Queensway Public School & Queensland Public School - gone

I used to catch the bus on the Queensway across from the Bank of Montreal, east of Kipling, to get to Kindergarten and grade 1 at Queensway Public School in the early 1950s.

Grades 2 to 6 were at Queensland Public School at the top end of Culnan, two blocks east of Kipling up from the Queensway.

You can get a hamburger now at the old school site, but not a formal education. 

Grades 2 to 6 for me were at Queensland Public School.

There was just the farmer's field at the top of the street when we moved onto Stock Avenue one block east of Kipling north of the Queensway in 1950.

The school itself was at the top of Culnan one block east of Stock Avenue. 

The original school field stretched further east beyond the top of Trueman Avenue.

Back on Stock Avenue about the middle of the second block. 

All the homes up here started out as 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom bungalows.

At the top end of Stock, Culnan and Trueman, after Queensland Public School was demolished, developers built larger 2-storey homes.

My old home.  We moved in here in 1950.  We moved to Montreal in 1965 after I finished grade 12 at Alderwood Collegiate Institute. 

We didn't have a garage, a wide veranda with the roof overhang nor the frost fence along the driveway back then.

North-east corner of Stock Avenue and The Queensway.  Name may have changed over the years, but it is still a Chinese take-out restaurant - no seating inside.

Next to the Chinese take-out place was Bill's Variety.  I worked at Bill's through high school.  My first duties were to take the empty pop bottles to the basement storage area and restock the shelves and pop coolers with soft drinks.  Eventually I worked the cash, washed windows, dusted shelves, swept floors, dealt with salesmen, etc.  A great learning experience!

Then, there was the drug store.

A restaurant here - tasty lunches during grade 6 on Fridays.

Sometimes when I worked Saturdays at Bill's, I would wash the restaurant windows and get a free supper. 

The gas station is gone and more stores added.  I think it used to be a B/A station.

My first bank, the Bank of Montreal [BMO] still sits in the background at the corner of Culnan.

An old Zellers building along with the Mandarin and Swiss Chalet and a few other stores lie on the south side of the Queensway, across from Stock Ave, just east of Kipling.

I remember the Queensway as a 2-lane road.

Expansion came to The Queensway taking away the angled parking and eventually even the parallel parking.  Now one must park around the corner and pay for the privilege of visiting one of the local stores here.

My old street - we lived in the second block above Warnica.  Stock is only 2 blocks long.



photos taken 2015-12-27