Moving on…..
When I was growing up, there was a little shopping centre right beside the sources overpass for highway 20. Well, the shopping centre is still there, but it has certainly seen better days.
Those days were my kid days. We lived about a 15 minute walk down Sources from that little shopping centre. We lived in Tudor Court in Pointe Claire, quite literally across the street from Dorval. When I was in high school the city built a cross walk and put up traffic lights at Chanteclerc on our side of Sources and Mount Pleasant on the other side. Prior to that, we would just walk up the dividing area of grass that had a chain-link fence separating the two sides, until we came to a hole cut in the fence, or the spot on the overpass where the fence ended and then we would crossed over the boulevard. Looking back as an adult, I can’t believe that we did that…so dangerous!
From my bedroom, at night, I could, and often did look towards the overpass, where I could see the big red “D” with the green maple leaf in it, lit up in all its glory, letting everyone know where the Dominion grocery store was. The big "D" was on a big square at the top of a little tower perched on the roof of the mall. That is where we did our groceries for years. When my best friend Dana and I had a sleep over, we would buy a bag of candy each at that Dominion. I probably got a bag of licorice All Sorts and Dana probably got a bag of Jujubes or Wine Gums. I can still see the layout of the store and the checkout counters in my mind’s eye. In fact, at some point in my life I had a recurring dream about doing a huge order of groceries, but when I got to the cash and everything was punched in, I didn’t have enough money to pay, and the dream took place in that Dominion store.
Our Deli was there too, where my mom would buy our sandwich meats and other stuff. We called it Tony’s, that wasn’t the store’s name, but it was the owner’s name, my mom tells me. There was an older (for me at the time, anyway) German lady with short blond curly hair who worked at Tony’s. She always seemed grouchy, but she would cheer up as mom chatted with her. I wonder now about her story…who was she? Where did she live, where was she from? I’d love to interview her now. I’ll bet that if I found her (which is impossible, unless someone reading this knows the woman and puts her in contact with me!) she would think her life was too boring for an interview. I’ll bet most people are like that…not realizing how interesting their life story may be to others.
Janet Florist was in the mall too. Janet was deaf, but she had her own business and did a good job of it. She did the flowers for my sisters wedding, and then many, many years later, she did the flowers for my wedding too, but from a new location on Donegani and Valois Bay. The mall’s Betty Brite dry cleaners was where our winter coats and such were dropped off for cleaning, and the hair salon BJ’s was where Dana and I think her mom and sister too, got their hair cut. There was also an optician, as I recall. There were other shops too, but I don’t remember what they were.
The years passed and eventually the Dominion supermarket was closed. I guess that had a significant effect on all the shops. A flea market would set up in the mall on Sundays and Tony’s would be open that day for business. Various other things popped up in the old Dominion space, a club for kids, bingo, but nothing lasted very long.
There was a small bar in the mall, called the Kachette. In the days before I was 18 my mom and I would go sometimes for brunch on a Saturday or Sunday. Years later, the Kachette, or Kache to me, would become my favorite place to go dancing and socializing with friends. It was kind of a dive, certainly not classy, but I loved it and to this day, I miss the Kache. The owner sold the Kachette a couple years before the mall closed down adn someone opened it back up as Bar Fonzi. It just didn't take, you know what I mean? A new Kachette opened up a year or 2 ago, in a different location, but I just can’t go…it wouldn’t be the same. And the DJ wouldn’t play all my requests, like he did in the old days (thanks Dan!).
The mall seems to have “officially” closed down in 2005. Everything had closed down but a “new” pub called Savannah’s which kept going for a few years…I don’t know how. I had heard that the whole building was condemned by the fire department, but how could a pub be opened in a condemned building? There is a website that lists closed or abandoned building for “urban exploring” and it says that the flea market stuff is still in there and is really interesting. There are pictures too. They couldn’t find access to the rest of the mall. Too bad, I would love to see pictures from the shops and Kachette.
Anyway, I pass by the place often, as I live even closer to it now than I did when I was a kid, and it just makes me sad to see it, empty, boarded up and graffitied. All those business and the lives attached to them, moved out and moved on. Apparently, in 2005 the place was up for sale for $275,0000 including the empty lot next door, where the Hydro station used to be.
Anyone up for reviving an old mall and quieting some old ghosts?
No comments:
Post a Comment