a different kind of historical walk

Toronto residents: do you know where the Jumbo Burger is? When I was a kid, this was a 50s style diner called June and Bills. Funny the things you remember. My father had a shop where he made windows and doors just down the lane. It was called Alumacraft. In those days, daycare during the summer meant I would go into work with my parents. They would turn me loose to play with the kids who hung out in the lane. We played all kinds of games. My favourite involved spray paint cans we would scavenge from the garbage. We would gather rocks and chunks of old cement, then place a spent spray can in the middle of the lane. Usually, these cans still held paint and pressure and were thrown out because of a nozzle problem. We would take turns hurling rocks at the can. The first kid to puncture the spray can and "make it dance" won. Kids, don't try this at home.

The stairway in the photo is just across the lane from the Jumbo Burger. It is unchanged from when I was a kid. We liked to climb the stairs, then slide down the pole. Looking at it now, it's a wonder we didn't smash ourselves up.

The old garage with the no parking sign is what the Alumacraft site looks like now. When my parents had the business, there was a big blue sliding barn door that covered the garage door. Usually there would be crates of glass stacked outside as well. There was a little storefront facing the street. It was long and narrow and my dad stored metal there. Customers would walk through the narrow store and then outside along a sidewalk to the shop in the back. My father made good windows and doors, and he also did repairs. Next door to Alumacraft, there used to be a vacant lot. The shop was heated with a woodstove and my father would bring in bins of offcuts from some furnature place, which he burned to heat the place. I liked to use the offcuts like building blocks and build worlds in the vacant lot. Good times.

The lane was our other playground. It was full of wonders and I bet it still is.