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Random babbling at 2:40am (if you've never been to toronto youll be lost)


Ski Mask

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I believe in the future

I may live in my car

My voice tuned to

The voice of a star

Song dogs barking at the break of dawn

Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm

And these old hopes and fears

Still at my side

...

Who says: Hard times?

I'm used to them

The speeding planet burns

I'm used to that

My life's so common it disappears

And sometimes even music

Cannot substitute for tears

...

 

listening to paul simon always makes me nostalgic and gets me thinking about toronto and my last few years there when I was 6-9. All the toronto shots in the bench just added to that. The one block with the Fathom/Kane rooftop and the Fathom rooftop on king sol were both spots I passed every day going to school. I remember stopping in the poolhall next to the KFC (in the f/k rooftop shot) on my way home and playing arcade games (that is if I didnt stop at san franchesco to play) and then crossing the street, and walking through the courtyard next to the church to go home. I'd always stop and look at all the junk in the window of king sol....military badges...blank bullets....army helmets...dummy grenades (I'd try to get my parents to buy me one almost every week...but I never wore them down).

I'd give anything to be there, at that time (late 80s) all over again.

Walking through the projects next to our building to go buy hockey cards or stickers from the little hole in the wall grocery store. Playing on the Henry Moore sculpture outside the AGO whenever we passed it. Taking the ferry out to the islands for the day...going on all the rides at centreville. Going to the library and pool at Bathurst and Dundas across from the hospital. Seeing movies at the bloor....before or after going to honest ed's. Getting bleacher seats at exhibition stadium and watching the jays during the ernie whitt/jorge bell/jesse barfield era. forcing my parents to go a few stops out of the way on the subway so I could ride the moving sidwalk between stations at spadina. just walking through chinatown...packed with people...not hearing a word of english, or watching the traffic on spadina from the 2nd floor Harvey's across from the movie theatre that only showed chinese movies. watching the demolition of the spadina rail yards, and the construction of the skydome (my parents snuck us in before it was finished so I could look around). daytrips to high park...riding the streetcar all the way there, and going to the zoo. exploring the exhibition grounds in its off-season. Going out to greenwood and danforth near our old apartment so I could visit my dad at work (for metro), and going up on the buildings roof to see the subway yards. Visiting my mom at work in the Harbourfront building (just as the area was getting popular, before the big condo explosion), and just hanging around harbourfront. watching the fireworks competition each year from the roof of a carpark at harbourfront. visiting friends in another part of town and having to take the trolley bus...waiting for the poles to pop off at a certain intersection as they almost always did...then watching the driver get out and pull on the tethers till the poles were back on the wire. playing at the park next to the salvation army and the city maintenance garage, or the nearby schoolyard.

 

shit....I wish I could live it all over again. even if I move back there in a few years its all gone. many places have been leveled for condos....others survived...but its just not the same. And I'm glad its not, things change, but it still bugs me...

sorry for the excessive length...it just all started comming back. If anyone else wants to add to this go ahead....or if you just want to ramble about random childhood memories go ahead...

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thats pretty weird ese.. i have memories of almost everything you just talked about. Obviously different situations but and a couple different locations, but it all just came back to me as i read it. You ever go swimming in the pool at High Park? I still go pool hopping in that pool.. And the bleachers at exhibition stadium? Lots of memories there.. Domaso Garcia burning his uniform on the field during a game one day, Opening day one year against the Yankees - Toronto 24, NY 21 (or something close to that), Jorge Bell with his flying drop kick at the pitcher one game...

Chinatown, the AGO, Science Center, The Maze on the Island... fun times. Good memories..

thanks ese..

 

and chicken... that hit was done a few months ago..

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*sigh* I too have many of the same memories....especially high park....I went to that place nearly every day in the summer time when I was small. The wadeing pool and the metal slides burning you ...but you went on them anyways. Do you rememebr the other sculptures that used to be there? there was one you could talk through and one that was a talking fence?...........

gus ryder pool at sunnyside... it was a treat when I got to go there cause it used to have a slide....but it always stunk like fish down near the lake *L*........I remember messing arround at the lansdown tunnels before there was really any paint down there...building forts out of old oil drums and planks of ply wood. Going to the ex... we always rode those sky box things across the grounds before we did anything else. catching frogs at Hanlans point. the kiddie water park at ontario place. watching fireworks from the grass near the bike trail....man I could go on......

 

------------------

mesthree13.hug.

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Guest kidlugz

i loved that hedge maze at centre island. my brother and i would spend hours in there running around like animals. also, the kiddie playland at ontario place with those huge foam cylanders hanging from the ceiling? we'd take a running start and just bash our way through....sometimes knocking other kids out along the way.

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i went to that maze on centre island.that shit was busted. it was wack..what was the fucking surprise a damn tree or some shit. i spent a day at that shitty place with the nasty ass water. you canadians have acid water...i like my ocean just fine..american water is where its at...Toronto was the shit, but that centre island place was wick wick wack..but there was some dope honey dips on the ferry ride over and back.

 

[This message has been edited by Chicken George (edited 08-28-2001).]

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I was on the metal slide at high park when I was little and this HUGE bug landed on me scaring the shit out of me I cired for hours.......LUGS! those foam things ruled!

 

ESE lets wait a year get a place with trees down town and just smash trains and be art fags.Lugs were moving in!

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Originally posted by Frate Raper:

I was on the metal slide at high park when I was little and this HUGE bug landed on me scaring the shit out of me I cired for hours.......LUGS! those foam things ruled!

 

ESE lets wait a year get a place with trees down town and just smash trains and be art fags.Lugs were moving in!

 

if you can wait one more year its on! I'm hopefully going to calgary next fall to persue my true calling....if I run into you on ICQ I'll explain...

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Guest --zeSto--

san franchesco !!!!!

 

We used to go there for pemeal bacon sandwiches... then pizza pizza struck.

 

other special memories...

 

working on the tall ships at harbourfront

The bizarre medical museaum at UofT

The dinosaurs at the AGO

Top of the senator for jazz

Sunnyside Pavilion

the original indoor 'graffiti alley' at queen/john

grenadier pond

camping on ward's island and the haunted lighthouse

the labrynth room before it joined futres on bloor

the coffe time on queens quay that serves alcohol to minors

sneaking into the unfinished convention center

stealing a mock up of the blue jays world series banner

taking Atlantic Ave. to get to the CNE

sneaking into the kids playland at Ontario place

the HMCS HAIDA and those tanks nearby

 

walking from arcadia on bishop tutu blvd.

up to the coffe time at king / techumseth

and being afraid (as a 7 year old) of the

toaster hanging from a stop sign, and all

those freaky ren tags. Only to live in the same area

almost 15 years later.

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The slides at high park were a definate stop every visit. I think me and mes mentioned that before in some other thread. dont remember the pool there though. I can remember walking by sunnyside down lakeshore alot...just looking out onto the lake.

 

anyone remember the "Adventure Playground" at the foot of Strachan, under the gardiner next to the armory? otherwise known as 4 million lawsuits waiting to happen....that place was a blast...our school went a few times on field trips....building big forts out of scrap wood and running around with nails and hammers all day. You had to pass that police garage for all the motorcycles and junk...I remember passing it as they were changing all the cars from those yellow ones to the regular white with blue/red stripes.

Anyone remember the demolition of the Massey Harris Furgeson plant? I used to have to go by there all the time with my parents and it was amazing to watch that huge old gothic looking factory complex get ripped down part by part after being abandoned. they still cant use alot of that land now...too much contamination...its a good thing anways...all that would get built is more yuppie condos.

 

I dont remember too many details about what jays games I went to...I wasnt a huge baseball fan as a kid, but I just remember I loved going. We went to a few argos games there too...I can remember my dad and I getting free tickets from a scalper once the game had already started...we went and watched the argos get brutalized by BC. Arrrrgoooooos!

 

The cable cars at the ex were a blast. I remember we didnt go on them one year, and about an hour later they ended up having mechanical problems and getting stuck. I think the fire department had to fish a bunch of people out of the cars with ladders. scarry. I remember going back in 98 I think, and seeing the whole deal packed up in a corner next to the gardiner, waiting to be taken away. The ruined everything....cable cars...the flyer...even the old streetcar loop....I hate that ugly new convention centre thing.

Thats a big memory I forgot to mention....going to the auto show every year...comming home with bags full of free junk. that and going to indy as they set up for the race....watching them unload trailers full of cars...setting up the pits. its probably sealed up tight when they do that now.

Theres so much stuff thats just a part of growing up there, that anybody not from a big city cant relate to. stuff like learning about the 3rd rail...what to do if you get separated on the subway. what to do when you find a syringe on the street (happened in my neighbourhood alot). things like that.

 

I'm gonna keep comming back to this topic whenever I feel like adding somthing or reminiscing....I suggest anyone else who feels like it should do the same...

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Originally posted by --zeSto--:

san franchesco !!!!!

 

We used to go there for pemeal bacon sandwiches... then pizza pizza struck.

 

other special memories...

 

working on the tall ships at harbourfront

The bizarre medical museaum at UofT

The dinosaurs at the AGO

Top of the senator for jazz

Sunnyside Pavilion

the original indoor 'graffiti alley' at queen/john

grenadier pond

camping on ward's island and the haunted lighthouse

the labrynth room before it joined futres on bloor

the coffe time on queens quay that serves alcohol to minors

sneaking into the unfinished convention center

stealing a mock up of the blue jays world series banner

taking Atlantic Ave. to get to the CNE

sneaking into the kids playland at Ontario place

the HMCS HAIDA and those tanks nearby

 

walking from arcadia on bishop tutu blvd.

up to the coffe time at king / techumseth

and being afraid (as a 7 year old) of the

toaster hanging from a stop sign, and all

those freaky ren tags. Only to live in the same area

almost 15 years later.

 

fuck yea! san franchesco was the best pizza joint in the whole fucking city! bar none! I learned to master super sprint, and chase HQ (I could finish it with 2 quarters) there.

the lighthouse at wards island was fucking aweseome...I still remember the story of the old bootlegger who lived there...and I was always trying to remember to bring this old skeleton key we had with me next time I went to try and open it up.

 

I had a friend from northern ireland who lived in the townhouses next to the TipTop building, and we'd always go over and play on the old anti-aircraft guns, and the tank, at that park..

I walked up tecumseh a million times...but usually just across it...going home from niagra school down adelade to bathurst...past the big portugese church, and the st. whatever catholic school. I remember there was a big stink about that little industrial place at that corner (adelade and tecumseh) storing PCBs illegally.

 

I'm so glad I started this thread...

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Guest --zeSto--

Adventure Playground!!

the NFB shot a film there about kids in a parent free world.

I steped on a nail there and wasn't allowed to go back to that 'death trap'.

 

and sneaking into old Fort York and playing

catpture the flag with 20 kids. Then getting

chased out by security that would rather

be playing along with us.

 

another one... the Lakeshore Motel Strip.

Not like I frequented the place (well once..)

but it's a ripe slice of history getting

crushed by the condo curse.

 

ese.. this topic will make us laugh/cry/dream/remember.

very good slice o' life.

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this topid is so dope I cant let is dissapear....

 

hahaha kidlugz hell yah me and my brother used to be such assholes at ontario. we'd run through that thing witht he foam cylinders and just bowl kids over hahaha

 

I remember those red subway cars...going downtown at christmas to look at the windows at the bay....

the smell of the air near the neilson rowntree chocolate factory.

going to christie pits and trinity bellwoods in the winter to go sledding. those hills were the shit back then...

 

did any of you guys ever go to island school *L*?

 

 

 

------------------

mesthree13.hug.

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The best part about TO is the sunlight. You know that track 'everybody loves the sunshine'? It's true. Go down on Queen St. at around 5:30 - 7, right when the light starts getting really orange. I don't know what it is, but when that light hits you, its an ill feeling. No other place feels the same.

 

I think its the ozone.

 

Seriously though, thats my favorite part about the city. Not to mention the old architecture, various halfway rundown buildings, and the Bay at Christmas time-early childhood memories.

 

You know whats jokes? The guy who owns/runs that surplus store on Queen? HATES GRAF. We went in there with paint under our nails once and he started freaking out on us. Its only funny cuz first that huge KOPS roller was on his roof, and now the FATHOM thats never getting buffed. Poor guy.

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Pulling in to Union BEFORE THE DOME! and looking at the size of the cn tower I felt like and ant.Getting lost on the subway only to bum in to my dad that was waiting on the Young plat form before my mom got off.I got beat but it was fun and scary being alone.

 

SURFING SAM!!!!!! come on you guys gotta remeber that shit I seriously think Toronto kids were the only people to wear that shit.

My mom came home from work one day with like 10 shirts "all of the kids down town wear them" so I had to rep my suburbian homo funk!

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yeah, ontario place was the shit. I think I'm claustraphobic now cause of all the times I tried to squeeze through one of the really narrow tubes on that metal/concrete octapus thing and couldnt make it. Theres a good chance I may have run right past a few of you out there on one of those damn days were the place was packed full of schools doing field trips.

 

Trinity Belwoods was the shit for sledding. We'd go there in the summer all the time with our school(niagra) to play soccer, and in the winter with toboggans.

 

Riverdale farm was always fun....right near the don valley yet tucked away from everything. The biggest memories of that place are the big barn, and the chickens they had that used to lay choclate eggs at easter.

 

I'm glad this thread has been revived...I didnt want it to die just yet. I'm a little curious about somthing....this goes back to when you were really young, or at least under 6 or 7 but anybody whos a product of this place will understand my curiousity... anybody here go to the childrens storefront on bathurst?

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Guest --zeSto--

There was this stor in Queens Quay terminal that had nothing but kites.

They'd offer free kite flying to the kiddies.

Standing on the water flying a kite... priceless.

 

Corrado's Barber Shop on bathurst!!

I saw my first sunshine girl and pin-up calendar there.

the walls were papered with girilie shots.

 

I still go there to this day.

I've tried elsewhere like Palmo & Joe's on Roncesvalles,

on Joe's on College, but there's nothing like good old foul mouthed Corrado.

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Originally posted by T.T Boy:

edmonton was cool. remember hawrelark park? or the fringe? those hot summer night with so many people and all the performers.... tell me some of your edmonton memories...

 

yeah they had those big trikes you could ride on the water, in hawrelak park. they also had the illest playground there. the fringe is pretty tight. west ed mall was cool, you could either go to fantasy land or the waterpark or go ride a submarine or see some sharks and penguins. the valley zoo was cool. and how can i not mention klondike days. panning for gold and riding that huge slide on the potato sacks

when i was about 5 i thought every movie was made in edmonton. like when i saw ferris buelers day off i was like "yeah my aunt lives around there" and me and my mom rode the lrt every day to get to my daycare, and when i saw a movie with a subway i automatically thought it was edmonton. i saw that lizard king piece by the stadium and i thought it was so cool.

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garth> fuck, those trikes were ill. and that park where you could bulild shit with the blocks... man, that was fun. remember all the arcades in west ed? there was liek so many. klondike days were great, panning for gold. god, the memories. and swimming at jasper place pool, with the big diving boards. or watching the eskimos play when they seemed to be so good. and who could forget gretzky? what area did you grow up in?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest --zeSto--

San Franchesco's is still open!!!

 

I was walking down Clinton last night,

and saw the sign with a SuperMario looking

guy eating a huge sandwich with 'san francesco'

on it. I thought this place was lost,

but obviously it was just too good to die.

thanks to the Italians on Clinton St. who saved the day.

 

I'm going there for veal this weekend!

you know how much this means... right ese?!

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Originally posted by --zeSto--:

San Franchesco's is still open!!!

 

I was walking down Clinton last night,

and saw the sign with a SuperMario looking

guy eating a huge sandwich with 'san francesco'

on it. I thought this place was lost,

but obviously it was just too good to die.

thanks to the Italians on Clinton St. who saved the day.

 

I'm going there for veal this weekend!

you know how much this means... right ese?!

 

if I give you the money will you fedex me a few slices of pizza? I'll have to remember to go looking for it next time I'm in town...

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