Craig & Anne Werden
Anne & Craig on their first date in August, 1970 (left) & in the summer of 2017 (right).
AUDIO INTERVIEW
SUMMARY
November 10, 2014
00:16 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Craig and his mom lived on Davenport for a few years and then moved to 58 Benson into a basement apartment near the Rexall at Christie.
00:52 PERSONAL HISTORY: He and Anne now live at 14 Benson.
01:04 Craig moved to Benson in 1954.
01:12 They moved into their current home in 1987 when Anne was pregnant with their second child.
01:26 PERSONAL HISTORY / IMMIGRATION: Anne and her family moved to the neighbourhood in 1963, the year they came to Canada. Her grandmother lived at 30 Wychwood. One of her aunts lived at at 101 Hocken and another at 95 Ellsworth. She and her family moved to Canada and lived on Hocken for about one year before they moved to 129 Wychwood where she lived until she and Craig married.
01:50 Anne and her family came from Italy. She came with her parents and her sister. Her mother’s family already lived in the neighbourhood. They came to Canada in the 50s.
02:20 BARNS / NEIGHBOURHOOD: Craig remembers the street looking the same as it does today, narrower perhaps, with a big iron fence around the Barns. There used to be an old farmhouse on Benson, with a wrap-around porch, a turret and an apple orchard of about 15 trees. The kids used to go there at night to steal the apples.
04:20 RESIDENTIAL / BARNS: Not much has changed except for some of the fronts of the houses. There used to be grass from the homes to the road. The parkette is new – it used to be a day-time change room and washroom for ladies who worked at the TTC.
05:11 PERSONAL HISTORY / FAMILY LIFE : Craig’s family was born in Canada. His mother’s grandfather immigrated from Bath, England. HIs family lived above a German bakery on St. Clair (between Wychwood and Christie), beside the current [Maple] paint store. That was the first home they had in the area. They moved to Winona, and from there to Davenport (where he was born in 19510, before ending up on Benson.
6:04 Anne still owns the family house on Wychwood Ave. that they bought a year after they immigrated to Canada. When she first moved there with her family (one sister and her parents), they lived on the first floor of the house while renting out the second floor until the arrival of her baby brother.
06:40 ENTERTAINMENT: Anne feels the area around Wychwood has changed – there are more people now. There used to be the Vaughan Theatre on St Clair where Anne spent a lot of time. Craig also refers to the Christie Theatre (where the Salvation Army store is currently).
07:12 SHOPS: There used to be many little stores on the neighbourhood streets that are no longer there because of changes to the by-laws. She explains that once an owner dies a store can no longer exist and the property becomes a residential property only. There used to be a (candy)store on Helena that is no longer there. She refers to the little store at Arlington and Tyrell that still stands.
07:55 Anne remarks on the embedded neighbourhood stores. She mentions a candy store on Helena – here used to be candies that were 5 for a penny. They used to call it the “old lady store” because the owner happened to be older. It’s a house now. It was close to the middle of Helena. There was a store on Greensides and another on Benson where Craig hung out. They discuss the store hours.
9:30 There was an A&P, Reitman’s and Krege’s on St. Clair. They talk about Kresge’s lunch counter and going there for pies and 45s (records). Craig refers briefly to Woolworth’s which was also on St. Clair (before Anne’s time).
10:25 DATING /SHOPS / RECREATION: There was a music store on St. Clair called Mundingers where Craig took bass lessons. Anne tells the story of how she first met Craig on St. Clair: she and Craig’s mother were walking home together from Triangle Drugs, (between Wychwood and Vaughan), where they both worked, when they ran into Craig with his bass. They met in 1970 and were married in 1975.
11:10 SCHOOLS: Anne attended Holy Rosary and St. Joe’s, Wellesley. Craig went to McMurrich and Castle Frank.
11:35 TRANSIT: Anne and Craig both took the TTC to school. Going to high school Anne took the streetcar to the Avenue Rd bus so they could see the De La Salle boys. In order to get to Castle Frank, Craig took the streetcar to Yonge, the subway to Bloor and finally transferred to the streetcar along Bloor St… The Boor/Danforth subway line opened while Craig was in high school.
12:50 ENTERTAINMENT / THEATRES: Craig recalls the Christie Theatre: lIke the Vaughan it was Art Deco. It had one entrance and it was basically simple but the ceiling was really ornate and can still be seen in the Salvation Army today. It was boarded up for years. It was the Maple Leaf Ballroom - U2 played there before it became a bingo hall.
13:50 The Vaughan Theatre was nice. It was near the corner of Vaughan and St Clair. There was a woman who lived in a big old house, where Albert’s now stands, on the corner of Vaughan and St. Clair, right beside the Vaughan Theatre. Craig refers to it as the “cat house” because the woman had “hundreds” of cats. They used to torment the cats. Anne was a little more protected. She went to the theatre with her dad or her friends and then she came home.
14:45 STORES: Craig has old photos of the bank where the eye store [Hakim Optical] is now by St Clair and Vaughan on the SE corner.
15:20 LIFE OF A CHILD / NEIGHBOURHOOD: Craig and Anne remember that the neighbourhood was filled with families. Anne moved into the neighbourhood when she was 10 and made friends immediately. She is still best friends with a girl she met at that time and her family still owns that house. They used to play skipping rope in Anne’s driveway. They would go off to school with 10 or 15 girls. She considered it to be very safe. Most of their mothers had jobs.
16:10 LIFE OF A CHILD: There were not as many cars back then as now so kids played on the street. They would play skipping on the street.
16:30 LIFE OF A CHILD / LANEWAYS: Laneways were dirt so Craig says that only the “bad” boys used to hang out on them. Wychwood was a dividing line with friends on one side or the other – Anne stayed on the east side and Craig stayed mostly on the west side - on Ellsworth and Benson over to Arlington.
17:21 SHOPS: Craig and his friends were drawn towards Arlington and Benson. There were 4 variety stores close-by. Herbie’s was the “big one,” where they could get candy and Pepsi. Craig’s brother would do the dishes and send Craig out with 25 cents to get 2 bottles of Pepsi and 2 bags of candy (which they would hide).
17:45 VENDORS: Anne remembers that she and her sister would be given 10 cents each to buy popcorn or red apples from the vendor who came to the school on his bicycle (it would have a cart). She realizes it would have been a lot of money for her parents.
18:18 SHOPS / RESTAURANT: Laura Secord was at Bathurst and St. Clair. The health food store used to be a wine store. When they started dating they would go to the nearby Cottage Restaurant, where the Bar and Grill is presently. It had a lounge at the front and a dining room at the back - it was a little “dressier” than the others in the neighbourhood.The cheaper restaurant was the Coral Reef (near Vaughan and St. Clair) where they would get french fries and danish and stay for hours.
19:43 SHOPS: There was a Power Store across the street. Craig explains that these stores were big in Toronto in the 50s – there were a few of them. They were like an A&P but this one had sawdust on the floor. It eventually became Boots Drugstore, where Anne worked,
20:20 Grocery Stores: There used to be a Dominion, near Christie and St. Clair, where the McDonalds is now. They discuss all the supermarkets in the area. Anne finds that there are more people and fewer conveniences – that people have to drive to shop. She explains how everyone at that time walked to buy their groceries and she comments on the change of shopping routines.
21:07 She still has a clear picture of the A&P where they used to shop. There would be cashiers at the front. There would be someone packing and another person weighing.
21:33 Craig mentions another Dominion where the No Frills now stands. It had a snack bar.
21:50 ENTERTAINMENT: Craig’s mother remembers there being a race track where No Frills is.
22:00 SHOPS: A Ford Motor Company Dealership where the junk store is now on the north side. It had cars in the window
22:30 LIFE OF A CHILD: Craig and his friends would go out as far as Winona – they were up in the morning and not home until the lights came on. Anne was home already.
23:00 RAVINES / LIFE OF A CHILD: Craig “lived” in the ravine. He and his friends would swing from a rope over the creek. They lost good shoes. There was sinking sand in there. They weren’t supposed to be there because “bad people” hung out in the ravine. He and his friends would go under the bridge just below where the Loblaws is now. There was a lot of water down there. They would walk through the sewer onto the other side and kill the rats.
24:30 DATING: They often would walked up to Wells Hill Park and through the ravine. Their first date was at the CNE in 1970. Craig still has the tickets and a picture of it.
25:10 Their first movie together was Love Story.
25:30 ENTERTAINMENT: The Vaughan Theatre used to show new movies. They discuss the various changes at the Vaughan. Anne saw Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang there.
26:20 ENTERTAINMENT / LIFE OF A CHILD: The Christie was second run theatre. When the Christie was converting to a venue that required a level floor, Craig and his friends, Derek and Andy, were approached on the street by the workers to hold the posts underneath the floors while the floors were being raised. They were paid approx $2. Craig thinks he would have been 10 or 12 years old.
27:32 WORK / LIFE OF A CHILD / CHANGE: These were different times for children – Craig would get up at 4am to work at the CNE.
27:50 STORES / WORK / LIFE OF A CHILD: Anne started working when she was 12. She worked folding clothes, at a children’s clothing store, on St Clair between Wychwood and Vaughan. When she was fourteen she had a job weighing produce at a grocery store called The Regals, near Winona near the Ford Motor Company. She wouldn’t have been allowed to be a cashier because she was only 14. She explains that there would have been a weigher, a cashier and a packer. High school was $500/year, a lot of money for new immigrants so she worked to pay for her tuition.
29:25 DEMOGRAPHICS / SCHOOLS: There were large families in the neighbourhood, Anne remembers Italian families often having 2-3 children. At her school the Irish families were big. Her school was mostly Irish or Italian. Her grade 5 picture shows that there were only causasion children in her class. When her children went to the same school (Holy Rosary) there were only a few caucasions in the class.
30:22 LIFE OF A CHILD / IMMIGRATION: Anne arrived in Canada when she was 10 and her sister 12. There were no ESL classes at the school so they were entirely immersed in the English language – within a year they were speaking English.
30:47 HOUSE OF WORSHIP / YOUTH GROUPS: Craig and his family never went to church. Anne went to Holy Rosary – Craig spent his time in the ravines. Anne ran the youth corp and the drop-in centre at her church.
32:50 PORCH LIFE: Anne remembers that people were out on their porches.
32:14 TRANSIT: They used to buy their TTC tickets at the Barns. Anne remembers having a TTC pass (student ID?) in order to buy student tickets. She remembers the main office. Craig’s dad used to be a streetcar operator.
32:35 LIFE OF A CHILD / PORCH: Anne remembers all of them being on the porch and playing on the street. Craig remembers that they were out at sunrise and back when the lights came on. Anne’s family didn’t have a TV until she was 15. Craig’s family had a TV. He only watched Perry Como’s 15 minute show on Sunday and stayed up late that day to watch Ed Sullivan after his bath. Anne recalls only having 2 channels so they were outdoors playing most of the time. They played ball, hide and seek, and did a lot of skipping.
33:40 TRANSIT / BARNS: Anne used to fall asleep to the sound of the streetcar. Her house faced Wychwood at the corner of Wychwood and Ellsworth. Craig and his family lived in the basement so he remembers the noise, (the vibration). They didn’t make the ding ding ding sound as often when they were coming home from work. He thinks that the operators just wanted to park it and get out. They caught the streetcar by the Barns, where the parkette is now, to get to the Ex (CNE). Craig remembers feeling lucky while being down at the Ex and seeing that a streetcar was going“home,” to the Barns. The streetcars ran all night.
35:04 SHOPS / PLACE OF WORSHIP: Craig remembers how on Sunday mornings St Clair was deserted, everything was closed. He would stand in the middle of St. Clair and look up and down and he wouldn’t see anybody. Later on there would be people going to church.
35:30 PLACE OF WORSHIP / NEIGHBOURHOOD / DEMOGRAPHICS: They lived by the 3 churches and close to 5 churches. Anne remembers Reverend Brown who lived next to her. He is now a bishop. The rectory was on Ellsworth. She knew one of his daughters but she didn’t go to school with them so she seemed like a little bit of an “outsider”. His daughter was the only Anglican amongst them.
36:14 Anne Mentions how Margaret Atwood’s book, Cat’s Eye, portrays a similar experience of a neighbourhood with a dividing line between Catholics (in the book Our Lady of Perpetual Help) and the non-Catholics.
36:56 LIFE OF A CHILD / PARKS: Craig says they used to hang out at Hillcrest Park and at Graham Park where swings were the only equipment. Anne would go to the wading pool at Hillcrest. There were no stairs leading to Davenport. There were tennis courts and washrooms – none of that has changed.
38:13 WYCHWOOD PARK / WORK / RECREATION : Craig delivered papers in Wychwood Park. They would go walking in Wychwood Park and Craig played hockey there. Craig’s brother made a contraption that would clear the ice on the pond but some people didn’t want kids in there.
39:05 WYCHWOOD PARK: They discuss some of the changes in Wychwood Park.
40:12 Craig remembers the new houses on the east side bend of the park.
40:26 Residents: Anne remembering the big house in the middle and the women who lived there. She remembers the 2 “old ladies” who lived in the centre house because they used to come with their chauffeur into the drugstore where Anne worked. Craig recalls that they had Silver Cloud Rolls Royces. The chauffeur would drive them to the drugstore which was just up the street. They gave “the best” tips at Christmas – chocolate, marshmallows and $5.
41:05 SHOPS: There were a number of drugstores: a Rexall at Christie and St. Clair, and Wallace Drugs was on the (SW) corner of Wychwood and St. Clair. Anne worked at St. Clair and Vaughan at Triangle Drugs. After they closed she worked at Tamblyn’s which became Boots on the (NW) corner of St. Clair and Bathurst.
41:50 TRANSIT / BARNS: Anne remembering the “sea of streetcars”, from Benson to the house on Slade. There were three shift changes.
42:30 BARNS: Everyone liked the streetcars except that it caused problems for people who hung their laundry outside. Wind blew soot from the coal burner, that heated the building, all over their drying clothes. Craig shares his memories of the hopper being welded shut in the 1960s.
43:22 LIFE OF A CHILD: Craig remembers them dumping the coal at the building. He and his friends would take pieces of the coal to either his friend Derek’s or his own place and bury it, thinking it would become a diamond.
44:15 DELIVERY PEOPLE: Craig remembers ice being delivered by horse in the mid 1950s. He remembers getting yelled at for chipping off pieces of the ice.
44:30 Junk Man: Would come around with his horse and carriage to collect the junk from houses. He would collect metal, beds etc…
44:57 ENTERTAINMENT / NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Salvation Army used to play on the street every Sunday. They would congregate at their church on Benson with their brass band and they would play all the way up to Vaughan Road and back along Benson.
45:25 BARNS: Craig’s father and many other friends of his family worked at the Barns so Craig was often there. Craig explains that the streetcar would drive over the pits and how someone could get up underneath them without having to lift the cars off the tracks. He goes on to explain how the cars could be lifted off the tracks. The streetcars were easy to knock over.
46:35 BARNS: A friend of Craig’s mother would take him down to the vault in the Barns. He describes some of the layout of the Barns, including what the old washroom was like.
47:30 BARNS / TRANSIT: The Barns were packed with streetcars at night before Hillcrest was used for this purpose.
47:39 TRANSIT: The buses were housed at Hillcrest on Davenport.
47:47 INDUSTRY: Union Carbide was down there as well. It was behind the Hillcrest site. It’s one entrance was on Davenport. They were the same company that made batteries so that’s what Craig and his friends thought they were making.
48:30 NEIGHBOURHOOD: Craig says he “wouldn’t move for a million dollars.” They have friends that have left who would like to come back but they can’t afford the area.
49:25 LIBRARY: Anne talks about how nice the Wychwood Library was. She spent a lot of time there.
49:41 RECREATION: Craig spent a lot of time at the bowling alley at Bathurst and St. Clair.
50:05 ENTERTAINMENT: There was Radio City (Theatre) across from the church and the library, just north of the loop where the streetcars turned. Craig was never inside it.
50:27 They talk briefly about the locations of some of the theatres in the area: Dufferin and St. Clair, Oakwood (a big one), Lauder and St. Clair.
50:43 TRANSPORTATION: Anne talks about how her family bought their first car in the 70s. They walked everywhere and shopped in the neighbourhood. Craig remembers that it was a treat to do downtown – to Yonge and Queen. They had everything they needed closeby.
51:52 SHOPS / DEMOGRAPHICS: Mundinger’s, a music store between Vaughan and Wychwood, was Craig’s favourite store. Anne talks about changes to the area and how that part of St. Clair once had really good stores. They had a butcher, a deli, Reitmans and Woolworth. Mundinger’s sold musical instruments. The owner was from Germany and accordions were his great interest. Craig explains that the Mundinger accordion was quite famous.
52:53 DEMOGRAPHICS / SHOPS: Anne mentions how there were a lot of Germans living in the area and that’s why there were so many German bakeries and delis.
53:14 SHOPS: Anne’s favourite store was Kresge’s because they could buy t-shirts, records, and have pop or pie, or donuts from “under the glass.” Craig remembers that it had a candy counter, and a counter where you had the “best grilled cheese, apple pie and ice cream.” They had Honey Dew. They had a little bit of everything. It had wooden floors that would creak. There was an entrance off Vaughan. Anne explains how the deliveries where received through a door in the ground. They would use the Vaughan entrance. They would go up three steps and be in the store. Kresges was almost the whole block between Vaughan and Bathurst.
55:00 Signs: Craig talks about an old painted Loblaws sign that can be seen looking north - east from Ellsworth and Vaughan across the lane.
56:08 BARNS / TRANSIT: Craig would sit on his porch and watch the streetcars go back and forth. He remembers the streetcars being washed at night – they had big towers from which they would spray big hoses.
56:50 Anne thought it was very convenient to have the Barns and streetcars nearby. They would buy their tickets at the Barns. In order to get to her grandmother’s house at 30 Wychwood she would walk past the Barns.
57:25 LIFE OF A CHILD / BARNS: Craig and his friends would try to sneak into the Barns at night and try to open the the streetcars’ doors. They never destroyed anything. The worst thing they ever did was throw tomatoes from people’s gardens at the streetcars. They would have been 7 or 8 years old. They would make their escape to St. Clair by squeezing through a space that was only big enough for a child. They were never caught.
59:10 SHOPS: Anne has nice memories of a store called Dave’s (Dave Charney). It was between Wychwood and Christie. It was a smoke shop. Anne and her friends would put their money together to buy comic books there. They also sold ice cream and greeting cards etc. Anne bought her ice-cream from Mr. Wallace at his store.
59:57 Ann talks about Maple Paints. Anne went to school with the owner, Peter’s daughter. Craig describes running little errands for the various business owners along St. Clair mentioning Dave’s, Bill’s, Herbie’s and Wallace’s.
1:01:03 RESTAURANT: They remember the fish and chip store. The lineups went right past the theatre almost over to Christie. It was on the south side. Craig describes the businesses as “ma and pa” places.
1:01:28 SHOPS: There was an old-fashioned shoe-maker close to Christie on the south side, approximately where the churrasco chicken is now.
1:01:52 Changes: Ann remarks on the changes between past and present lifestyles and life along St. Clair: There were lots of stores that people used everyday. They were supported by the neighbourhood. There was more pedestrian traffic. Craig talks about how everybody knew everybody. They said it felt like a small town. Anne came from a small town and to her this didn’t feel very different.
1:03:05 Craig mentions other businesses along St. Clair: the Health Bread (Bakery), 5 gas stations, 2 car lots, and a funeral home with a beautiful garden, that’s now a parking lot.
1:04:20 DATING / CHANGE: They believe it was common to date and hang out in the neighbourhood. There was a lot to keep them there with the movie theatres and restaurants. The restaurants were more available to 15 and 16 year olds than the restaurants now.
1:05:07 STREET LIFE / A CHILD’S LIFE / CHANGE : There were lots of kids on the street. Anne reflects on the time when her children were growing up that they made play dates for their children. She has noticed more children in the neighbourhood now.
1:05:40 LIFE OF A CHILD / NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / CHANGE: Craig remembers what it was like when he was young and how he would meet his friends on the street. They would hang out, and somebody else would be there and after a quick introduction they would be friends automatically. Anne believes that the street connection was a lot tighter. She had ten friends on her street alone.
1:06:51 STREET LIFE: The gas station guys would whistle at the grade 8 girls.
1:07:30 RECREATION / ICE RINKS: They both skated. Craig didn't’ play any (organized) sports but he skated. There was skating at Well’s Hill Park, Hillcrest and Graham Parks. Craig would also skate in Wychwood Park. There was a “huge” skating rink at Graham and because it wasn’t supervised they could make it as big as they wanted. It would be flooded by neighbourhood kids. Craig remembers that they were happy when there was no wind because then the ice would be smooth – the wind would make it choppy. Winters were harder then. Skating was the main sport. Even Anne went skating.
1:09:00 RECREATION: Anne liked to go tobogganing at Winston Churchill Park. Craig never like tobogganing.
1:09:20 RECREATION / LIFE OF A CHILD / SHOPS: Craig remembers the time he fell asleep in Christie Pits and was “burned to a crisp”. Some kids went to Lansdowne to swim. He and his friends would walk by Planter Peanuts, at Dupont and Christie, and they would be given free nuts. The building used to be a factory where they assembled Ford Model A cars.
1:10:25 RECREATION / LIFE OF A CHILD: The Santa Claus Parade started at Christie so they would buy some Kewpie Dolls for $2-$3 from vendors and resell them for a couple of pennies at the parade. There was a bakery on the other side of Christie (Craig refers to it as Wilson’s but it was likely Weston’s). As the hotdog buns went by the window on the assembly line, a woman would flick them off the line and Craig and his friends would grab them, still hot, from the ground. Craig and his friends would have only been 7 or 8 years old at the time.
1:12:07 LIFE OF A CHILD: Anne was only allowed to play in front of her house and go to church but Craig has a wilder childhood with lots of unsupervised play and many adventures.
1:12:58 Craig discovered High Park. He and his best friend would go downtown every Saturday to Sam the Record Man and Eaton’s. They would buy jeans, then put them on, and soak in the bathtub. The jeans would end up being a “perfect fit.” Craig admits that his skin turned blue in the process.
1:13:37 TRANSIT: Anne mentions that when they had their own kids they made sure they taught them how to take the TTC and be “street wise.”
1:14:08 DOMESTIC LIFE / PERSONAL HISTORY: Anne mentions how they were happy to move back into the neighbourhood. When they were first married they lived in the married students apartments at university. They then bought a house at Keele and Eglinton. When this house came up for sale “it was like winning the lottery.”
1:14:50 WORK: Craig worked at Maple Paints for sixteen years, and before that he worked for a manufacturing company for auto parts. Anne is a retired teacher, working part-time.