Thank you so much for sharing all of this. Everything on Barton St. is boarded up now lol. I seem to remember it was #630. The storefront was very small, and in the evening it was barely lit up at all. My mom and I would often visit Angelo, and then head to the old Trocadero restaurant just down the street for dinner. I was just a kid.. Glorious times. Angelo helped me find a lot of rare pre-war baseball stuff. I'd make a list, and he'd call me when he found the cards. Awesome guy.

Interesting! I remember his store being fairly wide and roomy though.

Wow! How did you manage to afford those as a young kid?

Very sad. It was a low income neighbourhood already back in the 1990's.

:(

Player's, Export "A", Sportsman, they were all real man's cigarettes before the explosion in 'light" and "mild" brands in the 1970's. There was a time when men wanted full tobacco taste from both their cigarettes and cigars:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c5...97d21a4d15.png

https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c5...90a0c11937.jpg

And their chewing tobacco of course:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c5...63e7e2ab95.jpg

;)

We (Canada) may be the winners in the beer competition, but America "wins" with their cigarettes. If one enjoys such an awful habit, which I admittedly do, I want something with flavor. Up here, our tobacco tastes like smoking a phone book. Nothing like a Lucky Strike, Pall Mall or Camel...all unfiltered. The older I get, the more wrong I know the love of this habit is. It's my last remaining vice, thankfully tamped down to just a handful a day.

Nothing beats a Marlboro Red. I quit smoking 10 Oct 11 after 30 years. It was a good move but having a smoke on a hot muggy summer night with a cold beer was wonderful..

It's funny how pervasive smoking was only a few years ago, where you'd walk into a 7-11 (e.g.) and into a haze of smoke as people were casually puffing away...and it was just 'normal.'
Now, if you're suddenly confronted by a smoky haze, it's a shock to the system.

They used to have a smoking section in the lockerroom at our YMCA.

Growing up around my Queens-accented aunts, every single spot on Earth was the smoking section. :D

I remember that just about every variety store sported its name on a sign with Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, 7-Up, Canada Dry, Wishing Well, Silverwood's, Player's, Neilson Sweet Marie, etc. background until the early 1980's. The signs must have come at no cost from the advertiser. They've now almost completely disappeared.

Even sadder is how neon signs have disappeared. Some of them were true works of art. Here's a pic of downtown London, Ontario circa 1965:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c5...bc83956e17.jpg

:confused:

I remember smoking sections on commercial airlines.

I think that the London, Ontario Police Dept. could have used a CSI unit to help with their investigations. Lots of places to look but, seemingly little action. I know no DNA testing but.......

Smoking in operating rooms used to be an acceptable behavior :eek: