editorial
6A - Southpoint Sun
Memories of... Kingsville, Leamington Memories of... and Wheatley Photos Kingsville, from Kingsville-GosfieldLeamington Heritage Society 1790-2000 A Stroll Through Time and Wheatley
Cedar Beach Drug Store, Wednesday, May12, 2021 owned by Red Morris, Photo courtesy of the Kingsville Archives offered drugs, toiletries, china and souvenirs for sale as well as providing a luncheon menu. Speed boat rides were available from the Cedar Mark Ribble Beach Drug Store for 50 Except of course, Ray Stevens, whocents a ride had a long illustrious musical career infor summer the novelty song category. His biggestvisitors renting hit was The Streak in 1974 and had ev-a cabin or for cottagers not eryone in stitches. owning a boat. He also did Guitarzan, Ahab the Arab, The boats could be taken through the placid canal or out into the rougher waters of Lake Erie. This Mississippi Squirrel Revival and Would photograph of an unidentified family, standing outside the Cedar Beach Drug Store, was taken in Jesus Wear a Rolex. the late 1940s or early 1950s.
Longing for my K-Tel records I heard a song on the radio the other day that reminded me of my old record collection. The song was Rock Around The Clock, which was one of the first great songs of the rock and roll era, released in 1955. Later, it became the theme song for the Happy Days TV show, at least for the first season or two. My record collection was pretty lame by 1970s standards, mainly because my musical interests fell into the 50s rock and roll category. Although Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died two years before I was born, I’m probably more familiar with their music than many acts from the 1980s. At the age of about 11, my first album purchase was K-Tel’s 25 Rock Revival Greats. It was an orange coloured album with a jukebox on the front cover. In addition to the aforementioned song, it also contained such classics as Johnny B. Goode, Great Balls of Fire, It’s My Party and Book of Love. I think that may have been right near the beginning of such compilation albums, designed to re-sell songs to the public that may have fallen off the charts. The K-Tel era was lots of fun. I ended up with a few of their albums over my young teenage years. One in particular was ‘Goofy Greats’, which was released in several versions in about 1975. A lot of the songs were just that — goofy. From Ahab the Arab, to Alley Oop, to Bony Marone and Yummy Yummy Yummy, these songs were mostly done one-hit wonders who didn’t do much before or after.
RIB’S RAMBLINGS
What many don’t know, however, is that Ray Stevens won two Grammys for songs he recorded that were not goofy songs. Misty, a timeless classic written by Errol Garner and made famous by Johnny Mathis in 1959, was a hit for Ray Stevens in 1975. He also wrote and recorded a song called Everything is Beautiful in 1970, which was Number 1 for three weeks that year. It was a complete departure from his usual ‘novelty song’ status. I don’t know if K-Tel is still putting out records but I suspect they are not. But the memories of listening to those 25-song compilation albums are great ones. Some of the songs were not my favourites, but some of them made me a fan of the original artists, just from listening to those albums. I’ll save my adventures with Columbia House records for another column, but suffice to say I’ve likely still not fulfilled my commitment of buying 10 records to make up for the 10 I got for a penny the previous year. I hope they don’t come after me.
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This with completely surroundings. It is located at the southeast Ahome Lookis still at standing Leamington’ s Pastdifferent courtesy of C. Scott Holland corner of Queen and Herrington, overlooking Lakeside Park. Date of photo is unknown.
A Look at Leamington’s Past courtesy of C. Scott Holland April 1973: Buckingham Real Estate edged Gulliver Insurance 2-1 to win the Midget hockey trophy. At left is captain Ken Dick who scored both goals with coach Randy Critchlow.
May 1986 - Four new stamps which featured birds were issued by Canada Post and unveiled at Point Pelee National Park. The stamps were created by Jean-Luc Grondin. Seen with the stamps are Eugene Barna (left) local stamp collector and Al Law (right) of the Friends of Pt. Pelee.
Clippings from the Wheatley Journal, May 1989 Clippings from the Wheatley Journal
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May 1991 - Three area students who attend East Mersea will be in a competition for extended education “Odyssey of the Minds” against teams from around the world in Knoxville, Tennessee, later this month. The Lioness Club donated $1,200 to help the trio Submarine cycling - Ditches rose foot after foot following the Thursday evening rainfall in their journey toward higher knowledge. Left to right - Lioness president Kathy Bradley, and these young lads wasted no time inventing a new game, “submarine cycling”. If David Freeland, Matthew Cornies, Danny Paine and Sheryl Marshall, Youth Chairman of nothing else, it’s a quick way to wash a ten-speed bicycle! the Lioness Club.
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