The first time I arrived in Toronto, was through the birth canal. I was born on a snowy day in December of 1943. That was when winter was really winter; when the snow came, it was here on business.
My parents had an apartment on Glebeholme Avenue, and when I was about 18 months old, Dad sold a cottage he had up at Lake Simcoe to put a downpayment on a house in an area known as The Beaches.
I was one of those kids that always complained - why don’t we ever move?!! We never moved. The Beaches, now a very popular area for artistic types and tourists, wasn’t fashionable then - I often say ’I was a Beacher long before it became fashionable to be one.’
Oh, where to begin - there’s so much to tell you about my home town; how it was then and how it is now.
Well, it’s big - there’s no doubt about that. I’ll go into that in another story; right now, I just want to tell you what it’s like here.
When you arrive as a tourist, keep something in mind. If you do everything the travel agents tell you to do, you’ll spend a lot of money - that’s the way it is in any place.
Being a Torontian, I can give you some tips on how to really see the place. Do take in the waterfront, for one thing. If you are able to bring your bike with you, that would be good - but you likely will not be able to. You can always rent one here. It’s just as important as renting a car. With a bike, you can just get yourself down to the lake (Lake Ontario) and ride the trail right along. You’ll truly see everything there is to see on the lakeshore. The harbourfront, for one thing, is something you don’t want to miss.
Like every other place, we do a lot of complaining about our transit system, but when we really think about it, we have to admit - it’s pretty good. Don’t just settle for the subway line; get on the surface routes.
For instance, if you are in the west end, go over to Roncesvalles Avenue (Dundas & Bloor) and take the streetcar - get on the 504 route. It takes you down to King Street and along the top of the hill that edges the highway. You can see the water from the car, right along to Dufferin.
Are we allowed to post pictures here? I’d like to share some stuff I’ve done from this streetcar.
This route will take you right through the Downtown area. If you want to get off and see the theatres and the main buildings, get yourself a day pass. You can also get family passes on the weekends. That way, you can get on and off when you want.
The car goes right through the downtown area as far as the big river which is The Don - it crosses a bridge and goes up a street called Broadview Avenue. It stops at the Danforth (which is part of Bloor Street). Don’t just transfer on to the subway - get back on the car and backtrack the same route.
You’ll see a real slice of life on this route.
I’m not going to put you on, and say that we’re just perfect; not going to say we don’t have any problems just because our mayor (Lastman) wants the Olympics here. I’m going to tell you the truth. You will see the homeless camped out on the street - that’s something you don’t hear from the travel agents - that’s something you don’t hear from the political leaders. It’s a disgraceful situation - many of the citizens feel that we should be spending more money on getting people housed. Yes, it’s true; some of the ragamuffins you see camped out on the street just refuse to go into hostels, but by and large - there’s not enough shelter for these people.
We are a city of people that got caught up in economical times, just like other places - some of the people you see sleeping on park benches, were once bank managers! When you read in the media that welfare rolls have gone down - that really means that more people have been kicked off the system and they’ve had to take the street.
There are other routes of travel by way of the transit system too (TTC). Taking these routes by streetcars and buses, will give you a good view of the city.
There’s the good, bad and the ugly, all rolled into one here.
But you know what? You’ll like us - we’re a mix of people - we have a splash of every colour invented here - multi-national and you will hear the voices of many tongues.
Only today, Jeff and I were having lunch up on Bloor West - we played pool there and the group that were at the next table were talking. As a couple of people cued their balls on the table, they talked to a guy from Saudi Arabia, telling him all about our province. I never realized how much there was to tell. I heard him say that he was really surprised at how friendly Canadians are - and it’s true.
You’ll like us.
I’ll write again on the subject of Toronto and more on Ontario. Hope you like what I did so far.
If you’re here on a Saturday, drop into the High Park Library at 11:30 a.m. I lead a group there called Wild City Writers’. Tell ’em I sent ’ya.
Carly :-)