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.

Read more:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019...

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