Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - The Life of a 1970s Teenager: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1851

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

In this 1851st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Todd Bueler paints a picture for Mike as to what it was like to be a 1970s teenager in Swansea. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hi, I'm Todd Bueller, and I'm here to talk about my book, The Life of a 1970s teenager. The book is a memoir about growing up in a small neighborhood in southwest Toronto called Swansea. I know Swansea. I know Swansea so well my youngest is going to play House League soccer at Reni Parks. That is fantastic. We're going to get into it, Todd. Music. I got questions. Welcome to episode 1,851 of Toronto Mike.

An award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great Lakes Beer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh. Homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Fusion Corpsoe, Nick Ieinis. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success,

two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle My Electronics.c.a.comitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic debut. He's going to tell me all about being a 1970s teenager in Swansea. It's Todd Bueller.

Bueller, Bueller. Todd, how you doing, buddy? Great, Mike. It's great to be here. How are you? Great to meet you. I'm setting up this episode by just saying to the listenership that I was a teenager in the 1990s, And I barely remember the 70, although I was around for, you know, more than half the 70s, I barely remember the 1970s.

So you're going to help me fully appreciate and understand what it was like to be a teenager in the 1970s in a West Toronto neighborhood. It was, it was glorious. You know, things are obviously much, much different than. than they are not even that even in the 90s there was no you had no no cell phone no internet no computer all you had was a phone and most people most people didn't even have a uh an answering machine right and um it was you know there was very little parental supervision um that thing about the lights going out uh i don't know about that you know sorry when the lights come on when the lights come on.

When the lights, you could go out with your buds, but when the lights came on, the street lights came on, that was the time you're supposed to go home. Yeah. In Swansea, it wasn't,

I mean, a couple of families were like that, but I don't really remember that. Like, there was a lot of, a lot of freedom. A lot of freedom. There were really no adults around.

Well, hey, so you're going to paint a picture for me of being a teenager in the 70s in Swansea. if you're not aware of what, because Swansea, that's, you know, oh, that's in England. No, the neighborhood in Toronto, Swansea, I know it very well. Right.

That's where you were, you were born and raised. You still live in Swansea? Yeah. And I was actually, I was born in Toronto, but for the first two years, my family lived in Aurora, so in 64. And then we moved to Swansea. And yeah, since then, I've been there, and I'm 63 now. Okay. Okay, so you're born and raised.

Oh, not born, okay. Born in Aurora, but two years, that doesn't matter to me. Technicality, right? Right, yeah. So Swansea, again, I'm going to chime in a little bit because it's my show, Todd. You can't stop me from doing that. Sure. But I want to let the listenership know that you have sent in 10 songs that you would have been listening to in the 1970s.

Yeah. And they're in chronological order. So we're going to, it's also like as we talk about your experiences growing up in Swansea in the 70s or being a teenager in Swansea in the 70s, we'll hear music that will accompany our journey. Like, this is a great episode of Toronto mic. That's, you know what? I don't, I listen that music sometimes, but hearing it again today is going to be pretty good. In the headphones, it's going to take you right back. I bet.

And I just want to let the listenership know, though, that you wrote a book. I did. The life of a 1970s teenager. Yes. So I'm going to steal that name for this episode of Toronto, Mike. Is that okay, time? Yeah, for sure. Okay, so your book is available now.

People can actually pick up your book. I was going through it. And you just gave me a copy. Everybody had happened right now real time. I love it. The life of a 1970s teenager. Signed. I signed it for you,

but get out of here. Now I'm going to have trouble reselling it. Todd, come on. What are you doing to me here? But it's not personalized, so it's okay. So you can still sell it.

It's evergreen. Okay. What was it really like to be a teenager in the big city in the 1970s? So first of all, it says here, leaving school at age 15. What do you mean you left school at eight?

What school did you go to? Swansea? Where were you? Western, Western Tech. Yeah. Swansea from kindergarten to eight and then Western. Of course. It's always a Western tech or Humberside, right?

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So why did you leave school at the young age of 15? Oh, okay. I didn't think we'd get into this necessarily, but it's on the back of the book. Oh, sure. Yeah, it's in the back of the book.

Do you want to get to it later? No, we can talk about that a little bit now. We can also revisit it. But yeah, I didn't like school. I didn't like it either. And I didn't go to school. and I hang out with my buds and my girlfriends and we didn't go to school. And then they didn't really do much about it.

So it went for like a whole year, grade 9, I missed like a lot, like 80%. And I was just hanging out and not going and sleeping at home or reading all day or out in the back. there was, in back of west, and we call it in back of the calf. It was the back of the cafeteria. Right. And the north side, yeah,

I can't remember what side it was. It's all weird there. And, yeah, so one day, I was back there. And this is the second year. So the first year,

I failed miserably. I got, because I never went. I got like 0.9 of a credit. I don't know if you can get, yeah, 0.9 of a credit. So I had to, I failed, right?

So I had to repeat grade 9. Point 9? Is it at 1 or 0? I don't know. It's all my transcript though, because I looked at it before I came over today. It's amazing you were able to write a book. Well, we fixed that later on.

We can get into that. So what happened was, I was pretty literate, though. I read a lot at a young age. I read a lot of stuff. But Playboy doesn't count, man. So I, first two weeks of school, a second year, I skipped.

totally skipped. Yeah. Didn't go at all. And drinking beer in the back of the calf with my buddies. What was your beer choice back then? What export, blue? Something blue. No, no.

If you drank blue, you weren't really that cool. It was, yeah, export. Export. Most, most since export, right? Cool. Full strength. I don't think we had light stuff. I'm just telling you.

I like the details. You're going to paint a picture for me. But you weren't going to school, so you're like, why don't I just get a job? I'm guessing here. I was 14. I was not legally allowed to leave school. So I turned 15, the second year, and September.

That's my birthday. Right. So I was in the back of the calf, second week. And who shows up in the back of the calf? The old VP, the vice principal, right? And he knows me quite well. And he says, Bueller, you know, what are you doing here?

And you boys and all that stuff. You're supposed to be in class. And Bueller, I've got to speak to you. And I'm going, oh, my God, right? And he sees the beer. So the other boys, the other guys take off. Take off. Yeah, they took off.

To the gray wine north. And, yeah. And, getty. Yeah. So he took the case of beer. Yeah. And he said, you're coming with me, Bueller. And I went to the, to his office.

and we were walking through the halls, and it's a big high school. Yeah. And it was right when the bell rang. So there's like hundreds and hundreds of kids, switching, you know, changing classes and a couple teachers, and, you know, everyone's clapping at me. And, of course, the teachers are shaking their heads, right?

So he's got the beer and we go to his office. And he says, puts me in his office, closes the door, takes the beer. And he says, don't move. I'll be right back. So he closed the door and, you know, keeping me on ice for, I don't know, five or ten minutes. And at this point, I just didn't give a crap of what's going to happen, right?

You can swear on this show. I feel like that's too clean. Come on. You didn't give a shit. No, I did not. So he came back and he kind of went through, you know, looking like transcript, and he says, you're expelled. So expelled is different than suspended.

Suspended means you come back. Expelled means you're gone. You do not come back. You don't go to Western Tech anymore. And you don't go to, yeah, you don't go. You're out of the school. So, um, he went through some things and it's in the book. It's all in the book in detail.

And, uh, shout out to Nick Caprio's. The conversations, the conversations in the, uh, in detail. And, uh, he gave me a note to give to my parents. Um, and he said, don't come back. And he said, good luck, Todd. See you. Clean your locker out. And that was the end of the.

that. And I never returned to school until I was an adult. After that, I went to work. A couple weeks later, got a job. I had to go to court, family court with my mom because I was 15. You're not legally allowed to leave school until you're 16. Interesting. And I tell you, it was all just, whatever, if you want to quit, that's fine. Wow. What a different time. The judge, my parents, everything. It was just, you know, and no one ever. Good luck to you. Yeah, and, you know, no one ever told me. I was just a boy, right? Yeah.

Very mature. Yeah. And no one ever said, you know, if you quit, life's going to be really difficult. You know, you're going to be working. What do you know? You're just a kid. Yeah. And you don't like school.

So you're like, okay. Oh, 100%, right? I'm good with this. I'm good with this. I got my beer. I got my girl. Yep. Got a car.

You got a car. You have a car. You have a girl. You have beer. Everything, right? You got it all. What else do you need, right? You got Rush and...

You got Getty Lee. Triumph. Oh, my God. You know, two-thirds of triumph, F-O-T-M's like you. Yeah, first concert I saw, Triumph, Maple Leaf Gardens, 1978. Man, were they... They just killed. So that was it.

So I went to work, and that's the school story. Okay, so that, some say that was the night the lights went out at Western Tech. I don't know if you've heard that before. I have not. Okay, so I'm sprinkling music in as we tried. This is a great song. Great song. We're starting in, what, 73 here?

Yeah, this is 73. He was on his way home from Candletop. Been two weeks gone, and he thought he'd stop at webs and have him a drink before he went home to her. Andy Wolow said hello. And he said, hi, what's doing? Whoa, said, sit down. I've got some bad news.

It's going to hurt. Said, I'm your best friend, and you know that's right. But your young bride ain't home tonight Since you've been gone She's been seeing that Amos boy, Seth He got mad and he saw red And Andy said, boy, don't you lose your head Because to tell you the truth

I've been with her myself That the lights went out in Georgia That's a night that they horned in the inner stone Trust your soul An old backwoods of a lawyer Because the judge in the town's got blood stains on his head. Todd, I'm going to have questions about the songs you chose, okay? So I have a question.

Sure. Part of my ignorance, I know I could Google it, but I'd rather find out from you. Oh, I know this song. Was the Carol Burnett show on the air when this song dropped? Yeah. Okay. So what is it like to be a teenager to hear this song? What is it, 10-50 chum?

Where are you hearing this? Yeah, definitely. 10-50 chum, CFTR, AM, and it's everywhere. You cannot get away from this song. This was a banger. Okay. But what's it like when you're like, oh, she's, she's, the gal from the Carol Burnett show.

I didn't know that at the time. Right. We didn't know at the time. We didn't know who she was. Right. Right. We were kids. I think I was like 11, right? Right.

So, but the reason why I like this song so much is it's a big long story, right? And we're always talking about, no, this happened. No, this means this. This is you this. And it's funny. I saw an interview with Vicki Lawrence years ago. And it was her husband at the time who wrote this song. They shopped it around the share and stuff and no one wanted.

So Vicki just said... It sounds like it should be a share song, right? Yeah, and no one wanted it. So Vicky just said, you know, that's it. I'm going to record it. She said, fuck it, I'm going to sing it myself. There you go. And she did.

And it became a number one hit. And later on, though, she goes, I don't even know what the hell's going on in that song. It's like, yeah, it's a story song. Sort of like, uh, what's the guy who jumped off that, Waxahatchy Bridge or whatever Who's... Oh, the... Billy Joe.

Yeah, the... Oh, to Billy Joe. There you go, yeah. It's like, oh, we're telling a story here. Yeah. Let me tell you about Billy Joe or whatever. But if you... Like, I know this on guitar

and I can play it like on acoustic. But so you get to know it a little bit. And the story's straightforward. There's no... There's no... There's no ambiguity or anything. It's a great song. And then years later, she would become Mama from Mama's family.

Yeah. There's a mind-blower. for the Mama family heads out there. So I'm going to ask you again. Yeah. How did you discover Toronto Miked? Oh, okay. Well, okay.

You never know what I'm going to ask you. You're going to be on your toes here. I'm on my toes here. It's a small world. Let's put it that way. Okay. So I know Chris Higgins. Chris Higgins, episode 1,834 of Toronto Miked.

Chris Higgins is a fantastic writer and just an amazing historian. He's written three books so far. And he was on your podcast just a little while ago. Very recently. And he wrote the forward to my book. Get out of here. Yeah. So did Chris tell you he was going to be on a podcast?

Because we did an episode about the Humber River, which is not too far from your stumbling grounds there. Correct. No, he didn't. I talked to him, but I don't talk to him all the time. We are writing buddies, though. We talk about writing and all that stuff. And no, he just posted.

And I just went, oh, I said, he just posted. I said, oh, that's great. How do I get on there? Right. And he said, email him. I said, okay. Well, you know what? You say, what a great idea.

And you got on. Like, you're here now. I am. Has that sunk in yet? Like, you're making your Toronto Mike debut, talking about growing up in Swansea in the 70s, and you got a book about it. Like, we're listening to Jams.

I have some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery for you. I love that beer. Do you want to crack one now? No. Okay, but you're taking that home with you? Yeah. Okay, I got a palm of pasta lasagna and my freezer for you. Love it.

Like, this is happening now. I have a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home for you. I don't know what the hell that is. Measuring tape or the Ridley Funeral Home? The measuring tape. Great. Look at that. That's fantastic.

Like, this is happening. You're in the same club that Chris Higgins is in. You know what? I will never be in the same club as Chris Higgins, okay? but I will say that I'm enjoying being here. Yeah, it was quite a blast when I emailed you and you just said, tell you what, Todd, give me some of your 10 songs and we'll have you on. I just went, oh my God.

I couldn't say no to you. Oh, thank you. Let me just tweak it a bit so I can get excited about it, which is that not only are we going to talk about growing up in the Swansea neighborhood of Toronto in the 70s as a teenager, but we're going to listen to some sweet 70s jam. Absolutely. Yeah. So yeah. What's the feeling?

I don't know. You let me know when it sings in. I guess it'll hit me after. It hasn't hit me yet. That's a blue rodeo song. Is that right? It hasn't hit me yet. It's really good one, yeah.

Okay. So when I told my wife and my kids about this. They said, who's Toronto Mike? No, no, no. No, not at all. They just went no way. And I went, yes, I'm going to be on Toronto. This is the gateway to the national.

Okay? because Ian Hanel Mancing listens to Toronto mic. Oh my God. More than one occasion, he has had a guest on his program you might have heard of called the National. Definitely. Because he heard that guest on Toronto Mic'd.

You know what? That would be great. I would love to see. I so appreciate you having me on today. Well, I'm happy to have you here. I want to tell the listenership, you brought me, you've given me a gift already, the book,

but you brought donuts. I did. Like when I'm listening to Jam's, is it rude if I had a donut? No, not at all. No. Finagle this. So let me just say about Chris Higgins real quick here

before I play another jam and we get into it. Yeah. He taught my kids at Swansea Public School. That's where I was going. What a small world. So he taught your kids in the 90s. Yeah. Okay, so your kids are a bit younger than me.

Okay, so your kids that were at Swansea Public School in the 90s and Chris Higgins was a teacher there. Yeah, my kids are 35 and 31 now. And when I, how I met Chris again, And I didn't really know him. I guess parent teacher night, but I couldn't remember him. And I was putting some stories up when I started writing my book on Facebook. And he was on the neighborhood group.

And he messaged me and he says, are you that same Todd Bueller that, do you have like kids, right? And I said, yeah, and he named my kids, right? And I said, yeah, he goes, oh, okay. And so then we start talking and he said, I really like your stories. and he was writing the, he was writing the river book then. Yes. And, but I was just,

I was not writing a book then. I was just kind of writing a few stories and throwing them up. Right. Just because I had been telling these stories for decades to my families and friends, right? And so he, he said to me, he said,

maybe you should write a book. I think he said, I can't remember. But anyway, at some level he inspired this very book. I'm touching right now. were meat for coffee and just this is about the stories. You got this connection to Higgins and you know Higgins was, I shared this on his episode,

but my oldest was a timbitt at Rennie Park, Swansea Hockey. He was doing the timbits, learn to play hockey. Right. And we had the opportunity to play during the first intermission of a Leafs game. Oh, great. And his son was on that team. So afterwards, you know, this was a great day. My boy played at the, what we now call Scotia Bank Arena.

and Jim Cuddy, by the way, who wrote hasn't hit me yet, who sang and wrote, hasn't hit me yet, he did the O Canada, so he walked right by us to do O Canada before that game started. But all this is to say, it was Chris Higgins who sent me the video, like a video collage of that he took from that event. Wow. Like that's a small world story.

It's a very small world. And I want to get back to Swansea. I want to start the song though. Yeah. So I can get into a donut. Yeah. Then I want to talk about the Swansea Hockey Association. Sure.

Yeah, yeah. But let's feel like if I knew where the post was, I would say something and hit it. This is the slow dance. Okay, cheek to cheek. Yeah. You ready, Todd? Let's dance, brother. It's the slow dance at the Swansea pre-teen dances or teen dances.

Friday, Saturday nights. Where is the post? Is there one? Here's coming. Let me bring it down so we can hear you better. Talk about the song while it plays. Like, I love just hearing what is this song? Well, you know, this is McCartney and Wings, right, off the album band on the run.

And we, this song, they played this all the time and they turned the lights down low on Friday and Saturday nights for the slow dances at the Swansea Rec Center on the vineyard. And we were like 11, 10, 12, right, 13, so you're preteens. And you got your best girl. and you get up and you dance close, right? In the dark. Like, were you allowed to put your, like, the fingertips on the derrier? Yeah, it's not the 50s. It's the 70s.

Lots of free love. Well, not at that age, but, yeah, no, there was no issue with that stuff, no. So this is kind of fairly, it's a deep cut, right? Because you wouldn't hear this song on 1050 chum, would you? No, no. You'd hear band on the run or whatever, but you wouldn't hear. You wouldn't hear this one. What's this thing called again?

Let me roll. Let me roll it. Let me... Well, let's get the right title here. This is important stuff. This song is called Let Me Roll It. There you go. Is it about a jazz cigarette?

What are you rolling here? I have no idea. I think it's a love story. I think he's talking to his girl. Okay. Do you want a donut, Todd, or do you need to focus on talking? Okay, so I'm going to eat a donate if you don't mind. No, go ahead.

But you played in the same... House League, hockey league that I played in a couple years before me. But you were, in the early 70s, you're playing at Swansea,

the Swansea House League hockey that I referenced quite a bit. It was at Runny Park. Yeah, because that's where I played hockey. Yeah, I played for like running me at hardware, played for Supertest.

Remember that old gas station? Played for, um, Cecil Ward, Men Shop, all these. Jeez, that's a name that brings me back.

I think they, when I went to, I went to Catholic school. And I think, we might have had to get our uniform there. I'm not sure. You went to Catholic school? What, which?

Michael Power? Well, so primary school. I met St. Pius. You went to St. Pius? Yeah. But before that, I was at St. Cecilius. Okay. Sicily up on that.

And then when it came time for high school, I went to the original location of Michael Power. I'm the last graduating class from the original Michael Power location. Did you have to, did you have to stay to 4 o'clock? Like, because when... Why am I staying till 4? Sorry. Because when they're doing it's so rude. When we, when I was in grade school, we had some, I had some friends who were Catholics, and they went to St. Pius.

And they had to stay till four, when we were getting out of 3.15. See, I don't remember what time we were dismissed. Like, I don't have a sense of what that. That was a big deal. It might have changed, like, I'm going there in the 80s. Okay. That was a big deal for them, right? Because, you know, when you're a kid, 45 minutes extra and all your buddy.

I'd go up to St. Pice and wait for them to come out to hang out. Well, it's possible we started later. Like, it all evened out, I'm sure. No, no, no. I think because you guys had to have religious class or something. Oh, wow. Extra stuff. You know what?

I didn't choose to go there, but I was indoctrinated into this cult, cult Catholicism. I'm still rooting myself out of it. Good for you. But these, back to the Swanson. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. No, it's fine. Good for me is right. So I got four kids and none of them have been indoctrinated into the cults.

So you had sisters. though who taught you, right? So I, there were... To be honest, okay, by the time I get there, so I'm born in 74, are they called habits? That's what they wear. They wear a habit, yeah. Right.

But there weren't a lot left. Like, I think that was more older school, maybe when you were going. But I feel like most of the nuns were gone. Like, I had a nun, grade two. My teacher was Sister Charlotte. Okay. She was a big Gretzky head. Like, she was from Edmonton, but she was a huge Oilers fan.

The Oilers were really, really good, as you remember, in the early 80s. Oh, yeah. And she would wear like lots of oiler stuff. And yeah, I thought it was kind of neat that this, there's a nun. And by the way, at that point, they weren't wearing the habits anymore. Like, she would dress like a normal person. But did you not have religious class? I don't know what you would call it.

We took religion. We took religion. That was part of the deal. Like we had to learn about the sacraments and then we had to get first communion with the thing. See, I have no idea what that means. I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know what that means.

It's going to be in my book. That's okay. Yeah, good. The title of my book, Lapsed Catholic. Yeah. I'm going to detail all this. But it's interesting you played in the same House League as me. Yeah.

And, uh, because I thoroughly enjoyed, I mean, looking back now, it's like, oh, we had to play outdoors. Yeah. You know, we had to stop when Mother Nature decided that ice was going to be, you know, we did not stop. We played like minus 100. That's too bad. No, I meant the other way. What do you mean the other way?

Well, let's say it's, uh, let's say it's March. Like it's too warm to keep the ice at, uh, there, right? Like it would be too warm. Oh. But when I was a kid, that didn't even answer. to our mind. That was just the end of the hockey season. Of course, I guess nowadays it's just like you, I think if anyone played a George Bell, right?

My oldest move from Swansea to George Bell. Right. So I think if you played a George Bell back then, I mean, you were like a rich kid or something. Oh, okay. That changed. Because you could play inside. Yeah. Well, the thing is, you know, you started in like October and then you got to go through April or week.

It was a much longer season and that's why I think my boy switched over. But I have great experiences, great memories of me playing at Swansea. I wanted my kids to play at Swansea, but yeah, they moved indoors to George Bell. The rest is history. But it was a lot colder in the 70s. And so maybe it went a little longer, but I just remember coming home.

Yeah. With, you know, not frostbite, but just really cold toes, man. Right? But I don't care. I loved it, right? Played from, I guess, age seven to probably about 12. I liked you name checking the teams

because, again, you got a few years on me, but by the time I get there, I remember Mr. Grosser was the team. Okay. So Mr. Grocer, I played for a team one year called Sam's Auto Repair. Never heard of these cheese. One year, C& Tower put in a team, we were called the C&Towers. We didn't win a game that entire season.

And I got to play for the C&Towers. Devres and Davidson, does that mean anything to you? There was a team called Devries and Davidson. None of these things. I don't know what that means. S.O. had a team. No. So maybe that was your gas station.

I don't know. Super test. Okay. So ESO had a team. Yeah, okay. They were actually pretty good. And they, I remember because they had. multiple players that were wearing cooperalls.

And when I was playing at Swansea, the good players who played House League but also played a more competitive, I don't know, they played in more competitive. H. H.HL or something, yeah. They had Cooperalls. Right. So if you saw a player in Cooperalls, they were going to be good. And they had money. Maybe so.

Yeah. Those cup rolls weren't cheap. Yeah, well, I just had the cheap ECCM skates, right? And the guys who had money, they had tax or super tax skates, right? Right. And they were, and they're. Classism. Yeah.

And they look down to their nose at you. You know, you don't got tax. Get out of here, Bueller. So, Bueller. I was going, when you were telling that story about Western Tech when you were, I was thinking, oh, this is where the Ferris Bueller's Day Off comes from. Day off. Freaking year off.

Yeah, the night the lights went out at Western Tech. Yeah. Okay, so I'm going quickly to a third jam because then we have to explore a lot more. Yeah, sure. The donuts great. Good sugar rush. I'll try not to chew when I talk. But I'll dedicate this song to a guy who just left.

My wife will love this Breaking news, I'm getting a gift of Breaking news, I'm getting another gift. Maybe I'll get a gift every jam here. This is a coffee bug, the life of a 1970s teenager. You're smart because I'm going to to put this somewhere in the studio, and it's going to get referenced a million times. Fantastic.

So I mentioned I'm dedicating this Elton John Jam to a guy who just left, because to tell the listenership that behind the scenes' tail, as I peel back the curtain, we're recording at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 17th. And I just finished toast with Rob Proust and Bob Willett. And they literally left at like 1 p.m. So I think I went upstairs. I posted that episode. and then I came right back here

to kick out some jams with you. But thank you for this coffee coffee. You're very welcome, enjoy. When you were telling me small world stuff and you said, hey, I'm friends with Chris Higgins. Right. I'm talking about that.

I was wondering if there's any other FOTMs that you're personally connected to. 100%. These guys have, these people have been on your podcast. Although one, I'm going to, I don't think I know. One is, so it's Bob McAwoods Jr.

Yes. Who you've had on. Absolutely. Great guy. And I went to night school with him in, I think it's like 88, summer of 88. So I would have been about 25 then. And I guess he would have been 18. And I think we would take an American history.

So I don't know if he was behind or if he wanted to get ahead. I'm not sure which one I was. I can't remember right. Remember, his dad was a big deal at Q107. Then he was. Yeah, Bob McEl who's no longer with us, shout out to the funeral, but yeah, Q107. Yeah, so we,

I, uh, we would go up for breaks, right? Because there was a night school. It was, I think it was summer or, yeah, summer and because it was warm out, so you'd go for breaks. And here's this kid. Well, to me he's kid, right? I'm 25, he's 18.

I'm married, right? Living by myself with my wife. And, um, he's, we would have these, not really deep discussions, but like discussions at an 18-year-old boy really doesn't discuss.

Like deep thinker. The Watergate scandal. Like here we are, well, he wasn't, but I was, you know, smoking a butt out, you know, in between classes.

And we'd start talking about the Watergate, right? And I went, you know, I don't think Nickson knew anything about it, which it comes out later, he really didn't, right? And Bob's going,

oh, no, I think he knew everything about it. That's why they cut the tape and stuff like that. And I'm just, I'm just like floored. He, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, , he, started all this stuff and there's, so, that's my connection with Bob.

And for a young guy, to talk about that, we talked about other stuff too, but that's just the one thing that we, that I, that sits in my mind. I'm not surprised that you would bump into Bob McElwitz, Jr.

I know he was good friends of Humberside student, Jeff Merrick. Right. So, So we, yeah, we went to Parkdale high school on Jameson. I think that's, Jameson, is it Jameson? Yeah, Jameson's a bit east, right? Yeah, but that's Parkdale.

That's where we went to the night school. Okay, okay. So he'll remember me now that after I've told that story. He'll remember me from going there. Well, Maco, so Maco is a part of this overnight show on the Fan 590. And it's Maco, Jeff Merrick, and George Strombolopoulopoulos that are this show. And the program director at the Fan 590 at the time just so happened to be Bob McOwitz senior.

So all the pieces kind of come together. And this is where they all cut their teeth. Like Merrick goes on to have a hell of a career. Strombo goes on to have a hell of a career. Maco had a great career. Still working with Strombo. Just kind of wild to all these cats kind of come out of that scene. Yeah.

You know, the more small world. What I would start out here. Yeah, I love small world. I know a guy. I talk to him this small world. morning. Oh, okay. I produce his show, but you had a neighbor or somebody was living next to your home in the,

I guess the summer of 1990. Yeah, Bob Glassman. Humber. Well, not Bob Glassman. Come on, just get this right. Howard, Howard. Howard. Yes, thank you.

Humble Howard. Humble Howard. Who's this Bob Glassman? Yeah, sorry, no. Humble Howard. So he lived on Dury Street. Okay. I think it was 1990.

So I can tell you, he moved to Toronto from a. Montreal the summer of 1989. I apologize for getting your name Humble wrong. Humble, don't worry. Humble doesn't listen to this program.

But yeah, so he was a bluer west. We'll call that bluer west village. Yeah, Swansea. I feel like, okay,

can we talk about boundaries for a minute? Yeah, I mean, you know, are which side of Bloor Street are we on here? You gotta be,

you know, people call me Swansea snob. You're Swansea, Swansea, Swansea, Swansea, we don't, we don't call it bluerst village. It's not...

Okay, but if you're, because remember, I mentioned I went to St. Yeah. Pretty much Jane and Bloor. But so I know these, I know Armadale and Harry and I know Windermere. I know these streets. Okay.

These are my streets. I'm from the hood too, man. Sure. But we would have called that area, not that I could ever afford to live there, but we would have called that Bloor West Village. Yeah, but it's. It's not the same as Swansea. No.

I would think Swansea was closer to Queensway. It is. So the boundaries are, it's actually the only neighborhood in Toronto where it's bounded, three boundaries by water. Oh, this is a fun factor. drop it on. Yeah. So the boundary is,

north is Bloor Street. Yeah. Which is not water, by the way. That's right. So the other three I'm going to do is, west is the Humber River. Yeah.

South is Lake Ontario. And can I guess? Yeah. Grenadier Pond. Yeah. It's a high park. That's right. So Ellis Avenue.

Yep. That's right. I bike it every Friday. Yeah. It's great. I go to Dundas and Run to Mead and do this walk there. Yeah. So,

you know, there's a lot of snob. We joke about on the internet with snobs, you know, swancy snob, and I make little jokes, you know, when you don't go above, don't ever go, we call it north of bluer. Yeah, I know this. I know this job. Don't go north bluer.

Well, you would have hated where I went yesterday for family date, the stockyards, okay? I was in the stockyards. Yeah. You know, just, well, if you go north of bluer where your flag jacket, get your business done and come right back home, do not. Oh, it's funny, because I make a joke now. It's stupid joke in the family, but, oh, I don't want to go north of Queensway. Yeah.

Is that, okay. Because I can actually do the joke where it lets, can we avoid going north of lakeshore? So we, so there's more to the north of bluer thing, right? It's like, go hit me. So there's like little memes with like cats looking at you with a, you know, stern face going, uh, me looking at you after you tell me you live in Swansea, but you live north of Bloor. Yeah. Because it's not Swazzy.

Well, you know, they're doing a scam now. The real estate agents got together and said, hey, Blue Rose Village gets you more money than whatever. And I've noticed if you're at like, let's say Jane and. a net. Yeah. Oh, you're in Blue or West Village North. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Really? Real estate agents. Blue West Village North. Blue or West Village North. That's a new one. Okay. Well, let's watch out for the, you know, these are the people who decided six points was part of the Kip district.

So Blue or West Village does encompass Swansea. Okay. And it's a little. Russian egg thing. Yeah. And then it's, you got, and then you got North. And I got to be careful when I say Russian eggs, because of course, the great Ukrainian festival every summer.

It takes place right there on Blue Street. Right. It's fantastic. It's great. It's great. So that's, yeah, so Blue Rush Village, you know, some people know the word Swansea, but of course, like you say, if you say Blue or West Village, everyone knows that.

I know Swansea, buddy. I know, I know, I know Reni Park. I know my parents and my daughter's playing house legal. So let me, so you live next door or behind. No, you live right? Yeah, so there's this lane way that. Humble Howard. Yeah, there's this lane way that goes behind the house,

goes behind my house and behind Howard's house, humble Howard's house. And he lived there. And I don't know if he was, was he married at the time? Yeah, I think he got married to Montreal, Randy Glassman.

Yeah. Okay. So she, uh, so this, this was called down the back. So we had a, a two-car garage and,

and we were the Bueller's. So we were quite, is it infamous or famous? I don't know. Infamous. It's nasty, bad stuff going on. It wasn't bad.

Oh, you're not infamous. Seventy's bad. Drinking bad. Drinking, playing loud music, drinking beer. Notorious maybe. Okay, yeah. And, you know, and changing out V8 engines, okay, and old 67 Camaros, okay?

Gotcha. So we would do that a lot. And Mike, sorry, Howard would come. You called him Bob. Then you called him Mike. Yeah. So Howard would come out of his house to the laneway, and he'd come and talk to us. Right?

Okay. I was going to ask if he was nice to you guys. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's nice to us. He's pretty young, really. I don't know how old he was. I don't think he was very old.

I mean, today he's 60. I want to say he's like 67 today. I have to look it up. Yeah, so five years older than me. So he would come over a couple times in there. How's it going? Just talk to us, you know, check out the cars. And, oh, okay.

But, you know, he always had this, he never smiled. He always had this seriousness to him, right? And then he would talk. about you talk about how much they I think he was renting the house and he wanted to buy it and he talked about how stupidly expensive the money they wanted for it right and then um he called us the beer the people who who live in a beer commercial because that's what he i guess that's what he saw right you know there are people coming in and out right playing loud music beach balls right and then and then i got a little quick uh with this with his one

wife. She had, she small. She was small. Long hair. Yeah, red hair, right? Yeah. Okay, that's right. I thought it was strawberry, blah.

She would come over when he wasn't around and bummed cigarettes off us. And so now she's not getting her in trouble. I think they were both on the darts back then. Well, well, she wasn't supposed to be. Okay. So she would come off, guys got a cigarette, right? Yeah, sure, no problem, right? Don't tell, don't tell Howard, right?

Of course. No, what do you mean? Don't tell Howard, right? There you go, take two. She'd go, thanks, guys. Then she'd leave. Wow. Okay, listen, you're delivering the real talk in this episode, Todd.

I'm loving it. Now, there was an episode recently of Toronto Mike. I think it might win me a Pulitzer, but it was a deep dive into the history of consumers distributing. Yeah. What do you know about consumers distributing? So I don't know Lorraine, right? So you listen to this.

I did. It's great. Yeah, it is. She is fantastic. And she's a writer, right? She writes to. She writes about cars and stuff. Yeah, she writes a way.

Yeah, right. So she told the story all about working at six points, right? Six points consumer distributing and how the guys in the back would just throw all the stuff into the dumpster. And then I guess they or their buddies would come back and get it later, right? And I'm guessing to sell it, right? Good guess. Now, here's the thing. When I heard that I went, you know what?

I know three guys from Swansea who worked at six points consumers like, in 1979, 78, 7, 7, 9, 80. And they must have been doing that. Do you still know these guys? No, one of them's passed. Oh, I'm sorry. And the other two, one still lives in Swansea,

and the other one, I don't know where he is. Well, that one guy sounds like if we can track that guy down, if he can confirm, the statute of limitations has expired. I'm sure it has. I'm not going to research into this. I am not going to name these guys. But they were two years older than me. So I did hang out with guys older than me.

They were two years old than me. Two of them I was kind of close with the other guy. Kind of not. But they were, you know, when you're in Swansea, you're in Swansea. So everyone kind of knows everyone, even if you don't hang with them. Can I have a couple of questions since you're around? I want to get back to the consumers. Okay, well, you know what?

Wrap up the consumers. Okay, I'll wrap that up. Not that you have to hurry it up, but do the consumers thing. Yeah. Because then I have a question about my memories of a restaurant at Windermere and Lakeshore. And then I'm wondering if you could. You know, so do your consumers. I will.

Okay. So what happened was, so, uh, when she's, when she's mentioned that, I went, those guys never said anything to me and I never heard anything about that. And I would think that they would kind of try to sell that stuff to us. Now, I'm not saying a, Lorraine is wrong. I'm just saying that I just found that odd that. Were they in the warehouse these guys? Yeah.

They were back. Yeah. So they, they were doing it. They're the type two who would do it. I'm not saying they're. Well, I guess I am. But if you do it right, you probably don't tell big mouth Todd about it. 100%, right?

But I wasn't a big mouth then. But they, they, but I don't, I don't remember in the neighborhoods. I don't remember anything like, you know, here's the, here's, here's a new candle stereo. What is Sanio? Citizen Sanio, right? Candle is a big one. Yorks with an X? Yorks?

Yeah. Just. So, yeah. So they. Yeah, candle. They for sure did it. but I don't know why I don't know why I never heard of it.

Hey man, I got a cool rad Sanjo cassette player for you. Maybe I was... 20 bucks. I don't know. Wasting my time watching Rathacon, right? I, so...

From the song, right? Grade 9, right? Bar-naked ladies. Okay, this is me in grade 9, baby. Okay, so you mentioned Rathicon. My youngest is doing this music... You know, this is kind of a neat story. My youngest is doing this musical theater thing

every Saturday. And it happens to be at, where morningside hits Ellis. Yep. Okay. So, which is essentially it almost, if you go a little bit west, now you're on Runnymede, right? So that's where Running Mead begins. Yep. This is a lot of, like, West Toronto.

I know this neighborhood so well. Great. But my wife and I will go to a coffee shop or something in Blue Rest, on Blue Street, West on Blue Street. And the other day, we were walking by the Shoppers Drug Mart. And then I have to tell her, you know, I used to see movies at the Shepard's. Yeah, they're running me theater. And I was name-checking some movies I saw there. And I had a traumatic experience in that theater watching The Rath of Con.

Oh, I don't believe. How could anyone have a traumatic experience watching Rath of Con? Okay, I know. I know what you're saying. It was, for whatever reason, the scene where the slug crawls into that guy's ear. Okay. Checkoff. He goes into checkoffs here.

Okay. So I have to Google what year Rath of Con comes out to tell you how old I was. Okay, 82. So I'm born in 74. Okay. So I'm 8. Oh, wow. So I'm at eight years old.

That would be, that would be, yeah, traumatic. I actually, it haunted me. It traumatized me. Okay. I can't tell you. And I actually just for the, I just shared that little nugget with my wife this Saturday. Wow.

I know. That's crazy. Yeah. And I mean, I was thinking, I named, I mean, not the name check, but I saw Beetlejuice there. Right. I saw Poltergeist 2 there. I saw lethal weapon too there. So why would you share it with her 50 years or 40 years?

Well, you know, like, so, you know, just that we don't walk a lot. Like, it's just, we were walking by the movie theaters. That's not really our stomping grounds. And it just sparked that memory of Rath of Khan. Right. And it's just funny to hear you mention Rath of Khan today. And we're talking about that very neighborhood. Right, yeah.

That Remy meet theater. We used to kiss girls in the back row, right? That's what you do. You kiss girls in the back row. At eight years old, they wasn't getting much action. Well, well, I was. I'll bet you were. So do you remember at all a golden griddle?

Golden griddle, yeah. So was it, was it, I'm trying to remember because now it's like a, there's a, I don't know, building there, but it was Ellis. Wasn't it Windermere in Lakeshore? Am I misremember? No, no, it's east. Yeah, but the whole, the whole complex of the building, the hotel. Oh, maybe it was wide, yeah.

Yeah, that's right. So it takes the whole block from Ellis to Windhammermer. Could you enter the parking lot to go to Golden Gradle? Could you enter it from Windham? Windermere. Yeah, I think so, yeah. Okay. Yeah, 100%.

So you remember, right? Yeah, like, I just remember that would be like a very special thing if we went to the Golden Griddle at Windermere and Lakeshore. And now, because I cycle every day, I'm on the waterfront trail almost every day. So I'm on Martin Goodman Trail. And I'm looking over at this big building and I'm thinking about, you know, those eggs, the pancakes. Yeah, it's not there anymore.

No, it's long gone. Right, but I used to take my... If it was there, I wouldn't need to ask you. I used to take my... I would Google it. I'd go away. We used to take my kids there for breakfast on Sundays. Okay.

And then they'd start fighting and we'd have to leave. Okay. Sounds about, are you sure you're not the family from Shameless? I can never take my kid. They're going to hit me for this. Can never take them out for dinner? They just start fighting with each other.

They're just, Mom hit me. No, you're touching me. Just all that stuff. Okay. Don't make me. Don't make me pull this car over.

We're not talking about the 70s anymore because you're taking your kids there. No, that's the nice. So, okay, we'll go back to the seven. Okay, well, let me play a song that'll bring us right back. Sure. Back to the 70s, everybody. Specifically, we're going back to 19, we're still in 1970s.

So we're going in chronological order here. Vicki Lawrence, Paul McCartney and Wings, Elton John, and some obscure band named Pink Floyd. Oh, that sounds great to the headphones. Yeah. And it bounces around the, which speaker that's coming out of. It's great. Okay. Tell me about Pink Floyd.

I first heard this song in Frank Masters' house in his bedroom. They were the Catholic family who lived up the street. Their dad was a cop. Six kids. Was the station on Mavity? Yeah, 11 Division was on Mavity. Yeah. I don't think he worked.

I don't think the dad. That station's long gone too. Yeah, not long. Well, not long, but go on. Five years. years. Maybe. There's an FOTM who lives across the street, so shout out to Ellen Zweig.

Okay, so I was 14, and I had not, and this had already been out for a bit, so I, but I never heard it. I was still teeny bopper listening to Michael Jackson and Top 40, right? Well, they weren't playing this on CFDR or Chum. Right, right. So I went in, I was looking six kids, three, three boys, three girls, and a couple of them were in my age group. And so I went up there.

one day and I was looking for one of the one of the brothers and wasn't there and Frank just said, Bueller, come up to my room. I want you to hear something. I just went, what? I'm talking about Frank. Frank's a couple years older than me, but I knew him.

So we go up there and I said, okay, he pulls out this album with a prism on it. I had never seen it before. I had no idea what it was. And he drops the needle on this thing, this beautiful black vinyl. And it just starts the music,

it starts to envelop you, man. And after that, I saved up some money, went and bought the album from Sam the Record Man on Blur. Oh, yeah, near Jane, right? Right on, yep. Yep, I used to go there too. And I got it home and I played in on my brother's tour in in his room when he wasn't around because, you know, you don't go and you don't do that, right?

You get your crap beat out of you by your older brother. So I did it when he wasn't around. And after that, I stopped listening. to top four and I started listening to this. That was an awakening. Epiphany. Awakening. And it's like that's it, man. This is

this is the stuff. This is for me now, right? This is rock and roll. This is... You can't chew bubble gum when you've been so nourished. This is serious music. Right? Yeah. So if you wanted to hear this on the radio in Toronto, would Chum play? Chum F&M play? Yeah, definitely.

104. Yeah, but we weren't listening to that then, right? What about Q, though? Would Q play this? Yeah, for sure, yeah. Wow. You know what you're doing? And I thank you for this because you're painting a brilliant picture of being a teenager in the 70s in the neighborhoods I know. Like, this is, this is fantastic. It's great.

It's great to, yeah, to talk to someone who knows the neighborhood well. In that Chris Higgins episode, which is a good companion because we go deep into the Humber River. Right, right. We talk about, because, you know, I like the kayaket and I bike the trail. Yeah. And one of that, but bike ride I do up to Stephen Drive or whatnot. Yeah,

I got to go by what I call. Stonegate. Yes, yes. You got it. Stonegate. Yeah. I got a Barry, this is where Barry Road.

Yeah. Stephen Drive. Yeah, you come out because on your way there from the Humber River, you're going to pass what looks like a flying saucer. That's right. The Oculus. The Oculus.

That's right. What do you know about the Oculus? So we had no idea that it was called that. I still don't even know what that word means. We called it the Mexican hat. Oh. Okay. So we would go there when we were 11, 12 years old on our, on our skateboards.

And you could climb up on top of this Oculus thing. And we skateboarded inside it on top of it. Yeah. Yeah. I can see it. I can't believe you did that because it sounds very dangerous. Well, there's this giant hole in the middle of it. Yeah.

So you've got to be careful not to skateboard into the hole. right? So we would do that. This sounds like a suicide mission. Well, when you're a kid, you know, you... So a lot of the times... Yeah, a lot of the times the board would go flying into the hole. And your friend would start laughing at.

You know, like, goofy arbule, right? And then you'd have to climb down, get your board, climb back up. So, yeah, that's my... Yeah. Well, I'm glad, you know, because, you know, once in a while, the graffiti artists get to that thing. There wasn't, there was not like that. No, it was clean, right?

And we also used... And I think it was, by the way, I'll point out in the 90s when I would go by that, it was also clean. So I think the graffiti thing is like a 2000s phenomenon. It's too bad because it looks just great clean, right? But they do clean it up. And I think it's clean right now, to be honest. I was by it the other day. But I love it.

It's like a monument at the touch point. It is. When you're doing this route here. We used to ride our dirt bikes there too, right? Our little Honda mini-triks. trails and I had a, I think I had a 125 Suzuki. That thing climbed trees, right? We used to just, we used to just, we used to just,

just open it up, right? You know, and then the cops couldn't get you, right? They're not coming in on Harleys or their cars in there, right? Right. So, yeah, we used to do that. Yep. Okay, there's some good wildlife you can spot in that, in that area there.

You can find deer there quite a bit. Did you know that? I did. I never saw any. when we were a kid, but we didn't pay attention. You weren't there for the deer. No, we were there to just... You were there for the tail, not the deer.

Yeah, just to, I don't know, do things you're not supposed to be doing as a kid. Shout out to patio chair. I feel like that's a new handle. So patio chair, if I would know you by another name, let me know. But patio chair was a 1970s, a Tobico teen. And patio chair is watching our live stream here. And Hey, Ref, was a 1970s North York teen. So I think your stories are, you don't have to be a small.

Moncy guy to appreciate your stories. Like, it's just fun to hear. This is what it was like growing up in Toronto in the 1970s. So I'm actually going right into the next song and then I have some very specific questions about neighborhoods

closer to where I live now. Sure. I do with a brand new dance now. Come on, baby. You love a promotion. I know you get to like it if you give it a chance now. Come on, baby.

You know. My little It's easy Great song Great song But Todd This doesn't sound like Little Eva

This is This is the best version too Right This is at the Swansea dances too Right I think the best version Is the version You hear when you're a teenager

I 100% You're right You know Because I remember growing up As a I think I was a teen Kylie Minog Had a hit with this song

The Australian Obstar Is that right It was a big hit You could win this on a 45, right? I'm with the draw. You win this with a bag of 10 cent chips, right? Oh, wow.

At the dance draw. And it's Grand Funk Railroad, if we haven't pointed that out. Grand Funk Railroad, yeah. Yeah, okay, there's a good cover for you. You have locomotion. And I'm going to use this opportunity to ask you, again, back to the Higgins episode. I'm pretty sure I brought up the mimic combo.

Oh, yeah, just down the street from here. Where James Brown made his first Canadian concert appearance at the Mimicombo because there's another place I go by all the time, but there's no evidence it was ever a place teenagers would want to hang. Like it's no longer a mimic combo, but what can you tell me about the mimic combo? Well, we used to roller skate there. Up on the second floor, the mimic combo,

we would take the streetcar down and we wouldn't tell our parents that we were leaving the neighborhood. You would come all the way to west to Mimico. Yeah. Wow. Down to Mimico, right? And we got our signal. Smoking cigarettes.

And what was Mimicoe like in the 70s? I mean, it's pretty rough now. I don't remember, no, I don't remember any problems with that at all. Okay. So, yeah. But you're a Swansea kid. You're like, I know, I speak the language. Let's go.

Yeah, we didn't, we really didn't leave Swansea too often, you know. Why would anyone want to leave Swansy? Yeah. So when you did leave, it was like you were on guard, right? because it's not your turf, man. It's not your turf, right? That's wild. So we would skate up on the second floor, right?

It was the second floor. And we would skate a wood floor. So what was the first floor? I have no idea. Okay. So the second floor was the roller skating ring. Yeah. Okay.

And when James Brown plays, is he playing that second floor? Is there something down there? I have no idea. Okay, because that's before. Okay. So we used to go, so we used to cause. problems, right? And they had these guys called

cruisers. And cruisers were like rink guards, right? Or, like, is that what you call them? We used to call them rink things, right? Guys who just... Yeah, they were there to monitor you that nobody did anything stupid? Yeah, kids doing stupid stuff and, right? It's a full-time job. So these, there are these, the same guys on, but on roller skates, right? And man,

could they skate? Like, you're going around and all of a sudden they come flying up, you're skating backwards. Wow. And all of a sudden they're in front of you, skating backwards. And you're already skating forwards. So when they're that, they're just like talking, like slow down. And they're just skating backwards like they're walking. Wow.

Right. And you're skating really fast, right? So it's like when that came up, you knew you got to be careful because if, I think you, there was no three strikes. I think there was two. You get two strikes. Yeah. So when you're gone.

I think there might be a bowling alley. Oh, could be. I think you just said strikes. You said two strikes. Oh, okay. And my brain started thinking of, oh, yeah, they call three strikes. Oh, good. That makes sense.

I think one floor is a bowling alley of the mimicong. And then it's the roller ring. Right. I think the main floor is a bowling alley. Okay. Yeah, sure. I never got to go there. I only know this from, you know, history lessons.

So we would do something called the whip. Yeah. So the whip is you would get on roller skates, you would get like five, six, seven people together. And you'd hold on each other in a conga line, I guess, right? In line, in single file line. Oh, this is great. Great, great music.

Yeah, okay. The whip's growing. Yeah. So, uh, you'd skate around holding, uh, holding each other's, uh, hands or behind, waist or whatever, or arms, actually. And then you, you'd, you'd go around and around around. The faster you went, if you're near the end, right? The centrifugal force is just like, throw your right into the, into the boards, right?

It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And you immediately got kicked out for that if, if, if, if, if, if the cruise, saw you. Yeah. You don't do the whip. I think Devo recorded a song about it.

Wip it good. Devo, 978. You know, that's funny because that guy is, is it, who's the city TV guy who just left? Is this name Devo? Is it Devo? Oh, I know. Devo Brown. Devo.

I think it's Devo. Is it? So I'm going Devo. I think he's on, I know he's on 92.5. Oh, okay. As well. And I think his last day is March 27. Yeah.

So like, can you, like that band. Man, diva, I can't remember. I can't believe it's 1978. Okay, so I actually just had a chat with Rob Pruse who we talked about earlier. Yeah. About I'm going to do a one-man show. You should buy tickets. I will.

You and all your friends and Swansea should buy tickets. Fill the fucking Elma. It's the Elma combo. It's the Starlight Room at the Elma combo. Yeah. And fill that room. Okay. With Swansea heads.

I will try. I'm telling you. That's the price of your visit here today. You got to buy some tickets. I'll do it. And I have Rob Pruse on stage and I'm going to do this performance. I'm going to, It's a story, but it's all tied in with mind blows and fun facts,

and there's these musical cues, and then Rob Proust plays music on the keyboard because he's a prodigy. He was in spoons. Yeah, I know the spoons, yeah, for sure. Oh, man, I've got to turn this up in a second. But long-winded way of saying, absolutely on the playlist. He's going to play Satisfaction, but not the Rolling Stones version. He's playing the Devo version.

Devo has a big yes. Satisfaction. You got it. Weird, yeah. That's happening. May 21 at the Elma combo. Get your tickets now. Yeah, I'll tell everyone I know.

Buy them all tickets. That'll be your... Buy them all tickets. St. Patrick's Day gift to all your friends. Toronto might think I'm a millionaire. I don't know why I need to say this. It doesn't matter if I did or not, but I'm actually making no money on this event.

But somebody should make back a little bit of the money they invested and it's not me. Okay. Super Tramp School. Yeah. Great song, man. See, this is when I'm getting it to. this is well I joke with my kids now about it right like this is serious music right because it's it's complex only cool people listen to this man do you have to be a high or a little drunk

no no you can do it sober for sure yeah super tramp breakfast in america but it's not to say that you could not do those and bide i guess is that the word i imbib yeah i am b ib you're the author yeah i know you dropped out at 15 Well, I have editors. You don't pay them enough. I'm going to let this bang out for a bit, and then I want to ask you about the neighborhood west of Mimico. Yeah, sure.

You can visualize what neighborhood that is. I'm going to get Proust on this. Listen to this piano. Hey, Todd, just drop by every, I don't know, once or twice a week, and we'll just play songs from the 70s and just listen and react. You got it. No problem. Bring me donuts.

I will bring donuts. I'll give you the Great Lakes beer. You bring me the donuts. Can I have another donut? Of course. Am I allowed to have two? Sounds like a deal. Beer for donuts.

What do you remember about the neighborhood west of Mimico, which I affectionately referred to by its proper name, New Toronto. New Toronto. That's where we are now. We're in New Toronto. You're in New Toronto right now, my friend. Right. I lived here for a year.

Which year? I'm going to be ultra-Pacific, but specific. That's how my youngest used to say specific. 83? Okay, 83. You were living in New Toronto? 83? Were you working at Campbell's Soup?

What was going on? No, I wasn't working to Campbell's Soup. Right across street, though. I lived on Lake Crescent. Yeah. 21. So what was I? 83?

21, yeah. Yeah. So I moved out with my girlfriend. What if I told you, I don't want to blow your mind here. What if I told you Lake Crescent was not new? New Toronto. That would blow my mind. Mimico.

The border is white. It's the border Dwight? So I'm like 50 feet from the border. You're not? I'm here to tell Todd that year he thought he lived in New Toronto. He was living in Mimico. Well, okay, I will not tell that again. It's that in the book?

In the book, does it refer to Lake Crescent as Mimico? I mean, New Toronto? No, it doesn't. It's just that I would demand a recall. Yeah, no, it's just to me and my girlfriend at the time. I thought you were in New Toronto. Yeah, we moved. We just moved out on our own for a short time.

And then we got married. And then we moved back into my parents' house in the basement. Okay, back to Swansea. Back to Swansea, yeah. You can't get out. Not Blue West Village, Swansea, Man, Swansea. Right. I know, you know, I realize I could talk to you for hours.

I'm actually going to the next jam and then I have some very specific questions. Sure. Not Pacific questions, but specific questions. Oh, man. Listen to this in the headphones, okay? Yeah. You know, I think this episode will be very popular. Oh, wait.

Whoa. It feels like four play or something. Tom Schultz. Took him six years to write this song and record it like six years. Just to crank this in the car, man. Can't hit the post of this song. Like, is there, is there lyrics? Yeah.

For a while, not for a while, though. No, you can't hit the post in this song. It's too long. Right before he started talking, right? You can give all the NHL scores. Yeah, that's right. You could, you know, you've got to explain to your listeners what hitting the post. Well, you explain it to my listeners.

If my listener doesn't know, they're not paying it. attention, you go. I'll explain it. Now? Or you want to listen to more music? Where's the, oh, you know what, I'll bring this down and you tell us, what do you mean? What do we mean when we talk about hitting the post? So DJs, what they used to do was hitting the post means they were talk over the beginning of the song and stop talking, finish their thought right when the lyrics start. And that is quite a skill to have. Really, really hard to do.

It was harder back then in the 70s because there was no computer telling you where the post is. Do you know now if you're at a station? They tell you? That's cheating, man. This song is epic. I'm not even familiar with this Boston song. This is called Foreplay Long Time.

Yeah, it's off their first album. I know more than a feeling, and that's about it for me in Boston. Oh, man, you got to listen this whole album. Oh, there's nice. There we go. So this is actually probably the worst song, but maybe with a future song I'm going to kick out, you could hit the post.

Oh, I don't know if I'll be able to hit the post. I'm on a DJ. And I've been in radio stations. I never worked at one, but I've been in radio stations where the computer has got, it all loaded up. It's all preloaded.

So no one's sticking on a piece of vinyl or anything. So it has a countdown clock to where the posts are. That's all good. Multiple posts and songs. No good. Sometimes it'll be, this is the countdown to where the guitar kicks in,

or the drums or something. That's fake. And this is where the words come in. That's fake. You couldn't screw it up if you tried. I wouldn't do it. I would not use that. I love it.

So, 1976. Yeah. You know, this song is in my book. We popped this eight track. Just as we were getting away from the pool hustlers who wanted to kill us. Don't bury the lead. Go ahead. This song happens to be very, very long.

So you have plenty of time to tell this story. Well, I'm not going to tell the whole story. Well, I'm not going to tell the whole story. Sorry, but you've got to get the book. But, you know, we're trying to hustle some older guys, and we did. And they came after us. Hold on, Todd. I'm in your book right now.

Okay. There's a picture of your mom wearing roller skates. Yeah. Your mom's a fox in this photo. Am I allowed to tell you that? Yeah, she's a good-looking woman. Yeah. Holy shit.

Yeah, she's probably 18. there, 1949, I think, the year she got married. She was in the 70s. She was a Canadian Esquire champion, roller skating champion.

Dance. Couples. And this shot is in Swansea. Yeah, that's... Livinia. Yeah, that's on the left side is my childhood home, 85 Lavinia.

And she trained at the terrace down on Mutual Street. Sorry for interrupting, but I just opened up the book. Look. Yeah. And it's funny, this crest, this Swansea Hockey League, 6970.

We had the same crest, except it would be like 82, 83 or whatever. And these crests are not from something I found on the Internet. Those are my crest. I have them. Those are yours. Yeah, they're mine, yeah. I think all future Toronto Mike episodes will just be people telling me about their teenage years. Yeah, in this photo, okay, there's your...

1974. So this photo of you at Swansea Hockey here, that's the year of my birth. That's... Do you see where I am? there? You're second from the right. Everybody knows that. You're 12 years old.

On the bottom. I don't know. Is that running me hardware? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. These photos are fantastic. Thank you.

Yeah, those, I have those photos. I keep everything, man. My wife, like, is constantly on me to get rid of stuff. I won't do it. You got a chapter called The Joys of Having Children. Is that like making the babies or actually having the children? You figure it out. I feel like there's a couple of minutes of joy having children.

Yeah, that's just, you know, the book is, the book is about 75% my teenage years in the 70s. And you got a, you know, a little bit in the front, right? And then you got a little bit on the back end, right? And probably into my 30s a little bit. So that's parts of the joys of having children. And when you read that, I'm sure you'll be able to. to relate. Anyone who's had a kid would be able to relate.

They're on like a reality drug, right? I'm going to say a name to you. Yeah. And tell me if I should know this name. Sure. If you should order me. Well, if I should know it. You'll know it because it's in your book. Okay. Cheryl Ledrew. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah.

So, you know Ronnie Park very well, right? Very well. So. And I'll be there every Wednesday night for the, for many, starting May 12th. You know, you know, uh, runny terrace, right? And then there's a little hill that goes into the park. Yep. So in Swansea in the 70s, very few people came to Swansea families or new people, and very few people left.

It was pretty much, you knew everyone for your whole life, right? Uh, there were, sometimes that happened, right? And, um, this family, the Drew family, uh, was in Swansea. Not a long time. Five years, maybe eight, I think. I don't want to get that too wrong. I don't want to get up. Anyways, they were six kids, too,

just like the Masters family up the street. Six kids, three girls, three boys. And they first started, they lived on Dury Street, just south of Blur, so they lived in Swansea. And then they later moved over to Run amede, just north of the forest, so still Swansea. So they had laughed. And I say in my book something that a few people have told me that they really like this little thing that I say that we all live within the confines of our own contradictions.

So what does this mean, right? And it means a little bit about regret. So when I was a teenager, it was all about being cool and cleaky. Is it cleaky or clicky? Either are acceptable in Trotomike. Yeah, and if you weren't cool, you weren't in. Right? If you weren't cool, you were a nerd and you were out and you didn't, right?

Yeah. So the Lerreuse moved away. And there was Tammy Lerdrew, who was my age and Cheryl Lerdrew, which I think she was a year older than me. But I didn't really hang out with her that much, but I knew her and she knew me. And I think I did go around with Tammy. for a little bit. So in those days, going around, that meant going steady for people who don't know, right?

Like, will you go around with me? Yeah, yeah, that type of thing. We learned that from happy days. You're right, okay, yeah. Did they use the word going around? No, they used going steady. Going steady, right, but we didn't use that term. Also, Archie Comics, too.

I would hear about going steady on Archie Comics. Right. So, one day they came back for a visit to Swansea, and I'm pretty sure I was 16. and I was sitting in my 62 T-bird on on on on on on any terrace just on the top of the hill there and and she had she had come up to see say hi to me so she was there visiting and I said hi how you doing I've seen in a long time this is Cheryl not Tammy this is Cheryl and she got in

the car and I don't know why I was sitting there but she got in the car and she just we just started talking together and she's how well and everything like that, right? And this is at the point when I was, you know, she goes, so did you hang out? This is at the point in my life, but I was just this clicky guy, this immature, cool guy.

And, um, listen to cool music, said cool things, had cool friends, had cool clothes, cool car. And, uh,

so she said, you know, have you, you know, you ever see so and so anymore? I go, no, right? Not really.

And she goes, why not? I said, I don't know. Right. And she was women mature much quicker than men than boys. Let's put it that way. Girls mature much quicker, especially psychologically.

So I think she kind of knew why it wasn't seen. She asked me about other people. I think she kind of knew why. And she just looked at me. She just went, because they're not cool, right, Todd? And she wasn't cool. She was like knew that this was, is it that important to you, thought? that they're cool.

And I just, she knew, right? So she was kind of telling me this. Like, and I just went, yeah. And I, and so she said she got to go and she laughed. And I thought about that conversation. Yeah. And she was right.

It was just so stupid. Just so immature and I wasted so much time. Wow. Right? But I kept doing it a little bit, right? I kept clicking. So that's the confines of your own contradictions, meaning I knew that it was not right,

but I kept doing it. So I was living a contradiction there, right, morally, right? After she said that to me, right? She's smart. And that conversation stuck with you all these years. Yeah. It's amazing to have that connection with somebody and they say something that resonates.

100%. Yeah. I like to think every episode of Toronto Mike is affecting people in that very way. I'm sure it does. As I down my third don't end here. Yeah. So, yeah, so that comes with regret, right?

Right. I regret. That's deep thinking, you know, it's not just, your book is not just, here's the stuff we did in the 70s in Swansea when I was a teenager. Yeah. It's a lot deeper than that.

It is. Like on the surface, the book is just about me growing up in the 70s as a teenager, what I saw, why I did, why I experienced. But on a deeper level, it's really a philosophy book, right?

Yeah, and there's... You're a philosopher. Well, from what I've experienced, right? And I talk a lot about in the book, about things about how I lived in my life, how I chose to live my life. And after she told me,

that she said that to me what she was telling me it's a waste what you're doing but she didn't she was so subtle and nice about it she didn't want to offend me but I got it so after

that I kind of started getting out of that I continued to do it a little bit but I got out of it so you know a lot of people who've read the book of asked me talk to me or send me messages and ask me if I've ever had regrets of all this stuff I did, right? Right. And I have like pretty much zero regrets in my life, right?

You're like Frank Sinatra. Yeah. Regrets you have a few, but too few to mention. Too few to mention, right? I would do it all again with a few, but that one thing, I regret being a stupid, a stupid, immature, clicky kid. You're only about 15 years old when this conversation happened, right? Yeah.

If there's 16, I think I might have been 16. Yeah, that's right. Hear music in the 70s. Like, you put together this playlist for me and we're kicking it out and I'm listening in the headphones. It sounds sort of like, like interplanetary, like spaceships and it feels futuristic. There's a lot of that. Yeah, there is a lot of that. Like the Boston Jam, the Super Tramp Jam, Pink Floyd.

This is like, listen to this. I think it was the technology too, right? This is when all that technology started coming online, so they're experiencing. Yeah, just craft work. Yeah. Well, that stuff came out. Experimenting with us. Sorry.

Yeah. Listen to this song. This is 1977. So come sail away is a great opportunity for me to ask you, Todd, about working at the Argonaut Rowing Club. Yeah. I mean, that was, there's just not much there to talk about. That's when I was the IT manager there for 10 years. and people know it's down on the lake shore

it's been there for more than 100 years and I quit that job to finish working on my book I was working on my book I guess for a year and I needed more time to dedicate to it because when I started the book it was just a few stories

and then I decided I was going to write a book And then when I started getting into, I got, oh boy, this is a lot more than I thought. Like, as you write, you remember more. Yeah. So I left the Argonaut-Oarion Club to become a writer. And I finished the book, published it. And it's all a very long route to finally become an FOTM.

It was a long route, yeah. It was a long route. But, you know, the book is story-driven. I don't know if, did I say that? already? The book is very story driven, right? And there's a lot of fun stories in it. It's not all serious.

There's a lot of laughs, a lot of chase scenes, a lot of cop chase scenes, a lot of there's no way he's going, a lot of James Bond type of stuff in the book, right? It's a lot of excitement. And then there's also a lot of

you know, some funny stuff, some sad stuff. it's it's but it is it is story driven so you can read you can read like the the table of contents which one of them is someone they like I'm not getting in that trunk people like the people like the people like the

you want to a drive-in yeah no it wasn't it was at a parkland cemetery I go there often because it's a good biking spot and uh hero baller's in there yeah he's you know what yeah you talked about Harold with Chris Eriggins Jeff Merrick was working at Park Lawn and helped bury him. I was there when the funeral, when they did it. He's, it's in the north, the west part. It's very much the northwest.

You're 100% right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. Yeah, so don't, whatever you do, don't take your clothes off and get on a car in there, okay, because your friends will take off on your news. Yeah, that story's in the book. It's in the book. Hey, so I'm just looking at a few of your ticket stubs from the...

Yeah. Back in the day. Yeah. And I'll just let you know, I see four bands represented. I see five, and I'm going to skip the rolling stones. Sure, sure. And three of these four bands are FOTM bands. Let me explain.

So you have Triumph. Yeah. A couple of members of Triumph have been on Toronto Mike. April Wine, Miles Goodwin's been on Toronto, Mike, the late great Miles Goodwin. Great, yeah, just amazing. These people are amazing musicians. And I can tell you the current, not the red, not the guy you saw, but the current lead singer of Styx. Do you know who it is?

I do. I think his name is Larry. Larry Gowan. There you go. So Larry's been on the program. Yeah. Shout out to Gowan. And then you have the cars.

What's it like seeing? What year is this? I don't know. It says 78. What's the... You know what I noticed in a lot of these ticket subs? You don't get calendar years. No, there is.

Oh, yeah. 78? Yeah, there's the name. Yep. Oh, I see. It's just real small font here. Yeah. Yeah, that's my wife's ticket.

Even with my readers, I can. I can't see the thing here. I never saw the cards. That's my wife's ticket. Oh, it's your wife's ticket? Yeah. I don't know why I didn't go with it to that concert. But the April Wine concert, that's in the book.

It's in the book. That's in the book, man. Have you ever seen Heart Live? No. I would love to have seen Heart Live. Quick question about your book here, if you don't mind me jumping in there. Yeah, sure, yeah. Okay, you use sayings in this book, Renegade, for example.

Yeah. Renegade, not Rebel. Not Rebel. No. What's the difference to you, renegade versus rebel? There's a difference. People use them interchangeably, and they think they're synonymous, but they're not. They're completely different.

So a rebel is someone who goes and tries to break the system, right? And just is really against the system and is militant and gets in trouble. But a renegade just doesn't participate in the system. It just kind of sort of, not a dropout, but just, won't do what you're supposed to do. Not actively fight it, right? Not going out and fighting. Just, I'm not going to participate.

So there's a big difference, and I was a renegade, not a rebel. I never rebelled. I never tried to rebel. I never tried to shock adults, although that did happen on occasion, but it wasn't on purpose. It was just, I'm not doing it.

I don't care. I don't want to do it. And just throw it. the consequences at me and we'll see how it goes. So Todd, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to roll out of this great heart jam. Yeah. Into another FOTM jam.

So the singer, a member of this band has been on Toronto mic. And then we're going to do mop-up before we say goodbye. Sure. This has been amazing. And anything that the hottest stuff that we haven't talked about that you want to share, it's all going underneath this song. Yeah, okay.

So let's listen to Hart. Baracuda and then an FOTM band High class It's going to say Todd Not just high class High class and borrowed shoes You got it man

Like Kim Mitchell Before he was Kim Mitchell Right He was that great guitar player And that band And we listened to this stuff Just at 10 Driving around Swansea in our cars

Right I can picture it I could just picture you guys Driving around Swansea Your cars listening to Max Webster You're in 1977, baby.

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, it was another saying in my book that's just, it's right at the beginning of the book. It's, uh, the past is not dead. It lives,

it lives in each and every one of us. So we remember that. Because, um, you know, when I write, I, this is when it all comes back to me.

This is when it all comes back. All the details and, and the more I, I write, all the memory comes back. And that's how I wrote my book. Like when I was starting to write the book, when I said to my wife, I'm going to write a book, she went, how are you going to have enough material of a book? I said, I don't know, but I'm going to do it.

I know I'm going to remember stuff. She goes, how much stuff happened to you, man? She's like, you can't read a book. How are you going to write one? Yeah. So, you know, there's the, that memory thing is just, that's how I remember when I'm writing. It just all comes back to me. Well, I'm very glad you wrote this book.

Thanks. And I'm glad that Chris Higgins had you write me an email because I'm glad we could hang out for, you know, 90 minutes. It's been, yeah. Listen, these are 10 songs you chose and I dug it, man. And I just dug talking about the old neighborhood. I used to, I still frequent. It's just kind of neat to chew the fat about the old hood. Well, if you see me racing around on a car, you'll just point your wife, that's that Todd Bueller kid.

Remember I told you about that Todd Bueller kid? That's him. That's him. Amazing. I still need to like, so Swansea's not a neighborhood unto itself. There's micro neighborhoods. So micro neighborhoods. So, because I know, okay, so I know, Mimico's a neighborhood.

New Toronto is a neighborhood Long Branch is a neighborhood But you're telling me that So Blue or West Village is a neighborhood And Swansea is a micro-neighborhood No, Swansea is a neighborhood And inside of Swansea There are micro-neighborhoods inside Swansea

Can you name some? Like what are some micro-neighborhoods inside Swansea? So you have the main grid So I coined all these terms in my book No one's really ever talked about this before And I actually made the borders too And it's in my book Okay

So the main grid is is where all the infrastructure is, the Swansea Rec Center, the Rennie Park, the Swansea School, the Fire Hall. So that's all the main grid. And that's where the real snobs. Like the real deforest. Yep. You mentioned Ellis earlier, but Ellis, Runnymede Deforest.

Kennedy. Kennedy, of course. It's Kennedy to Windermere. Yep. And then from the school to Bluer. Oh, God. That's the main grid. And if you're there, that's your, that's,

That's where the real Swansea snobs are. If anyone says you live out of the guy, that's not Swansea. Where do you live? I live down and down on Southport Street. That's not Swansea. My buddy Ed lived in Southport there. Yeah. So the other ones are, so the other ones are, of course, Alice, right, where some rich people live there.

And then you have South Swansea, which would be the condos, Swansea Muse, Co-Hill Drive, right? And then you have over on the other side, you have South King's Way. Of course. Which goes up to Morningside. And then you have Armadale, which is east. It's west of Windermere, south of Blur, and then it goes to South King's Way. And then you have Riverside Drive.

Riverside is separate. So all these neighborhoods are complete. They're different. Like when I was growing up, they still are now. I mean, you know, you knew where people were different. There were different social economic things going on there. And they felt different. Each of those little micro-neighborhoods felt different.

Not everyone would agree with me. Everyone goes, oh, no, yeah. Do we have to be so divisive and stuff like that, right? But it's just a fact. It wasn't divisive. That's just the way it is. And that brings us to the end of our 1,8151 show. How can people get a copy of the life of a 19-7?

17thage teenager. Well, you can get a signed copy at an independent bookstore down on Queen Street called Book People on Queen. It's just east of Ronses. And, of course, you can get online at that big store that starts with an A. No, go to that independent spot in Ronses. Yeah, that's where you're going. How come the Ronsies, the Polish festival, competes at the same time as the Ukrainian festival. I don't know why they do that.

I think they used to have it at different times. It should be at different times. It's just, you got to choose, but they're both pretty bad. They're both great. So the other place you can get is, of course, is a Toronto Public Library, just going and ask for it. I think they've ordered it, but they've got it. Yeah.

And one other thing is you can, there's maps in the book. Yeah. And you can get limited edition, hand signed, hand numbered by the artist, local Toronto artists, of full-sized maps from the book, from Cam Ojetta, Art. O-J-E-D-A. Right. Cam is in Cam Gordon. Cam-O-J-D-A-Rt.

Dot com. Yep. And yeah, and he'll, he's hand-signed, individually numbered. And there's also a, that comes with the letter of authenticity signed by me and hand-numbered by me that'll match your print. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. At the very top, there's a link for Elmo. gig, buy a couple of

dozen tickets. That's May 21st at the Alma combo. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palma Pasta. That's Nick Iienies. That's Recycle My Electronics.ca. That's Ridley Funeral Home. See you tomorrow where Rita

Zikis makes her Toronto Mike debut.