Missing member

[Hepcat]

So Freddie in his younger days had hockey scholarships as a goaltender at Cornell University and Northeastern University, and then garnered an invitation to the Toronto Maple Leafs' training camp in 1973 where Bruce Gamble was the goal-tending coach.

Here's a picture of Freddie making a kick save:



Freddie still has the mask he wore during his tryout with the Maple Leafs:



It was a very good commercially made replica of the mask worn by the legendary Jacques Plante.

 

[Hepcat]

Freddie was very pleased to see his name right up there with those of Frank Frazetta Jr., Kirk Hammett from Metallica and director John Carpenter in the latest Chiller convention program:



I told him that was right and proper since he's gone up against more monsters (in the ring) than any of those other fellows.

 

[Hepcat]

Here's a picture of Front Street in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts circa 1963:



Freddie tells me that his father's restaurant was located just past the Mayflower Hotel sign on the left hand side of the picture. The J&A Cigar Store stocked boxes and boxes of all the bubble gum trading cards issued in the 1960's. From end to end in the downtown area the street was packed with five and dime stores, toy stores, magic shops, hobby shops, newsstands, used book stores, confectioneries and movie theaters galore. In other words the street had everything that a monster loving young fellow could possibly want!

There are distinct parallels between the Worcester in which Freddie grew up in the 1950's and 1960's and the London, Ontario of my formative years. Here's a picture of the main Richmond Street and Dundas Street intersection of London from the early fifties. I bought many of my comics in the United Cigar Store which was on the southeast corner of that intersection.

 

Here's a great view of the north side of Dundas Street shot from just slightly to the east of that corner:



Here's a good early fifties picture of the Kresge store on the north side of Dundas Street just west of Richmond Street:

 

That was the store where I first saw a Marx Great Garloo in 1961 and discovered the Aurora monster model kits a year or so later. Just beyond it the Metropolitan(Met) store can be seen. The Met's lunch counter did such a thriving business that they had a satellite take-out counter at the front of the store where office workers could quickly grab a hamburger, hot dog, French fries, coffee, donut, etc. to go. Across the street to the left in the picture was a Woolworth store. The Zeller's store was directly to the right of the camera man.

My mother used to take me in tow and haunt them all. I lived for hitting her up for a bowl of ice cream at one of the lunch counters after she was fully shopped out. I remember the ice cream being served in a stainless steel bowl with a cardboard insert. 

And here's a picture from the fifties of Cowan Hardware on Dundas basically across the street from the Metropolitan store. I used to visit Cowan's to admire toys and model kits.



Cowan's was also where I raced my Monogram Ferrari slot cars after a slot car track was installed upstairs in 1965(?). Good times! Just out of the picture was the Ontario Conservatory of Music where I lugged my accordion on the bus for my weekly lessons. Not entirely good times.

Look at the riot of neon in this picture looking west along Dundas Street circa 1962!