Happy Birthday!

Actually, it's my city's birthday. The place I've called home for over half a century is 175 years old, today. In terms of other major cities, Toronto is just a toddler. Yet, this city is one of the most vibrant, cosmopolitan (yet never forgetting its meagre beginnings), culturally diverse cities in the world. I'm not sure which I am more proud of--Toronto or Canada. To me, each represents the epitome of what a city or country should be. Mayor David Miller points to the city's public services, strong work ethic, frugality, and sense of social justice as keys to Toronto's success. I would agree with that sentiment. The city has come a long way from it's Puritan roots. I've heard stories that up until the 50's, city playgrounds were "locked" on the Lord's day so that children could not use them. Personally, I recall that you'd be hard-pressed to find any business open on a Sunday, including gas stations and stores. When I took my first vacation in Florida around 1979, arriving on a Sunday, I couldn't believe my eyes when we found a supermarket open. "Heathen!", I thought. ;) Even on week days, Toronto bars could not open until noon and could not serve alcoholic beverages until hours later unless it was accompanied by a meal. Pubs had to close at 1 a.m. Since then, Toronto has joined the ranks of the un-anointed with bars staying open until 2 a.m. and most shops opening on Sundays and those with tourist attraction designation are even open on statutory holidays. I used to have personal photos from the 50's but my ex- was too vindictive to let me have them after the divorce. So, instead I'll post a few of Toronto landmarks then and now from the web with commentary about my connection to them. Old City Hall: This is a relatively new photo of relatively old building (1899) still in use, today. I believe they still use courtrooms here and it boasts a jail in the basement for unruly "guests". I hate to admit that in my troubled youth, I was indeed a guest here once.

New City Hall: Built in 1965 to a tremendous positive reaction for it's unique architectural design, the taller tower is 27 floors and the "flying saucer" in the middle is the city council chamber. My school took us here on a field trip shortly after it opened.

Maple Leaf Stadium: It was built in 1926, but the team was already playing at another stadium since 1886. The team was part of the International League. I used to hear that names like Willie Mays, Sparky Anderson, etc. played here. When I was a kid in the early 60's, my friends and I used to regularly walk about thirty minutes to the stadium to collect discarded pop bottles to refund for candy money. Toronto would not get an MLB team until I believe, 1977, playing out of Exhibition Stadium, which by the way, played through a snowy day its very first opening day. Some question whether we have a major league team, today. Americans don't seem to have noticed that the Toronto Blue Jays won back to back World Series championships in '92 and '93.

Rogers Centre: Current home of the Blue Jays and Canadian Football League Argonauts. I was lucky enough to have been invited to watch a MLB game by a client who had a private box. When the stadium was first built, luxury boxes were going for $1 million for a ten-year commitment. Ouch. And that did not include the price of tickets, food, drinks or gratuities!

Maple Leaf Gardens: Built in 1926, it is regarded as the holy shrine of hockey. The Toronto Maple Leafs won four cups in five years here in the early 60's. Haven't won one since. Ouch. Cheap seats then were $2. When I was in my teens, I paid a scalper $20 for a $4 ticket. Ouch. Air Canada Centre: Today's home of both the Maple Leafs and the NBA Toronto Raptors. Due to poor performance of the leafs, I haven't attended a single game here. Due to the poor performance of the Raps, I attended only one game here because I got a free ticket. Downtown Toronto: Then.

Downtown Toronto: Now.

Toronto skyline: This shot was taken from Toronto island. Prominent is the CN Tower, built in 1974, at 1815 feet tall, it remained the tallest, free-standing structure in the world until 2008. Those "tiny" buildings to the right are as much as 90 stories tall. My brother-in-law, who is a welder, has his name permanently etched into one of the tower's steel girders. Around 1980, I had dinner in the revolving restaurant. What do you think?--Does $22 for lamb chops sound expensive for 1980? Ouch. I still have the two glasses shaped like the tower that our drinks were served in.

I left out a number of venues deserving mention. Maybe I'll feature others in future postings.

Caution: offensive content

Earlier this evening, I found another reason for my waning interest in watching hockey. Mind you, it's not a biggee, but just the same...

The Toronto Maple Leafs' Nik Antropov had just tied the game late in the third period against the Mighty Ducks (I still can't believe they adopted that name). The home crowd was going wild and the camera did a pan across the Leaf bench.

Many of the players were looking down as if there was something fascinating going on down there, and many others were looking in various directions, looking about as interested as if they were at a lawn bowling game. No offence to lawn bowlers who many I'm sure can make the Maple Leaf team.

Getting back to the camera pan, it stayed long enough on one player for the presumably millions of faithful Canadian hockey fans to witness the "horking up" of a "loogie" just shy of the size of a regulation golf ball, and its propulsion halfway across the ice surface, quite possibly landing on centre ice. If it were black, it might have instigated an invalid faceoff. However, the best was yet to come. One player, who will remain nameless, only because I was less interested in him, than he was that the camera was on him, had an index finger lodged up his nose, seemingly to the third knuckle, where it remained until it was out of camera range.

I think the ending of Taxi Driver is less offensive...maybe because it is reminiscent of old-time hockey. ;)