Neepawa of yesteryear: ‘Men’s wear to the right’
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Photo courtesy of Cecil Pittman archives. The Neepawa Telephone office was located in what is now the parking lot of the Beautiful Plains Credit Union.
By Rick Sparling
The Neepawa Press
“Men’s wear to the right and Ladies’ to the left” was all about Kerr’s Clothing Store (phone number 190).
John Kerr worked there and John’s father, Clarence and Uncle Fred Kerr worked the sales floor along with Dorothy Whelpton. George and Dorothy Whelpton had four children: Harvey, Calvin, Faye and Jack. John eventually took over the store’s operation. Anne Orton worked the sales desk. Anne was Beth Anderson’s aunt, which would make her Lynda Anderson’s (Nicholson’s) great aunt.
Walter Greenhalgh operated the Arcade Dance Hall, which was also the roller rink and right next door he had the Wawanesa Assurance Co. and Sun Life Insurance office (463). Walter and Erma Greenhalgh had a girl, Marjorie, and two boys: Teddy and Don. The Arcade became the home of Conquergood Furniture in 1965. Irwin and Connie had two girls, Myrna and Judy.
Nick Sydora’s barber shop was attached to the west side of the arcade. There was a walk-through to the alley next to the barber shop.
Next was Sparling’s Electric, owned by Art Sparling until his accidental death in 1957. Art and Marjorie had three children: Wayne, currently living in Brandon; Sherrill, who is in Cranbrook, BC and Rick, who lives in Winnipeg. Bob Ferris worked in the shop. Bob and Rita had one daughter, Penny. Jim Mercer worked there as well and the Mercers had one son, Robert, and two daughters: Barbara and Carol. Keith King worked at the store as well. Keith and Milly had two children, Garth and Janice, both of whom reside in British Columbia.
Jack Davidson’s Law Office was next door to Sparlings. Kay Williams worked there. Hersh Lerner joined the firm later in 1965 and a fire terminated the business 10 years later. Jack and Claire had two children, John and Mary.
Whitmore’s Farm Equipment was operated by (then mayor) William Whitmore. William and Mina had five children: Neil, Don, Alex, Edna and Bobby.
Mr. Knudson and Vern Tremain worked in the repair shop. The Tremain kids were: Al, Ray, Jack, Billy and Delores. Jim Masters worked for Whitmore’s as well. That takes us up to Strock’s Hardware and across the avenue to the Economy Store, both covered earlier on the Mountain Avenue column.
Next, to the west on Hamilton Street, was Partaker’s Shoes where shoes were sold and repaired and skates were sharpened. Lou Partaker ran the business with apprentices Barry Baxter and Allen Woloshyn learning the trade. Helen Kines opened up a millinery shop in that spot later on. Mrs. Kines had three children: Harold, Lorne and Judy.
Burgess’ Grocery Store, The Sunny Side Groceries (10) was next with Fred Burgess the owner. Garth King was Burgess’ delivery boy when he was going to school. Bernice Buchanan was one of the employees there, as was Kas Holod.
In the Telephone Building next door was Mrs. Lang, Ray and Diane’s mother. Jean Baryla, Gale Radford and Florence Robinson were some of the other operators. Keith Flumerton, Bill Water, Mac Richards, Don Campbell and Lloyd Cruiser all worked at the telephone office.
Next to the telephone building was Stead's plumbing shop, which later became Frank Reid’s barber shop after he left the IOOF Hall.
The Calvary Chapel was the next building along that stretch until just past Fifth Avenue, where there was an Iron Works shop (Neepawa Machine Shop) and a farm machinery business that sold Cockshot Implements. Kenny Campbell's dad worked there.
Hall’s Café stood just before the CNR Station. The Halls had two children, Ken and Kathy. There sat the CNR Station, the last building on Hamilton. Ronard Kleven was a cashier at the CNR. He and Ella had two sons, Arnold and Ron, and three daughters Elvera, Elaine and Delsie. Others who worked at the CNR were Oakie Whitlaw, Jimmy Dalton, Todd Horn, Eddy Yakichuk, Eddie Bell and Mr. Rush Sr.
I can recall spending many hours watching the trains shunting and moving around the tracks. We would pick up a bottle of Wynola and some red licorice from Halls (15 cents) bite the ends off the licorice and use it as a straw which would flavour and soften the licorice to make a nice snack while watching the train show.
Coming back up east on the south side of Hamilton was Neepawa Truck Service. Percy Murray was the owner and a few of his employees were Nels Hawkins, Bill Watson, Bob Crabbe, Sonny Howatt and Morely Poole. I remember when I was about 10 years old running through the tall grass there and stepping on a wasp nest and running home with several stings on my face and arms. I think this could have been the beginning of my association with spheksophobia. This was the original location of the Neepawa Curling Club.
The Masonic Temple was next and then The Neepawa Hotel run by George and Lew Vivian. George and Willard had a son Gaynor and a daughter Cathy, while Lew and Evelyn had one daughter, Leigh. The Vivian brothers spent many hours coaching minor league hockey teams throughout the years.
There was Wholesale warehouse for Roger’s Fruit next to Vivians’, which pumped out lots of product from the rear of the building at the loading dock. Two salesmen there were Doug McLean and Keith (Wafers) Graham.
Russell’s Store was next, with daughters Dale and Lynne working there. Russell’s were well ahead of their time in that they had an Xray machine which would show where your toe rubbed on the inside of the shoe. This proved to be a popular method for fitting shoes and, I suppose, gave their customers confidence for a good fit.
Conquergood’s Furniture was right around this spot, prior to him buying the Arcade building. This was right beside the popular Royal Café, owned and operated by Billy Toy. The Toys had two boys, Harry and Garry. There was a woman by the name of Sadie Steel who looked after things when Billy was away from the restaurant and some of the servers who worked there were Carol (Rankie) Pasosky, Helen Kostiw and Margaret Kostiw . Just around the corner from The Royal was the North Star Garage, run by Jack Johnstone.
