Post Scripts

Aha! And you thought it was Friday, not Tuesday!

Well it Is actually Friday, but I need to do a little catching up. I have been receiving so many comments on this site, but I never seem to have space to reply on Tuesdays. So occasionally, on a Friday, I’ll take some time to do that.

First of all, thank you to everyone who sends comments. I read them all and am grateful for the feedback. Mostly they are positive, and occasionally they are very funny. For example, one person wrote back this week about keeping her brain in shape – by learning bridge. Then she lamented her lack of progress. “I don’t think I’m playing with a full deck!” Another person wrote about living as a swinger by quoting Duke Ellington. “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!” Good to know I’ve got some stand-ins if I need a day off from writing.

Others have written with examples of places they have been or things they have seen in the city. One person responded to the post on festivals with a note about an Iranian festival in Toronto, “Tirgan” happening back in July. Sorry I didn’t think to publicize that one in time. Another person wrote in response to the post about saving money in the city.When you are at COSTCO getting that cheap hot dog, be sure to fill up on cheap gas too.

One of the early posts about buildings in the city elicited feedback. Two people wrote about specific buildings to check out. One wrote about the CNE building where the Royal Winter Fair is held. She says it seemed much larger when she was smaller. The original Toronto post office on Adelaide St., which is still in operation today, was mentioned by someone else. I remember taking adult ESL classes there when I was still teaching. It was a very friendly, but tiny, place. The Royal Mail, as it was called back then, didn’t send so much junk mail in the olden days.

Several comments have been made about living in the city. A proud grandfather, who lives down the lake in a different city from me, wrote about the entertainment his grandchildren find in looking out the window of his high-rise condo at all the fire trucks and ambulances that go by. Another person wrote about feeling like a tourist as she reads my blog. She hasn’t visited the city in 25 years. And a friend, who brought some country folks to visit me in the city, said they had quite an experience using public transit, some of them for the first time. They were mortified when they were offered seats by “youngsters.” And they almost missed their stop going home, because they were gabbing so much.

The post that has gotten the most response was the one about swimming, or Not swimming, in Lake Ontario. There were childhood stories about swimming; in Sandy Lake just after the ice had melted, or in other places along the shores of Lake Ontario where the water was just as cold as I had found it. One family wrote about spending 30 years living on the shores of Lake Ontario, and how much the lake had been the focus of their lives. There was a message about the water of Lake Superior; where the water is so cold that swimming in it is only possible a few times each summer. My niece, who lives out west, had the most shocking response. She swims in Lake Kootenay where there actually ARE glaciers!

As for errors, well there have been some. Despite reading my words over at least 3 times, I always seem to miss a letter or a comma somewhere. I also used the word “gypped” in one post and someone picked that up – I hadn’t realized that it is considered racist by the Roma. And then there are the pictures. Sometimes they fail to appear – lost in a cloud somewhere.

But I will carry on. And I hope you carry on too – reading, and writing back whenever you want to.

Sue