The Globe and Mail

Do you remember Big Boy? With that big dumb grin, controlled cowlick and a belly full of burgers, held aloft by those trademark red-and-white-checkered overalls, I certainly do. Big Boy looms large in my psyche for another reason: He may be responsible for my lifelong love of California modern, or “Googie” architecture. Growing up in an older, Depression-era neighbourhood at Coxwell and Danforth avenues in the early 1970s, there wasn't much space-age architecture to admire. I suppose the intricately stacked beehive hairdos atop the heads of the lunch-counter ladies at the local Woolworth's came close. But, when I think about it, it was the JB's Big Boy restaurant that sprang up near Shoppers World at Danforth and Victoria Park Avenue that sent me over the moon.