Diane Armstrong was born in the town of South Porcupine and has been a lifetime resident of the City of Timmins. She and her husband Robert share 4 children and 9 grandchildren.
With a deep interest in local history, Diane has written two books and is the Over the Hill columnist with the Timmins Times.
A life-long volunteer, she has shared her time with the Girl Guides, teen groups, Friends of the Museum, Timmins Housing Authority, has entertained monthly at several senior’s residences monthly, and is a member of the Board of Spruce Hill Lodge.
Diane has been the recipient of several service awards, the Ontario Heritage Foundation Achievement Award for her work on saving the Hollinger House, and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for volunteer service to the community.
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Over the Hill : Oh, How We Danced…
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| on 2009/9/23 10:17:49 (509 reads) |
There were at least 38 dance halls in the Porcupine area before the days of recorded tapes and disc jockeys. Public dances were held on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights, so there was a huge demand for live musicians. Many of the better ones played with more than one band.
When I began researching the old orchestras and bands, I discovered that during the 1930s, 40’s and 50’s, there were between 35 and 40 of them all playing regularly. Some musicians’ names came up several times, making it difficult to establish just who played what instrument (many of them played more than one), with what band and at what time.
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Over the Hill : Karl Doran, a Pioneer
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| on 2009/9/17 10:06:19 (423 reads) |
Long before the idea of getting our foods from within a hundred miles; long before it was fashionable to recycle and reuse, a German immigrant in our city led the way with innovation.
Karl Keichmeister came to Canada in the late 1920s and and worked underground at the Hollinger Mine. He met and married Mary Dorn in 1936 and had 3 children, Don, Pat and Herb. A letter from his daughter Pat tells this story: |
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Over the Hill : Scents that Trigger Memories
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| on 2009/9/17 10:02:46 (357 reads) |
Today’s homogeneous stores lack the distinctive smells of stores I remember. Scents such as vanilla and musk are now wafted from the ventilating systems and the experience of shopping at a clothing store is the same as a browse through the hardware or toy departments of Wal-Mart.
In downtown South Porcupine, we had many stores – each with their own distinctive odors. They were so different, I’m certain that even blindfolded, anyone could identify the place of business.
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Over the Hill : Before the Zamboni
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| on 2009/9/17 10:00:00 (450 reads) |
I once asked people to share their memories of our two local arenas in the 1950s– the South Porcupine “Barn” and the MacIntyre Arena. I expected that team spirit, community loyalties and lifelong friendships would be on the list. What I didn’t expect were the memories of “the thing with the red rags that watered the ice”!
For those who have only seen a motorized vehicle scrape and flood the ice in one pass, let me tell you how it was once done.
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Over the Hill : Who Discovered the Porcupine and When?
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| on 2009/3/12 16:10:49 (916 reads) |
It is often discouraging trying to get accurate and factual information for historical columns. Such is the case of who really discovered the Porcupine gold mining area. |
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