A Shot in the Dark
Bill Armstrong still shudders at the memory of tagging along to his father’s Texaco station, where cops spent their Sunday afternoons drinking and firing pistols in the 1950s.
After watching this video you will probably never look at the corner of Roncesvalles Ave. and Marmaduke in quite the same way. There used to be a Texaco service station at 382 Roncesvalles where the TD Canada Trust now sits.
On Sundays in the 1950s, chances are a bunch of cops would be partying in the basement, drinking and firing their pistols! The gas station owner Dave Armstrong, who used to be a policeman, took his young son Bill down to the basement to see the fun — just once. More than 60 years later, Bill has vivid memories of that day. Fortunately, nobody got shot!
He was interviewed on Zoom by Lynne Latulippe during the COVID lockdown.
A Toronto Texaco station in the 1950s
