In my first Toronto post, I promised more photographs. Here they are, starting with the ugly.
Mr. Fluffster and I did a lot of walking, as Omicron made other pastimes unwise. Above, a stretch of Yonge Street between Sheppard Avenue and Highway 401. Hard to imagine a more desolate landscape. The street here has a sidewalk on one side only, and no redeeming features. With traffic (and a cold wind) whipping past us, this stretch made for a bleak walk.
When we started down Yonge Street, we expected to enjoy strolling past homes, businesses, and restaurants all the way. We’d both forgotten the ghastly wasteland around the highway. Sadly, it hasn’t changed for the better in the 32 years since we bid Toronto farewell.
Also ugly, but at least more colourful — the signage we saw when walking to/from my mother-in-law’s place. A cacophony of colours, styles, and fonts assaults the senses.
One more below. The discordant elements make it hard to focus on a single sign. It’s like a visual version of listening simultaneously to several different songs, sung off-key and at differing volumes.
Enough ugly. Let’s move on to the bad. Just one. No, this isn’t the photo that appears in Reflections on plain language and dog poop. This one’s new!
I did more research, in case I missed something last time, but found only the same two repeal notices in the online Vaughan By-law Library:
No unrepealed By-law 122-87 is listed.
The “87” refers to the year it was passed. This mind-boggling sign has been threatening pet owners for at least 8 years (since 2014, when I first saw it) and possibly much longer (up to 35 years?) Bad sign. Very bad sign!
On to the good. We’ve always enjoyed looking at interesting architecture and houses from a bygone era. Toronto has lots. The day we walked down Yonge Street, we saw several lovely old buildings, like this hydro-electric substation.
Glengrove Substation, built in 1930
Glenview Apartments date back to at least 1941, possibly earlier
Lawrence Park Apartments, built in 1925
Also, one bright little orphaned house, currently a doggie daycare and grooming “boutique,” jauntily hanging in there between soulless apartment buildings.
What a good house!
As I wrote earlier, our hotel room faced Gibson House Museum. The day our performance of Come from Away was cancelled, we decided to check out this historical house instead. Not live theatre, of course, but still interesting.
Two staff members welcomed us with delight. They must have been bored stiff waiting for visitors to show up during a pandemic.**
Since we were the only ones to book a tour that day, our guide gave us a personalized, yet physically distanced, tour (plus traditional gingerbread cookies). Windows left wide open ensured adequate ventilation. We kept our coats on and sidled closer to the fireplace whenever we could. Our guide kindly threw more logs on the fire when we started to turn blue.
I won’t recount the history of this 19th century farmhouse (you can find that here), just one tidbit. In 1837, the government burned down the original Gibson House in retaliation for the owner’s involvement in William Lyon Mackenzie’s Battle of Montgomery’s Tavern. David Gibson fled to the US, leaving his family behind, was pardoned in 1843, and returned from exile to (re)build the house you see above and resume his surveying career.
We made our own small contribution to the 1837 rebellion:
Mr. Fluffster and his mom doing their bit for responsible government
David’s wife Eliza, who looked after the family while he was in exile and on the road surveying, likely has her own rich history, but all we know about her is that after ensuring her children were safe, she rescued the clock-face and mechanical workings of their grandfather clock from the fire. They were later installed into a new clock that’s still standing in the parlour. Eliza deserves more recognition for her competence.
Finally, below, a rare sighting. Public telephones are few and far between now. I assume these particular ones work, though I never saw them used.
Not sure whether these phones qualify as good, bad, or ugly; good because they’re useful or bad because they’re unused and just take up space? Ok, maybe not ugly.
More photos to come in my next post.
* Created by Prettycons, Luis Prado, and David Šauer from the Noun Project.
** All Toronto museums closed due to COVID-19 a week after we visited.
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