Went on a wild goose chase Wednesday trying to figure out what and how things got buried in the old canal valley behind St. Paul St.

Long story short, I wondered what happened when the old Glenridge bridge was knocked down in 1955. Did some of the concrete get buried in the valley?

Brief history lesson: the concrete arch bridge connecting Old Glenridge with the downtown was built in 1914. It had a life expectancy of 35 years. Guess they didn’t consult with the Burgoyne Bridge engineers, huh? Anyway, the bridge started to crumble on schedule, forcing the city’s braintrust to come up with a replacement. Another bridge was considered, but in the end, city council voted  to build a huge earthen structure/berm atop which would be a road. It lasted until the late 1970s when it was knocked down to make way for Highway 406 and the current bridge over the valley.

An old story stated demolition of the original bridge started in January 1955.

To the microfilm!

Sure enough, I found a story from Jan. 4 that reported demolition work had begun the previous day. A large crane was rolled on to the bridge. Attached to its pulley was a 3,000-pound, pear-shaped concrete weight. It was dubbed “the headache ball.” The crane would swing the ball against the deck, smashing it to pieces.

I recall seeing similar demolitions in Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Here’s the operative paragraph in the story:

“Rubble collecting beneath the bridge will be trucked away by the contractors. Large pieces will be sorted out and used as rip-rap to allay erosion along Lake Ontario’s shores.”

(Rip-rap definition: a foundation or sustaining wall of stones or chunks of concrete thrown together without order.)

So, there you go. No large pieces of the old Glenridge bridge will be under the puck palace.  Unless, of course, the contractor got tired of trucking stuff out to Lake Ontario.

The interesting part of this bridge saga came two days later. As the 45-ton crane was sitting on the bridge swinging the headache ball, the deck collapsed. The crane toppled and crashed into the embankment near Glenridge Ave. The crane operator escaped serious injury.

Today, such an incident would rightly stop work and a major investigation would be launched.

Back then? The crane was simply moved to the valley floor and the headache ball was dropped onto the bridge from a lofty boom.

The story suggested the worker brushed off the incident.

Said a fellow worker: “He’s had this sort of thing happen before. It’s all in a day’s work for him.”

Yeah, right.

It’s more likely that if he didn’t get back in the saddle the next day, he’d lose his job and the company would get someone else to do it.

Not exactly my idea of the good ol’ days.

I noted the other week in a column that people, i.e. The Standard’s city editor, are starting to roll their eyes when I mention an interest in doing another Son of Port Tower article.

Point taken. I’m moving on.

To Grandchild of Port Tower!

That’s right, folks, debate on a proposed six-storey condo building at the edge of Lakeside Park is nigh.

Notice has been given that a public meeting on required official plan and zoning amendments for the Norm Rockwell project has been set for the June 4 city council meeting. Cautionary note: a public meeting had been set a couple of times in the past six months, only to be postponed.

At any rate, presuming this one goes ahead, the all-important city planning report on the bid will be part of the May 28 city council agenda, giving interested parties a week or so to mull over its contents and recommendation.

If you listen very closely, you can already hear the gnashing of teeth in Port Dalhousie.

*****

Usually, this is a fun time of year to be a sports fan. But the IceDogs are now out, I’ve been eliminated from the office playoff hockey pool causing a major plummet in interest, the NBA playoffs have been dull with the good games coming on too late at night and the Blue Jays are proving to be as frustrating as ever.

Thank goodness, barbecue season has arrived.

******

There are some nice, encouraging walks in downtown St. Catharines, and some not-so encouraging ones.

I don’t know if it’s at the bottom the list, but walking past the old Provincial Gas building on Church St. is a bummer. I mean, you expect some areas to be bad, but Church St.? C’mon. It’s St. Catharines’ version of the Champs D’Elysees. In a very relative sense.

Yet, the six-storey office building at 15 Church St., once one of the city’s premier commercial addresses, looks like a dump and has for more than a year as we breathlessly await its alleged conversion into a active baby boomers’ apartment building.

I have no point here. I’m just venting.

*****

In talking to CAW Local 199 boss Wayne Gates the other day, there are a couple of items worth mentioning that didn’t make the paper.

The local is going to push hard for a four-cylinder engine product during contract negotiations this year. The Glendale plant already has a six-cylinder and eight-cylinder line, and Gates figures a four-cylinder engine would complete the package. Stressed would be the plant’s reputation for quality and well-established ability to ramp up new lines in a short period of time.

Most importantly, smaller engines are likely to increase in popularity and St. Catharines wants to be positioned to take advantage of that growth.

Also, Gates confirmed a tentative deal has been reached to sell Local 199′s offices and banquet hall on Bunting Rd. Presuming the deal is finalized, the union would lease space at its existing quarters until new digs are built on 3.4 acres of land on Glendale Ave. near The Better Shade Co.

Was in London on the weekend, catching up with our son. Always nice going back to where I went to university. London has a great downtown, with plenty of activity going on. Indeed, it’s probably my favourite city in Ontario. St. Catharines should be rightly envious of it.

That said, outside the core London has the same dubious landscape as most other urban centres in Ontario — acres of soulless big box and/or mall developments. In fact, after trying to manoeuvre through the congested parking lots of these retail monsters and the streets surrounding them, I found myself chuckling over laments here about Fourth Avenue.

Trust me, folks, compared to the roads around London’s Masonville Mall, Fourth Avenue is like Cherry Blossom Crescent.

Feel free to keep thinking we’re uniquely cursed with these blights, though.

And, oh yeah, don’t think my admiration for London trumps all.

Go Dogs go!

****

I’m officially out of the office hockey pool. With the elimination of the pathetic St. Louis Blues and the shameful Nashville Predators, I have no players left. Still, given the sad choices of many of my colleagues, I will probably finish in the middle of the pack. Most importantly, I will defeat one of the more annoying participants. No names, please. Oh, all right, I’m talking about ex-Standard scribe Peter Downs.

*****

Paused for a moment of reflection today as I saw one of The Standard’s old printing units being lifted out of the building by crane. Sorry to see them go. On the other hand, I want my spot in the parking lot back. The sooner the better.

Get those machines outta here!

*****

Love the webcam on the performing arts centre site. Check it out on the city’s website.

Anyway, in full goofball mode, I walked down the other day to show off a sign. No, not ‘Marry Me, Thelma’, rather it was a simple ‘yowzers.’

Must have been the trip to London. It brings me back to my university daze.

Anyway, that’s me by the portable toilet in the extreme foreground.

I know violence in hockey is sort of a trendy topic these days. Or at least it was two weeks ago. As is often the case in our 24/7 news world, trendy topics tend to have a pretty short shelf life unless it’s continually stocked with new material.

Anyways, when I heard the most recent moaning and groaning about the state of hockey, I remember thinking: Was no one around in the 1970s? Sheesh, that era makes today’s hockey battles seem like kindergarten recess spats.

And what’s with all the junk about today’s players not respecting other players like they did back in the day?

What day are they talking about?

When earlier this week I was researching on microfilm some St. Catharines Teepee games from the 1948-49, I came across a story about a grudge match between the Teepees and the Windsor Spitfires. Things got out of hand when some Windsor sluggo named O’Grady committed, according to the Standard reporter covering the game, one of “the rawest, deliberate butcher acts of the season.”

Here’s the rest of the account:

“Frenzied when checked in mid-ice and stopped on a rush by sturdy Gord Byers, O’Grady swung his stick with such force that it snapped in two, macing Byers across the crown of his head. Byers, dropped as if pole-axed, struggled to his feet and with blood dripping, was aided off the ice.

O’Grady looked once at Byers, then skated calmly over to his bench and selected another hickory-stick before squawking to the refs on his penalty.”

The reporter recommended at least a three-game suspension for the “haywire Spitfire for an unwarranted, deliberate act of slicing.”

Nope. O’Grady played against the Teepees in a game later that week.

***

As you probably know, our mothballed presses are being removed from the building. The removal equipment is taking up half our parking lot and the William Street entrance has been blocked off.

So, we’ve opened the iron gates at the other end. Thus, for the first time in my 32 years and counting at The Standard, I drove into the property from Queen St.

I found the experience … liberating.

******

Back to the 1948-49 Teepee season.

I thought bad popular culture references in newspaper stories were made exclusively by aging Baby Boomers such as myself.

Wrong-o.

In another game story from that season, the anonymous writer – there were no bylines back then – tried to get across in his lead sentence that the Teepees had finally beaten a team they usually lost to.

Here’s the lead:

“As Red Skelton would say, ‘they dood it.’”

Red Skelton! Yowzers times 10!

I know of Red, of course. Used to watch his show in the 1960s. But the term ‘dood it’? Never heard of it.

A Google search reveals it was a catchphrase of Red’s from his radio show in the early 1940s. So popular was he and the phrase that an MGM musical-comedy film called “I Dood It” was made in 1943.

And here I was feeling bad about making reference to Gilligan’s Island  in past columns.

You go, Ginger and Mary Ann!

Gotta love St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan.

OK, maybe you don’t.

But I’m speaking as a member of the media interested in good quotes. And McMullan seldom fails to deliver.

Take, for example, Wednesday’s story about Niagara Region identifying its preferred architect for the Burgoyne Bridge.

Asked for a response, McMullan said he thinks it’ll be “a bridge that has an impact.”

“It makes a statement about St. Catharines as a progressive, modern community.”

People reading that last line will either be:

a) enthusiastically nodding in agreement

b) laughing out loud

c) angrily shouting at their newspaper/computer

Point is, there’ll be a reaction.

Thank you, Brian. Keep up the good quotes.

******

The signage at the new downtown St. Catharines parking garage continues to suck. Driving east on King, motorists are given no heads-up that they’re supposed to turn right onto Garden Park in order to enter the garage.

What’s up with that?

******

There’s a crane in The Standard’s parking lot. A fairly big one. What’s going on?

I tell all later this week. I think.

******

I’m second in the office playoff hockey pool. Thanks for asking. As noted last week, though, I doomed. I bet the farm on the Penguins. The bums.

Go Predators and Blues.

******

Stopped in at the Gord’s Place in-waiting Wednesday. Latest projected opening for the former Honest Lawyer/Shooters/Midtown Hotel etc. watering hole on James St. is the May Two-Four weekend. I’ll keep you posted.

****

The City of St. Catharines posts a draft agenda for Monday’s city council meeting on the preceding Wednesday. One of the items listed this week is from Fire Services. Its heading is: Marijuana Grow Operations Protocol.

I report this to allow all those who are interested to tune in and find out if it’s better to water once or twice a day, and what’s the best fertilizer to use.

As a precaution, I hope the city invites Niagara Falls MP and federal Justice Minister Rob “Hang ‘Em High” Nicholson to warn residents that if you get caught growing more than six marijuana plants, it’s an automatic six months in the slammer.

Anyone else wonder what Nicholson did for fun as a young adult, besides writing letters to John Diefenbaker?

So there I was in court last week taking in a dry-as-dust election audit matter.

Who knew I would soon be guffawing, and that the laugh would come courtesy of Ontario Court of Justice David Harris?

Here’s the sketch:

Prior to the audit thing, Assistant Crown attorney Graeme Leach was the doing the usual morning juggling act — dispensing of this matter and adjourning that matter.

At one point, Leach told the judge he had to step away to another courtroom for a few minutes to arrange a court date for something.

Harris advised Leach that he might want to be more careful with his phrasing.

Leach looked perplexed.

Said Harris: “You said you had to go schedule a homocide.”

Leach amended his statement.

“I have to schedule a homocide hearing.”

Hey, it was funny.

*****

On this date, April 19, I’m tied for first place in our office playoff hockey pool. That’s the good news.

The bad news? I have four Pittsburgh players — count ‘em, four! —  including Sidney Crosby. So, I’m toast.

But as the self-appointed pool commissioner, I have decided to take a stand against the violence permeating these playoffs and, in protest, declare our pool to be over, leaving me, fortuitously, as the co-winner.

I’ll let you know how that works out.

*****

So, St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan is weighing in on the school accommodation review.

Hmm …

Well, I guess he figured he had to, what with Thorold city council and Mayor Ted Luciani leading the cavalry charge for Thorold Secondary School.

Thing is, there’s no easy out here for the District School Board of Niagara.

And it doesn’t necessarily stand to reason that if the DSBN decides to close Thorold, West Park will automatically be saved.

Still, from McMullan’s perspective, there’s the politics of the situation to be considered. Can’t be seen sitting idly by while a couple of city high schools are poised to get the axe.

*****

Interesting reaction to a column last week on downtown St. Catharines hotels of the past, particularly in regard to the late, unlamented Montebello. I had made some allusion to its shady past, prompting some readers to wonder what the heck I was talking about and others to reminisce about past drug-taking at the former St. Paul St. dive.

Sounds like a possible future column. I await the right opportunity.

Seriously, is it possible to write too much about GO Transit in Niagara?

Don’t think so.

It’s nirvana, black gold, Texas tea, to many residents here. (Note to anyone under 55: that’s a Beverly Hillbillies reference in honour of Earl Scruggs, co-performer of the show’s theme song, who passed away last week.)

Anyway, as occasionally happens, I had submitted my GO column the other day when other requested information, mainly ridership statistics, trickled in.

But that’s what blogs are for, right? A place to deposit additional information in timely fashion.

Here we go, then. GO Bus service started in Niagara in September 2009. From then until Dec. 31, GO carried about 61,000 passengers on the route. I don’t know if this is fair or not, but if you extrapolate those four months over a whole year, you’d get 183,000 trips.

For all of 2010, there were 150,000 trips on the route. Data isn’t available, yet, for 2011.

OK, let’s move on to the “tourism” GO  train that runs on summer weekends.

The first year, 2009  (June through to October, and Thanksgiving weekend), there were about 50,000 riders.

In 2010 (May through to September), there were about 30,000 riders; in 2011 (May long weekend, June through September, and Thanksgiving weekend) there were also about 30,000 riders.

This doesn’t strike me as a lot, and ridership isn’t trending upward as time goes on. But what do I know?

GO spokesperson Vanessa Thomas, who dug up the numbers for me, said transit agency officials are “very pleased” with the results.

Mind you, she is in public relations.

St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley got back to me after deadline, too. I asked if there was an update on when we might expect GO Train service to Niagara.

“The government is evaluating its options now according to the budgets that have been provided to each ministry. So, that will be a decision that will depend upon the availability of additional funds,” said Bradley.

How tragic I couldn’t get this enlightening information in my column!

OK, Jim, how about the idea, as St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan believes, we’ll find out about future train service some time this year?

“I have not heard of a decision  being rendered this year. Right now, the focus is on wrestling with the deficit and then trying to make a determination after that where in the future the government might go with the service.”

What can I say? The man knows bland.

*****

Tense, stress-filled week coming up. What, local governments will be trying to come to grips with spiraling expenditures? Don’t be ridiculous.

The office playoff hockey pool is next Wednesday. Frankly, I’m on a bad streak and need to up my game. As a potentially good sign, though, I did finish second in a March Madness basketball pool. Sadly, I think it had more to do with the pathetic bracket choices of my fellow competitors rather than my selection acumen. Still, I’ll draw on any inspiration I can.

******

A guy called the other day with a tip of sorts. He said I could poke fun at the city over it. Sorry, that’s not my style. But I’ll do it, anyway.

The city has attached a Cultural Capital of Canada banner on a lamp post just outside the entrance to the new parking garage.

That’s right. Extolling our cultural eminence at the front of a parking garage.

Hey, it’s funny.

****

Speaking of weird juxtapositions, how about the sign in front of the new pool at Pearson Park?

The sign, as always, states: Kiwanis Aquatic Centre, opening Fall 2011.

Yeah, right.

Doesn’t the city own a can of paint? Surely, it could cover up the last part and do the following rewrite: Kiwanis Aquatic Centre, opening … um, we’ll get back to you.

******

For those of you who don’t get out much and rely on my never-ending Son of Port Tower updates, a wooden shell of the presentation centre/model suite is partially up.

The Port Mansion and My Cottage have been toast for awhile.

It’s going to be a weird summer in Port Dalhousie.

So, I guess St. Catharines isn’t going to get any provincial or federal money for the puck palace, huh?

Not, I hasten to add, that anyone was expecting such financial help, other than perhaps the eternally optimistic Brian McMullan. Nah, not even him.

Still, it became clear with the release of the provincial budget there’s no money to be had for frills. Presumably, the federal budget will deliver the same message.

If only the city could have sold this as a Pan Am game thing! A hockey arena that could be converted into an indoor baseball field.

Speaking of the Ontario budget, I actually guffawed reading the reaction of Daniel Peat, the union boss for local public high school teachers.

Peat said a two-year wage freeze on teacher salaries would hurt the economy.

Hilarious.

******

Spent last week in Florida, no thanks to Direct Air.

Never ceases to amaze me how much the tourist areas along the Gulf Coast are dependent on the automobile. Six-lane ribbons of asphalt endlessly lined with malls and plazas. It’s commercialism on steroids.

Nice drinking beer while gazing at palm trees, though.

****

The Leafs are officially out of the playoffs. Pity. There’s always one or two Leaf zombies in the office playoff pool who are programmed to select Toronto players, making my chances for victory higher. At least I think that’s what happens. It’s been a long time, and my memory’s not what it used to be.

But enough of my Leaf trashing. In fact, I heard recently that there’s a Niagara guy who was at Maple Leaf Gardens the last time Toronto won the Stanley Cup. Sounds like a column worth doing on the 45th anniversary May 2.

******

Hey, what’s with the IceDogs?

Tuned into the game Sunday with about a five minutes to go and the Dogs up 4-3. Next thing you know they lose 6-4. At home!

Sorry. I panic easily.

I’m sure they’ll roar back Wednesday and take a 3-1 series lead.

If not, I’m panicking!

*****

Interesting story this week about garbage blanketing south St. Catharines. Kudos to resident Jim Finley for bringing the situation to council’s attention. Be interesting to know whether it’s a problem unique to this south-end neighbourhood due to the presence of two nearby high schools and Brock student housing.

I’m not clear what the city is expected to do, though. It’s hard to legislate civil manners, particularly for something one would reasonably expect to be known proper behaviour.

Reading this week’s story reminded me of something that was seared into my memory bank several years ago. I was driving north on Glenridge Ave. near the tracks when I noticed a couple of tweeners walking on the sidewalk. They had obviously just come from the Avondale store and were unwrapping a couple of chocolate bars. Once the bars were in hand, they tossed the wrappers on the ground. What struck me was the casualness of the littering. It seemed as natural to the tweeners as breathing.

I’m at a loss to think how such attitudes form. Sure, we can look at other factors that contribute to the messy landscape — lack of public waste bins, the tardy emptying of such bins, overpackaging by manufacturers, our love affair with junk food. But it seems to me that unless the above, seemingly ingrained indifference to tossing wrappers on the ground is successfully addressed, citizens like Finley will be shooting trash videos for years to come.

So there I am the Y Tuesday  morning, shooting the breeze with a fellow perspirer who asks if I’m heading south at some point during this excuse for a winter.

Indeed, I am. Next week, somewhere between Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Yeah, he replies, well, did you hear about those poor saps taking Direct Air Monday who were pulled from the Niagara Falls, N.Y. tarmac because the airline couldn’t pay its gasoline bills?

Gulp.

That’s my carrier to Fort Myers!

Or was.

The very thin sliver lining to this dark cloud is that at least we weren’t already down in Florida, stranded by this ‘temporary’ suspension of service. And we were in a position to scramble for other means to get there.

But I’ll miss the convenience of Direct Air.

A few years ago, we used them to go to Myrtle Beach for a few days. Here’s what has stuck in mind: for the return trip, we dropped our rental car off at the Myrtle Beach airport at 11 a.m., hopped on the plane, landed in Niagara Falls, N.Y., got in our car, breezed through customs at Queenston/Lewiston and  pulled into our St. Catharines driveway before 4 p.m.

OK, I’ve got to get over it.

*****

As a dyed-in-the-wool Leaf hater, I must admit to mixed feelings about their complete collapse the past couple of weeks.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad they’ll miss the playoffs. For one thing, I won’t have to endure Leaf Nation zombies driving around with flags on their cars and treating each win like a Stanley Cup-clinching victory.

Still, I would have preferred a greater effort on their part. Coming close to gaining a playoff berth would have brought Leaf fans’ spirits to a fevered pitch. Inevitably, the team would have fallen short, devastating their followers, but — and this is the important part — filling their detractors with even greater joy.

*****

Most annoying sign in St. Catharines?

The portable one at a  service station on Lakeport Rd. near Lakeshore. I see it every time I drive into Port Dalhousie.

It says: “Your mom called!  She wants an oil change.”

What does this even mean???

*****

I’m working, very slowly, on a column that revisits the time James Street was a pedestrian mall for one summer back in the day. The research involved leafing through some Standard files from the 1960s and 70s. In doing so, I came across a story dealing with a downtown rehabilitation effort.

“St. Catharines Downtown Council’s long-promised rehabilitation program to make the downtown area more attractive finally got underway yesterday,” the story from July 10, 1964 read.

And here you thought this was a recent phenomenon.

The program essentially involved painting store fronts, including the top parts, in a co-ordinated colour scheme. Two city architectural firms — Macdonald and Zuberec, and Salter and Flemming — worked together on the schemes, with each responsible for one side of the street.  The colours used were: Scotch grey, Tiber Gold, Sudan ivory, light grey, avocado and bone white.

What, no Misty Meadow green?

The work, done by McNamara and Reynolds Ltd., was paid for by the respective store and property owners.

Wait. Here’s the really neat part. After all the facades were done, a future project was to clean up and paint the rear of the buildings.

Brilliant!

I’ve said for the past couple of decades that’s how we could improve the look of Stilt City in the old canal valley, and it turns out that’s exactly what was being proposed 50 years ago.

I feel … vindicated.

Don’t know if it was ever done, though.

Below is a photo from the 1964 story.

I’ve got some leftovers and tidbits from the past couple of weeks, and isn’t that what a blog is really for?

*******

OK, first up Port Place. Last month, the idea of a grocery store was floated for space previously earmarked for a theatre. This always struck me as fanciful, and a conversation with Port Place boss Derek Martin confirmed that view.

Here’s what he said when asked about the grocery store:

“We’ve got 35,000 square feet of commercial. What we do with it, I don’t know.
Mr. Martin’s not opening up a grocery store. If somebody approaches us and wants to put a grocery store in, we’ve got the space for it.”

Exactly.

Also, was in Port today and noticed a change at the Port Place site. The blue boarding along Canal Street has been painted black and a couple of Port Place pictures are up on it.

Progress!

By the way, my column Saturday is on Port Place. It’s worth reading for the intro alone in which I create yet another mindless, yet somehow catchy, phrase.

*****

OK, so I’ve got one more Son of Port Tower thingy. When talking to Derek  Martin, he confirmed that PDVC has stripped the interior of My Cottage bar and has started to dismantle parts of the outdoor patio. The taking over of the premises is part of a legal dispute between the developer and the bar tenants. In light of this action, I expressed false sympathy for young party-hearty types who appeared to have officially lost their favourite summer watering hole.

A few days later I received an e-mail from My Cottage owner Andrew Donaldson who said something along the lines of: Not so fast.

Donaldson said he is taking legal action against PDVC for wrongful termination of his lease. I sought further elaboration, but other than Donaldson saying he was seeking “rights to premises,” I have yet to receive any.

******

Earlier this week, I wrote a column about consulting firm Quartek buying the old Royal Bank building at Queen and St. Paul. It means current owner Grace TV will be vacating the scene. I couldn’t immediately reach a Grace spokesman for comment about the sale and the station’s future plans. Eventually, though, Nathan Thurber got back to me. Here’s the sketch, as explained in Thurber’s e-mail:

“Regarding Grace TV, the operations are being moved to Toronto, 190
Railside Rd, a central location very near the intersection of Hwy 401
and the Don Valley Parkway. Grace TV will share the prime building
location with World Impact Ministries, Toronto International Celebration
Church, Way of Peace Ministries and World Impact Bible Institute.

As I indicated in my previous email, we believe St Catharines has a
bright future. However, for Grace TV, it made fiscal sense to amalgamate
all these organizations into one building.

World Impact Ministries will continue to rent the 3rd floor of 89 St
Paul St for an unspecified period of time. ”

*****

This tidbit goes back away, but I found it interesting. It offers an interesting take on the idea that large performance venues such as an arts centre or puck palace have positive impacts on surrounding businesses.

I wrote a column about the Savoy Tea Room opening on St. Paul St. next to Cafe Garibaldi. Anne Marie Vivani owner of both Savoy and Garibaldi’s, likes the location of her two eateries, except on Thursday nights.

That’s when the IceDogs play their home games and fans flocking to the game pretty much consume all the parking in the area. If Garibaldi customers don’t get to the restaurant well before 7 p.m., they’re in tough finding a nearby parking space. I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing IceDog fans aren’t going to either the high-end restaurant or the tea room before or after the game.

Mind you, I suppose patrons could park in the new parking garage. But that doesn’t appear to be St. Catharines residents’ way.

****

I’m saddened to say my blogger’s plea last week to all those who had their hair washed by a topless shampooer in 1976 in downtown St. Catharines fell on deaf ears. I had asked these now seniors and middle-aged types to step forward and share their stories. Alas, no one did.

C’mon, it could be cleansing.