It wasn’t long into my research for this book that I realized that so many people in the community were very much part of the Dixie Arena family.
Everyone I talked with had stories to tell about ‘their’ arena. For the people involved with the numerous hockey leagues, lacrosse leagues, auto auctions, figure skating, and the weekly teen dances, Dixie Arena Gardens played a key role in the formative years of thousands of community residents. Some of these stories I penned in the Anecdotes Chapter. I lay no claim to their authenticity other than they sounded great and certainly were worth repeating here.
It is impossible to include the names of all of the people and their stories, all of which were so enthusiastically told as my research continued. However, bits and pieces of some of these stories will be mentioned throughout this book. To the countless number of friends and family who eagerly volunteered their memories, I thank you and I hope that the readers of this book enjoy them as much as I did.
My late Uncle, Jim Britton Sr., was employed by Cooksville’s Argo Block Company as a foreman. As a youngster I have memories of my mother and father visiting Uncle Jim and Aunt Edna who lived on Grenville Drive. While there, I would embark upon a great adventure and walk west along the Dundas to the four corners in Cooksville where I would have a sundae at the Cooksville Jersey Dairy on Centre Rd., now Hurontario Street.
Argo Block was owned by Toronto Argonaut football player Clary Burt and his partner, Hap Watson, a very popular local sportsman. Clary played a combined total of 37 regular season and playoff games with the Argos between 1937 and 1939. It was Argo Block that supplied the blocks for the construction of Dixie Arena. Many years later hockey great Joe Primeau, who owned Joe Primeau Block, amalgamated his company with Argo Block.