spider
Senior Member
Originally Posted by ronnieg
Also, just up the street on Carlaw from Colgate Palmolive (by the way, they renamed "Natalie" Street "Colgate" in 1935 when they built the factory) was Reliable Toy factory. My mom worked there for 24 years from 1948. Many of those factories in the east end are either torn down or turned into condos (Wrigley). You know what it is like when you are a kid, your sense of smell is much more distinct than it is as we get older. I lived across the street from a Dunlop Tire factory, but depending on which way the wind was blowing, I also got a whiff of the soap smell from Colgate Palmolive factory, and the smell of fresh baking bread from Brown Bros. factory at Logan and Eastern (Now Weston). Many fine memories!
In 1943 my family decided to pull up stakes from a quiet little neighbourhood in Winnipeg and seek their fortune in booming Toronto, being an agreeable little 8 year old I decided to throw in my lot with them. Our first residence in town was a second floor flat at 456 Carlaw, first house north of Gerrard (it is still there), plunk in the middle of the olfactory delights mentioned elsewhere in this thread and a symphony of sounds like I had never heard before in one place at one time. A steady stream of CNR 4100's crawling up the grade to Danforth station and beyond, the Fire Hall that was seemingly on constant call and the TTC which at that time ran up Carlaw as well as on Gerrard providing endless skreeching and clunking at all hours.
I don't think I slept for the first week.