Dorothy Bader
AUDIO INTERVIEW
SUMMARY
April 30, 2015
00:26 PERSONAL INFORMATION: Dorothy’s memories of the area begin at age 5 when they moved to Davenport, east of Shaw in 1934.
01:13 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Davenport looks very different today; back then the north side of the street was an open field. In 1936 there was a heat wave, so people spent the night on the hill to keep cool. Row houses were all on the south side.
03:11 SCHOOLS: Dorothy attended McMurrich Public School from K – Gr 8.
04:09 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: She remembers her neighbours on either side. The McRaes had no children, the Reids had 2 sons, a daughter and a mother (a grandmother). Dorothy’s sister played with the elderly woman’s beautiful white hair. There was an angry cat at the Reids, beloved by Mrs. Reid.
05:38 WARTIME: The families traded tokens during the war so Dorothy’s mother could have extra tea tokens and Mrs. Reid could buy fresh salmon for the cat.
06:16 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Dorothy’s home had a front porch and a verandah on the 2nd floor in the back. They lived there for 15 years.
07:03 SHOPS: There was the local butcher, grocery store and 5 & 10 store on Davenport towards Ossington. The butcher would throw nickels into the sawdust on the floor at Halloween for the kids to collect.
08:45 On the corner of Shaw and Davenport there was a gas station, and behind that a lane where children would play. There were houses on both sides of Shaw south of Davenport.
09:13 PERSONAL INFORMATION: Dorothy’s girlfriend lived on Shaw. They were friends from the age of 5, and eventually Dorothy was a bridesmaid at her wedding.
09:38 TRANSIT: There was a one-car streetcar on Davenport from Dufferin to Bathurst. She is not sure of the route (did it actually start at Dufferin?) or of how long it was in service. This was before the time of 4 tickets for 25 cents.
11:22 SCHOOLS: Dorothy came home from school for lunch every day.
11:30 RECREATION: After school, she and her friends played hopscotch, skipping, roller skating. The skates used to have a key and were attached to shoes. Dorothy fell off her bicycle twice so she never learned how to ride. When she was older she went roller skating at Strathcona Roller Rink on Christie south of St. Clair.
13:41 PARKS / RECREATION: Dorothy played at Hillcrest Park, and would picnic there with her family. In the park there was a skating rink and a tennis club. There was a shed to get warm in the winter. She had very cold feet in winter even though she wore overshoes.
They would have been black or brown velvet trimmed with real fur and laced up the front. She had white overshoes when she was little and a muff.
16:26 PLACES OF WORSHIP: Davenport Presbyterian was at Davenport and Oakwood. Later this church joined another to form Wychwood Presbyterian. Her family went morning and night to Church and she had Sunday School at 3 pm. Dorothy started teaching Sunday School at age 17. She belonged to the youth group in her teenage years and sang in the choir, as well as with her two sisters.
19:50 RAVINES: Dorothy did not venture as far as the ravines.
20:14 SCHOOLS / RESTAURANTS: Dorothy attended Oakwood Collegiate for 5 years. She would have a cherry or lemon coke at Uplands Restaurant after school. It is hard to remember what was there once the stores close.
21:21 RECREATION: Dorothy remembers the Oakwood Theatre and about five others on St. Clair. She never went to the Prince George Theatre, near Earlscourt and St. Clair.
21:53 PERSONAL INFORMATION: Eventually, Dorothy’s family moved to Lauder Avenue near Regal Road. Dorothy lived there until she married.
22:23 SCHOOLS: Dorothy graduated from high school in 1947. At that time they were still living on Davenport.
22:39 PERSONAL INFORMATION: Dorothy’s father died aged 45 in 1947. He is buried at Prospect Cemetery. Dorothy married in 1959 when she was 30.
23:41 TRANSIT / RESTAURANTS / SHOPS: Dorothy remembers the streetcars on St. Clair, Uplands Restaurant and Kresge’s. The Woolworths at the corner of Dufferin and St. Clair was great for Xmas shopping.
24:56 WORK: Dorothy worked at Eaton’s in their Annex warehouse on Saturday mornings. The store was only open half a day on Saturdays. She also worked in the toy department downtown.
25:59 WARS: Dorothy still lived on Davenport during WWII. A neighbour found out her husband was killed on VJ day.
26:39 Her father was an air raid warden. They had to get under the staircase and make sure not a flicker of light showed because of the possibility of bombing. She tells about rationing of tea, coffee, sugar and meat. There were no drills at school, but students contributed hand knitted socks, shaving soap and other items to “ditty bags” for overseas.
29:00 A woman named Mrs. Robinson would speak at the school. She lost 3 sons in the war.
29:59 When the war ended it was very quiet compared to what you see in pictures of New York. So many were lives lost.
31:19 DATING: Dorothy discusses the social life of young people in those days. Dating was easier than now because they mostly went dancing. Dorothy would go 2 - 3 nights a week to the Palais Royale and the Palace Pier before the condos went up, and the Boulevard Club for special occasions. There were dances every Sat. night at the “Y” on College Street. There was no food service or drinking - they played Big Band music.
33:40 TRANSIT: Discussion of transit to dances – probably she went across St. Clair to Yonge Street, then south and west. When Dorothy was little, Yonge Street had a double streetcar that smelled awful. There was a driver at the front and a conductor who took fares in the middle. The smell probably came from stoves on the car, or from the engine.
36:22 RECREATION: In the winters there was lots of snow, but as far as Dorothy knows transport was able to run. There was no tobogganing on the field across the street from her home - the hill was probably too steep, with Davenport at the bottom.
38:04 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Dorothy is disappointed that the lovely houses that were built are are now gone. It was a safe neighbourhood; they did not lock the doors or question people who came to the door.
38:36 RECREATION: Dorothy went to the cinema often with friends. Movies were 12 cents in the afternoon for two features, a sports picture, a cartoon, a comedy short and the news of the world. The family also got news from the (Toronto Evening) Telegram newspaper which came in the afternoon, like the (Toronto) Star.
39:58 SHOPS: At that time there were no supermarkets that Dorothy was aware of, just small shops on Davenport. She remembers Harry’s Cigar Store at Ossington and Davenport. They sold everything there. The woman who worked there wore men’s shoes because of all the standing in the store.
41:12 PERSONAL INFORMATION: Their house on Davenport is still a residence. She visited the current residents and got a tour.
42:16 LANEWAYS / RECREATION: There was a cinder laneway behind the gas station where she used to play, against the “rules”. She also played on the elevated railway tracks with her friends - a very dangerous thing to do!
44:13 TRANSIT: Dorothy’s only memory of the Wychwood Barns is that it was a turnaround for the St. Clair and Bathurst streetcars. She is not sure about the Rogers Road streetcar.
44:40 TRANSIT / WORK: Dorothy took that streetcar from Oakwood and St. Clair to 605 Rogers Road which was the headquarters of Dominion Stores. This was for her 2nd job (her 1st job was at Canada Life, downtown). She worked for Vice-President Klute Foster and then for the President, Thomas McCormack.
45:31 PERSONAL INFORMATION: She worked for 8 years, then married and moved to New York where her children were born. They returned in 1973, bought a house on Fairfield Rd. and she went back to work. By the time she stopped working she was separated from her husband, so she had to buy another house.
46:44 SCHOOLS: Her children attended Eglinton Public School.
46:57 SHOPS: Dorothy talks about her memories of the candy shop at Oakwood and St. Clair. It was near the Oakwood Theatre and the turnaround for the Rogers Road streetcar. “It was a postcard candy shop.”
50:11 RESTAURANTS: Uplands Restaurant and a few others were hangouts around Oakwood and St. Clair.
50:24 RECREATION: Dorothy recalls again winter skating and how cold she would get. She did not toboggan, but she did go sleighing in Hillcrest Park. She did not go swimming at Crang’s Stadium because it seemed almost competitive, but she took swimming lessons at Oakwood.
54:00 Dorothy recalls an incident when she was 10 years old. She went swimming and suddenly no-one could find her; she was sitting at the bottom of the pool!
55:14 DATING / RECREATION: Dances were so much fun; Dorothy still has some of her rhinestones.