Yorkville 1966

Listen to Toronto Star reporter Wendy Darroch's full story on Yorkville and its frequenters from 1966 with photos by Reg Innell.
Yorkville--a city within a city--a way of life! Two long blocks where teenagers wander ... the lively, the lonely, the lost.
Where the discipline of parents, the strain of formal education and the hypocrisies of an adult world are discussed , chewed, rebelled against. Inhibitions are shaken like a winter coat in springtime. You can see it in their faces, the way they talk. their manner of walking.
Huddled in groups, or alone on a corner, they come to seek refuge from the worries of an atomic age, on streets clustered with elegant boutiques, elaborate restaurants and coffee houses.
There are the 'Mods' and the 'Rockers.' The ‘mods' in skirts above their knees teamed with lacy stockings, open shoes and free-swinging hair. Or others in the latest bell-bottom trousers. brilliant in colour, fetching.
The 'Rockers' in boots or bare feel, heavy sweaters, jeans, beards, leather jackets. Their hair is long, it's difficult to tell the girls from the boys, it's 'beat.'
But regardless of garb they have wound their way to Yorkville for the same reasons. They are the restless ones, the angry ones.
In a world where standards are changing, principles and morals are disintegrating, they are confused, they don't know where to turn.
So they turn to the Village, to their own kind. Hour upon hour they sip coffee, lick ice cream and talk. Sometimes they just stare into space. They stand and wait, but they don't know what for.
Someone strums a guitar , another sings. They write poetry, some dabble in paint. Some are in love, they sit and hold hands, talk and wonder. Others are disenchanted, bitter, bewildered.
But it is here they can meet on common ground. They share the same problems, the same lust for independence, the urge to be heard. It is here they find understanding, a common bond.
For this is Yorkville--a city within a city--a way of life.
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www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019...
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[@gregpastic6910]

My father had a studio in Yorkville from the mid 60's until 1995. I was born in '55 so I was still a teen when my dad would take me to the Purple Onion and the Riverboat. I could write a list as long as my arm of the poets and musicians I saw during those years. I inherited hundreds of B&W photos after my dad died, and many of the pictures in this video were taken in similar locations on Yorkville Ave. I'm not going to call that time "the good old days" but I will say that there was a heady energy and a youthful optimism and cockiness. We believed we could change the world. And then I watched in dismay as most of my generation who had 'tuned in, turned on, and dropped out' had tuned out, turned off and joined in the rush to acquire material goods.

[@tinarennett9041]

That was when it was interesting and fun not angry or confused just young, happy and felt the promise not the despair as the narrative would have us believe.

[@MsKleinlaut]

We enjoyed being there. I don't remember anyone as bitter or angry as the commentator seems to think. The bored looking ones were probably from the burbs.

[@richardlapointe1524]

A friend had a basement apartment on Yorkville in 65 and 66. We were at university. It got busy on the weekends at the coffee houses. True that kids came from the suburbs on the weekends. For us it was a fun place with lots of interesting local characters.

[@MichaelRS44]

1966 - 20 years post the end of WWII.. I was 22 that year .. 'the Village' was a gathering place for so many of us post secondary school youngsters .. and it was close to Rochedale College and the U of T .. it had it's own magic, you could be as outrageous or as conservative as you chose, bluegrass and protest, jazz and beat .. your life choices were yours or you were looking for your own place of fit .. mattered not. Yorkville was iconic.

[@AnhTuPhucDerrickHoangCanada]

this is where to go real deep in Toronto.

[@monicapushkin3274]

Gordon Lightfoot's immortal Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was recorded in a studio in Yorkville. The recording was the first take and the band had never played the full song before. They tried to improve the song the next day, but it wasn't as good as the first take, so they kept it for the album. True story.

[@vikingblood0408]

I went to the Riverboat a few times to see and listen to various music acts.

[@bergkamp48]

for us it was the music...The Ducklings, The Paupers...my fav The Mild and Bitter a short lived folk rock group that played Charlie Browns and the Mynah Bird

[@danneeson7056]

At 00:14 most of the guys are wearing Beatle boots or what we younger kids called " pickle stabbers". Interesting that the description of the young people is Mods and Rockers, still too early for hippies and greasers. Before all the acid.

[@trevorgwelch7412]

These teens grew up and became politicians , doctors and drop outs . Yorkville in 2024 is for the extremely rich and appeals mainly to out of country visitors . 🇨🇦🎬

[@kaycee557]

I wish I had been there, done that.

[@joshuasexton5672]

My friend who lives and the time and was a frequent visitor of Yorkville Village AKA known As V Village claims that this is inaccurate there were no fancy boutiques besides there was just secondhand clothing stores appealing to the use of the day coffee houses record stores and I gave him a hard time about this and he insist that this is how it was so I sighted him and said okay I'm going to post I'm going to post a challenge against the Toronto Star as being inaccurate cuz I'm going to fight him as to being the one behind it and I asked for permission and he said yes his name is Michael and he was a musician of the time responses will be forwarded to Michael laugh out loud I hope you make him look bad I'm just kidding

[@gregpastic6910]

You are correct. The narrator is wrong. There were no 'fancy boutiques' until gentification began to happen in the late 70's. Yorkville was residential homes that became clubs and hangouts. There were a few restaurants, most notably the original (and first) Mr. Sub.

[@douginnis1911]

I lived over the Grab Bag for a time . . . Then it became the first Mr. Submarine in the country . . .

[@russellwhite4086]

I had a friend that lived up there after it became sub.

[@SPUTNIKBOY-rw1up]

All these people should be in mid to late 70s now.

[@coldlakealta4043]

it was a place to be with others like you, people who didn't fit in the world of those who had grown up in the Depression and gone to war and carried values with them which we could not accept, people who actually believed that moral fibre could be measured by the length of your hair or skirt. We were like the stone in a pool, surrounded by a swirling world in which we did not believe or belong. Only in the Village were we surrounded by others like us, and only there did we feel at home. And we were routinely harassed or beaten by Toronto cops for being there.

[@ms.carlson3904]

Please tell what it was like if anyone else lived in that era;

[@arricammarques1955]

Gentrification ruined Yorkville.

[@richardleonard4281]

Rockers? I think not.

[@ronaldrayner5049]

I recognized a young Eric Lehman ,poet ,didn't see anyone else I knew from those days , the narrative is bogus.

[@budway1942]

uh a load of bolloxs..i moved from the suburbs to yorkville in 63 then after that moved to the uk,,

[@railsedge5746]

Hippie ville

[@Alsatiagent]

Mods? Rockers? In Toronto 66? Who writes this crap?

[@farmerjoe8508]

Ah the good ole days before Trudeau’s refugees took over

[@arthurwoofenden5333]

This has NOTHING to do with Trudeau. Keep your hate out of our village memories

[@RoyalistCavalier]

The worst Prime Ministers in the history of the Dominion of Canada were French Quebecois. Every single French-Quebecois Prime Minister of Canada 1)Sir Wilfred Laurier, 2)Mr Louis Saint Laurent, 3)Mr Pierre Trudeau, 4)Mr Paul Martin and 5)Mr Jean Chretien and 6)Mr Justin Trudeau have been traitors to the Dominion of Canada. The original cancer of the Dominion of Canada were the French Canadian/Acadian and Metis peoples who have been the first number 1 source of conflict, division and tension in the country. The Dominion of Canada would have peace, unity and harmony if the French Cancer that has grown in the country since 1763 if these people vanished. The vast majority of French Quebecois people are anti-English bigots and anti-Canada separatist/nationalist traitors who should have their Canadian citizenship revoked and then they should be deported from the Dominion of Canada back to the Republic of France. The Dominion of Canada should be ENGLISH in language and BRITISH in culture. The official language of the Dominion of Canada stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean should be ENGLISH. The French language should be banned and outlawed throughout out the Dominion of Canada including the Province of Quebec. The Dominion of Canada belongs to WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). British people (English/Scottish people) are the true people of the Dominion of Canada. The Kingdom of Great Britain WON and the Kingdom of France LOST the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and at the Treaty of Paris (1763), the Kingdom of France ceased New France to the Kingdom of Great Britain in order to retain the French West Indies. All of the territory of the former New France located in the borders of the modern day Dominion of Canada including its Province of Quebec belongs to Anglo-Canadians/British-Canadians. If it were not for the New French leftovers (French Quebecois and related peoples), the Dominion of Canada would have the Canadian Red Ensign as it's National Flag instead of the Maple Leaf Flag and the Maple Leaf Anthem as it's national anthem instead of the Oh Canada Anthem. STRIP ALL FRENCH QUEBECOIS ANTI-ENGLISH BIGOTS AND ANTI-CANADA SEPARATIST/NATIONALIST TRAITORS OF THEIR CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP AND ROUND THEM UP AND DEPORT THEM ALL FROM THE DOMINION OF CANADA WHERE THEY DON'T BELONG BACK TO THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE WHERE THEY DO BELONG.

[@josephforest7605]

Trudeau and his creeps from the Caribbean and idiots from India screwed up Canada .@@arthurwoofenden5333

[@tonydubinsky4053]

@@arthurwoofenden5333 Soooo true man, no Trudeau refugees!

[@TagusMan]

​@@arthurwoofenden5333 Didn't you guys hate "the man"? Only the hate you approve of. Some things never change.

[@regthorpe7923]

The narration is embarrassing. Not surprising coming from the birdcage liner Toronto Star. Nice to see though now almost extinct slim girls.