Welcome to my neighbourhood

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Wednesday, Nov 4, I return to Toronto, the city that the rest of Canada hates. The hate is held mostly by a small town mentality of petty bigotry, otherwise known as snobs.

Toronto is a poetic verb, whereas Northumberland is largely rolling nouns with rivulets of prose flowing inbetween.

I will not be returning to Cobourg until the end of the month. In the meantime, I thought I'd like to put my Toronto experience (past & present) on my Cobourg blog. After all, Toronto was the playground for my imagine nation for over 35 years. It plays a big part of my life, especially culturally.

It has always been interesting to compare that experience with my small town upbringing. Life in a metropolis provides the benefits of social anonymity, whereas life in a small town brings the benefits of social intimacy. There are cheerleaders to either side of the zeitgeist, and those who live both in parallel-simultaneity.

Today's story is about a February 20, 2008, fire; the Queen West burnout which was happening a block and half away from where I lived.
I woke circa 6am, showered, dressed, went out to Bathurst Street to catch the streetcar that wasn't coming. A swarm of red lights were swirling at the intersection of Queen, si I walked towards the light to see what was happening.

Below was what was happening when I turned the corner. Flames weer shooting out of one store at ground level. I stood there mesmerized for about five minutes before walking back to side streets to get to Spadina Avenue to catch a streetcar.

The residuals of the fire followed me all the way to Spadina; black ashes and some still glowing were raining down on the old neighbourhood. The extent of the smoke-out can be seen below.