Note…this may have been sent earlier to some readers…forgive me if that is the case:EPISODE 1.178: Part 3: DUFFERIN PARK — TRUE OR FALSE MEMORY OF 1940’S
alan skeoch
oct 29, 2024 and Nov. 11,2024
REMEMBER Eric when we built our own scooters….lots of them…parts were free
ORANGE CRATES WERE FREE AT EVERY GROCERY STORE…ROLLER SKATES
WERE POPULAR AND EASY TO NAIL ON A PIECE OF 2 X 4…PRESTO A1940’S MODEL
SCOOTER THAT COULD BE RECONSTRUCTED OVER AND OVER AGAIN ONCE THE
ORANGE CRATE WAS SMASHED.
HAS my memory failed me? Dufferin Grove Park (current name) was a far different
park in the 1940’s as I remember. Perhaps I am wrong.
1) In the 1940’s I had to cross Dufferin Park from our flat at 18 Sylvan Avenue. I was scared
that some boys would beat me up. The Park had a dense mini forest of forsythia and
other bushes lining both sides of a little valley. Gang members used this valley. They were
teen agers, perhaps even younger but to me they were big and dangerous. One day
in grade One our teacher gave each of us a cucumber to take home. How could I get
the small cucumber home? The big boys in the park would get it so I hid it in my shoe.
That is my earliest memory of the park. Is it a real memory or total imagination?
2) I can prove that I cut my leg on a broken beer bottle. Was the glass neck and shard laden end a weapon
or just a cast away beer bottle?
that I don’t know. But I have the scar. I am not sure the cut was from a
weapon.
3) Was there ever a brutal gang fight between the Junction Gang and the Beanery
gang in Dufferin Park? Is my imagination tricking me? I remember seeing a gang
member getting hit on the head with a piece of pipe or a baseball bat while he
was protecting a girl. Exact spot — opposite gateway to the Dufferin racetrack.
Was that just a dream?
Why is there no record of this fight?
4) I remember one gang member being spread eagled on a police car
parked on Sylvan Avenue just west of our house. Did this really happen?
5) Why is Toenails Simmons never mentioned?
I remember being shown how to make a nuckle duster by sharpening a roofing
nail then disguising the nail with a wrapping of hitemedical tape.
6) Who was ‘Toenails’ Simmons? His young brother showed Eric and me the
roofing nail weapon. Toenails was in jail. The family lived on Gladstone Avenue
supposedly/\. Was this true? There is no evidence to support. Did Simmons
even exist?
THE NOSEY BOYS ARRIVE — FORT BUILDING ENDED
The barrels were this size but not as heavy///used to pack goods
…not water tight. These are too well made and too heavy but correct size.
Eric, do you remember rolling the huge wooden barrels through the park?
Our landlady. Mrs/ Southwick gave us her tin sheathed garage for our new
fort. We set the barrels up vertically, cut holes in each one and made wood tunnel.
Presto! We had a two room fort. Big enough for 4 kids to crawl from one
barrel to te other. Remember what happened next? Bad news!
The Nosey boys, with others. They wrecked our fort. Someone of them
took a leak in our main room. Our fort building ended.
Eric, do you remember why they were called the NoseyBoys?
Dad invented the name becjuse their noses were always running.
They lived around our corner on Dufferin Street. They were a little
rougher than we were an older. They scared me but not you. I think they wanted to
be our friends but the urine in our fort ended any chance of that.
End Part 3; CONVERSATION WITH MY BROTHER ERIC SKEOCH AFTER HIS
UNTIMELY DEATH. AUGUST 1, 2024.
POST SCRIPT:
does anyone remember this book? I read it 20 or 30 years ago…the gangs described
were not as tough as I imagined…mostly boys whose fathers were overseas .
THIS book is along gone our of print.
8) Was the park caretaker named Mr. Hayward?