On the road to Niagara Falls
12-inch hotdogs en route made trip to visit cousins even more fun
“Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch . . .”
As a kid, I could totally relate to this classic Three Stooges skit, as I had the good fortune to have cousins who actually lived in Niagara Falls.
Money in our family was tight when I grew up, so an economical holiday was always to pack up the car and head for Aunt Dottie and Uncle Allan’s bungalow on Scott St. The journey in the ’50s was not the quick hour-and-a-half (traffic permitting) day trip it is today, sometimes taking up to six hours, even while travelling on North America’s oldest superhighway.
The Queen Elizabeth Way officially opened in 1939. I remember the characteristic, ornate lampposts with the initials ER (Elizabeth Regina, Latin for Queen) proudly emblazoned on each one as they guided our journey. Many Canadians still think that it was named for our present Queen.
But as she was only a princess then, it was actually named to honour King George VI’s wife, later better known as the Queen Mother.
The idea of the super, controlledaccess highway was invented by the Germans in the 1930s as a makework project to combat the high unemployment of the Great Depression. The rather unpleasant government of Germany after 1933 very quickly realized that if you could move cars quickly and efficiently, you could do the same with troops and munitions in time of war.
The first vehicle to transport me across this new highway was a royal blue1952 Buick Roadmaster. My dad was a faithful General Motors customer, as in those days before imports men identified and remained loyal to one of the “big three” Detroit automakers. Subsequent rides were a red 1955 Buick Century, a light blue 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne and finally a 1963 red and white Pontiac Strato Chief. (It was my personal favourite, as it had headlights on top of each other, a new innovation for 1963.I was 10 and mad about cars. It was also the first car we had with a radio.)
The back seat was always — Nana, host cousins, big brother, brother-inlaw and big sister, all were back there at one time or another — so my place was on the front bench seat between mom and dad, sitting on a pillow so I could see. (If we had been in an accident, I would have been through that windshield like a rocket.) And what a view it was, especially during the wraparound windshield years.
The QEW was also the first highway to be illuminated at night, and even this was delayed as the lights were installed in 1939 but weren’t turned on until after the Second World War blackout restrictions were lifted in 1945. Funnily enough at the time, many American visitors, seeing the ER scrolled on the lampposts, were quite honoured that we had inscribed Eleanor Roosevelt’s initials on them. A few of those scrolls can still be seen today, kept for posterity, along with the original 1939 Viking longboat stone sculptures on the Henley bridge in St. Catharines.
Even in the ’50s, there were still several stoplights along the way, as well as some confusing roundabouts, but the real delays were caused by the lift bridges; one in Burlington and one in Welland. I loved when the bridges were up, as I was mad about ships as well as cars, never mind that as a kid you’re just not in a hurry. In Burlington there was a snack bar conveniently close to the bridge, and the often up-to-an-hour delay would result in the purchase of a 12-inchhotdog or milkshake.
In 1952, a lake boat, the W.E. Fitzgerald, (not to be confused with the Edmund Fitzgerald) ran into the Burlington lift bridge, closing the highway for several weeks. The resulting traffic chaos convinced thenOntario Minister of Highways, James N. Allan, that a permanent bridge was needed, and in 1958 the Burlington Bay Skyway was opened and subsequently named in his honour. A second bridge was added in 1985 because of increased traffic flow. To the consternation of obsessive-compulsive-disorder travellers everywhere, the bridges don’t match.
My first memory crossing the new bridge was, “Nice bridge. Hey, where’s my milkshake?”
There was still Welland, but the hotdogs weren’t as good and they didn’t serve milkshakes and alas, the Garden City Skyway opened in 1963, thus making the whole trip less than two hours in duration and not nearly as much of an adventure.
But there was still the Falls, which to this day, never cease to take my breath away, winter or summer. And don’t forget all the early tourist attractions; Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, a drive “over the river” to visit the bustling downtown of Niagara Falls, N.Y., and best of all, the Maid of the Mist.
We were fortunate to actually be in Niagara Falls on July 9, 1960, listening to the radio report of how 7-yearold Roger Woodward had been swept over the Horseshoe Falls after a boating accident upriver, and was rescued by the Maid of the Mist. This was the talk of the town for some time, culminating in young Roger appearing on the classic 1950s game show, I’ve Got a Secret. His adventure mostly forgotten, Roger lives quietly today in Huntsville, Ala.
Nothing lasts forever and, sadly for us, Uncle Allan accepted a new job in 1964 in, of all places, Toronto. And so ended our intimate family relationship with Niagara Falls.
No more A&W in-car service, com- plete with glass root beer mugs that we always tried to steal. No more Crystal Beach Amusement Park, where I insisted on accompanying my much older cousins into the House of Horrors, where I became subsequently terrified, completely ruining the experience for everyone. The main advantage of the QEW today is that you can do a Buffalo run for U.S. shopping very quickly (more so when our dollar is healthier). However, if you want to go old school, return to Toronto by coming back over the Buffalo/ Fort Erie Peace Bridge and take the first exit after Canada Customs onto the Niagara Parkway (formerly known as the River Rd). This is one of the most little known and absolutely beautiful drives in Canada.
Follow along the Niagara River and admire the assortment of gorgeous homes, old and new, and stop for coffee at Tim Hortons in Chippewa. Drive past the old barge, another Niagara legend, past the magnificent, now abandoned old hydro building, and stop for a picnic at Dufferin Islands. You could swim there years ago, but now it is a conservation area with walking and biking trails. (As a kid I chose not to swim there, as, to my horror, there were little fish in the water; my father was mortified.)
Drive by — and enjoy — the always magnificent view of the Falls, busy in any season. Continue past the Beck generating station at Queenston, and then finish up with afternoon tea or dinner in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s like going back in time.
“Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned . . .” Freelance writer Richard Coleman contributes to Toronto Star Wheels from time-to-time. To reach him, email wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.