… Fire!

Despite the death-knell of expropriation, commercial activity continued, in mixed and semi-commercial building,

Cathy’s Lunch Bar was operated by Mr. Saikaly in partnership with Mr. Ayoub, who had recently moved to Ottawa as part of the Lebanese migrantion in the late 1950s. With its low overhead costs the store was profitable, but after the expropriation, sales had fallen dramatically, just four years into the lease.

The store and its scraped contents were put up for auction – putting an end to their tenure. Despite an agreement to terminate the life-world, the owners rescued items from impending capture including “cups and saucers, plates, glasses, ice cream dishes and two grocery carriages” before the impending auction.

Even more dramatically, fire consumed most of the corner store. Appropriately, the adjoining building was a used auto parts store, which like the lunch bar, suffered from the fire. Left behind were the residual of postwar packaged consumption, and that imminent symbol of the rapid pace of modernization: the television - leaving only the charred remains and the broken dreams of residents and workers.