JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Source: the Mail and Empire , March 11, 1922. Click on image for larger version. An odd one-shot cartoon found on the crime and southwestern Ontario news page of the Mail and Empire . It appeared above the daily rundown of the previous day's proceedings at Osgoode Hall, none of which involved hold-ups. The only story with a vague connection to this illustration concerned two mail robberies in Essex County. In the first case, five men pleaded guilty to charges of "conspiring to rob Herbert Jacobs of Government mail at Tecumseh on February 15th." Severn Laforet, a bank teller, confessed to plotting the dastardly deed in order to cover a $2,000 shortfall in his accounts. One of those involved in the heist was also charged with two other men in an attempted hold-up of a mail car in Amherstburg. The oddest story from the Mail and Empire 's crime blotter came from the Chatham area, under the headline " INJURED BY VICIOUS SOW ." Roy Beamish, a farm hand e...

Another odd item about my hometown discovered while researching an unrelated topic... Source: Upper Canada Gazette , May 17, 1797 - JB

I don't have any pictures on hand of the house on Second Concession/Fryer Street when we lived in it, but here's a shot taken from the front yard circa 1973-74. The quarry is till there, but part of the field is now occupied by an elementary school. Amy sent me a link a couple of days ago showing that the house we grew up is up for sale . I figured it was a matter of time, as the property has been vacant for awhile (the 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper taped in the middle of the front window indicating a number to call if you noticed something funny was going on was the tipoff). It sounded as if several additions were made after we left the house twenty years ago, including a backyard pool, fireplace and a hot tub. None of these added touches appear to have increased the property's value—when I asked Mom how much we received for it, the figure was a few thousand more than the current price. The sale price likely reflects the downturn in the economy down there as much as any pot...

Every so often in the midst of scrolling through reels of microfilm at the Toronto Public Library, I'll find an ad or story with loose connections to Amherstburg. While researching the coverage of the death of Sir John A. Macdonald in Toronto's newspapers, I came across this ad for a company who, just over a quarter of a century later, became one of Amherstburg's largest employers. Built between 1917 and 1919, the Brunner Mond soda ash plant provided Amherstburg with both jobs and an improved water supply thanks to a filtration facility the company built. Later known as Allied Chemical and General Chemical, the plant operated until 2005 . The Brunner Mond name lives on in a boat launch along the Detroit River (Bru Mon Harbour Marina, formerly used by plant employees as the Brunner Mond Yacht Club) and a side street near the plant where the company once built homes for its employees (Brunner Avenue). Note that the Mail had a header specially made for advertisers in ...

While Amy, Sarah and I wandered around Amherstburg's annual River Lights Festival on Christmas Eve ( more photos ), we encountered this sign outside of a downtown sushi joint (something I never thought I'd ever see in my hometown). So what is sushi? Check out the other side...

A few symbols from the new inclusive playground at Toddy Jones Park in Amherstburg. Several family members took a good look around while on a stroll around town on Good Friday, when we tested the heavy-duty swings and play sets designed for children with special needs. I couldn't stop bouncing on the cork-like surface under the equipment. The bottom panels don't lie, even if you're a few decades older than the intended audience. Photo taken April 10, 2009

One of the interesting things about the research I do for my historical pieces on other sites is the odd items that pop up as I scroll through rolls of microfilm. While looking for material for a piece on events in Toronto on New Year's Day 1909, I stumbled upon a lurid tale of murder in that day's edition of the Mail and Empire ...which took place in my hometown. "His life-blood gushing forth in a great stream." I'm finding that this colourful, illustrative, gruesome language was commonly employed by the Conservative-leaning Mail and Empire , which merged with the Globe in 1936 to form the Globe and Mail . By contrast, coverage in the Toronto World that day was muted and to the point: I read these stories to Mom, who couldn't place the names or recall hearing any legends about this incident pass down through the years. I keep forgetting to check the Windsor papers on file at the Toronto Reference Library to see what they had to say about the murd...

1,439: VINTAGE TORONTO SUN AD OF THE DAY Budget stretcher? Sure. Nutrition? Debatable. Growing up, Kentucky Fried Chicken was the only national fast food chain to set up shop in Amherstburg for years. Colonel Sanders stared at us from the orange-and-white boxes occasionally, or from buckets during large family gatherings. My fingers were crossed that the box arrived with a breast or wing (tasty) instead of a thigh (disgusting). While I haven't eaten a piece of KFC in over a decade, one of my guilty pleasures is an annual splurge on medium tubs of their macaroni salad and glowing green coleslaw. The Amherstburg location was later converted into a credit union with one element the KFC lacked - a drive-thru! Source: The Toronto Sun , September 26, 1978

Driving along Front Road south of Amherstburg usually means catching glimpses of pleasure craft and tankers sailing the Detroit River and a picturesque view of the Fermi 2 nuclear plant . Marauding Viking ships are a rarer sight. The people in the pleasure craft had no inkling of the fiery fate that would be theirs within minutes. The Coast Guard was in full pursuit and managed to corral the raiding party before further damage was inflicted on innocent civilians. Photos taken on August 9 or 10, 2008 

While dodging back alley drunks in downtown Kitchener a month ago, I noticed that the back door to a Shoppers Drug Mart bore the mark of its previous identity as part of the Big V pharmacy chain. Years of hearing their slogan "an amazing part of your life" have burned it into my brain, along with images of their comical crusading knight mascot, 25 cent cans of Coca-Cola and the free lunch cooler bags sometimes offered up with the latter. Big V was started in the mid-1960s by a group of Windsor pharmacists who joined together to pool their purchasing and marketing. Most locations were pharmacist-operated, with names reflecting the owners (DeRe, Pond's , Cornett), the neighbourhood (Seminole in Windsor) or town. The chain grew to 135 stores by the time it was purchased by Shoppers in 1995. Amherstburg's store was originally Haslehurst's Big V, then switched to the more generic "Amherstburg" by the time I started shopping there with my parents. Loc...

Sights from a week back home... Christmas morning in downtown Amherstburg. I assumed everyone else in town was still busy opening presents. We opened ours on Christmas Eve and Santa was in a good mood this year. I'll be watching DVDs for months, Amy will be merrily making cookies with her KitchenAid, Gavin will relax with a Simpsons throw, Charlie will be chasing toys and Mom will go on a shopping spree. To work off Mom's turkey feast, Amy and I checked out River Lights in Navy Yard Park. This was the town's first major illuminated display (usually the extent of public lighting is Christmas trees on light poles) and the organizers pulled it off. Figures were strewn through the north end of the park. Some, like the three wise man, were formed in lines... ...while other, like these see-sawing gingerbread men, were animated (even if the camera caught the moment the lights switched). Boxing Day saw Amy and I go for our annual dim sum feast at Wah Court . We may ...

Amherstburg Coast Guard station, looking towards Boblo Island, early 1970s As is usual for the holidays, I drove back to Toronto with a full trunk. Tucked among the gifts, Trader Joe's bags and ironed shirts was a box of photos that sat around the house for years. Spurred by regular visits to historical image sites such as International Metropolis along with several Flickr contacts who recently posted vintage photos from their families, I figured there might be interesting shots lurking within. While most of our family photos are housed in albums, there are a pile from the early 1970s that never earned this honour. Most of these photos were family candids, local landscapes or closeups of flowers. These photos were originally in a small box, then placed in a larger shoebox when pictures ranging from Granddad's 1950s fishing trips to Amy's university outtakes were added. But it's the core photos that grabbed my attention. Why they weren't placed in an album ...

And there you have it - White Woods Mall is no more. The piles of rubble and half-demolished sections of the west wing were gone, with only the fitness centre and a dollar store remaining. From its ashes, outlots in the back signal the property's next incarnation. The old southwest entrance, now all by itself. Note the orange signs - the building, construction fence and parking lot were plastered with signs indicating the dollar store was still in business. One can debate whether these large stones in the back parking lot were randomly placed, stand as a memorial, protect the fire hydrant from errant shovel operators or function as art. Previous entries . Full set of pictures . All photos taken July 2, 2007

I spent most of Victoria Day weekend back home in Amherstburg, which meant another opportunity to trace the ongoing demolition of White Woods Mall. It looked like someone decided to bring a chair for a front-row view. The pace had quickened since my last visit - the east wing and A&P were history, though rubble in the lot may have belonged to either. Left: Bundles of twisted metal occupied the area around the old northeast entrance. Right: Clearing away the rest of the lot for the Bentonville Behemoth was well underway. Have not checked on the number of calls Crimestoppers has received in relation to this site. Years ago, Crimestoppers ran weekly ads before SCTV reruns on Windsor's CBC affiliate. The last one I remember, regarding an incident at a Burger King at Tecumseh and Lauzon Rd, ran for months. The narrator was more dramatic than usual, placing slow, heavy emphasis on "SUS-PECT NUM-BER ONE". Left: Anyone need an air conditioning unit? Note ...

While subbing at Amherst about a month ago, Amy discovered that the old weight room by the gyms had been converted to a team room. Not just any team room... My timing with these photos was interesting, as both honorees passed away six years ago last week. Not sure when the room was named, but it's a nice tribute to both. Dad coached football and basketball for nearly two decades. Growing up, I usually tagged along, keeping score for his basketball squads from the middle of elementary school onwards. After my lacklustre football playing career (spent mostly on the can to relieve nerves before practice), I helped him as team manager. Both sports meant a lot of bustrips for us, which lead to a few memorable events: * Watching basketball players learn it's not a good idea to taunt drunken fans with cries of "go back to the tomato field!" in Leamington - they'll try to topple your bus. * "J'aime le poisson!", heard after taking in the stench in ...

Before driving back to TO last weekend, I decided to check out the progress on the ongoing demolition of White Woods Mall . Quite a bit had changed since Christmas ... In the back, two new rows of retail are nearing completion. A couple of businesses, such as First Choice and Eye on Video, have already moved into the north set, even if their storefronts are incomplete. The white storefront on the right will be the new home of the Royal Bank. The northwest mall entrance still stands, though you can see there's little to its left, as the old movie theatre/bingo space has been cleared. On the right is the west row of new stores. My grandmother lived in the brown apartment building in the rear in the late 1980s - she was on the top floor, with a great view of town and Boblo Island. A sign of businesses still in the mall cleaning up. Over on the front side of the mall, a sign indicating that a few businesses are still operating. Note the "Road Closed" sign....