News   Nov 01, 2024
 2.1K     14 
News   Nov 01, 2024
 2.5K     3 
News   Nov 01, 2024
 769     0 

What I Miss About Toronto In 60's

I'm glad i went to school before the junk food bans took place. My elementary school had Coke machines and vending machines loaded with junk food. In high school we had burgers, fries, pizza..etc How did we survive??

Junk food bans aren't stopping the kids from eating pizza or burgers, they just go to the nearest fast-food joint or corner store for junk food. The pizza shop in my neighborhood is packed with high school kids at lunch hour.
 
My high school, Vaughan Road Academy, when I was there, it was junk food galore. Its nearest fast food restaurant is a few blocks away at Five Points (and the nearest chain restaurant is a few more blocks away at Oakwood Village to the west of Vaughan Road Academy or Little Jamaica to the north), given that it is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.

There's no shortage of liquid lunches there (under the radar of course).
 
My high school, Vaughan Road Academy, when I was there, it was junk food galore. Its nearest fast food restaurant is a few blocks away at Five Points (and the nearest chain restaurant is a few more blocks away at Oakwood Village to the west of Vaughan Road Academy or Little Jamaica to the north), given that it is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.

There's no shortage of liquid lunches there (under the radar of course).

So that's one of reasons behind Vaughan Road Academy possible closing? See link.
 
So that's one of reasons behind Vaughan Road Academy possible closing? See link.
Vaughan Road Academy had seen better days...

Visions of the future:

The Vaughan Road Academy uniform is notable worldwide thanks to alumnus Drake:

One of Vaughan Road Academy's wings (as well as the courtyard) was converted into a daycare facility.
 
Last edited:
My elementary school of 1970's Lewisham, UK and Mississauga must seem like the Hunger Games to today's kids. Lord of the Flies like Darwinism ruled the school yard. Teachers aggressively coerced compliance; effeminate boys or butch girls were not empowered to embrace their uniqueness, but crushed under homophobic slurs; the few minority kids were called every racially-charged insulting name their classmates' parents passed onto them; allergic kids were teased with PBJ sandwiches chucked at them in the lunchroom; underperforming or disruptive kids weren't accommodated or diagnosed with ADHD or whatnot, but were labeled as r#tards and kicked into the hallway and then forced to repeat the grade; your only hope to stop bullies was your older brothers, your own fists or weaponry. Today's helicopter-parented kids have no concept of that teacher from Pink Floyd's The Wall, but those bastards really did exist.

Looking back on my early school years compared to my young children's school experience, where today everyone is special and differences are respected, embraced, celebrated and where necessary accommodated, I have to wonder what school was like in the 1960s. It must have been like Mad Max for anyone who didn't fit in.
 
Last edited:
Vaughan Road Academy would have been part of the City of York Board of Education... until amalgamation in 1998 came around and parents & students found that they can now go to schools outside of the "City of York". (However, before 1998 students could go outside the "City of York", with an "explanation".)
 
Vaughan Road Academy would have been part of the City of York Board of Education... until amalgamation in 1998 came around and parents & students found that they can now go to schools outside of the "City of York". (However, before 1998 students could go outside the "City of York", with an "explanation".)
Mike Harris is indirectly responsible for the demise of my high school.
 
Mike Harris is responsible for the demise of a lot of things.

Unfortunately, my wife wont let me rant about him anymore.
 
I went to Jesse Ketcham PS for grades 7 and 8. Around the corner from the school (I think on Davenport) was one of the best French fry place in the city....My parents couldn't afford to let me buy my lunch very often, But when I did, that's where I went. I survived the junk food era. LOL
 
Vaughan Road Academy would have been part of the City of York Board of Education... until amalgamation in 1998 came around and parents & students found that they can now go to schools outside of the "City of York". (However, before 1998 students could go outside the "City of York", with an "explanation".)
Damn parents exercising their choices.
 
Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute was founded in 1926. See link.

Weston Collegiate Institute, also in the former City of York, was founded in 1857. Weston was the second oldest secondary school in Toronto (Jarvis Collegiate Institute was the oldest secondary school in Toronto, founded in 1807 and second oldest in Ontario after Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Kingston, 1792).
 
As I walk around my Cabbagetown neighbourhood and around Allan Gardens, and take the 506 streetcar, I have to wonder if there were as many overtly insane and publicly intoxicated people wandering the streets. What did Sherbourne and Dundas look like in the 1960s? I know it was hell in the 1990s.
 
Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute was founded in 1926. See link.

Weston Collegiate Institute, also in the former City of York, was founded in 1857. Weston was the second oldest secondary school in Toronto (Jarvis Collegiate Institute was the oldest secondary school in Toronto, founded in 1807 and second oldest in Ontario after Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Kingston, 1792).
When I went to Runnymede Collegiate as a kid, Weston was still separate. Weston was absorbed by York Township in '67 to become the Borough of York.
 
Last edited:

Back
Top