2nd and 3rd Generation

Plaza

The Historical Queen of Hearts:

Asplund Music was before the Queen of Hearts. One of the original owners were local business people, Bill and Wilma Harrison. Wilma and Bill arrived in Thompson in 1961, just in time for the grand opening of the Thompson Plaza.  They viewed the town as a great opportunity for developing new businesses.  Their restaurant, in the Plaza, was named ‘Sinclair’s’ and later changed to ‘Siggies.’  Over the years they opened other food services: 1963 – Tom Thumb, a children’s clothing; 1970 – A&W Franchise; Queen of Hearts, a stereo equipment shop; Gondola Pizza; Camera Corner. (Lisa Dawn Strate).

“Mike Smith, my dad, was a co-owner with Terry Nemez and Bill Harrison. Eventually dad bought out Bill and Terry and got Mike Dillman involved for a few years. I was never the salesman. My dad was, so I got into mechanics for the army then refrigeration for Northgate in Thompson.”  Ted Watt

“That was my dad’s store. His name is Terry, and the co-owners name was Gary. My grandfather Bill Harrison was the original owner. He sold it to my dad and Gary in the early 80’s.” Amaris Nemez

Manager Garry Watt ran the Queen of Hearts. Ted was his son. “My mom and dad moved to Thompson in 1970, when I was 6 or 7 months old, from Flin Flon, where he worked for Simpson Sears in that mall. Shortly after he got a partnership with Bill Harrison and ran The Queen of Hearts until he passed in 98.” (Ted Watt) Gary Watt was married to Marg. She worked as a female guard at the RCMP Detachment. They lived on Sauger Crescent.

Gary was a very amiable person. He established relationships with the customers. People would come into the store just to talk with him. Gary trusted the customers. One man was a delivering and setting up stereos for Queen of Hearts. He stated, “Gary was a great guy. He sold me a nice pair of PSB speakers back in the 90’s and said to take them home and I could pay him on payday. I always liked going in there to talk and look, even if I wasn’t buying. It was a very welcoming business.”  “This was a good place I still have records I bought there it was good sometimes when it wasn’t real busy to just stop by and bs with Gary.” Graham Wiscombe. What happened to Gary? Gary died suddenly of a massive stroke in his 50’s. Marg also had a stroke a few years later and eventually moved to Regina where their son Ted lived.

Records/tapes/cd’s: People bought many records and tapes, and then CD’s, along with the equipment. They carried the latest selections in LP and 8 track and cassettes. The records were displayed so that eyes could brows the selection. “They had good quality stuff and good record selection”. It was nice to have records with all the lyrics for the songs and photos and art pics and guidebook for the album. (Patti Scoles).

Saturday Night Special on the radio: Saturday night special was on the radio on Saturday nights. You could win a record from the Queen of hearts

Guitar sales. Some people bought their first real instruments at Queen of Hearts. One man bought a Charvel bass. Others bought acoustic guitars. Another bought and electric guitar and a harmony explorer. My parents bought us a Yamaha acoustic guitar in 1977. I still have it. (see the picture).

Guitar Lessons by tape: I took a few lessons for acoustic guitar in 1978. Queen of Hearts had a relationship with Dorr Music in Winnipeg. I would get cassette tapes and respond to the lesson. I still have the cassettes. It has my voice when was in grade seven. (see picture).

Electronics: Queen of Hearts was a great place for quality electronics. They were authorized dealers for Bose, Toshiba, Pioneer, Sae, Yamaha, Ultraliner, Yamaha and Lowery organs. There were Harmon Cardon dual cassette decks, and Pioneer turntables. They sold professional sound equipment for bands there, like Bose pro speakers, Peavey Sound boards and amps. People would buy powerful stereo systems with the watts to keep their neighbors on their toes.  It was nothing but the best from Gary at Queen of Hearts!

“I remember my parents had one of these in our basement. Upstairs, surprisingly, my dad had a Yamaha system with Bose speakers. I never thought of my dad as an audiophile. He had a massive set of records from classical to early country. His country albums were fairly good old bands. He bought his stereo from Terry Nemez at the Queen of Hearts. I was with my dad when he bought his new stereo. I remember Terry telling my dad to pick out a bunch of records. Terry also tossed in some records that would highlight the system.” – Darcy Brady

Video Arcade in the back: People loved hanging out there playing pinball in the arcade. They spent a lot of quarters there. Some kids spent $10 worth of quarters there. “It was a really great place. I sat behind the counter giving out quarters. The arcade made it next level!” Amaris Nemez🤣” I am surprised about how many people have vivid memories of time spent there. I did not even know that there was an arcade there, and I loved playing video arcade games. I hung out at the Pieces of Eight. Parents would go shopping at Shop Easy and their kids would be at the arcade. Some young people evens skipped classes to play. (I skipped a class here and there to play video games). Things got a little rough in the arcade at times. One man stated, “In grade 8, took a beating because I wouldn’t get off Double Dragon, it was worth it.” Another stated, “I got in 1 hell of a scrap in there. I didn’t even get kicked out lol”.

Some games were Double Dragon, PacMan and Ms PacMan, Space Invaders, Tempest, and Mortal Kombat. Looking back on these games, it is hard to believe that kids went nuts over these games. The graphics are rudimentary. But it was all new and people were mesmerized by the new video game technology.

Model Car Sales: Apparently, in the late 60’s, they sold model cars and had a model car contest. There were contests and the best model cars were displayed in the glass case in the window by the entrance for about a week. “They even had CESM TV film interviews with the winners”. (Roland Becker)

Sponsoring Stock Cars: Queen of Hearts was also one of the sponsors for Ken Kolada’s stock car.

Notable Thompsonites who worked there were Terry Nemeth, Ronald Strynadka (setting up stereos), Terry Nemez, Amaris Nemez, Lynn Siegersma (rolling quarters), Brent Thompson (rolling quarters), Shelley Ruenholl.

(Thank you all for your contributions to this write up in past posts).