Sunday, January 30, 2011

:.::. LYNN SILVERTHORN : Toronto's First Family


GOING THROUGH old 8mm video… I discovered this poorly-shot gem!

It brought back two memories.

Man, I HATE horses.

And there really are HORSE PEOPLE.

Back in the early 90s, Lynn Silverthorn tried to teach me how to ride, on an old mare, deemed safe for beginning riders…

Well, the reality was a little' different I'll tell ya'!

The horse bolted and threw me off IMMEDIATELY! My shoulder bothered me for about 6 months after that—I never inconvenienced a horse again~

I had met Lynn at a friend's church, and after a church singles canoe and camping weekend event we sorta' hit it off. I was a bit put out originally—I had been asked to join the event because I was an experienced canoeist with some Coureur de bois blood running through my veins. I didn't really want to go, but what are friends for, right?

I ended up in a canoe with Lynn and was surprised to find that Lynn was quite the capable canoeist, herself. She was Christian, tall, attractive, cheerful, and financially independent. Wow…what more could a man ask for?

For one, a man could ask to meet a woman who wasn't a HORSE PERSON…

As I would later discover…to our mutual dismay.

Lynn's extended family at one time owned parts of southwest Toronto and southeast Mississauga. Hence a secondary school, a public school, a park, etc. named after Toronto Township's oldest family. And hence the family wealth which they kept quite quiet about. You'd never know they were loaded.

CHERRY HILL HOUSE is Mississauga's oldest surviving house. And Cherry Hill was owned by Joseph Silverthorn, a United Empire Loyalist, and Lynn's great, great, grandfather. The children of Joseph and Jane were the first white children to be born in Toronto Township! Believe it or not, that fact remains true—

The Silverthorns were always accommodating of the thirteen Indian tribes that were in the Toronto-Mississauga area and roamed through their lands. At Cherry Hill, "white man and redskin" shared sup and shelter, according to a blurb from Taste in the City.ca.

And yes, Cherry Hill is haunted. By Jane Silverthorn, Joseph's wife and by some of the natives who had stayed at the home in the early 1800s. The house was moved eight hundred feet from its original foundation in the early 70s, and that's when all the trouble started! The house had to be moved because it was discovered to be located on an Indian burial site!!

SEE: www.mississauga.com/community/article/817243--is-cherry-h...

Global News VIDEO: sopsinvestigations.com/sops/?p=139


While Lynn placed third in one Hunter Hack event at this horse show, and fifth in two others, she was a first-class investor. I remember a year or two before we met and went out, Lynn acknowledged she had purchased some 17,000 shares of Microsoft at less than a quarter a share! This, amongst all her other investments. Lynn was a buy and hold type…so when Microsoft hit $127 USD just seven years later…well, you do the math!

But alas, for us, it was not to be. I was a evangelical Catholic, and she an Evangelical.

I was an AIRPLANE PERSON and she was a HORSE PERSON.

I remember my landlord saying at the time, that he had never been able to make it with a HORSE PERSON. They were different people.

No truer words spoken, John! They really are.

ADDENDUM

WHY was it called the CHERRY HILL HOUSE?

It sat on a hill…and cherry trees encircled the homestead for an entire mile as well as lining the driveway up to the house!

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Trip to Bountiful: TI-CATS STAY in HAMILTON!!

AS WE ALL KNOW…Leslie has been working behind the scenes to keep the CFL in Hamilton. Ti-Cat owner, Bob Young, had threatened to move the ancient franchise to parts more hospitable. And not necessarily anywhere in Ontario, either!

Hamilton City Council was selecting a new stadium site for the 2015 Pan-Am Games expecting good ole' Bob would just go along with THEIR dictatorial decision. Nope.

Finally, some council members realized they were dealing with a football guy, not a ballerina guy…

AND YES you would have to finally listen to BOB'S CONCERNS you tiny people!

Pretty soon all the hippies will be dead. I wish we could say that about all the Commies.

And the site of the new Pan-Am Games 2015/Hamilton Ti-Cats Stadium is IVOR WYNNE STADIUM!

Wait, that's where the stadium is located NOW!!

Exactly.

With promised stadium building cash busting out from coffers everywhere…The City of Hamilton, The City of Toronto, the province, the Hamilton Ti-Cats, and the private sector…someone realized that it would save everyone a lot of cash if they just rebuilt IVOR WYNNE!

No kidding.

Bob's happy. Leslie's happy. I'm happy.

Is Hamilton City Council happy?

Who cares?

And remember Bob Young's aunt donated $40 MILLION to the Hamilton Community Foundation in June 2000 to improve Hamilton area health facilities! That money came from his aunt's initial stock investment in Bob's software company, Red Hat Inc.

Considering all the contributions the Youngs have made to the Hamilton area, a new stadium should be built WHEREVER Bob wants it to be built…except the site of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum… just saying…

(Roger's Centre lighting sucks…Leslie will have to stay greenish…because to remove the green cast kills the other colours! [Sigh].)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

FIRST FLIGHT: CF-100, 61 Years Ago and One Day…

HIGH ABOVE SPARSELY populated Toronto…

On its maiden flight January 19, 1950. Dressed in experimental black!

The top reprocessed photo is my copyright.

The bottom CF-100 photo showcases the "Clunk" in day-to-day duties.

THIS PHOTO is taken from the fabulous second volume about the Avro Arrow entitled… Supersonic Dreams – At the dawn of a new era, which is dedicated to the same, from its rollout to the RCAF’s acquisition of the Bomarc missile (96 pages) written by well-known Avro Canada Collector Marc-André Valiquette, who now is an Author, and Publisher.

TWO BOOKS in the series have been produced so far by Marc-André. With lots of interesting photos and info that only a serious lifelong collector would have.

Do yourself a favor, run out and buy both volumes today which can be found at aviation world, in Toronto, and other fine bookstores everywhere.

The third volume, Seeds of Suspicion, in this four volume series…comes out March 26, 2011.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

FLYING! Sooner than you…

…think.

AND WHEN it does, it will be the only flying Bristol Bolingbroke in the world!

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!!

COAST PROTECTORS and TRAINERS… that's what these twin-engine bombers were used for in Canada.

RCAF CANADIAN BOLINGBROKES were manufactured by Fairchild Aircraft Ltd., Longueil, PQ. Canada. The Quebec factory built a total of 687 Bolingbrokes between 1939 and 1943.

The Pic shows us the FUTURE, the PRESENT, and the PAST.

SEE Assembly Video:
www.thespec.com/news/local/article/307111--monumental-ass...

DOUGLAS A-26 And then came the crazy...

As I said before…WE MAY never know:::…WHY SOMEONE thought it was a good idea to put a DOUGLAS A-26 INVADER WW II bomber atop the Mackie Transport Company building in Oshawa (see: www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/352999167/ )

Something about…I just bought one…let's put it up there…and put you…on the map!

That it did.

And there it sat for 26 years.

WHY I let this guy talk me into going on someone else's roof without asking…

Something about …"I've done it lots of times…if he (the owner) was here…he'd let us, etc."

Okay, then.

However when I'm finally up there with all my camera equipment, I hear...

"Don't go near the bubbles."

"Why?"

…the people inside will see you!"

Oh, well…the contradictions, I did want to see the regionally famous Invader on the roof up close, after seeing it forever from afar since 1979…and it was a great photo-op, also it was probably worth being arrested for—

Currently this A-26 Invader is down south, South Dakota on a US military base being restored to FLIGHTWORTHY condition, according to the Guild, the last Canadian owners.

From Flickrer, bauple58:


Serial #: 44-34659
Construction #:
27938
Civil Registration:
N9163Z
Model(s):
A-26B
TB-26B
Name: None
Status: Restoration
Last info: 2003

History:
National Flight Services Inc, Toledo, OH, 1963-1964.
- Registered as N9163Z.
David Voltz, Phoenix, AZ, 1966.
Aircraft Specialties Inc, Mesa, AZ, 1969-1973.
Kenting Aviation, Toronto, Ontario, 1973-1974.
Struck of U.S. Civil Register May 30, 1974.
Mackie's Moving & Storage Co, Oshawa, Ontario, 1974-1999.
- Displayed on warehouse roof.
David Grainger/Guild Of Automobile Restorers, Bradford, Ontario, Oct. 1999-2003.
- Removed from roof for static restoration.

Monday, January 3, 2011

>:>:> HAPPY NEW YEAR .. 2011!!!!

Will LESLIE STEWART, here pictured as an Toronto Argonaut cheerleader (my illustrious capture), but now coaching the HAMILTON TIGER-CATS CHEERLEADERS be able to keep the Ti-Cats in Hamilton?

A new stadium has to be built BUT can Leslie convince city council members to consider the location wishes of the anchor business (the Hamilton Tiger-Cats) in their selection of a new site?

Hamilton City Council (the Commies) want to build at one location…but the Ti-Cat's owner (Bob Young) is saying he won't relocate there, so like true Commies who dictate and never listen…they're steamrolling ahead with their silly Council plans anyway. Who cares if you can't fill the stadium with a suitable tenant after it's built for the Commonwealth Games. Only anti-biz Council proclamations matter.

Good luck Leslie, with that—