Chippawa Volunteer Fire Fighters Association

Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Address: 8696 Banting Ave
Date: Jan 2016
Website: www.achristmasstoryhouse.com

   It's that time of year again when A Christmas Story is always on TV. We were flicking through the channels and came across the movie. It reminded us of the time when we visited the school where young Flick gets his tongue stuck to a pole. We thought that would be a great blog to write. It turned out that we have already blogged about our visit here. On that same trip, we also went to Niagara Falls Fire Station #4.

    When A Christmas Story was filming in nearby St Catherines and needed a period accurate fire truck, Chippawa volunteer firefighters answered the call. They had just recently restored this 1938 LaFrance fire truck after it had been in service from 1938 to 1969.

    In the movie, you can clearly see the Chippawa Volunteer Fire Department logo painted on the door when help arrives for poor Flick. The truck above can be found in a small museum located next to the fire station. In 2017 the museum was named after a former Fire Chief and is known now as the Gene Somerville Memorial Museum.

    As well as the beautifully restored fire truck, the museum has its walls and shelves covered with firefighting memorabillia. It also has (as seen at the top of this post) a replica leg lamp made famous in the movie.

    The fire truck also has some Success brand fire extinguishers made of copper and brass from the 1920s. Actual firefighters also had success removing Flick from his pole. Movie magic made Flick's tongue stick using a plastic covered pole with a small hole in it and a little vacuum pulling his tongue towards it.  

  If you visit the Niagara Falls Fire Station # 4, why not bring some canned goods for the food bank and say hello to some real life heroes who are always giving back to their community. Then spend some time with a truck that had a small part in a classic film, spent 30 years fighting fires and still looks great at over 80 years of age.

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Map of Our World
Chippawa Volunteer Fire Fighters Association

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Post # 330

Original Tim Hortons Store

Location:  Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Address:  65 Ottawa St. N
Date: October 2023
Website: www.timhortons.ca

  Miles Gilbert "Tim" Horton was born in Ontario in 1930.  He was signed as a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player in 1949. He played in the National Hockey League for 22 years and won 4 Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs.  He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1977. For Canadian coffee and donut fans, he also started the Tim Hortons donut store chain.

  The very first Tim Horton Donuts opened on May 17, 1964 on Ottawa Street North in Hamilton, Ontario.  There are now over 3,500 Tim Hortons across Canada and thousands more around the world.  The very first store is still in operation and now houses a small museum on its second floor. 

 

      There is a replica of a 1960s style counter as it would have appeared in a Tim Hortons.

 

    A sign behind the counter lets you know that a dozen donuts is only $1.25. If that price is too steep for you, the day olds are half price.

 

    Another display case featured cakes and advertised that you can get a slice of pie and a coffee for $1.49. That's a mighty nice pie slice.

  The display case was full of donuts such as the butterfly donuts (above). We were not sure if these donuts had been around since the 1960s and wouldn't pay the 15 cents to find out anyways.

 

    Other display cases had some uniforms worn by Tim Hortons staff through the years.

 

    Tim Horton played for 4 different teams in his NHL career but is best known for wearing the Toronto Maple Leafs uniform.

   A statue of Tim Horton stands on the street outside of the first store. Tim Horton died in 1974 and his business partner Ron Joyce became sole owner of the company.

      In Buffalo, New York, USA there is another statue of Tim Horton.  He played with the Buffalo Sabres from 1972 until his death in 1974. Tim Horton crashed his car travelling alone from Toronto to Buffalo after a hockey game. It wouldn't be until 1985 when the first US Tim Hortons opened in Amherst, New York.

    Tim Horton and his wife are buried in York Cemetery in North York which is part of Toronto, Ontario.

   While in Toronto you can see another statue of Tim Horton in Legends Row. Legends Row is located outside of the Scotiabank Arena and honours Toronto Maple Leaf greats.

    Tim Horton had started a Children's Camp to help children from underpriviledged families. There were dishes in the display cases showing some of the camps.

  The museum had various glasses, mugs, donut bags and Timbit merchandise. The Timbit was introduced at Tim Hortons in 1976.

   Timbits are a donut ball or donut hole. Some people believe they are made by punching out the centre of round donuts. As you can see at the top of this display case is a Timbit roller designed to specially cut out the ball shape from a sheet of dough.

    Tim Hortons collaborated once with Canadian pop star Justin Bieber where he chose his favourite styles of Timbits.

      Tim Hortons is also known for its successful Roll Up The Rim contest. It was started in 1986 and if you rolled up the rim of your coffee cup you could win food prizes or even a car. The cup in the top left corner was the earliest on display. It was from the contest held in 1991. 

     If you get the chance you should visit the Tim Hortons in Hamilton for a little Canadian history.  This is one museum where you can have food and drink while you browse the exhibits. By food and drink we mean coffee and doughnuts!

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Map of Our World
Tim Hortons First Store & Museum

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Post # 329

Halloween Nights Of Lights Scarborough

Location: Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Address:  300 Borough Drive
Date:  Oct 2023
Website:  www.pumpkinville.ca

  Scarborough Town Centre hosted a Halloween walk through for the month of October 2023.  It featured creatures, lights and lots and lots of pumpkins.  We felt brave enough to go for a visit.

    We were greeted by a very tall skeleton.  The skeleton had a glowing ribcage and a glowing pumpkin head.

 

 

    The pathways of lights were watched over by pairs of eyes.

 

    There were giant pumpkins, scarecrows, spiders and skeletons wearing top hats.

 

 

Some might say that the lights were eerie!

 

     A bale of hay had taken the shape of a spider.

 

  

  We had to walk through a spider's nest.

 

  There was a tent of lights filled with scary clown heads.

    If you had to look away from the creepy clowns and looked straight up, the lights and ribbons were beautiful against the night sky.

     Next up was a row of alien specimens preserved in some sort of liquid.

       The next scene was a biohazard cleanup scene.  Perhaps something had gone wrong with one of the alien specimens?

 

    There were some huge creatures who didn't look so scary.  They looked more like they were mummy DJs spinning all the Halloween classics like Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

       There was a small forest where the trees had eyes.  We even spotted a small owl skeleton hiding in one of the trees.

  Next there was a maze of skeletons in cages and hanging body parts.

    Unfortunately, it was raining when we arrived so the hanging hands and feet were even more disgusting. The rain dripped off of the bandages as we passed under.

 

    Finally, we emerged from the Nights of Lights and entered Pumpkinville.

    Pumpkinville lived up to its name as there were pumpkins everywhere.

    There was even a giant wall made out of just pumpkins. We are not sure if they will get the chance to become Jack-o-lanterns or turned into pie before the wall starts to rot away.

 

      Pumpkinville also had some huge sculptures made out of pumpkins and other gourds. This one was an owl giving us a sideways glance.

 

       A whale rose up from out of the ground. It took us a while to figure out that the other pile of gourds was the whale's tail.

 

       There were also a few garden insects made of gourds.

    A gourd frog had its eye on those insects. Cucurbita means gourd in Latin.

     Día de los Muertos takes place at the start of November. There was a tunnel filled with colour and skulls to celebrate.

    A few rides were set up for children. This included a very small ferris wheel. We would be lucky if even one of our legs could comfortably go for a ride. We didn't want to join the other body parts hanging in the maze in order to find out.

    There were a few food and drink stands. We were delighted to see our favourite lemonade flavour.  Corn roasted yams!!

    While enjoying the Fall season we had a good time exploring Pumpkinville and the Halloween Nights of Lights.

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Map of Our World
Scarborough Town Centre

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Post # 328