@MarkFlashbacks

Freelance Flashbacks local history columnist, singer-songwriter and speaker.

Joined February 2013
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💔 Mark Pongetti shares heartfelt gratitude as The Acoustic Room closes its doors. 👉 thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… The Acoustic Room guitar shop will close next month, ending the Pongetti dynasty that began in 1957 #HamOnt #Flashbacks @MarkFlashbacks
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A Hamilton family's dream turned to tragedy on Oak Island. 💔 Discover the poignant tale of ambition, loss, and the relentless search for treasure. 👉 thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… #CurseOfOakIsland #Flashbacks #HamiltonHistory @MarkFlashbacks

Hamilton father and son die in ‘The Curse of Oak Island’ treasure hunt

A local family spent years searching for the island’s fabled riches. It was an effort two members wouldn’t survive.

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#FLASHBACKS | Take a tour down the memory lane of ghost advertising signs in Hamilton thespec.com/life/take-a-tour… Mark McNeil | @MarkFlashbacks

Take a tour down the memory lane of ghost advertising signs in Hamilton

“The vibrant signs tend to appear and then disappear,” says local historian Bill King.

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#FLASHBACKS | “There were so many of us who lost our husbands on that day.” 103-year-old widow remembers the dear husband she lost in the disastrous 1942 raid on Dieppe thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… Mark McNeil reports | @MarkFlashbacks
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A look at Robert Reid Smiley who started The Spectator 178 years ago this week. A fascinating column by @MarkFlashbacks I wonder if the tenants living in “Smiley’s Castle" have any idea of its history. thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… via @thespec

A look at Robert Reid Smiley who started The Spectator 178 years ago this week

July 15, 1846, is the historic day when the first edition of the Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce came off the press.

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A look at Robert Reid Smiley who started The Spectator 178 years ago today. 📰 👉 thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… @MarkFlashbacks July 15, 1846, is the historic day when the first edition of the Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce came off the press.

A look at Robert Reid Smiley who started The Spectator 178 years ago this week

July 15, 1846, is the historic day when the first edition of the Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce came off the press.

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Seventy years ago this month, CHCH TV began broadcasting as a CBC affiliate with an inaugural one and a half hour variety program called “This is Hamilton.” thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… Mark McNeil reports | @MarkFlashbacks

Steve Dunn remembers operating a studio camera at CHCH TV’s historic first broadcast 70 years ago

CHCH TV began broadcasting as a CBC affiliate with an inaugural one and a half hour variety program called “This is Hamilton.”

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FLASHBACKS | Remembering Bob Morrow: New film remembers Hamilton’s longest serving mayor “You couldn’t go anywhere in our city without bumping into Bob Morrow.” 👉 thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… | Hamilton #HamOnt | Mark McNeil, Spectator Contributor @MarkFlashbacks

Remembering Bob Morrow: New film remembers Hamilton’s longest serving mayor

“You couldn’t go anywhere in our city without bumping into Bob Morrow.”

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There was a time when Hamilton’s famed Lancaster bomber was mounted like a giant butterfly in a high school science project, writes Mark McNeil. thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… TODAY'S FLASHBACK | Hamilton #HamOnt | @CWHM @MarkFlashbacks
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#FLASHBACKS | Today the HSR is made up of sleek buses, mostly powered by compressed natural gas. But you can still take a glimpse of the past at a new exhibition at the Tourism Hamilton visitor centre at 28 James St. N. thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… Mark McNeil reports |@MarkFlashbacks

HSR at 150: The Hamilton Street Railway doesn’t have rails, but it has a lot of history

The Hamilton Street Railway is commemorating its anniversary with a display.

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The popular hobby of metal detecting is raising the ire of licenced archeologists who see it as ‘looting’ | @MarkFlashbacks for @TheSpec thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… #HamOnt

The popular hobby of metal detecting is raising the ire of licenced archeologists who see it as...

“We are so heavily regulated about what we can do, yet detectorists are flouting the law.”

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A murder, a great detective, a shootout and a hanging. This real life drama isn't a 'Murdoch Mystery' but there is a connection thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… Mark McNeil's #Flashbacks column today | @MarkFlashbacks

Extra! Extra! Read all about one of the most sensational murder cases from 19th-century Ontario

A Cayuga area farmer named Abel McDonald was robbed of $35 and killed by two thugs 150 years ago.

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Hamilton Children’s Museum building was once proposed as a sanctuary for Gage family ghosts Eugenie Gage wanted her house to remain “unopened, unoccupied and undisturbed forever.” | #HamOnt #FLASHBACKS | By @MarkFlashbacks thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…

Hamilton Children’s Museum building was once proposed as a sanctuary for Gage family ghosts

Eugenie Gage wanted her house to remain “unopened, unoccupied and undisturbed forever.”

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With St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, Flashbacks looks at a recent revival of Irish music and culture in #HamOnt Tuesday evenings at the Corktown Pub on Young Street in Hamilton, you’ll usually find the place is hopping, writes Mark McNeil @MarkFlashbacks thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…

With St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, Flashbacks looks at a recent revival of Irish music and culture...

Corktown sessions are reminiscent of traditional ceilidh nights in Ireland that have a long history in people’s homes and more recently in pubs.

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#FLASHBACKS | Celebrating Jackie Washington and Stan Rogers The two performers gained popularity decades ago during the Hamilton’s coffee house era, Mark McNeil writes. thespec.com/news/hamilton-re… | Hamilton #HamOnt | @MarkFlashbacks

Celebrating Jackie Washington and Stan Rogers

The two performers gained popularity decades ago during the Hamilton’s coffee house era.

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#FLASHBACKS | It was a horrific tragedy that still echoes through the generations. Twelve of the victims were from Hamilton, writes @MarkFlashbacks Mark McNeil, Spectator Contributor | Hamilton #HamOnt thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…

Remembering one of Canada’s worst airline disasters that claimed the lives of 79 people

Twelve of the victims of Maritime Central Airways Flight 315 were from Hamilton.

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Mike Clasen is getting ready to shut down Records on Wheels, the 45-yr-old record business he has owned for 39 years. The bricks-and-mortar store that showcased so much vinyl over the years is scheduled to close on May 31, writes @MarkFlashbacks | #HamOnt thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…
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#FLASHBACKS | Iconic Hamilton Cemetery vault going through major restoration to prevent walls from collapsing Mark McNeil, Contributing Columnist | Hamilton #HamOnt | @MarkFlashbacks thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…

Iconic Hamilton Cemetery vault going through major restoration to prevent walls from collapsing

The Land family gravesite memorializes one of Hamilton’s earliest pioneering families. It was constructed by Col. Robert Land in 1853.

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#FLASHBACKS | Someone once said, "the beach is calling, and I must go." So, I did. I took a recent visit to Grimsby Beach, just beyond the border of Hamilton. | Mark McNeil, Contributing Columnist @MarkFlashbacks thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…
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#FLASHBACKS | The interment of Elizabeth Hughes (Maynard), 80, was the end of an era in a family that suffered an overwhelming series of heart-wrenching tragedies through the First World War and shortly after it. | Hamilton #HamOnt | @MarkFlashbacks thespec.com/news/hamilton-re…

Family misfortune: War, accidents and the Spanish flu took the lives of six siblings from Hamilton

War, accidents and the Spanish flu took the lives of six siblings from Hamilton

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