• Midland Industries to stay in Midland, Shoe Corporation of America changes plan to move plastics division to Toronto and will rework expansion plans and build an addition to the Midland plant in the spring.
• Going hunting or fishing, get your licence at Benson’s Service Station, 24 hour service.
• Classified Ad: If backaches are slowing you up, take RUMACAPS and help yourself to relief, ask your druggist. I wonder if Rumacaps was a liquid?
• Ten Years Ago; Midland Shipyards launched its ninth tug, the “Rockhawk”. Originally intended for the United Kingdom, it was turned over to the War Assets Corporation.
• In 1945 prime rib roast were selling for 31 cents per pound in Midland, sirlion steak was 43 cents per pound and coffee was 35 cents per pound.
• Businesses closed in Elmvale on Rememberance Day. Midland and Pentang stores closed until 1 PM.
• The newspaper names the members of seven deer hunting parties ready to depart from Coldwater for the fall hunt and their destinations.
• The renowned Canadian painter David Milne was known in the Severn Falls area as a “Man of Mystery” when he lived in a log cabin there in the late 30’s.
• Department of highways to pay Tay Twp. to complete the link between Hugel Ave. and Hwy 27 this fall, cost $10,000.00. Paving to be done in 1956.
• Bourgeois Motors Limited is moving their showroom and sales department to a facility they are leasing at the corner of Fourth and Vinden Streets, formerly occupied by Warman Motors Limited. Larry Dumais will manage the location. Business at Hugel and Midland Avenues will be maintained.
• Simcoe County Health Unit halts shipment from five milk producers and warn 23 others due to continual low grades on their product. Raw milk samples totalled 228 in September. All producers without electric coolers will be visited monthly and urged to install this essential piece of equipment.
• Oldest original Midland resident Mrs. H. White dies in Toronto. Mrs. White was the daughter of Jabez Dobson and was born in Midland December 3rd 1873 and has lived in the area all her life. Her family was one of only four living here when they arrived in 1862.
• MPDHS School board to pay entire cost of new student insurance plan, premium will be $1,054.00 for 703 students.
• O’Leary’s Fashions opens at 110 Main Street, Penetang.
• MPDHS Hi-Sterics by Doris Hyde; Last night a Sadie Hawkins dance was held in the gym. All those in attendance were dresssed in the best Dogpatch fashion. This dance was the last social event of the Twerp Seaon. Starting Monday the boys will have to resume all the duties of gentlemen.
• At the Pen, Far Country, So This is Paris, The Caine Mutiny, Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle and Francis in the Navy. Roxy is showing The Gladiators, Hajji Baba, The Rainbow Jacket, The Man from Bitter Ridge and the  King of the Khyber Rifles.
• Midland Arena to get new floors in the seating areas to reduce draughts coming up from the alleyways below. Improvement will also prevent cigarette butts from falling throught the cracks and causing a fire hazard. How things change!
• Frank Wadge is the only living bricklayer to carry a hob for contractor Wallace and Cook when they built the old town hall which is now being razed.
• Unemployment Insurance Commission announces new regulations that will disallow benefits to local sailors and affect 8,000 employed on the Great Lakes. News comes just beforre layup and after a season of poor grain shipments has reduced employment.

Double click photos to enlarge

Bert Hanly, now 83, hasn’t missed a deer hunt since he started back in 1896, including this year. Seen with his dog Digger.

 Nearly completed home of Mr. & Mrs. John Power located at 436 Hugel Ave. across from the new high school, burns in the middle of the night. Structure valued at $12,000.00, only the two car garage was saved. Fire Chief Irwin Jackman, in the foreground, indicates that there is not enough water pressure in this new residential area to support fire fighting. 

 

 Members of the Adelphi Hi-Y Club help John Power clean out the basement of his new home that was destroyed by fire Halloween night. Lawrence Currie, Glenn Nicholls, owner John Power, Bob Megaw, Martin Reynolds, Bob Bell, Frank Holmes and Roger Grey.

 Home of Mr. & Mrs. John Power on Hugel Ave. is being rebuilt after the fire. The newlyweds had just returned from their honeymoon. The loss was covered by insurance. The house in the foreground, also nearing completion, is owned by Harold Wilcox.

Halloween trick or treaters, shelling out in her store on Dominion Ave. is Mrs. Stan (Margaret) Ligowski.  A favourite photo of mine, memories of a wonderful person.

 Ken Well’s new boat Moonstruck II is being readied in the loft of the Midland Boat Works. It will be taken to Toronto from where Mr. Wells and his wife Lucille Oille, well known sculptor, engraver and illustrator, will proceed down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to Florida returning by the Atlantic Coast. Mr. Wells is a journalist and writer known for his Toronto Telegram articles from the “Owl’s Pen”, their Medonte home, also several books. In the foreground is Len Cowdrey, the plant superintendant and his son Cal Cowdrey and Bruce Cuff, at the stern is Jack Sharpe. 

 Fairy ring on the lawn of  J. J. Quilty, 143 Yonge Street E. makes a perfect four foot diameter circle, a type of fungal growth, possibly from an old tree stump. 

Jim Stanley pilots a bulldozer down a 60 degree slope at the new Midland ski jump, watching is William Smith one of four owners of the property where the new jump is being constructed. Mr. Smith helped with the construction of the first jump in 1935. In the upper photo a 20 foot deep excavation will provide additional length to the run. The contractor is Thos. G. Wilcox and Sons. 

 Branch 80, Royal Canadian Legion Midland sorting remembrance day wreaths. Seated, Murray McComb, Bill Elrick, standing, Michael Doherty and Harold Kelly.

 Phiat – Phalanx dance at the Midland YMCA in costume. Back row, Paul Dubeau, Eleanor Hawke, Marilyn Laurin, Lorraine Tremblay, Gladys and Shirley Bonner, Betty Woolley, Bill Baker and Tom Marion. Middle, Donna Brandon, Connie Ambeau, Grace Edgar, Donna Zapletal and John Reid. Front, Mr. & Mrs. Howard Markham.

 Phiats and Phalanxeres of Midland staged a Halloween dance at the Midland YMCA, back row, Joe Faragher, Pat Leclair, Ward Barrie, Alex Owen, Jack Gardiner, front, Tom Marion, Anita Fournier, Barbara Allsopp and Ida Gillespie. 

 Funeral at St. Paul’s United Church, Dr. Garnet E. Tanner well respected local physician and supporter of the town of Midland since his arrival in 1916. Dr. Tanner was a board member on the PUC, St. Paul’s United Church and St. Andrew’s Hospital, a charter president of Midland Kiwanis, local MPP and member of the Masonic Lodge. Fellow Masons provide an honour guard outside the church. The service was conducted by Rev. Auld and internment was at Lakeview Cemetery.

 Mrs. Helgard Brendel on the right instructs Barbara Allsopp on the parallel bars at the Midland YMCA. Watching are Connie Ambeau, Anne Quilty, Evelyn Geier and Mrs. Otto Geier. Mrs. Brendal who instructs the business ladies gym class was a top gymnast in her native Berlin.

 OHA Intermediate Team, Coach Vic Grigg gives his squad a pep talk. Front, Roy Colling, Connie Adams, Bruce Hook; center, “Red” Reid, Gord Dyment, “Chuck” Woods, Ted Brady; back, Morley Spiker, Homer Barrett, “Chuck” Edwards, “Babe” Deschamps and Jack LaChapelle. 

 

An act that is timeless, paying our respects to those that have served and still serve, Remembrance Day, 1955. The Bracebridge Legion Pipes & Drum band is processing back down King Street from the cenotaph. Two ladies from the Legion auxiliary stand before the cenotaph after placing a wreath.

• Copeland Flour Mills of Midland is to be known as Pillsbury Canada Limited, the Copeland name has been associated with flour milling in North Simcoe for over 150 years. Copeland Flour Mills of Midland was started in 1921 by the late Albert Copeland with the backing of James Playfair, D. L. White Jr., D. S. Pratt and a number of local citizens.
• Mrs. Albert (Bert) Dubeau was honoured at a recent meeting of the Ontario Association of Motor Coach Operators, Mrs. Dubeau is the only female operator of a bus line in Ontario, a position she has held since her husband died 17 years ago. (I believe I echo the sentiments of most people in North Simcoe when I say that we were proud of PMCL and the Dubeau family, their modern buses could be seen all over North America and even on the movie screen. Many of us rode to school or work on them and they are missed.)
• The Free Press editor laments the loss of the scenic beauty of Highway 93 from Craighurst to Waverly as the old growth trees are removed to provide the broad level shoulders required on a modern highway
• The 56 Ford Meteor at Bourgeois Motors includes new safety features, padded dash and seat belts, but as extra cost options
• Aluminum Company of Canada, Ltd (ALCAN) posted an ad titled, interestingly enough, “Inside Job” stating that we are “getting a helping of aluminum as part of our daily diet. Most cities use aluminum sulphate (alum) to purify drinking water, Oshawa has done this for 35 years, we usually associate aluminum with food storage and preparation, aluminum helps to keep what we eat and drink fresh and pure and wholesome.” The safety of aluminum in our bodies is still being debated.
• “Blue Coal” is advertising, “keep your heat from escaping up the chimney, keep your chimney damper as nearly closed as possible”. I wonder if this had anything to do with the weekly chimney fires in North Simcoe during the winter months?
• In 1955 you could buy a Phillips TV in Waubaushene from Waubaushene Radio & TV, F. E. Brodeur proprietor, Pine St., Phone 2
• Congoleum flooring was available at Meads in Penetang, J. B. Roebucks and Shulman & Son in Midland
• Remember when Edwards would reupholster your old furniture for you
• Alex Docherty, director of music in Midland schools announced that a choir of grade 5 to 8 students from all Midland Public Schools has been invited to sing on a Toronto radio station by Dr. Fenwick who adjudicated their entry in the Midland Music Festival this year.
• Ernest Griesbach, a senior captain with Canadian Steamship Lines and a 44 year veteran, died suddenly aboard his ship the Georgian Bay, on Saturday. He was only 59, having worked for the CSL since he was 15
• Announcement; Earl Fisher has acquired the business formerly owned by Art Macksey and would appreciate your patronage. Dominion Ave. East, next to Wilson’s Taxi.  (it was brought to my attention that the type of business is not mentioned and it was not in the original ad, it was assumed that everyone in 1955 knew it was a barber shop) 
• Glenn L. Martin of Seattle, a pioneer in the aviation business, predicts that in 25 years travellers from the earth will be landing on the moon. As it turned out NASA and Neil Armstrong beat his prediction by 11 years, landing on July 20th, 1969.
• Midland Library hours in 1955 were; 2:00 to 5:30 PM and 7:00 to 9:00 PM, daily, closed Wednesdays and Sundays. Some new books on hand, Frank Yerby’s, Treasure of Old Pleasant Valley, is not quite so sexy as some of his earlier novels. Sloan Wilson’s, Man in the Grey Flannel Suit; Lake Erie Baron by Hamil, the story of Col. Thomas Talbot.
• Shipyard manager Norman Walton has been named manager of both Midland and Collingwood shipyards and will shortly move to the latter town. This was a very visible sign that our shipyard was done, only a handful of watchmen were still employed. Wages paid out to employees of both yards since 1948 totalled $16 million. That was the equivalent of $1,000.00 per annum for every family in Collingwood and $750 to $800 for every family in Midland. Ninety five percent of the $24 million worth of material used in those years was spent in Canada.
• IGA is selling side bacon, with the rind on, for .49 cents per pound
• Alvin “Cuppy” Gropp describes the trip he and his wife made from their cottage to Penetang and proclaims “never again”. After leaving Cognashene they were lost in the first snowstorm of the season and the normally 45 minute trip took over three hours.
• Midland Fall Fair midway booth operators were fined for running a marble game that offered 4 billion to 1 odds for a single 25 cent throw.

Click on photos to enlarge.

 

 Mrs. Robert Magnus, Mrs. James Playfair and Mrs. J. Haight at the skate exchange sponsored by the Home and School Association of Midland. A total of 85 pairs of skates and overshoes were sold.

Branch 80, Royal Canadian Legion, Midland members prepare for Poppy Day, seated Gordon Burtch chairman, Len Wiles; standing, George Magloughlin, Alf Scott and Doug Blake.

 

Pete Pettersen marks the spot where 20 feet of dirt has to be removed to achieve the proper slope for 180 foot jumps from the new 107 foot high ski jump, the old jump is to be torn down. The Dominion Senior Jumping Championship is to be held here on February 12th, 1956.

 

Legion Hall in Waubaushene was the site of the investiture of three new Scouts who moved up from Cubs, Brian St. Amant, Douglas Cronin, Bobby Stewart. 1st Waubaushene Troop

IODE hall in Waubaushene, members of the East Simcoe Brownie Troop are dressed up for Halloween, Lorie Wilson and Jacqueline Sauroiol of Waubaushene; Betty Hawke, Elizabeth Hall and Barbara Hawke of Coldwater; Dawn Lackie of Jarrat.

 

Brownies stage a spook night at the IODE hall in Waubaushene. Barbara Kingsborough, Coldwater; Gail Cuppage, Warminster; Martine Gouett, Sylvia Duncliffe and Karen Moreau of Waubaushene.

Click on photos to enlarge.

  

Junior Choir of St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Midland, with new vestments for their annual children’s day service. Organist and choir leader, Mrs. Spence Richardson at the front left and Rev. G. R. Stanley, rector, on the right.

Huronia Museum would appreciate your help in naming the members of the choir.

 

 Edward Lattimore was born on a farm in South Gower in 1890 and began working on a track gang for the CPR at age 17, earning 12 cents an hour. He advanced to operating the Ledgerwood which was a machine used for unloading fill and ballast along the railway. Coming to Port McNicoll in 1909 he unloaded most of the fill used to lay the track and build up the docks. When the elevator opened in 1910 he worked there as a labourer and eventually became the loading foreman. After a decade in West St. John NB as superintendent of that elevator he returned to Port McNicoll working in the power house until his retirement on September 30th of this year. “I remember men working 48 hours steady unloading the boats, largely by hand,” Mr. Lattimore recalled.

 

 The MacDonald Creek culvert on Concession 2, Old Survey, Tiny Township, between lots 85 and 86 which was washed out by Hurricane Hazel on October 16th, 1954 is finally repaired, a year later, at a cost of $18,000.00.

“This was a favourite place of mine. The water appears to be running towards the photograper which would put him on the north side of the road, the creek is running down to the Wye River. Behind him is a very large fill with a concrete box culvert large enough to walk through. It was constructed in 1910 by the GTR to carry its line from Elmvale to Midland. There is an excellent photo of the culvert and the embankment being created on page 18 of Bonnie Reynold’s book, “Wyebridge”. Over the years I have picnicked in the deep ravine behind the embankment with my family, waded in the pool below the culvert, picked morels and fiddleheads, fished for chub and specks and shared it with the cattle that were pastured there. I was told that the property belonged to Pearl Goldsmith.”

 

 This old concession booth in Little Lake Park held memories for thousands of residents and visitors who have lined up for french fries, hot dogs, ice cream and other treats over the years. Now it is being torn down to make way for a new cement block building by proprietor John Deakos, seen on the roof at right, hoping for completion in the spring. Note the weigh scale on the left, it kept its place in front of the new building. John Deakos Jr. I am told is also in the photo.

 

 Boring three inch holes in 10″ by 10″ Elm beams is Dick Moore center and Jim O’Hearn on the right. Bob Wilson, foreman, is on the left. Ninety four timbers are needed to go around the government dock at the bottom of King Street, sixty are 10 feet long the rest are 12 feet long. Timbers are being installed near the water line on the side of the dock to act as rub rails or bumpers.

 

 

 Mr. Robert Cumming, Mrs. & Mr. Lloyd Dunlop at the opening of their new store in Moonstone. Over 700 people attended the grand opening, pleased that the Dunlop’s had elected to rebuild. Their store contained the post office and was considered the heart of the surrounding community.

 Moonstones oldest resident, Robert Cumming, 82, is seen cutting the ribbon to open the new Dunlops Furniture and Appliance store. Mr. Cummings gave Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd Dunlop the keys to his own home last November 7th when their home and store was destroyed by fire. A retired carpenter Mr. Cumming had hung the doors when the original store was remodelled in 1937 and again on this new building.

 

 Signing up for a new season with the Midland Intermediate “A” hockey team is Roy “Mutt” Colling of Penetang, a veteran of Midland squads, Vic Grigg, also of Penetang, former pro star who will help coach the club this winter;  and “Chuck” Woods, former captain of the Barrie Flyers, who did his puck chasing for Toledo in the American Associaltion last year. Looking on at left is Murray Yorke member of last years team and Hec Adams, club secretary.