So many of you from all over the world have asked me about the Hart House and what it was like there. It's hard to put it into one simple answer ... but I always love going back to the way I remembered it.

I spent most of my free time at Hart house and in the Dungeon ... even in its final days. There truly was never a dull moment in that old, brick house that was once a hospital in the war.

I can still picture my grandmother walking down the steps from the kitchen to the basement ... nonchalantly checking her laundry. The washing machine and dryer happened to be located right next the Dungeon. She thought nothing of it when she heard grown men scream at the top of their lungs in pain. Stu was usually spending Saturday and Sunday mornings practicing the fine art of submission wrestling on anyone he could get his hands on.

The Dungeon was just a little room. There were holes in the walls and in the ceiling from people's bodies and heads going through it. The mats were old and weathered, and not soft at all. Some of the padding had actually been ripped out for years ... we just wrestled around it. A little door took you into it from the side of the house and there were a few small windows in it where you could catch a glimpse of what was inside.

Hart House had more than 20 bedrooms and four floors. It sat on a hill, in a yard littered with old Cadillacs that didn't run. Vines ran up the side of the house, creeping across balconies and brick and usually snow that made you want to go inside and get warm. Usually one would head for the kitchen, which was all commercial steel ... meant for heavy duty cooking and heavy duty eating!

Many of times, the most unusual people would come over for our Sunday dinners. They consisted of up to 50 people every week. Stu did all the cooking ... which was a lot when Andre the Giant was a houseguest! Or Benny and Billy Maguire, the world's largest twins (who broke every toilet in the house), also wanted to break bread with the family. A few of the other guests included a monkey and a bear, which were stored near the Dungeon.  

Stu was always fascinated by the oddities and quirks in people and animals...which were always welcome in our home, as long as they liked wrestling!

In fact, my grandfather used to prepare his famous fried chicken in a room across from the Dungeon, which also served as a crematorium when the house was a hospital. If you looked outside, you could see one of many wrestling rings set up on the lawn. As kids, we had our own wrestling promotion, called the KWA (Kids Wrestling Association), where the boys would put on shows before Sunday dinners. 

As beautiful as that brick house was, with it's antique chandeliers that beamed out through picture glass windows ... there really was a sense of mystique that surrounded it. There was a light that radiated from the Dungeon on up to the attic. It's almost as if the house had a soul that made it glow ... but the people that came through it, that gave the home its charm. .. and its heartbeat.

Hart House still exists today, but the family has no ownership of it since my grandparents passed on. People still come from abroad and drive by it to catch a glimpse of a place that was truly magical. I can picture it perfectly in my head ... and I can go there any time I want because I still believe in it.