Podcast

Peter Handley:
Hi there and good day! Welcome to North Bay's Heritage Diary. Listen up, and we shall wait for you tales of days and times gone by, which can inform today and show the way to tomorrow. This municipal Heritage Committee Podcast looks at our town, our people, and our stories. This time we open our diary of voices from the past for a conversation with the late Tony DeMarco of the famed DeMarco family run store and meeting place. This was recorded originally as part of the Cogeco cable series “Life Is.” In it Tony, in his nineties, talks about the family, the store, hockey and North Bay. Please excuse any dated references.

Peter Handley:
Your store has a long history

Tony Demarco:
Yes

Peter Handley:
Was it opened by your father then was it?

Tony Demarco:
Yes, my father and my mother ran it. Yes.

Peter Handley:
Can you define the store for me? What do you think it was? And what it is today?

Tony Demarco:
It has changed. It was originally, like a soda fountain with an ice cream parlor. And we had a food market in front in the summer. And we had groceries on the side, originally and we had a place at the back with tables and the chairs, like fancy chairs, a marble counter. It was an old fashioned type soda fountain.

Peter Handley:
And what would you say it is today?

Tony Demarco:
I wanted to change it completely really. The problem is that chain stores are open now. In those days chain stores were closed on the weekends and at night. So we had a very, very tiring, Potter's business. So that changed and we went into the basket business--gift baskets and fruit baskets. And our lunch business grew and prospered too. We didn't even have coffee originally. So it grew over the years. And it changed kind of evolved. We had to change with the times.

Peter Handley:
And it's always been run by your family?

Tony Demarco:
Yes except for several years. My brother wasn't well for a while. So we had to rent it out for a little while but it didn't work out very good. So we took it back.

Peter Handley:
Where does your family come from in Italy?

Tony Demarco:
From the southern part. The Reggio Calabria area. We're in the foothills of the mountains. And my dad's family and my mother's family both are from a small village in the mountains. And my dad came in about 1903. He followed his two brothers. His two brothers had come in 1889. And they had brought a younger brother with them and he had a very unfortunate accident. There were helping with the building of dams. And the younger brother got his clothes caught when there were I guess there were crushing stones, and down he went. He's still in that dam to this day. Imagine.

Peter Handley:
When did they come to North Bay?

Tony Demarco:
They actually came to Niagara Falls. And then they sent my Uncle Frank to Sturgeon Falls to work on a dam there. And while he was there, all Italian people said "Oh, there's no place here to get Italian goods." So, he decided to start a store in North Bay. And he did very well with it, and it was right near the CPR station.

Peter Handley:
That would be the original store then. Was it the same type of store?

Tony Demarco:
It was a full grocery store and tobaccos.

Peter Handley:
And was it called DeMarco's.

Tony Demarco:
Yes.

Peter Handley:
How long did that last?

Tony Demarco:
Oh, into probably until the 50s.

Peter Handley:
Then did they move from there.

Tony Demarco:
Yeah. Actually there was a hotel on the old corner there caught fire, in about 1948. And they moved over across the street from where we are almost, and they used to be Shaqiri grocery and my uncle took it over for a while.

Peter Handley:
Okay and when did you go into your present place?

Tony Demarco:
In 1928 we were next door for one year. And then my dad bought this piece of property, where we are now. And he assembled several pieces of property over the years. And we moved into the new store then.

Peter Handley:
It sounds like your dad was a pretty good businessman.

Tony Demarco:
He was. Yeah. Yeah. And my mother was a hard worker. She brought three children, and worked from seven in the morning till midnight. Amazing.

Peter Handley
Yeah. Do you have any idea why the family left Italy?

Tony Demarco:
Oh, well, they lived in a small village and there were no real schools to further your education. There was just grade school. They used to have to send the kids, either to Sicily or Mussina, or one of the big cities. And they thought it would be a better future in Canada for their children.

Peter Handley:
And I noticed you're saying they were into dam construction. I thought it'd be logical that they were on the railroad.

Tony Demarco:
My dad ended up on the railroad here. He came to Kitchener, followed his two brothers, came to Kitchener, stayed there for a year and came to North Bay and got a job on CPR.

Peter Handley:
What were your parents like?

Tony Demarco:
Well, they're both real hardworking. My dad was sort of old fashioned type of an old country type. But he came here when he was only 17 years old. And so he still had the, the old country ideas. Mother came from a family that was well off, really. And they were well off where she came from her mother was a well-educated mother. They had sort of the best place in the village. They had a place in the country where they grew all kinds of things and made their own olive oil. My grandmother, had a silk room. She made silk. So they came from well to do family.

Peter Handley:
Your, father, the term grumpy has been used?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah, he didn't take any nonsense.

Peter Handley:
How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Tony Demarco:
Just one brother and one sister.

Peter Handley:
Were your parents strict with you kids?

Tony Demarco:
Not that bad. Mother was very, very religious, went to church every day. And she was a wonderful mother. And my dad, he wasn't too strict. He just thought that you better do the right thing.

Peter Handley:
Now, what do you remember about North Bay when you were a kid?

Tony Demarco:
Well, North Bay when I was a youngster, very few streets were paved. There was only a handful the streets paved. I can remember them paving Front Street, for the first time. And they never plowed in the winter. It was all horses and dung. Our milk and bread came by horse drawn wagons and sleighs in the winter. Everybody put the cars up and then winter in a box. They didn't run their cars in the winter. There have been big ruts in the road. And they couldn't even get across you know. So it was a different world altogether.

Peter Handley:
How would you class your childhood? Were you hard?

Tony Demarco:
No. We had a good childhood. And we picked up on the sports. I really loved hockey then and got into hockey and, ball. In my family there were five of us. And believe it or not that family stayed together for all our whole life. We stayed together all those years, until we start losing each other. My sister was a U of T graduate. But in those days families only had enough money to send one person to college. So I started working early. I didn't have a big education.

Peter Handley:
When you were working were you working in the store?

Tony Demarco:
Mostly Yes. We did other things. We had a three way partnership. We brought the waterline in from the Lake into the airport. We did that. And from the gate to Sunset Park, we put the waterline in there with there was a three partnership deal and we were one of them.

Peter Handley:
Did you do any of the actual work?

Tony Demarco:
I was a timekeeper at the airport when we put the pipeline in. I looked after the time. And in fairness, I had a group after we put the pipes in, we had the leak and I had my own group to go and fix each hole. We just have to be down there as soon as you start digging, you got water.

Peter Handley:
Right? Yes, yes. So it was hard work then for you.

Tony Demarco
Well, it wasn't for me. The men did the work. I just was like a supervisor.

Peter Handley:
Can you can you remember anything about going to school in the, when are we talking the 40s?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah, the 30s and 40s. I remember a lot about my grade school and the teachers and I enjoyed it. I went to Scollard one year and went to Collegiate another year. And Mr. Troy was very, very active. My oldest cousin was into every sport you could think of and he was a natural athlete. And he got us all interested in every sport, specially boxing. He became a championship of Canada University. He won the championship. They tried to get him of all the states but he said "my education comes first." They want to turn him pro.

Peter Handley:
Why did you change from Scollard to the Collegiate?

Tony Demarco:
Well, it was just down the street. And there was a different type of education, and even my children, one to the girls’ college and to 2 went to the Collegiate because of what they offered.

Peter Handley:
What did Algonquin have that Scollard didn't have then?

Tony Demarco:
I wanted the special education, but that year, that school closed down for two weeks, because there was a polio threat, and I started working in the store and never went back. I used to do a lot of delivery. My brother and I used to deliver with bicycles. We had a big rack on our front of our bicycles. We would deliver all over town.

Peter Handley:
You have any games that you played when you were a kid? And once again, we're talking 30s and 40s?

Tony Demarco:
Yes. When we were children, we all got the hockey bug, you know. And I played juvenile hockey and junior hockey and then I ended up in senior hockey North Bay.

Peter Handley:
Was it really organized? Or did you have to sort of do it yourself?

Tony Demarco:
Well, there's a lot more leagues in those days then there is now alright. They had senior leagues and they had intermediate leagues, and junior leagues. I had my own junior team in the league one year. A bunch of boys got together and asked me if I'd look after them. So I called them the Shamrocks, and we ended up in first place.

Peter Handley:
You liked playing hockey?

Tony Demarco:
Oh, yeah.

Peter Handley:
You were pretty good at it, would you say?

Tony Demarco:
I was a more of a defensive player but I'd love to play. Yeah. I loved the game.

Peter Handley:
Now, tell me about the game back then. You didn't play in the time of the Rover, right? You were after that after that?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah.

Peter Handley:
Okay. What do you remember about playing hockey here in in the 40s?

Tony Demarco:
Well, it was a different game in those days is more of a passing and stick handling. And hockey has changed completely after that. But I really enjoyed it. I had a good you know, good run at it. I played senior hockey for almost 10 years and I played ball too. I played ball in the city league for years.

Peter Handley:
Okay, senior hockey, who did you play with?

Tony Demarco:
Actually, I started off with the merchants and we won the league championship. Jack Bird was one of the fellows that started the team. And the following year became the Rangers with Pete Beangel. So I joined them. And then the year after that, it became the Blackhawks. And I played with the Blackhawks for several years.

Peter Handley:
Okay, so were you on that NOHA championship team?

Tony Demarco:
No, no. They just won that after I retired.

Peter Handley:
What relationship was Ab DeMarco Senior to you?

Tony Demarco:
Not really related. Just very good friends from when we were younger.

Peter Handley:
So all the DeMarco’s aren't tied into the one family tree then?

Tony Demarco:
No, no. We had my uncle's family. And they had a store downtown but none of them are left here. It started as pork chop; one of them was an electrical engineer. We're talking about the oldest boy that I was telling you about that got us into all the sports. He found out what his boss was making and decided to go into business, and start a sports store and became very successful. Three brothers ran the store. And they were tall boys. They brought up tall boys in that business. A lot of them got, you know, they're playing hockey and they were involved in all kinds of sports, and they got scholarships in the States.

Peter Handley:
Did you ever want to go away and play hockey?

Tony Demarco:
Well, I was offered two chances to go. And in those days, I could have played with La Prode. In those days, they didn't call it they-- changed the name of the area, but they had a senior team. And then Puck Kelly asked me if I wanted to go to Three Rivers Quebec. But the offer was at $85 a week and that's, you know, I said, "Well, I better I stay home and help my dad my mother instead to stay in business."

Peter Handley:
Okay. You're talking Edgar La Prode? He was from Lakehead wasn't he?

Tony Demarco:
That's right. Yeah. They called it different then and now it's

Peter Handley:
Thunder Bay?

Tony Demarco:
Thunder Bay. Yeah. In those days they had a different word for it.

Peter Handley:
Fort Williams

Tony Demarco:
That's right.

Peter Handley:
Do you ever regret turning down those chances?

Tony Demarco:
Not really. No, because the family was most important thing in our lives. We were a unit. And my mother worked so hard that I didn't like to leave her. And the amount of money that you made wasn't worth it, you know, to go away.

Peter Handley:
You were interested in hockey. You would be interested in getting the results of the NHL games, right? Tell me about how you would get those results.

Tony Demarco:
Mostly Foster Hewitt and he made the games exciting.

Peter Handley:
You would listen Saturday night then?

Tony Demarco:
Oh Yes. My dad was a real hockey fan. He listened to all the games, went all the games. He took me to a game when I was about five years old. It was at an arena on Main Street, the old arena. It burnt down after. But I went to the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals. A doctor that was a very good friend of our families, and he knew that I was really crazy about hockey. He says you're coming to the seventh game, the Stanley Cup with me. And I were really excited because Bordeaux was the goalie, and he stole the game. At the big line for Detroit was Grasso, April and Wears, and Langella got a goal and Sweeney Shriner got two goals that night, and they won thre-one.

Peter Handley:
Sweeney Shriner was a big playoff game guy.

Tony Demarco:
Yes. He was a very good hockey player and defensive as well. You know, he always came back. Hell was back checked, you know?

Peter Handley:
And that's the sort of player that you were right?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah, the way I liked to be yeah.

Peter Handley:
What do you remember about the local rinks here?

Tony Demarco:
Well we played-- actually, when we first started we didn't have artificial ice. And then when they built that the rink on King Street actually two sub routines open the rink and Ab DeMarco got two goals, which was two nothing.

Peter Handley:
We had arenas burned down like crazy here?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah. yeah.

Peter Handley:
Did you gear out and remember any other places you played?

Tony Demarco:
Well, when that rink burnt down, they built the place that you could stand was covered just around the rink, just a small area, like cubbyhole area around the rink. And they use that for several years. Until they built the new rink.

Peter Handley:
Are you talking about Memorial Gardens?

Tony Demarco:
It was on King Street first and then they moved it.

Peter Handley:
King Street it was a galvanized metal building?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah, and we played ball there, our city ball and games ended up in over there.

Peter Handley:
Wallace Park, wasn't that what they called it?

Tony Demarco:
Yes.

Peter Handley:
What do you remember about playing ball back then?

Tony Demarco:
Well, in the old days, it was the fellow from some woods, got this team together called them: Tigers. And there was a fellow Bernard Eurorac, and I, we joined the team. And we played there for one year and then we played for quite a bit for a couple of years. And we ended up with Jack Garlin. And my friend there Bernard Eurorac, he went around, he sort of refereed in the Junior League. And he picked out all the best junior players he could find, and we started Jack Garlin's team.

Peter Handley:
Would this be the Pepsi's?

Tony Demarco:
Yes.

Peter Handley:
There were some really good players back then. Do you remember any of them growing up ? Did you play against Stan Maxwell?

Tony Demarco:
Oh, yeah, we've stayed friends with quite a few of them. Like Goteau, who kept up with the French Apollo years until he died. In fact, he called me just a while ago. And he was actually a basketball player.

Peter Handley:
Harley Taylor?

Tony Demarco:
Harley Taylor, who is amazing. He phoned me about two months ago. He had a bypass but he's fine now. And he was amazing. He had 20 strikeouts a game. And he used to travel a lot with, with I guess it was Deadends paints. And Jack got him to come here from Toronto. And he would be away for 10 days, come in, pick up a ball, and never touch a ball for 10 days. And he was amazing.

Peter Handley:
Who was the best hitter you ever saw?

Tony Demarco:
Well, I'd say Maxwell was quite popular. He was a long ball hitter who is very, very good. But there's quite a few. Like even Harley Taylor himself, he won the batting championship in a higher league than ours before he came to North Bay. And when he didn't pitch down there he played first base. He could really hit and Aggie Goteau was a good slugger. You know he's a good hitter.

Peter Handley:
Where did you play?

Tony Demarco:
I played third base for quite a few years and ended up at second base. I loved second base.

Peter Handley:
When you were a kid, North Bay was a pretty small community.

Tony Demarco:
--Of about 10,000 people.

Peter Handley:
The big changes? You've seen a lot of changes.

Tony Demarco:
Well, I think when we got the airport, which was a big, big key to North Bay. That made it North Bay because in those days, you know, like it was all CPR. Like my dad used open early all people use a stream down to the CPR in the morning and he tried to catch them on the way down.

Peter Handley:
Well, you still do, don't you? Yeah, you still try to catch them. When do you remember the street outside your store being paved?

Tony Demarco:
Well, it was paved when we were children, but we had the boulevards have big boulevards on both sides. So eventually, they widened the streets. But it was paved. When we lived on Third Avenue for several years then moved when we bought a property on Algonquin was in 1928. So I actually I was born in Italy, because my dad came here early, but he fought the first world war against Germany, married my mother and I was born there. But I came as a baby. I was only about a year and a half old when they came. And I didn't even know it. Years later I had to get my certificate. I had to get a Canadian citizenship. My dad was a Canadian in 1907 and I took it for granted. I was Canadian all those years. Imagine I was 30 some years old before I became a natural citizen.

Peter Handley:
The neighborhood store, that's basically what you have.

Tony Demarco:
Yes, exactly.

Peter Handley:
It's tough, isn't it?

Tony Demarco:
It was hard work. And the hours are long.

Peter Handley:
But society has changed so much. Do you sell fancy coffees?

Tony Demarco:
No, we just sell a regular coffee. We didn't get into the gourmet. But we still just sell regular. We didn't get into anything fancy.

Peter Handley:
Do you still class yourself as a neighborhood store? Or do you attract the people from the neighborhood?

Tony Demarco:
Well we try to but it's with the basket businesses it became a city thing, you know, maybe became a lot wider. And we got even a company in Sudbury that orders a bunch of baskets for Christmas. So it's expanded in that way.

Peter Handley:
Your store is famous for your election polls, right?

Tony Demarco:
Yeah.

Peter Handley:
You still do those?

Tony Demarco:
Oh, yes.

Peter Handley:
Ask your customer who’s going to win what elections, and who's going to be the mayor and all that sort of stuff.

Tony Demarco:
That's true. We had polled some most elections are very, very accurate. And because I played for Jack Garland, and we got involved with the checkout. And one after another became sort of a tradition. And Anthony Rota, of course, his family was a close friend of ours. His dad delivered the bread to us for years and years. He has a bakery, and his family was very close. And Bob Woods became very close to our family. So over the years is sort went from one from one to the other. You know? Dick Smith he was in our store every day of the year. And so we always kind of backed them up. We worked for them because there were more than just politicians, they were family friends.

Peter Handley:
This edition of our heritage diary voices from the past with the late Tony DeMarco was originally recorded for the Cogeco cable TV production, “Life Is,” and is rebroadcast in this format through the courtesy of Cogeco Your TV. Thank you for spending some time with us and listening to our stories. These productions are put together by the North Bay Municipal Heritage Committee, not only to retell old tales, but hopefully to kindle interest in area history. Local lore is important to any community. We shouldn't let it go unremarked and unremembered. Views expressed in this podcast are not necessarily those of the corporation of the city of North Bay, or its employees. Join us next time, when we flip another page of the diary of our shared past. You can reach us at Peter.Carello@cityofnorthbay.ca. Production – Casey Monkelbaan and Peter Carello. Pete Handley speaking.