Silver tip restaurant |  Pasodaje Laundromat
Glenvalley Variety |  V’s Carribean
Renato’s Spaghetti |  Joe’s Clip Away (closed)
D’Lenshay tailoring
Alex Hardware |  A&M Lifestyle Variety
Rogers Furniture Co. |  Weston Chicken & Pizza

Mary F Dickson

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After crossing Denarda Drive (going south) there was another pile of two storey buildings Nancy Baxter and her family lived upstairs, at one time a crappy hardware store (Alex Hardware) would lure me in, then there was an upholstery shop that always had these chairs in the window sort of a before and after display the finished chair looked perfect while the other chair had matting sticking out and torn fabric (Rogers Furniture Co.), next to that the Italian run Renatos pizza opened up, it would drive the owners crazy later on in life when I would order ‘Buttered Pizza’ by that time many people knew not to question me, I was to tough for my own good (Renato’s Spaghetti House). An actor’s parents owned the variety store, it was named Glenvalley Variety, his name was Les Nirenberg and I can never forget the time I saw him in a show on Television, I mean how many actors do you know who you actually saw on TV, huh?

My buddy Bill the Greek was related to them and every now and then on Friday nights and weekends he’d be there serving tables, he had this one shiny tooth and a killer smile and blue eyes and he wore a white apron around his stove pipe pants and winklepicker shoes, he was sharp and we’d all be posing like shooters, it was them days, those young greaseball days. They sold the store to this couple from Quebec who sold dirty magazines and condoms from behind the till, imagine that eh, those things weren’t legal to sell, she was kinda sexy in an odd older kind of way, it was her voice it was sultry, he wore a wig which I was always staring at. For years in my Dyer and Miller days the fire extinguisher company I took meals every day at the New Silver Tip Restaurant operated by these nice Greek guys, Chris, Tony and the old man Lou, but they may have been Cretians or Albanians as my friend John Stoddart says.

Funny thing I was sitting in the front booth with Mickey Clair of all people and his scotch taped eyeglasses and The Greek was serving us Chocolate Sundaes or something else, maybe fries and gravy and I raised my left arm and sneaked a whiff of my armpit to see if it stunk and Mickey the asshole saw me and said, “what are you doing smelling your arm pit” right then a pretty girl who I had my eye on walked by and we both looked at her. My favourite food there was the chicken rice soup, you know how chicken rice soup can get just so good when the rice is starting to dissolve and the soup is thick and nurturing like breast milk. They also made a tasty 1/2 chicken dinner which I would treat myself to on weekends, on payday, I never went home to Victoria Blvd after I left for quite some time. My old mom Gisele would ask me where I was living and I was a smart ass, I’d say, “down on Shuter street ma, downtown on Shuter Street”, which bugged her cause the morgue was on that street. I didn’t want to take Al’s guff no more! Besides there were enough kids at home, Barb, Sue, Shane, Kevin and Alex.