It’s Wayback Wednesday: Checking parking meters

Welcome to Wayback Wednesday sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab! Every week, we’ll be sharing a vintage photo and asking our readers to chime in with anything you can recall about the photo, other related memories, or even a funny caption. Have some vintage photos of your own? Send them to [email protected] and we may share them with our readers!

This week, remember when there were parking meters on Main Street? Click on the photo above to see the full image. (Photo courtesy of the Muskoka Heritage Place Collection)

Wayback Wednesday is sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab

Last week we shared this photo with you:

This photo is courtesy of Brent Gillen. His grandparents, Les and Divena Kinsman, owned and operated the Blue Bell Tea Room from 1950 to 1970. It was located at 4 King William Street, where the One Stop General Store Trading Post is now.

This photo is likely from the early 1950s, says Brent. “This Tea Room was a favourite of the Bell and Hydro Crews for lunch,” he writes. “The last menu I have from this restaurant was a whopping 10 cents for a bottomless cup of coffee. This rare colour photo was taken for a pocket viewfinder (remember the ones you hold up to light) souvenir that was produced by Les to promote the restaurant.”

Thanks for sharing, Brent!

This photo elicited many comments from Doppler readers. Here are a few of them:

Glennice Barton (Smith): “I remember the Blue Bell Tea Room very well. My mother (Phyllis Smith) was the cook there for years and my sister and I started our first jobs there as dishwashers and then promoted to waitress! I remember Les very well! He was a funny guy! I remember so vividly that he charged us $18.00 a week for all the food that we ate while on the job! We didn’t like that too much! LOL Memories are a wonderful thing!”

Nancy Irving Watts: “We loved walking there from my grandmother’s house when we were kids. The owners were very friendly.”

Tim Bennetts: “I remember going to the Blue Bell My sister worked for the Kinsman Great people.”

Joy Smith: “I remember it!! I worked there for 4 years while I was in high school!! My first job!!”

Bev Ferguson: “I remember it too, and she was my Aunt Eileen’s sister….made her pretty special too!…”

Marg Sawyer Mcculley: “Maude Clarke was a cook there , she was a Rastal.”

Elaine Seely-Rheubottom: “My sister Margi Austin worked there for a while,,while I watched the kids?”

David Johns: “What great people they were.!! A lot of dimes and nickles spent there.”

Charlene Ketch: “I remember it!! They were my Aunt & Uncle! ? I also have a menu. ?”

Ray A Vowels: “Moved to Huntsville in 1966 and the blue bell was the coffee stop for all the construction workers spent many mornings there waiting for it to warm up a bit or stop raining or snowing so we could got to work. I for One sure missed it when it closed.”

Cheryl Taylor: “My family had a home on Cann St..behind the Blue Bell and we would run thru our back yard and thru our great Uncle Jockey and great Aunt Bea’s property and cabins where Kentucky Fried Chicken now is….and get a treat or ice cream cone ! We love that restaurant/store and the Kinsmans were so nice! I was in grade 5 I think about that time! We old go in for popsicles too in the hot summer! Neat memories! Thanks!”

Wanda Sawyer: “Tin Roof Sundaes”

Larry Baker: “I worked at C.T.C across the street an had many breaks and lunches,the whole staff made you feel like family.”

David Aide: “I used to buy candy there. I would pass it every day on my way home on Menominee Street.”

Thanks for sharing your memories, everyone!

If you want to see more Wayback Wednesday photos, click here.