Michael Colle
Michael, 2020 (left), and with his mother, Lucia and sister, Lena in 1950 when Michael was 5 years old (right). Lucia was a tailor who make both Mike’s suit and Lena’s dress. The photo was used for their passport when they immigrated to Canada to join their father.
AUDIO INTERVIEW
SUMMARY
May 29, 2015
00:38 DOMESTIC LIFE: At first the Colles lived at College & Grace. They moved to 67 Hocken Avenue in 1960 when Mike was 14-15 years old.
01:28 SCHOOLS: He attended St. Michael’s College School, starting in Grade 10.
01:56 ENTERTAINMENT: Mike remembers walking by the Radio City Theatre on his way to school. It was on the southwest side of St. Clair and Bathurst, next to the bus/streetcar loop.
02:39 / SCHOOLS: Once one of their St. Mike’s teachers took the class to see Julius Caesar at Radio City.
03:01 Mike more often went to the Christie Theatre on the south side of St. Clair, east of Christie. It later became the Maple Leaf Ballroom.
03:14 /MEMORABLE PEOPLE: He saw the Pretenders playing there. Later U2 played at the Maple Leaf Ballroom, and Bono was interviewed at the Queen’s Dairy.
03:48 RESTAURANTS: The Queen’s Dairy opened in the late 70’s; it was originally a gas station.
04:10 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Hocken Ave. hasn’t changed much – for example, a home built in the 1890s is still there.
05:09 RESTAURANTS: The Marigold Restaurant was beside Radio City Theatre. The Cottage Restaurant was a St. Mike’s hangout. Also there was the Suncrest diner (not sure about name) west of Vaughan.
06:25 SHOPS: There was an A & P Grocery in the old Goodwill building, (now Hone Fitness), and on the north side of St. Clair there was a Power Store just west of Bathurst. Darrigo’s was at Alberta & St. Clair, and behind Darrigo’s was a Dominion.
07:15 RECREATION: Before Dominion, there was the old Oakwood football field, racetrack and swimming hole. Mike saw the stadium, but teams stopped playing there in the 50s.
07:44 He talked to Carmen Bush, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, about refereeing there.
07:53 The Crang family used to own the stadium and the swimming pool.
08:17 ENTERTAINMENT: The St. Clair Theatre showed Italian movies.
08:34 RECREATION / SCHOOLS : Mike remembers playing football at St. Michael’s and skating and playing hockey on Wychwood pond in Wychwood Park. St. Mike’s had an outdoor rink east of where their arena is now. The field was over a huge dump.The area/is now all landfill.
09:34 RAVINES: Nordheimer Ravine was basically a garbage dump in those days.
09:38 There used to be a bridge over the ravine from Holy Rosary Church to where Loblaw’s is now located.
10:04 PLACES OF WORSHIP: As more people immigrated to the area, a new Catholic Church was opened at Vaughan & St. Clair – St. Alphonsus became an Italian parish.
10:27 RECREATION / MEMORABLE PEOPLE: There was a youth group at St. Michael’s & All Angels church. They played floor hockey in the basement. Mike remembers Canon Brown and Canon Erb..
11:10 PARKS: The Grahams donated land from their farm to the City for Graham Park.
12:44 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / WEATHER: When Mike was growing up there was no air conditioning so people would sit outside on their verandas. He doesn’t remember any particularly bad winters; people didn’t complain about the weather much.
13:27 RECREATION: He remembers tobogganing on the double hill at Winston Churchill Park. One time his friend hit his head and probably had a concussion, but no-one knew what a concussion was back then.
14:00 RAVINES: The ravines were “uncharted territory” at the time, even Cedarvale. There was no walking traffic because there were no paths before the expressway.
14:44 The bridge at the end of Pinewood was rickety and only allowed one lane of vehicle traffic going north and south. It later became a pedestrian bridge.
15:16 Mike tells of the opening of the pedestrian bridge by City of York councillors, etc. It was a bit controversial.
15:49 WORK: Mike was a history teacher at St. Michael’s College School and a football coach for 13 years.
16:15 ACTIVISM: Mike’s civic life began with the Humewood Rate Payers who met in a portable classroom at Humewood School when his children were young.
17:00 PARKS: Discussion about the building of Humewood Park.
17:28 POLITICS: He was elected as Alderman in the City/Borough of York in 1982.
18:19 Discussion of York being surrounded by other municipalities, including the Village of Forest Hill which had its own police force. He mentions the reeve of Forest Hill, “Big Daddy” Gardiner, who became the first metro chairman. There were two waves of amalgamation; after the second one they formed the 6 boroughs.
18:53 ACTIVISM: Mike was living on Humewood Dr. during the “big” Amalgamation which created the megacity. He was active in trying to stop it. Protests brought many people together.
20:20 SPADINA EXPRESSWAY: Mike was also involved in the Allen Expressway protests. At the last minute Bill Davis cancelled it south of Eglinton, even though homes had already been expropriated. During the protests, Mike met Colin Vaughan, an architect who lived in Wychwood Park.
22:25 SPADINA EXPRESSWAY / TRANSIT / ACTIVISM: The “Stop Spadina” campaign was a reversal of North American trends to expressways. Toronto chose transit over expressways, and this dramatically changed our politics and geography.
23:23 TRANSIT / WYCHWOOD BARNS: Mike could hear the streetcars moving in/out of the barns, esp. at night and in the morning. He used streetcars a lot because his family had no car. The streetcar went to Mount Pleasant, where you could catch a trolley. Discussion about the pros and cons of trolleys.
26:44 TRANSIT: There used to be a special streetcar down Bathurst to the CNE.
27:23 LANEWAYS: People played ball hockey in the laneways, as well as on the streets. They were sort of a different world, as they overlooked the back of houses. When he was young he and his friends would “garbage pick” in the laneways off College St. because that was where garbage was put out for collection back then.
28:11 DELIVERY PEOPLE AND VENDORS: In the laneway off Hocken he would see the “Sheenyman”, who originally went around with his horse and cart; he collected clothing, pieces of metal, etc. – the first recycling. Milk would be delivered from a dairy on Hocken Ave. called Maple Dell. Cheese, eggs, bread and pop were also delivered.
30:42 DOMESTIC LIFE: Neighbours would collect asparagus from along the railway tracks; they would pick mushrooms and arugula from patches near the tracks at St. Clair and Keele. His family got fertilizer from the stockyards at Keele in a borrowed car.
32:04 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / CHANGE / TRANSIT: The biggest change to the neighbourhood was the St. Clair West station and the tunnel that took streetcars down to the station. Two other big changes were the construction of high rises at Bathurst & St. Clair and the right of way for the streetcar.
32:52 MEMORABLE PEOPLE: Mike once saw Irving Layton at the Health Bread Bakery.
33:10 SHOPS: Albert of Albert’s Real Jamaican Food started out selling sugarcane juice in a lean-to next to the Vaughan Theatre.
33:50 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / SHOPS: St. Clair West hasn’t changed that much, but it feels slightly more upscale, partly due to the new restaurants. He remembers an amazing fish and chips store at St. Clair & Christie. He has been seeing the same people for 30-40 years.
36:00 DEMOGRAPHICS: St. Clair has always had a large Italian community, but it is more dominant near Dufferin St. Around Bathurst the population is more mixed.
36:33 TRANSIT: In the past, there was a streetcar driver who would call all the streets and talk about them.
37:02 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: St. Clair is “every person’s street” – unpretentious. It is a good place to live and work.