Over the past few days, I have really not been feeling my normal self. Kind of not surprising I suppose as my Brain is still working on healing itself from my fancy flip off the legislature steps. Being somewhat stuck in place is finding its way into my daily routine, and I can't say that as the days pass, I can probably think of a thousand and one other things I'd rather be doing. Let alone miss my beautiful partner Karen to the point where one's heart begins to ache.
Because I must stay close to the neurological clinic, I fill my days with writing and video blogs plus of course the book which has at times been challenging getting permissions taking out names, putting them back in etc. If people thought that writing fiction was difficult because of the creation in the mind of places you draw in your imagination just wait till you try nonfiction.
The one thing that has helped in all of this is my recollection of events surrounding Karen and my time while in Toronto between 1986 and 1997 has become very vivid and very defined.
I try to draw parallels between the Toronto of then to the Toronto of today, and the fact of the matter is that you can't.
Toronto, in the early eighties, was still a factory town. Outside of the Bay Street financial sector, thousands of factories and small independent businesses each trying to find their place in a vibrant consumer driven market. The old Toronto buildings, still covered with the blackened soot from years of using coal fired energy, gave it this incredible historical feel of the Victorian industrial revolution.
The idea of multinational franchises was still slow to come. Most businesses were Mom and Pop shops usually connected to the ethnic group who made up the neighborhood area they were in, and it was those to which Karen and I would seek to support.
Going down Yonge Street was an adventure as it changed faster than the seasons from the store front windows to the buskers who would crowd the sidewalks with tables to sell their products. Mostly the street venders did not have proper retail permits, so they would change locations frequently to escape being fined. This would stream thousands of people, which sometimes made it very hard to find a path wherever it was you were headed.
The restaurant and pub scene was incredible, and each place had themes and imaginative decor not to mention eclectic menus that the smell alone would carry you into the establishment on the sweet vapors. The Organ Grinder, The Groaning Board, and the Main event were just three of these incredible culinary experiences that kept you coming back for more.
Iconic Stores like Sam the Record Man, AandA records, Eds Warehouse restaurants, and Honest Eds itself spoke of a value in the entrepreneurial spirit which permeated the entire GTA. Stood the test of time not realizing this would be their last hurrah as Toronto transitioned into a new information-based economy from that of the factory. There would still be factories. But with it came a sterile looking limited reach.
Last night I was whisked away like magic back to that time as Karen and I sat of our Balcony at 437 Jarvis Street watching the nightlife unfold from outside our apartment door. From the happenings across the street at the CBC. To Ben Wicks strolling past our building from his studio, acknowledging our presence as he disappeared into Cabbagetown. At the far corner stood Hooker Harvey's at the Northwest corner of Jarvis and Gerrard which was the tip of Torontos red light district.
The street the activity, the brilliant color' that flowed through my mind the smells so memorable you could almost taste it. My dreams flooded a time long past, but still very much present within our hearts and minds.
Many people have asked why I left my prairie home in the eighties to go to Toronto and truthfully, I'm sometimes not sure about myself. One thing I can say is I would not have traded the experience for the world.
Toronto made me a better person, a more artistic writer, and a better partner and father. When like many others she wanted to let go, she returned me to my Prairie home with a far calmer and more tolerant version of what I once was.
As I close my eyes tonight, I wonder where she will take me tomorrow!?
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