Quai Leblanc Wharf

Malgré que ce ne soit pas indiqué sur la photo, je semble reconnaître le quai Leblanc au pied de la 2ième ave. avec la petite cabane Ã  l'arrière de la maison ou la famille Leblanc vendais de la crême glacée et louais des chaloupes dans les années 30-40-50. Les vieux de la vieille se rappeleraient de cet endroit. 

 

Although it is not indicated on the photo, I seem to recognise the Leblanc wharf with the small shack in the back of the house at the foot of second ave. where the LeBlanc family would sell ice cream cones and rent boats in the 30-40-50s. The old timers would remember this. (Please note Maroonvet)

 

Guy

Dave Pinto makes a suggestion re subject lines on posts

Good Afternoon All!
I believe they have all been well put also but it seems eveyone is
forgetting something about this site. So let us all remember to " REMEMBER
VERDUN & HAVE FUN"
Tiny
Tina (Christine McKiernon)

Centrale Electrique à Ville LaSalle

Voici une photo de l'ancienne Centrale électrique à Ville Lasalle. La plupart des Verdinois sont familiés avec cet endroit qui est maintenant un chemin de terre vers l'ile Gardner.(Archives SHGV)

 

Here is a photo of the old electric power dam near Bishop Power Blvd which most verdunites are familiar with. Lousely translated, the company was formed in 1895 by 20 rich Canadians and an American who formed the Lachine Rapids Hydraulic and Land Co. to exploit the energenic resourses of the Lachine rapids.

Inauguration was held in 1897 and ceased operation in 1931.It was owned by the Montreal Light Heat and Power. Most Verdunites are familiar with this spot. It is now a dirt road leading to Gardner Island. (SHGV Archives)

 

Guy

 

École Bannantyne School

Voici une vieille photo (Archive SHGV) de l'École Bannantyne qui était située au coin de Galt. Cette photo date d'environ 1920 et veuillez noter qu'il n'y avait pas de bâtisse en face.

 

Here is an old photo (SHGV Archive) circa 1920 of the Banantyne school which was situated at the corner of Galt. Notice that there were no building facing the school at that time.

 

Guy

A bike in Verdun

Learning to ride a bike in Verdun

I learned to ride a bike in 1950. The first recommendation: « Just pedal and don’t look at your front wheel Â». I practiced first in our backyard on Ethel St., then on the section of Victor Lane between Hickson and Regina. My dad accompanied me; we both rented a bicycle at Bicycles Brassard’s Cycles on Strathmore between Ethel & Gertrude. There were no training wheels on my bike, so my dad had more work to do, running besides me.

My father always rented a huge two-bar bicycle (CCM usually which was not FeatherliteÓ

) and me what we used to called a small « tire balloon Â». The rates were $0.50 per hour for an adult and $0.25 per hour for kids. After getting some experience in the lane, we made the loop: Victor-Hickson-Ethel-Regina and Victor again. Then the loop was extended to Stathmore then to Mullarky Ave. My father bought me my first bike in 1955.

Good memories !

What was your first experience on a bike ?

JM

Prayer's

Good Evening Group!
Just would like you all to keep our brother Bill
(Willie) McK. in your prayers. He was in an accident last night. So far aside from losing his left leg just above the knee he is hanging in. He was on his Bike. Also pray for the rest of the family especially our Mom Reita and you Manager Maggie McK as this has hit her pretty hard with an other accident that just happened in her home town.
Thanks Tiny Tina

Another bank gone......

I had a Doctors' appointment in Verdun yesterday and drove along Wellington.  It seems the CIBC on the corner of Galt & Wellington has skipped town.  Has a For Rent or For Sale sign in front.  Not many banks left in Verdun.

I also drove up Gordon........ya know that little church beside the old YMCA north of Bannantyne is also gone.  Just a big hole there.  I'll bring my digital camera next time I'm there.

 

Mac

Looking for Info On....

I graduated from VHS in 1965. Would like to know information on Neil Watt (lived on same street(?) as St. Thomas Moore church ,between Bannyntne and Beurling; also Bobby Bindon who lived in Crawford Park and Morris Smith who was living in London, Ont. last.

For those who knew him, Dave Livingston ( great guy) passed away about six months ago.

I enjoy this group immensely and check it out daily. Thank you

Jim Long

VHS 1969

Anyone graduate from VHS in 1969?

WOOOO HOOOOO HOCKEYYYYYYY!!!

They have made a deal "in principle"!

 

http://www.nhl.com/news/2005/07/230330.html

 

GO HABS GO!

Brown Blvd. and park

all my family aunts and uncles were from Verdun the Holdaways all 13 kids (big family) my grandparents lived there in the 1918's and untill there passing My father was there untill he moved to Roxboro after the war 1948 and most of my aunts and uncles lived there untill thjey passed away or moved still have an aunt(Betty) living on 2nd ave. I remember playing baseball and Hockey in trhe park way back in the 1950's with my cousins good times also swimming at the Nat. fishing with my grandad etc. boardwalk,. will try and post some pics of verdun from the 40's and 50's

Living on 6th ave.

Cheers my whole family(Holdaways) Father Uncles Grandfater and Grandmother all lived in Verdun I moved from there when My dad built a house in Roxboro in 1948 so my memories of verdun were of a small boy living there going fishing with my uncles and andgrandad. they had a boat and we would leave from the boardwalk have some very old pics of Verdun will try and scan them for the group to view

Post a RECENT pic of yourself! ;-D

This is the place to post a recent photo of yourself so we can all put a face to the names!

Yes I know we have the picture gallery, but I thought we could do it here too.

Come ON, don't be shy! I guess I'll get the ball rolling since I'm mentioning it...lol.

This is me in the back of our house in Virginia. Blue Ridge Mountains in all their glory...

 

 

 

Members

This message has been deleted by the author.

Let's Play a Little Game...

Called name that Verdun street or particular place in Verdun! I took a bunch of pics around Verdun 2 weeks ago, let's see how many you can guess hehe

I walked down this street every...single...day on my way to school in the 60's

 

 

Whatever happened to...

Richard Mrazik?  Steve Higden?  Lynn Sinclair?  Wendy Driscoll?  Dixie Bealy?

the 'hole'

anyone here who hung around the hole.

if you did you know where and what i am referring to.

Verdun Movie houses - interesting article

I'm not sure whether this excellent article has been posted or not but it's a fascinating story about a guy whose father brought cinema to Verdun and then he took it over and became a very unusual filmmaker.

-----

Ilsa: born in Montreal



by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

A friend directed me to Paul Corupe’s compelling history in Take One magazine on Montreal’s connection to some of the planet’s most radical movie mayhem and exploitation flicks. So I rang up the man responsible for much of it, 70-something John Dunning of Dorval.

The soft-spoken Dunning reports that he’s a product of film-pioneer lineage. In 1906, John’s dad, S.J. (Samuel John) Dunning returned to Verdun from New York peddling celluloid footage of the San Francisco earthquake. “He’d run around and put up a tent. He had these eight minutes of film and eventually he was able to build a theatre on 726 Church [aka de l’Eglise],” says John.

S.J. opened another theatre on 5th Avenue in Verdun and one at Monk and Briand, which a young John managed. “It was tough,” says Dunning. “You had two steel mills and a tavern on the corner and some guys would come there full of beer and if they didn’t like the film they’d cut the seats. I used to shudder every time we played a women’s film.”

Those under 16 were banned due to laws inspired by the Laurier Cinema fire of 1927. “My father didn’t believe in that law. It was a provincial law so the local police didn’t enforce it. But the church monitored the morals of the citizens, so the films were always cut to bits.”

John wanted to be a doctor—“too many Dr. Kildare movies, I guess”—and was 17 and studying at McGill when his father died. He quit to take over the movie houses.

TV progressively diminished profits, so Dunning rented his theatres to production crews and eventually started making movies with Hungarian-born film distributor Andr챕 Link.

The duo scored quick success with some sexy French-language efforts as well as Dunning’s favourite, the romantic comedy Loving and Laughing. The flick contained a sex scene shot illegally atop of Percé Rock. Crew members were jailed in Vermont on suspicions of shooting an anti-Vietnam-war film.

In the ’70s came Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, scripted by a hyper-imaginative Toronto English professor. The murderous Ilsa—who Dunning claims is the “first real female film villain”—has a habit of castrating men unable to satisfy her. Ilsa also chows down at a feast while a woman perches on ice with a noose around her neck, with predictable results.

“In those days it was about survival, whatever you could do to bring people into the theatre,” says Dunning of the exploitation flick. “The violence is separated from the sex. We were very careful about that.”

Ilsa earned money. “In New York, on 42nd street, people would shout and holler and talk in German accents at her,” says Dunning. “In Belgium it ran for a year because it was banned in Germany, so Germans came there to see it.”

Dunning produced two Ilsa sequels, including the tamer Montreal-shot Ilsa: Tigress of Siberia. “We were trying to legitimize her because we got a review in the Washington Post comparing Ilsa to James Bond.”

Also slated was Ilsa Meets Bruce Lee in the Devil’s Triangle. “We had Bruce Lee’s widow onboard. He was going to show up as a ghost and set things right.” It was never shot, nor was Ilsa: She Devil of the Mao Mao, inspired by Idi Amin. “We got distracted and got into something else, but I still have the tentative scripts.”

Paydays and acclaim came with other projects, including Meatballs and some Cronenberg flicks, but Dunning pondered following other talent to Hollywood. “We had no reason to move. I like this town and our experience with the major studios wasn’t horrific, but it wasn’t very good.”

Dunning is now penning the last chapters of his autobiography and promises a sequel to the slasher classic My Bloody Valentine, which will include eight minutes of crucial gore that censors sliced from the original.

He “sometimes” regrets not becoming a doctor. “But you do what you have to do,” and apparently it paid off.

“But somebody said that what’ll be written on my tombstone is: ‘This was the producer of Ilsa.’”

Comments? kgravy@openface.ca

Medical Info for Verdunites in the USA

Hi Verdun people in the US!

This info came to me in a medical newsletter I receive. Thought it might be of value to you in case you don't receive info such as this down there.

 

Art

 

Dear Reader,

Two hundred and 29 years ago today, our forefathers affixed their signatures to a document that protected the "unalienable rights" of this nation's citizens.

But what would the founding fathers say if they discovered that the government could distribute your medical information to potentially thousands of people without explanation? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which took effect in 2003, has opened the door for law enforcement and other government officials, medical personnel, insurance company employees, researchers, foreign officials, FDA officials, and even employers to know the most personal details of your health history.

Ironically you may have a harder time accessing medical information about yourself or family members than officials would, thanks to these new regulations. While HIPAA makes it easier for officials to gain access to your personal medical information, it may also provide a convenient shield for doctors and healthcare facilities to hide behind when individual requests are made. In fact, this could be the worst of both worlds, where hospitals are selectively closemouthed about patient information, turning away requests from individuals while sharing information with healthcare organizations or government officials.

So on this 4th of July, take a stand for your own independence. Fill out a "Declaration of Medical Privacy Intent" form by accessing the website www.cchconline.org. The form was created by the Citizens' Council on Health Care, a non-profit group that supports the right of each individual to control their own health care decisions. It doesn't guarantee that your records won't be shared without your knowledge, but filling out and giving the form to your doctor, pharmacist, and insurance companies to include in your files is a good way to inform others that you disagree with any infringement on your right to medical privacy.

****************************************************

Verdun summers

What do you remember most about summertime in good old Verdun .

 

Imagine walking to the Nat at 9 am , to swim, home for lunch and back again , from 3rd and Wellington , twice a day, no wonder we were in good shape , how about your summer memories    Jimmy