ST. AVARDS CORNER

These are a couple of photos from the corner down by my home.
The first is Ginger Mackay in a car he made, notice the narrow gauge of the axels. This was so he could drive in the track that sleighs made. The photo is about 1947 taken in front of the store.
The store at this time was operated by Gilbert Frizzell and later by Albert Dennis.
As a kid I spent alot of time down at the store.
One summer evening , Albert was on vacation, I was engrossed reading comics. The magazine stand blocked any view from the rest of the store. Timed passed and soon it was 6:30 and the store closed at 5:30. Jean Duck and Rowan Beer were minding the store for Albert.
After finishing a comic, Two Gun Kid, I think, I noticed it was very quiet, I looked around and found I was alone in the store, locked in and panicing. The front door needed a key to open it, no panic bars back then. I was scared and trembeling, what will I do?
I waited a while and made my way out through the back of the store three rooms to the back. The door there was hooked from the inside, I slowly opened it and peeked around, no one was watching, I ran out the door and slamed it behind me. The door did not have any closing device as it hooked from the inside. Again panic set in the door was swinging open. I propped a stick against it and hopped on my bike and drove up to Rowan's home. He was outside so i stopped and said, "Hey Rowie, I was just driving by the store and saw the back door is open" Rowie yells" No Way I locked that door myself it can't be open".
"Well man i don't know about that I saw it open" I said with guilt all over my freckled face.
"Were you locked in the store"?
"Noway man, not me noway"
I avoided the store for weeks after that.






This picture is taken in front of the Culvert Plant, Maritime Steel Foundries. The man on the right is Bunn Duffy, he ran the plant.
What a great place to play as a kid. The men working there would let us inside and watch, we would get in side the big culverts as they punched holes in then , NOISY.
Out side they had a small steel trolley that carried the culverts sround the yard it was on rode on rails similar to trains. When the plant was closed we would push that trolley back and forth for hours, and play in the culverts.
In the process of making culverts the men would use the giant punching machine to put a hole in the culvert for the rivets.
The punch pushed out a slug of galvenized metal the size of your small finger. We would take these by the hundreds and lay them on the rail tracks and wait for the train to run over them. When it did we would gather them up and examine them , looking for one that resembled a dime. We where hoping to get a dime to go to the movies. Only once do i recall one of the guys going up to Walter Burhoes and bought a 10ct bar with one of them. Walter probably knew it was fake but went along with it.
Behind the men in the picture you can see a house and barn, no longer standing.
A man named Seymour Gregory lived there by himself. Seymour looked after the cemetry, digging graves and cutting the grass , with a push mower.
Seymour was eccentric, [not at all like me]and drank a bit. As kids when we knew he was drinking and sleeping on the sofa we would sneak up on the front veranda, bang on the window and yell "Seymour sawmore ate the lawn mower and now he's at the grass".
Then we would run up the street laughing.
If I tell too many more stories I might have to follow "Earl's" example and make a list.