Here is another short one from Vanier.
On June 28, 1954, a Hudson Hornet (?) piloted by sixteen-year-old Bruce MacDonald of 29 Mark Avenue found its way into the front window of the Dixie Lee Nut Shop at 243 Montreal Road in Eastview (Vanier). Police credited the fact that school had been let out early that day for the collision not being a deadly one, noting that the sidewalks were normally filled with children at that time of day.
I’m still shaking. I was behind the frozen custard machine when I saw the car. It was coming right for me and it kept coming and coming. Then there was the crash.
Dixie Lee operator Bertha Monas, as quoted in Ottawa Citizen,
Aside from some rattled nerves and minor property damage, nobody was worse for wear and the Citizen ran the story in the Evening Citizen as more of a curiosity or tale of an inexperienced driver losing control.1”Car Crashes Traffic Isle, Three Hurt,” Ottawa Citizen, June 28, 1954, 36.
Having a Hudson run through the front of your business was probably not the death blow, but by the following spring, it was put up for sale. A classified ad placed in the Ottawa Citizen stated that the owner was ill and poised to leave the country. To smooth the transition, however, they would stick around for a week to train the new owner.2Ottawa Citizen, May 5, 1955, 35.
The Citizen photo that didn’t make it to print has been one that has captured come attention, having been mentioned in historical articles in the local paper of record a few times as an item of interest from the city’s past.3See “To set the record straight,” Ottawa Citizen, January 19, 2000, 36; Tony Lofaro, “See a city grow up, one photo at a time,” Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2006, 19.