One book leads to another, or so Mississauga history buff and former Ward 7 Councillor Dave Cook (1981-88) finds.
When the former ratepayer president set out to write a history of the Applewood Acres community where he grew up and still lives, he had in mind a 50-page booklet.
Well, that little project turned into the 224-page book called Apple Blossoms and Satellite Dishes that the former Mississauga News reporter published in 2004. Most people know that Col. Harland Sanders lived in the neighbourhood just north of the QEW, but few knew that people such as author Peter Newman, hockey star and commentator Howie Meeker, singer Michael Burgess, classical music conductor Robert Aiken, Shakespearean actor Robin Gammell, actress Lisa Jakub (Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day) and actor Jonas Wolfe (Genghis Khan, The Laughing Policeman) had lived there.
While doing that book, Cook kept stumbling over the story of Dixie Arena in one form or other. That inspired his second historic volume, From Frozen Ponds to Beehive Glory: The Story of Dixie Arena Gardens which he published last year. It chronicles the hidden life of the late, lamented arena as a medium for flower shows, car shows (Cook is an avid motorsport fan who raced his own car for many years), wrestling, curling, lacrosse and roller skating, among other things.
In the course of that research, the writer was reminded of the story of the air school for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan during the Second World War which was located on part of what is now Pearson International Airport.
The school, where some 200,000 pilots received the first 50 hours of their training, was located at the corner of what was then Britannia Rd. and Sixth Line and was often referred to as the Malton military base.
The building later became the Workmen’s Compensation Hospital. “I sold papers there as a kid,” remembers Cook, who started his journalistic career in radio.
A notorious criminal case took place there Nov. 25, 1955 when a Dr. Rex Hylton was shot by a patient. One of the detectives on the case was future Peter Demeter tormenter and Peel Regional Police Chief Bill Teggart.
“If anybody has any information or memories of the base, I’d love to hear from them,” says the 64-year-old.
Unfortunately, Cook won’t be doing any writing for a while. He is scheduled to undergo “beating heart” triple bypass surgery by Chief of Staff Dr. Gopal Bhatnagar at Trillium Health Centre next Monday. That procedure comes 11 years after he suffered a heart attack. Cook felt that one coming. He quit smoking a week before it happened and he has adopted a more more healthy lifestyle ever since.
Best of luck to Dave as he recovers.
Anyone with information about the Air Training Plan can contact him at cook.dave@rogers.com.