remembering Verdun

Les the photo is very clear but I cannot make heads or tails of it.
There were no expressways when I grew up.
Where in the photo is Second Avenue for instance.
Bill Cooper

New Topic Some May Not Like... Comments please!

Ok, I've been reluctant to broach this subject, but seeing as we seem to need a new topic, here's one that might generate a few posts...
 
Before I continue, let me say that I love Verdun, I was born, raised and lived there for 43 years before coming to Virginia just this past August. I watched Verdun change a lot over the years, people. Just as I am sure that those of you who remain there have as well. All these memories that we've rekindled in the recent past in this group have been wonderful for me, as they help me to remember the Verdun that once was. BUT...it is no longer that Verdun anymore, I am afraid. For instance:
For several years before I left I would sit on my balcony and watch the going's on and could pinpoint to you who and where in my neighborhood there were drugs being sold. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there is at least one drug dealer on any given block now. I lived with my sister for almost a year before I left, she lived on Lasalle Blvd. at the corner of Hickson. There are prostitutes frequenting the area, believe it or not. I remember one instance when I was with my 7 year old daughter and we were waiting for the streetlight to change....a prostitute happened to come up and stand beside us. Well, my little girl took one look at this chick and said to me "Mommy! That lady looks "different"?!"THAT is how obvious it was, I just thank God that my daughter didn't realize why the woman was dressed the way she was. A gentleman to my right and I just looked at each other, shook our heads and raised our eyebrows. ANOTHER time I was taking my morning speed walk at 6:30 a.m., here I was dressed in a sweat-suit with my hair just thrown in a pony-tail speed walking along Wellington, and near the corner of Woodland some guy pulls up in a car and rolls along beside me and was saying something to me...When I finally understood what he was saying I almost kicked him in the face...He was saying " ARE YOU WORKING NOW?" I was so shocked that all I could yell at him was "EXCUSE ME??????" to which he replied "Oh, I guess not." and tore off.
The "Rock Machine" who are the "little" Hell's Angels control Verdun's drug trade now and there have been shootings right on the street and I even remember a bomb going off in Verdun a few years back relating to it all. I read The Gazette online every morning and yesterday there was an ending to some of the Hell's Angel's mega-trial for murders etc and once again Verdun was mentioned with a not so nice face...here are some excerpts from the column this morning:
 
*Pierre Provencher, 54 (Rocker): According to court testimony, Provencher was among a group of Rockers who were supposed to gain control of drug turf in Verdun during the late 1990s. The Rock Machine was already well-established in the area, and the battle for Verdun became a focal point in the biker-gang war
 
*Patrick Turcotte, 24, killed May 1, 2000: The Rock Machine associate was shot several times while walking in Verdun.
 
Yes, I am not so blind to not realize that this isn't going on in Verdun but in a lot of places today. But hell, you know and I know that Verdun was NOT like this when we were kids. And Verdun still IS a place where a lot of children are still raised and still play on the streets, only they aren't the same streets anymore and it's a very scary thing when you think about it.  I know it's not easy for the law to get control of it either, but hell something needs to be done if we want today's generation of Verdun kids to have the same kind of wonderful memories as we all do, ya know? Maybe all the citizens of Verdun should take a "zero-tolerance" attitude and take it upon themselves to drive out all the trouble. yeah...siiiiigh...I know it's just stupid fanatasy that's easier said than done, but it's just that I'm so disillusioned with it all. It makes me so sad and afraid of what could happen if it gets even worse than it already has.
Comments anyone?
Luv, Sharon

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Loss for words.

Hi everybody,  It has been a while since there has been no activity
here on connections all day long. I had nothing to read. Played with my new web cam all day. I think someone has to come up with a new subject to keep us all going. Imagine people from Verdun with nothing to say. Sounds weird doesn't it.  Dannyb--

Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Movies

Does anyone remember the Vogue Theatre? It only cost .25 cents to get in and it the best horror movies. I think it was on Charelevois.

General : Pics!...and ahem Bill? hehe

Yes, that is I amongst all those beauties. Actually I live here in HI,
and the retreat was one of the 12 steps variety. It proved to be a
great weekend even though initially, I had my doubts. I did not realize
how supportive women can be. It was a learning experience for this old
retired sea dog.
Much aloha,
Bill Cooper

Monday, September 8, 2003

Pics!...and ahem Bill? hehe

I just added some new pics of some of the beautiful sights here in Va. I couldn't find any from when we went along Skyline Drive in the fall, but there is one of the back of our house just as the leaves started changing. I got a few of Shenandoah Valley on Skyline drive with my son and daughter tho :-). There's a pic of a gorgeous sunrise that I took from the barn and another of a DOUBLE rainbow, and of a family of deer that frequents the field across from our house too.
I removed several of the ones that I'd previously posted, Mag, so that I didn't take up too much storage space.
Again, they're in "Life on the Farm in Virginia".
 
Ahem BILL! I ALSO noticed some new pics from YOU! What's THIS? You went on a Hawaiian retret and you were the ONLY man there with TWENTY-FIVE women???? Oh DO TELL! LOL
Cute kid you were too. :-)
Luv, Sharon *

Sunday, September 7, 2003

Verdun Movie House Trivia

With all this talk about theaters.........I thought..................another trivia topic !!!
In its heyday, Verdun had quite a few theaters given the population at the time.
 
How many ?
What were their names ?
And where were they located ?
 
We'll give this one a week ?

Friday, September 5, 2003

Lookin for KeithTurnbull

Anyone know where Keith is? (VHS Class of '52) Does he have a PC? Served in the RCAF Reserve with me. HALP!

Don Snow

Looking for help from some 1950's St.Willibrord's guys who knew Don Snow. Anyone know what happened to him or where he is! We were buddies. Victah1/1st Ave.

Thursday, September 4, 2003

Looking for 1952 Grads

To:   VerdunConnections@groups.msn.com

From:   Vicnjlc@cs.com

Subject: 1952 Grads of VHS and Verdun Sailing Club "OLD TIMERS!"



Looking for Verdun Grads, 1952 and Ol' Verdun Sailing Club Skippers, trying to locate George Anderson or Dave Hawthorne. Sez Victor C-duck



P.S. I tried to send this on the site format, but couldn't get to the send button. Format too large!

Tuesday, September 2, 2003

Reid's Pet Shop?

Remember Reid's Pet Shop on Wellington between Melrose and Argyle? I love animals and would always stop in there whenever I'd go by, just to see what new animals they'd acquired and to pet the kittens and puppies and bunnies. Also to see the wonderfully bright parrots that they had many of too. Mr Reid never shooed us kids out, he'd actually encourage us to pet all the animals and play with the birds, even taking the guinea pigs out of the cages so we could hold them. I think he trained all his parrots himself, and man, could they TALK! hehe One time he had this squirrel monkey in, and I got close up to the cage to talk to him and the little bugger grabbed a handful of my long hair and wouldn't let go. Mr. Reid jokingly told me that he guessed he'd have to cut my hair off to get me loose and man...lol...I just YANKED with everything I had and got MYSELF loose thank you very much! hehe
Ahhhhhhh all these memories!!
Luv, Sharon

Dionne's Anyone? LOL

Who remembers the grocery store on Verdun Ave between 6th and Desmarchais (might have been a Steinberg's at one time I think?) but at one point it was a grocery chain called Dionne's, where you had to grab a black crayon as you went in cuz there were no prices on any of the food just on tags above the food and you were supposed to mark the price on yourself? LOL Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuure most of the people wrote the RIGHT price.....suuuuuuuuuuuure they did hehehe
The place is now an IGA...prices already put on for ya! :-D
Luv, Sharon

Barry's Fish and Chips, Anyone? :-D

Ok....anyone remember/know of Barry's Fish and Chips joint that was on Verdun Ave. between Argyle and Woodland? A LOT of people from VHS went there for lunch to get "dippy dogs" and fries and/or burgers for lunch. And a LOT of Catholic folks went there for their fish on Fridays...
Did anyone know Barry personally like my ex-husband did? heh heh heh...you wouldn't BELIEVE some of the things that went on there after hours man...
Luv, Sharon

More Memories....

Is it just me, or do you believe that we really DID have more snow when we were kids than they do now? Geeeeeeez....I can remember jumping off of 2nd story balconies into the snow below! Anyone remember that snowstorm we got in hmmmmm....I guess it was late 60's early 70's where we got slammed with like 3 FEET of snow and the snow covered the cars parked on the street....cops were out on SNOWMOBILES helping people who were stranded? Oh man....talk about some GREAT snowforts that year...not to mention great $$ that was made shovelling walkways and digging out cars!
How about the parking lot behind Steinberg's on Willibrord and Wellington in the winter? They'd have really high piles of snow around the whole back of the parking lot from clearing the lot, and they were great for walking along the top of....for sledding down once the store was closed at night and on Sundays (Not open Sundays then!), you could build some great forts at the side of them too but you had to be careful, cuz those hills were really high like I said and you didn't want all that much snow capable of falling down on you and killing you if it collapsed and you were in the fort! LOL
That same parking lot was great to play in in the summer too cuz the back of the store was one large brick wall and was used for SO many things! I remember writing and drawing all over that wall with chalk (GASP! I was a VANDAL at 7 years old! hehe),  Any of you girls my age remember playing a game against brick walls where you'd slip one of those red and blue spongy/bouncy balls with the white strip into the leg of an old pair of stockings or leotards (OH GOD! Remember those freaking LEOTARDS??? LOL!) and you'd knot the ball in the toe end, you'd stand with your back flat against the wall and your legs apart with the loose stocking end in your hand. Then you would swing that ball from side to side, over your head, between your legs and recite a verse....damn I wish I could remember just ONE of those verses hehe. Any of the girls here remember any of them? Or the boys even? hehe
That same wall also had a ledge about 2 or 3 feet up from the ground that we'd play a game with a ball on too...you had to throw the ball "just right" and it would hit that ledge and POP up into the air. I think whoever got the most pops in like 20 throws won or something.
Am I remembering correctly? Didn't part of the lane that runs parallel with
Willibrord and First Ave. between Lasalle Blvd. and Wellington St. wasn't it still made of cobblestone instead of asphalt? This would be in the middle 60's when I was really young...anyone else remember that by any chance?
Oh I'm on a ROLL here! LOL!
How about the "witches house" on what street...ummmm....Rielle or Gordon? It was this old creepy looking house that was set way back from the street and scared the bejesus out of us kids hehe.
Did anyone ever go to Therrien Park? They used to have these little sort of playhouses made out of cement that was aways from the playground itself. I was disappointed when my oldest was a little girl and I took her there to show her where Mommy used to play, and those little houses weren't there anymore..
Who remembers those white milk bottle candies? Man I loved them so much! Or the little maple sugar topped ice cream cones with maple syrup in the cone?
You all must remember when the "original" Rex Pizza was on Wellington between 3rd and 4th? My Mom used to send me every Friday to get steamies and fries for all of us. Well, get this....I went to where the original owner of Rex had moved and called the place Nick's Pizza, it's on Wellington down just past Hickson. Well, I walked in the door and there was Nick sitting there behind the cash and he remembered me! I couldn't believe it! And I didn't goad him with info either, he turned around to me and said "You used to come to my old place every Friday and get hot dogs and fries, didn't you?" It was amazing. And man...his pizza's and subs AND steamies all taste just like they used to too!
Ok...memory banks closing for the day, I'll let someone else make a deposit hehe.
Luv, Sharon
 

Is it just me....

At the risk of soundy picky (but I'm not really!) is it just me or does anyone else here find that the way MSN has formatted the way you retrieve new messages here sucks the big one or what? I mean, you can get around it by posting a "new discussion" but then you don't have a link to go to the message that was being replied to, know what I mean? I run 2 or 3 groups in Yahoo and I find that the way the group messages are formatted there are much more efficient, no offense.
Ever think about trying one in Yahoo?
Then again, maybe it's just cuz I am more accustomed to the workings of Yahoo groups....I don't know. What do ya think?
Luv, Sharon

Monday, September 1, 2003

Montreal

You can buy a VHS copy of the 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'
with   Richard Dreyfuss at Half.com for $6.00. I
already have a copy of this tape in my humble collection. The entire
movie takes place in Montreal. Very interesting story. Anyone familiar
with other Montreal films?
Bill Cooper