I got up early and went out to Villeray and Park Ex. I came across this pile in front of a commercial space by Highway 40 on des Belges.
Most of what I found was junk, but I did pull out a nice old ceiling lamp. The wiring needs work, but I think this would clean up pretty nice. Might it be from the Art Deco era?
While out in Park Ex I came across an abandoned house which is slated to be demolished. The back door was unlocked so I looked around and took some photos. If interested check them out here! It, surprisingly, looks mostly untouched by intruders – most abandoned buildings in cities (especially unlocked ones) are heavily tagged and graffitied.
Most interesting though was this pile near St Denis and Mont-Royal. In this case I know for sure that the original owner passed away. I googled a name I found amongst the trash and discovered some online eulogies. I won’t reveal the name in respect of the privacy of the family but from the sounds of it he was a pretty good person.
This is a 1986 “Mr Fuji” WWF wrestling toy. I never really watched wrestling as a kid but I appreciate this toy. I may keep it as a decoration for my room, if not I’ll put it in a yard sale.
A few buttons, some of which (if not all) relate to Irish republicanism. Kieran Doherty was one of the hunger strikers that died in prison after having not eaten for 73 days. The Birmingham Six were men convicted of bombing a pub in England and later released on appeal due to a lack of real evidence.
Finding these things makes me want to do some reading on the history of the conflict in Ireland. I have some Irish roots so there is some personal significance as well.
Inside the bags was a good amount of jewelry. Much of it is costume jewelry but there’s also a good amount of silver. All of it is quite beautiful. Above is a nice pair of enameled unicorn earrings, below are a pair of cool silver earrings. They’re pretty tarnished but they should clean up nicely. I’ll show you more of the jewelry in a future post. Apparently the man’s wife passed away several years ago, I assume these would have belonged to her.
Last, for now, is this little cardboard box containing a couple hollow plastic dolls. They were apparently a souvenir from a wedding back in the day, but there are a couple of words I can’t make out (partly because of the handwriting and partly because of the French). If anyone can translate the message let us know what it says! The “Les Cedres” (The Cedars) part is a town South of Montreal, that I know.
I’ll show you some more pictures of the jewelry in the coming days. I’m going to head to the Plateau this evening and also plan on exploring the mostly-novel Town of Mount Royal tomorrow morning.