FROM archives THE
In pictures
To celebrate our 140th anniversary, Record photographers share some memorable images
Jan. 23, 1961
Several times in its history, Kitchener has had professional sports teams. One of those occasions was in the 1961-62 era when the Kitchener Beavers treated local fans to future and past National Hockey Leaguers playing in the Eastern Professional Hockey League. Soo Thunderbirds beat the Beavers 4-2 on Sunday, Jan. 22 in what The Record sports editor called "...a sluggish performance." In goal for the Beavers was Jack McCartan, coming off an Olympic gold medal with the United States team the year before at Squaw Valley. That’s Don Cherry wearing Number 3.
March 30, 1979
New Hamburg's annual Mennonite Relief Sale began in the mid-1960s and continues today. The main feature, then and now, is the quilt auction. Groups of mainly Mennonite women around the province work up to 350 hours to produce quilts that are then auctioned to raise money for Third World peoples and Indigenous Canadians. In 1979, St. Jacobs Mennonite Church buzzed monthly as this group of 12 worked on a complicated design called Flowerbasket.
June 7, 1940
Kitchener organized a “Buy-A-Tank” campaign in 1940, raising money through numerous imaginative schemes. James White set up a bow-and-arrow game in a downtown alley with Hitler as the target. Marguerite Bauer was an early participant and shows where her arrow hit. Three days later, White received an anonymous note declaring: “Mr Hitler will fix you when he come to Canada.”
July 22, 1960
Architect John Lingwood was shocked when he inspected the 50-year-old wooden tower atop Victoria school on Joseph Street in Kitchener in 1960. It was in danger of falling and injuring students because wind and rain had deteriorated the wooden structure. K and K Construction soon had the tower down and a flat roof in place.
June 29, 1973
In 1973, Queen Elizabeth II visited Waterloo County. In Kitchener, the wreath that she laid at the reconsecrated cenotaph had travelled all the way with her from England. To prevent souvenir hunters from destroying it, a number of military groups took turns standing vigil. Chuck Firetto and Mike Miller, both 13 and both sea cadets, had a 2.5-hour shift in the rain while workers dismantled the temporary platform.
June 25, 1982
One of the oddest Canada Day birthday gatherings took place in 1982. Punkeydoodle's Corner, famous for being famous, and its complete population of 14 residents prepared to welcome 5,000 visitors on July 1. Situated where three federal ridings met, those three MPs, Walter McLean, Bruce Halladay and Bill Jarvis, arranged for bands, food booths, dancing girls, jumping frogs and hot-air balloons. Canada Post even set up a one-day post office with a one-off Punkeydoodle's cancellation.
March 17, 1979
Imagining Kitchener without the Centre in the Square is a nightmare scenario, yet the project came within two aldermanic votes of being killed. On March 17, 1979, alderman Bob Wagner, a fervent centre supporter, stood in front of construction equipment on Queen Street North to look back on a 15-year battle to secure the first-class performing arts facility. Centre supporters were opposed by Mayor Morley Rosenberg and aldermen Mac Voisin and Jim Gray, who wanted to call a referendum on the multi-milliondollar project — a referendum that centre supporters knew would not pass. The final council vote in October 1978 was 7-3 in favour of going ahead with the project without a referendum. At least two aldermen changed their votes at the last minute and supported awarding the contract without a referendum.