REMEMBER THIS: Readers share memories of Newmarket’s Teen Town

That is the second article in a collection on Newmarket’s Teen City, highlighting the teams you really liked listening to and the recollections you continue to maintain. You’ll be able to read the first one here. I requested that you just ship me your recollections and lots of of you probably did simply that, thanks so very a lot. This text is devoted to your responses.

These of us who grew up within the Nineteen Fifties, Nineteen Sixties or Nineteen Seventies will definitely keep in mind the unbelievable music scene in Toronto. There have been so many golf equipment the place a music fan from the “sticks” may get their music repair; golf equipment principally in Yorkville and alongside the Yonge Avenue strip from Bloor to King streets.

Here’s a temporary checklist of music venues again then.

In Yorkville:

• The Riverboat
• The Purple Onion
• The Satan’s Den
• El Patio
• The Penny Farthing
• The Mynah Fowl
• Chez Monique
• The Embassy Tavern
• Boris’s
• The Owl’s Nest
• The Flick

On Yonge:

• Le Coq d’Or, with The Hawk’s Nest above it
• The Colonial Tavern
• The Sapphire Tavern
• Membership Blue Word
• The Zanzibar Tavern
• Membership 888, which might turn into The Rockpile in 1968

As a teen rising up in Newmarket, one didn’t essentially must journey to Toronto in your music repair, all you wanted was 1 / 4 (to start with) to see a full array of music expertise on our very personal Teen City stage on the Outdated City Corridor. As talked about in my first article, Newmarket was on the music circuit out of Toronto and most of the bands, early of their careers, would grace our stage, a lot to our delight.

Because of all of you who shared your recollections, we are going to take a step again in time and relive a few of the acts and recollections that you just keep in mind so fondly. You’ll be able to nonetheless ship them to me as a 3rd article on this collection will give attention to the music of that point, so it might be nice to get your ideas.

Charles Beer, alongside along with his twin brother, David, was concerned with Teen City from round 1956-57, by means of to 1959 whereas attending Pickering Faculty. Evidently for him, and I think many different Pickering Boys, Teen City afforded an amazing alternative for the boarders to attach with Newmarket and notably with its women, together with all these faculty’s Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Charles recalled that Terry Bell and Helen White had reached out to the Pickering neighborhood and invited them to affix within the enjoyable. His brother was on the chief one yr of the operation that was led and sponsored by college students, working carefully with the city and a few the councillors who had been supportive however let the teenagers run the present.

He talked about the charitable efforts of the group, noting they raised cash and supported worthy native causes, together with a gaggle who took Christmas presents to the Loyal True Blue and Orange orphanage in Oak Ridges after one December Saturday dance.

The band he recalled most fondly was the late John Georgas enjoying the honky tonk piano. A number of folks throughout my oral historical past interview collection have concurred that John was a musical power along with his distinctive enjoying and his vigorous patter.

Donna Lloyd advised me that whereas there have been so many teams that she liked again then, Little Caesar and the Consuls was her favorite. She remembered seeing them on the Toronto Ski Membership about 10 years in the past they usually had been nonetheless nice…they danced all evening.

Ken Sisler was unable to verify that Bobby Curtola carried out domestically however as I discussed in my first article, in a phone interview with me, he insisted that he performed a gig right here in Newmarket and it seems that he was a neighborhood favorite again then.

Jim Wrightman despatched me fairly an intensive itemizing of expertise that he loved throughout his participation between 1964 and 1969. Maybe you keep in mind these teams that he talked about:

• David Clayton Thomas and the Shays
• Little Caesar and the Consuls
• Ritchie Knight and the Midnights
• The Mandala (previously The 5 Rogues)
• Grant Smith and the Energy
• John Lee and the Checkmates
• The Ugly Ducklings
• Jack London and the Sparrows
• The Counts
• Jackie Shane
• Bobby Kris and the Imperials
• The Emeralds (later referred to as The Suedes from the Newmarket space)
• The Staccatos

The Ike and Tina Turner Evaluation made an look it might appear. This was apparently a shock as they’d signed a contract simply prior to creating it huge with Proud Mary however they determined to honour their contract.

Jim additionally talked about seeing different acts at native venues like the 2 excessive colleges and the Compass. He talked about The Paupers, who performed at Newmarket Excessive College and The Massive City Boys and Lighthouse, who performed Huron Heights Secondary College. He additionally talked about two native bands, The Darkish Ages and The Quakers, which delighted me as my cousin, Bryan Luesby, was the drummer with Darkish Ages and I grew up listening the magical voice of Mr. Waite practising in my Uncle Jack’s basement. They had been my early idols, haha!

Joan Avand remembered attending Teen City within the early ’60s however didn’t keep in mind any stay bands. She did comment that she does keep in mind attending a number of dances on the plaza, in an upstairs corridor above the laundromat that featured stay leisure. She recalled David Clayton Thomas, Glass Tiger (after they had been first beginning) and maybe Chubby Checker (she wasn’t positive).

In a future article, I need to study a few of the teams who performed the opposite native venues in additional element.

The Emeralds had been the home band for Teen City. Linda and Paul Wright reached out to me following the primary article and graciously despatched to me data and pictures, which I’ve included with this text.

The members of The Emeralds included John Hagman, Ron White, Ross Sully, Earl Newhall and Paul Wright, all native lads if I recall accurately.

Throughout my analysis for a presentation on the historical past of leisure in Newmarket within the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, I turned conscious of an up-and-coming Canadian group, Gary and Dave, who had been composed of Gary Weeks (born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) and David Lloyd George “Dave” Beckett (born proper right here in Newmarket). I consider they’re finest recognized for his or her 1973 hit music Might You Ever Love Me Once more.

Weeks and Beckett had been associates since grade faculty within the early Nineteen Sixties. They performed in quite a few bands till 1966, when the pair competed in a United Attraction live performance and got here in fourth out of 500 acts. They started to play the competition circuit, and it seems that early of their profession they performed as a ‘filler band’ at Teen City.

As a part of your response to my pleas in your recollections, I heard from a number of folks about ‘first loves’ each fleeting and lengthy lasting. Teen City, it might seem, was fertile floor for younger romance. Let’s face it, there may be nothing like a gradual dance to set the thoughts to romance, is there?

Apparently not all of the romances ignited by these nights at Teen City had been perpetually romances, however it might seem they had been deep sufficient that they nonetheless spring to thoughts all these years later. I’ve omitted names to guard the harmless, haha.

I keep in mind from an article within the native newspaper simply earlier than the reunion that Al Noble and his beautiful spouse, Sandra Osborne, met at Teen City and have celebrated properly over 50 years collectively. For them, Teen City was one thing particular certainly.

From the recollections I obtained through the years, it’s fairly clear that Teen City was certainly one thing particular, together with skating on the previous Memorial Area.

I’ve performed a whole bunch of oral historical past interviews through the years and considered one of my go-to questions was “Did you ever attend Teen City dances?” One would typically see a light-weight change on of their eyes and I’d be regaled with tales from again then, many sadly I couldn’t use in my articles and shows however now I’ve had the chance to retell them for these articles.

One individual commented, “All of us knew that it might not at all times be like this however at the moment and place, we knew that we’d at all times have these recollections.” In spite of everything, that’s what native historical past is all about, the recollections.

Subsequent weekend, I’ll take a look at a few of the ways in which our native Indigenous peoples contributed to the very existence of our ancestors. I didn’t have to go looking too far afield as my family tales of the Lundys and their kin are sprinkled with tales of how they had been dependant on the great graces of the ‘peoples of the lakes’ for his or her survival.

Sources: Contributions from Charles Beer, Ken Sisler, Jim Wrightman, Donna Lloyd, Ted and Nanette Stankiewicz Father or mother, Linda Spaulding Middleton and Paul Wright; pictures courtesy of Linda Spaulding Middleton and Paul Wright (the Emeralds); The Newmarket Period; the Official Program from the Teen City Reunion; The Toronto Sound of the ’60s by Russ Strathdee.

Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod — the Historical past Hound — has been a neighborhood historian for greater than 40 years. He writes a weekly characteristic about our city’s historical past in partnership with Newmarket Right this moment, conducts heritage lectures and strolling excursions of native curiosity, and leads native oral historical past interviews