Johnny Au
Senior Member
At the intersection of Yonge and Dundas, there is a person carrying a megaphone who keeps talking about Jesus. Nearby, there is another person who kept saying that Jesus is in the Qur'an.
Well, if you want to save souls, you need to go where the sinners are. And the Yonge Strip has traditionally been sin central.
As an underaged kid during the seedy version of the Strip of the late 70's/early 80's, my experience wasn't about the bars/strip clubs or porn stuff. The things I remember are head shops, poster shops, clothing shops, record stores and mostly....the ARCADES!!!
There's nothing quite like the golden age of the arcade. Like the sign says...."WE ARE OPEN JUST FOR FUN". Around 1980 was when 1st gen. video games (Pac Man, Space Invaders, etc) and old school pinball games were popular at the same time. Walking into one of those giant dark arcades with hundreds of machines all making noise at once was music to any teenaged boys ears. It was a pretty narrow demographic in a pinball arcade...the only adult was generally the "quarters guy". The arcades must have made a killing in the hey day. Home video games had appeared by then, but the quality of the games and the atmosphere of the arcades were way more popular then. Plus in those days, kids didn't hang around the house...and the 70's were more relaxed in terms of kids running around on their own.
The other details about Yonge you don't really see any more was the blatant drug selling on the street. It was almost done as a slightly more subtle version of scalping. If you looked remotely like a stoner (which was basically anybody under 30), you couldn't walk down the street without constantly having people say "weed" or "acid" as you walked by.
I guess another aspect was how much "cruising" went on...especially on a Sat night. Oh...I don't mean that cruising (which was also popular). I mean hot rods, muscle cars. This was also the height of the short-lived custom van craze. It where people showed off their vehicles and people went to admire them.
freshcutgrass;826763The other details about Yonge you don't really see any more was the blatant drug selling on the street. It was almost done as a slightly more subtle version of scalping. If you looked remotely like a stoner (which was basically anybody under 30) said:that[/I] cruising (which was also popular). I mean hot rods, muscle cars. This was also the height of the short-lived custom van craze. It where people showed off their vehicles and people went to admire them.
Well, if you want to save souls, you need to go where the sinners are. And the Yonge Strip has traditionally been sin central.
As an underaged kid during the seedy version of the Strip of the late 70's/early 80's, my experience wasn't about the bars/strip clubs or porn stuff. The things I remember are head shops, poster shops, clothing shops, record stores and mostly....the ARCADES!!!
There's nothing quite like the golden age of the arcade. Like the sign says...."WE ARE OPEN JUST FOR FUN". Around 1980 was when 1st gen. video games (Pac Man, Space Invaders, etc) and old school pinball games were popular at the same time. Walking into one of those giant dark arcades with hundreds of machines all making noise at once was music to any teenaged boys ears. It was a pretty narrow demographic in a pinball arcade...the only adult was generally the "quarters guy". The arcades must have made a killing in the hey day. Home video games had appeared by then, but the quality of the games and the atmosphere of the arcades were way more popular then. Plus in those days, kids didn't hang around the house...and the 70's were more relaxed in terms of kids running around on their own.
The other details about Yonge you don't really see any more was the blatant drug selling on the street. It was almost done as a slightly more subtle version of scalping. If you looked remotely like a stoner (which was basically anybody under 30), you couldn't walk down the street without constantly having people say "weed" or "acid" as you walked by.
I guess another aspect was how much "cruising" went on...especially on a Sat night. Oh...I don't mean that cruising (which was also popular). I mean hot rods, muscle cars. This was also the height of the short-lived custom van craze. It where people showed off their vehicles and people went to admire them.
As the greatest Galaga player on the planet (without cheating), I didn't need to spend a lot of quarters on that game. On the other hand, I wasted plenty on pinball and other video games in Yonge arcades.FCG: Great post and memory here...As a fan of the video games "Galaxian" and "Galaga" the most Arcades bring back many memories - and many a quarter spent playing
In the 905? I don't know of any arcades remaining in the 416 burbs.Video arcades nowadays are usually found in suburban locations and sometimes give out prizes to counter the popularity of video gaming at home and on portable devices.
There are Chuck E Cheese's (throughout the Greater Toronto Area, with one at Sheppard and Victoria Park), Playdium (in Mississauga Centre), Dave and Buster's (in Vaughan Metropolitan Centre), Canada's Wonderland (next to Leviathan), Pacific Mall (in Markham, though across the street from Toronto), and the small video arcades within large multiplexes. They are the more modern video arcades though.In the 905? I don't know of any arcades remaining in the 416 burbs.
Except literally across the street from that building there's BarVolo - arguably the best bar in Toronto and wildly successful, too.
We all agree that the current state of Yonge is disgusting and unacceptable, but the reason why this building isn't in good condition has everything to do with a negligent vision-less excuse of a landlord, and little to do with its location.
Rarely would a weekend pass (usually, Sunday) where I'd not do the record store run from Music World at Gould St. up to Flipside, south of Bloor then spend the whole day watching movies, playing video games, grabbing a bite to eat and then heading home.
Once Maple Leaf Gardens was shuttered along with the Uptown (the last cinema on Yonge Street) it was as if the street went dark along with the marquees.
The car cruising on Yonge Street really only began to wane by the late 90's once the Entertainment District was in full motion.
As a fan of the video games "Galaxian" and "Galaga" the most Arcades bring back many memories - and many a quarter spent playing..
The biggest difference about comparing Toronto's Yonge Street with NYC's Times Square during that era was that TSQ was far more dangerous...
There was definitely a difference in the "street people" in both cities and instead of attracting people from all over Canada and neighboring states
like New York as Yonge Street did Times Square in NYC had become a place to avoid and that to some extent the criminal element ruled TSQ...
In closing I remember the sign above an arcade(?) that read "Yonge Street is Fun Street"...It felt that way for many of us-including me...
Yep...Yonge St met all the simple needs of a teenaged boy's ideal day. It could take you all day to go from Queen to Bloor. You reminded me that I forgot to mention one of the biggest elements of the Yonge St experience...films!
With the opening of the TEC Cineplex's 18 screens (largest in the world) in 1979, Yonge street probably boasted one of the highest concentrations of films in the world (44 screens along Yonge between Queen & Bloor). Across the street was the Imperial Six, and further up was the 5-screen Uptown/Backstage (one of the world's first multiplexes) and the Plaza 1 & 2 rounding out the first-run houses. The 10-screen Carlton Cinemas for independent and foreign films you couldn't see anywhere else. And the Coronet, Rio and Elgin were spewing out the greatest of the exploitation b films til 5:00AM, and then there was all the porno stuff. Pretty much covered all your film-going needs.
"Awwww, geez, Joey!!! What're we gonna do now????"While NYC was Midnight Cowboy and Taxi Driver, Yonge was Go'n Down The Road (and it's excellent SCTV paraody)
Unfortunately, Nintendo and Sega single-handedly killed off the video arcade scene along Yonge Street, preventing the younger generations from enjoying the video arcade scene.