Shooting the Drag in Sydney, Cape Breton
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- As Urban Dictionary explains it, shooting the drag is “a phrase used in Sydney, Cape Breton. This means to take a parent’s car and drive down Charlotte Street, make a left at the ‘ol Tim Hortons, take the next left, and continue through the evening. This is a high source of entertainment amongst youth in Sydney. ‘Hey, let’s shoot the drag before the dusk till dawn!'”
Here, residents of Sydney reminisce about shooting the drag, recalling memories of community life in the city's downtown.
This video was created by the iCreate Cape Breton youth documentary team. Thanks to the Beaton Institute for all the wonderful archival photographs of downtown Sydney!
I had a front row seat of "The Drag" growing up. I was born in 1959, and my GrandMother owned a rooming/boarding house at 308 Charlotte St, right above Pollet's Drugs and the Barber Shop, just down from David's SuperMarket.
I would always ask my GrandMother if I could stay there on the weekends. She would go to bed early and that left me with the big center window, bedroom window, 1 story above Charlotte St, right at the traffic lights of Charlotte and Prince St.
I'm not just saying I spent a couple of weekends there during one nice summer, I lived in Sydney, just blocks away from GrandMa's house ...I spent 20 years hanging out in that forward bedroom because it was my older brother's bedroom.
The BEST week we ever spent hanging out there was when the Sydney Police went on strike. It was around 1969 or 1970. Guys were using the traffic lights as staging light for DRAG racing down Charlotte St ! ...lol ....Guys had brought in farm tractors, broken down, old cars to race down Charlotte St.
By the time the Cops came back to work, so many windows had been smashed out of the stores on Charlotte St, that somebody took paint and renamed the Drag ... PLYWOOD AVE. on the wood that covered the holes in the store fronts. haha .....let me say that the Sydney Police Department NEVER had another strike ever, ever again.
Some guys late at night would drag race UP Charlotte st, and don't forget, Charlotte St is two lanes, but in ONE direction only.
Charlotte St. on the weekends was like Studio 54 was back in the 80's. If you were driving and you didn't look too ugly, all you had to do was drive down Charlotte St. on a Friday night with your window down, and after 1 or 2 "laps", you will hear some young girl yell "Hey" ...and all you had to do was hit the brakes, open the door and you had female that wanted to try anything once.
These "rough" girls would come in from Glace Bay, New Waterford, Louisbourg, West mount, North Sydney, Sydney Mines, East Bay, etc ... from all over ....horny girls with Daddy's car, or if they were from a poor family, they had already gotten jobs cutting up fish in the fish plants in North Sydney and Sydney Mines and at the age of 18 could get a bank loan for a second hand car ....
My brother learned how to make extra money once we got older, he would sell stubby bottles of beer to the underage guys hanging around the Drag for triple what it costs ....those teens didn't care ...they only wanted 3 bottles each, and they were loaded. He would lower the bottles down to the teens with a basket and twine. One night a guy said he was starving, would we give him something to eat, so my brother lowered him down some Napoli Pizza, and cop saw this, realized it's only pizza and from then on, no cop ever bothered us, they thought my brother was selling food in the basket.
By the time I was 10 years old, I could name EVERY single car that drove down Charlotte St. ...every single one ... Make, model and sometimes, year.
I spent many hours, many wasted days and nights, shooting the drag in the late 60s with my friends. This brings back some great memories.
Thanks to all involved with the making of this video. I was one of hundreds of us Capers who would "shoot the drag" - Charlotte Street round and around,...for hours with our parent's car until we could buy our own "wheels". My "shooting the drag" days was in the mid '60's so really don't know anything as to what went on in later decades,
I personally feel it was not technology so much that killed this past time as the change in shopping habits with the arrival of shopping centres. They became the gathering place of many youth and as there was less and less commercial activity on Charlotte Street, I feel the number of people interested in "shooting the drag" diminished because most other friends would be hanging out at the mall.
Certainly watching this video brought back some wonderful memories as well as refreshing my mind as to the number and variety of stores we had at one time on Charlotte Street. And, really what do we have downtown now? Not much, to my personal thinking, to entice people to Charlotte Street, except for business.
I am not being critical, merely stating what I feel to be "a fact".
caperbud-i`m 77 and still can`t go into sydney from coxheath without shooting the drag.
I'm fr north Sydney. In Ontario now.im younger and I remember shooting the drag I loved it.so innocent back then.meet so many beautiful people. We are the friendliness people. I don't care what anyone says
just discovered your channel, I am fr #2 glace bay and love the old videos, we used to shoot the drag in downtown gb on commercial st as well as plummer ave in new Waterford to, great memories.
2006 grad here, vivid memories of Sunfires, Cavaliers, and Kia Rios amongst other vehicles shooting the drag back in 2002-2005.
I would say there are two reasons for the decline. 1. Social media, people can plan their meetings and hangouts real time, versus back in the day before social media there was just a universal place to meet. You used to have to leave the house for everything. Now entertainment is streamed into the home.
2. Economy. People have less money and things are more expensive. People have a hard time affording cars and gas money etc.
I graduated in 2000 and remember it being a thing in my day, I'm kind of surprised it still was by 2006 to be honest.
And also, the cops would run us out of the usual parking spots constantly. Assholes from outside would come in and sell drugs in the parking lots, cause fights, try to steal territories from the "Sydney Boys" ...and that just wasn't gonna happen. We HAD Commercial Equipment and we controlled Commercial Equipment for years.
Graduated in 2000 and we were big into in. Spent many a night in 99 & 00 on Charlotte St.
In the 60s we would shoot the drag a few times and then stop at the chip truck for some amazing fries. It was easy to pick up girls who were walking the drag, go for some chips and see what happens. If there was chemistry, go watch the submarine races. If not, there would be lots of cars showing off their stuff for entertainment.
So, so, so, so many loose girls/women would get all dressed up to walk the drag and get picked up on a summer night. Nobody knew them in Sydney, so they could be little whores and not worry who knows ....the ones from Westmount wouldn't even use their real names, they were TRICKSY, BAMBIE, etc .....
Such awesome time shootin the draft... thanks for bringing back the memories!
Grad of 2000. I remember shooting the drag in my high school days.. From what I've seen in this video, it has evolved. In my time (90s in general), it was done at night. Most places closed for the day with just a few places like Tim's still being open. So people there to work or to do business would go home and the teens would come out. It was a hangout for those who were not yet old enough to hit the bars. If you weren't downtown shooting the drag, you were at Wheelies when it was still open.
NOw I remember why the hell I got out of that place decades ago. And every time I came home for a visit I was asked by the in-laws when I was moving back. I would quickly say, NEVER. That made me really popular.
I graduated high school in 2001 and I remember shootin the drag with friends in college. Mostly when we were makin the rounds to the pubs and Hermans.
It was even hugely crowded in the 80s and early 90s. It’s a ghost town now.
If I made a Hot Wheels film, I would love to use this phrase prominently!
Shoot the drag. lol I loved it
Car culture at its finest!
Here in Saint John we used to go up town and circle the square.
Charlotte st left to townsend left to george left to pitt back to Charlotte all left hand truns.
OMG !!! I didn't realize that they did it in the 50s !!!!
Summer of '71: drag raced with another wannabe racer on downtown George! (Don't know who won. Honestly!) Not exactly "shooting the drag" -- it was a day of drag racing, sidewalk-drinking (and smashed bottles!) and other wild behaviour during a brief city police strike.
We were still doing it in the early 2000s.
Thanks to all involved! EH?
john j mac neil Awesome ......(Y) .........brought back many memories of the beautiful place we live !!!!! Thank-you for this link & Koodos to all involved ......I love it !!!!
ME too proud of those young people who did such a fantastic job putting this together--{the iCreate doc people} kudo's
BIG UPDATE: I went "home" to visit family Xmas of 2023 and NOW, CHARLOTTE STREET IS ONLY ONE LANE !!!!!!! YOU CAN'T DRIVE BESIDE THE OTHER CAR AND LOOK AT THE GIRLS IN THAT CAR LIKE BEFORE ... IT'S GONE, SO SAD ....I THINK I'LL WRITE SOMETHING SAD NOW .......
[Intro]
We'll remember you forever, Eddie
Through the sacrifice you made
We can't believe the price you paid
For love (For love)
For love (For love)
[Verse 1]
Little Eddie Mitty, born in Jersey City
Started singin' when he was five
Never knew his father, mother didn't bother
To catch his last name fast as he came
He was off and flying, times were really trying
Eddie and his mother alone
Soon another mister, soon a baby sister
Mama kept swingin' and Eddie kept singin'
[Chorus]
Ah, ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya, ya ya ya ya
Ya, ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya, ya ya ya ya
(For love)
(For love)
[Verse 2]
And now, the tragic story
Eddie's sister, Mary Louise, needed an operation
To get the money, he would have to become
An overnight sensation
Eddie believed the American people
Had wonderful, love-giving hearts
His well-publicized end
He considered would send
His memorial album to the top of the charts
And it did
[Chorus]
Ah, ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya, ya ya ya ya
Ya, ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya, ya ya ya ya
(Goodbye)
(Goodbye)
[Verse 3]
When a young singer dies
To our shock and surprise
In a plane crash or a flashy sports car
He becomes quite well-known
And the kindness he's shown
Has made more than one post-mortem star
Well, you did it Eddie
And though it's hard to applaud suicide
You gave all you could give
So your sister could live
All America's choked up inside, man
[Outro]
We'll remember you forever, Eddie
Through the sacrifice you made
We can't believe the price you paid
For love (For love)
For love (For love)
For love (For love)
Ah, ah, ah, ah
I don't think the advent of technology killed the drag. to the best of my recollection it was graduated lisencing.
I don't think as many teenagers home in Sydney in this day and age are "shooting the drag" anymore.For one thing,there's not as many teenagers there now as there even would have been when I grew up there in the 80's & early 90's.
I shot the drag, loved the drag racing too
Used to 'shoot the drag' in the 70's till high school grad in '76. Charlotte St. was a happenin' place to see and be seen, lots of kids would congregate on the wall at the bottom of Charlotte St. between Napoli's and Townsend St. Nothing better to do? Bug your parents for the family boat and get a crowd to shoot the drag. I think the shopping malls killed the 'drag' as kids preferred to hang out there: mostly at the Prince St.mall. Now they won't leave their bedrooms since they only want to hang out on-line.
Met my husband shooting the drag in 93. I think graduated licenses added to the decline.
I couldn’t wait to get my license to shoot the drag then go to Fuzzies for a hotdog and THE BEST fries talking 70/80’s
No Tim's in my day!!
People still shoot the drag!
My car better not be gone or sold neither
The women has no idea what shes goin on about. Her directions are so off
I followed her directions and now I’m on cross street in the North end ffs
just watched this video, she dose not have a clue about what she's talking about, she must be from halifax and wishing she was a cape bretoner because she don't know sydney at all.
As far as I knew it was the police who kept getting all the parked cars and groups of ppl to move and leave.....they kept it up so often that I think it ended up not a hang out place anymore
they still do it but now they hang out behind BK in the old sellers parking lot
I shot the drag up until about 2002 lol
Because there was nothing else to do! Once technically made it's way east, people's horizons expanded.
Kay Eh it's not that there was nothing else to do....it's what there was to do and it was fun
Back before women got raped walking home at night from the bar. Never go alone never leave without your friend and never get too drunk that you can't defend yourself. It's not your fault but better safe then sorry