Lisa Stokes

Sunday September 7 – Wicked and Some Toronto Theatre History

Alun likes musical theatre in general and Wicked in particular. He often listens to the soundtrack on his phone. When we learned that Wicked was coming to Toronto we asked him if he would like tickets for his birthday and he did. So back in May, when tickets first went on sale, he and I sat down at the computer and purchased tickets for the two of us for September 4. Wednesday evening I got out the ticket envelope and put it in my purse so I wouldn’t forget the tickets. We arranged that I would pick Alun up after school and drive straight downtown. Thursday after lunch I realized I didn’t know which theatre Wicked was playing in. So I got out the envelope, pulled out the tickets and discovered that we had purchased matinee tickets. The show started at 1:30. It was 1:40. Oh, no! I sat there stunned. I didn’t recall purchasing the matinee tickets, but the proof was in front of me and we were too late to get to the show. I texted Alun to tell him what had happened and that I would make sure he got to see the show, but that it wouldn’t be that afternoon.

I phoned the box office and explained. They told me the policy is that if you miss the show, you are out of luck, however, they encouraged me to write to Customer Service immediately and explain what had happened. I did so. I got an automatic reply saying my note had been received and that they would respond in three business days. A couple hours later I received a note from an actual person telling me they would look into the situation. Friday afternoon I received another email saying, “Thank you for taking the time to write in, We are very sorry to hear that you missed your scheduled performance of Wicked. Please note that all sales are final and this productions is owned by the producers and not Mirvish Productions (they are merely renting our theatre) and as a result we would not control the distribution of complimentary tickets.That being said I did forward your email to the company manager who is willing to offer you a location pass that can only be picked up by you for two tickets to see the show this Sunday September 7 at 7:00pm. If you are available and would like to take us up on this offer we need to hear back from you before 4.30pm today”. Wow, impressive customer service. I had hoped for a partial credit but feared they would do nothing. We were free Sunday so I wrote back to take them up on the offer.

We headed down about 4pm and parked at the Eaton Centre. We grabbed dinner at the Urban Eatery in the basement there. Alun had his usual Subway sandwich and I had beef udon noodles. Then we headed over to the Ed Mirvish Theatre box office at 6pm as instructed.

I told the clerk there were tickets waiting for us. He looked in the will call file and found nothing. He then asked for the order number and I gave him the original tickets showing the order number. He disappeared for many minutes. I was starting to get worried. I pulled up the email to show him when he returned. However it turned out to be unnecessary as he returned with hand written tickets. I guess that is why it took so long. Turns out the seats were nine rows closer to the stage than the ones we had ordered. We originally had Row N, seats 135 and 136.

With almost an hour to curtain time we went to Tim’s for dessert which we took to Dundas Square to eat.

Once we finished we returned to the theatre to use the bathroom before they got too crowded and take our seats. The usher was a bit confused by our hand written tickets but allowed us in.

The theatre looked very familiar to me, but I couldn’t recall specifically why. When I got home I looked it up and it has been called the Pantages Theatre, the Imperial Theatre and the Canon Theatre. The Pantages Threatre opened in 1920 as a combination vaudeville and movie house. It was the largest cinema in Canada with 3373 seats and one of the most elegant. It was part of the large Pantages organization which included over 120 theatres. However, when Alexander Pantages was convited of the rape of a 17 year old chorus girl and sentenced to 50 years in prison the Pantages empire fell. The conviction was overturned on appeal but Alexander Pantages was forced to sell for pennies on the dollar most of his assets in 1930.

In 1930 the theatre was renamed the Imperial and became a cinema only. My mother remembers going to the movies there when she was young. In 1972 the Imperial was divided into six theatres and re-opened as the Imperial Six. I remember going to movies there when I was a teenager.

It was operated by Famous Players. The theatre sits on three lots running longways north-south along Yonge Street with a entrance with a grand staircase on Yonge Street and a smaller entrance on Victoria Street. Famous Players owned the Yonge Street entrance and the front half of the main theatre building, from the centre of the dome to the back wall of the stage house. The other half of the main theatre building, from the centre of the dome to the north wall of the main lobby, was leased from an elderly lady in Michigan, whose family had owned that property since before the theatre was constructed in 1920. During lease re-negotiations in the mid-80s Famous Players decided to play hard ball with the elderly lady. When the lease expired without an agreement she mused about approaching Famous Player’s rival Cineplex Odeon. Famous Players called her bluff believing Cineplex Odeon would have no use for half a theatre. However, Garth Drabinsky, CEO of Cineplex Odeon flew to Michegan and signed a lease the day he was contacted by the owner. The following day with the help of a bailiff Cineplex Odeon locked Famous Players out of the north half of the building which caused them to lose control of their flagship theatre in Toronto.

Cineplex Odeon opened an 800 seat cinema after a costly renovation, the opening of which was disrupted by a construction crew with jackhammers 5 feet behind the Pantages screen, on the other side of the drywall partition between the two companies’ halves of the property. Famous Players also called in a complaint about the fire exits; less than an hour before the scheduled gala event, a Toronto Fire Department inspection confirmed that the fire exits were still incomplete, with wet concrete, and the gala was moved to the Varsity Cinemas.

Crews worked around the clock to finish the fire exits and the cinema opened the next day. Following the opening, Famous Players removed the doors from every fire exit on their half to allow freezing cold winter air to fill their portion of the building. The partition wall between Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players had been constructed as a fire wall but was not insulated as an exterior wall. Eventually, after a protracted legal battle Famous Players agreed to sell their half to Cineplex Odeon with the caveat that the latter could not operate the site as a movie theatre. This led to the theatre being restored to its 1920s splendor and being opened as a 2200 seat live theatre where The Phantom of the Opera ran for ten years. Michael and I saw the Phantom there in 1995.

When Garth Drabinsky’s company Livent filed for bankruptcy in 1999 the theatre changed hands again and became The Canon Theatre due to a large donation from Canon. In 2008 the theatre was sold to Mirvish Productions and renamed the Ed Mirvish theatre in honour of the company’s founder.

Alun thoroughly enjoyed the show. The staging and costumes were quite good. I am not overly fond of the music however, I had a lovely evening out with my eldest son which is something to be treasured.

Saturday September 6 – Another Fall

Patti wasn’t available for a run this morning so I had a bit of a sleep-in and a lazy breakfast. Then Trystan, Owen and I headed out to run errands. We started by hitting the shoe store for indoor shoes for school. They have the same size feet this year. Then Staples for a few school supplies and on to Cyclepath to have the new rack they ordered for me installed. I also purchased lights as I ended up out on the road after dark last Friday when I went on the Critical Mass ride. Fortunately, I was able to ride in a group of bikes that did have lights, but it made me realize I should have my own.

I chose LED lights with Lithiom Ion rechargeable batteries. They charge by plugging them into the USB port on a computer. They have different modes and I plan to use them on a flashing mode when I rode on the rode during the day. It was very busy at Cyclepath so I left the bike while we went to the mall.

For years I have had an upstairs vacuum (for carpets) and a downstairs vacuum for (hard floors). A few months ago the downstairs vacuum died and we have been sweeping ever since. Megan and Alun takes turns sweeping, but prefer vacuuming. They have been nagging me to get a new vacuum for months. Megan even did some research and sent me links to vacuums she recommended! Last weekend the upstairs vacuum started making troublesome noises which we determined would only get worse with no possibility of repair. This morning I found one vacuum that would do both for $200 off the regular price of $500 at Sears. I called and reserved it. After a snack we headed back to Cyclepath to pick up my bike.

After a quick stop at Goodwill to drop off a couple of boxes of clothes Megan no longer wears we headed home.

In the late afternoon I headed north on my bike to get in some training for the Tour de Mississauga which is in 15 days. I signed up to ride the 100 km route, but falling and hurting my knee a few weeks ago has set me back. As I set out it had been 15 days since I had my third fall and 23 days since my first fall when I hurt my knee.

I rode away from home about seven kilometres, but it was windy and hot so I decided to turn back. Just as I slowed at the turnaround point so I could stop and do some some stretching I un-clipped my right foot, but for some reason leaned left. Bang! Down I went on the sore knee. It swelled up further, although not to the point it swelled when I originally hurt it.

Dispirited I headed home to ice my knee and feel sorry for myself.

Wednesday September 3 – School, Power Outage and Climbing

The day started with wet feet again as we walked on the grass to get around the construction at the school. Once again there were no construction workers in sight. To keep the children safe from moving construction vehicles long parallel fences were set up from the road to the back of the school where the addition is located.

It is amazing how little has been done given that the fences went up at the end of May. The principal told me today that the construction company told her progress would be slow during the World Cup as workers would just not show up or would leave early to watch the games, but once it was over they would get the work done before school started. As far as I could tell they rarely showed up all summer long.

After dropping Owen at school I jumped on my bike and rode up to Caledon East for a coffee and a round trip ride of 35 km. My knee, though still swollen, did not hurt even though this is the longest ride I have done since falling. The leaves have started to change colour.

I had coffee at Gabe’s Country Bakeshop.

I returned home so Owen could come home for the second nutrition break at 12:35. This worked better than yesterday when he came on the first break at 10:35. After lunch I headed to City Hall to watch a Committee of Council listen to delegations on a motion to kill the Metrolinx proposed LRT on Main Street in Brampton.

Metrolinx has proposed running Light Rail Transit from Port Credit GO Station at the south end of Mississauga to the Brampton GO Station. The plan is to run it straight up Hurontario / Main Street. The Brampton Historical Society, among others, do not think the proposed route makes sense for Brampton. Council asked staff late last year to prepare a report detailing alternatives. Staff hired consultants. The report has yet to be shared with Council. Yet for some reason, Council saw fit to hold a meeting to kill the LRT without having information about alternatives. I have so many questions. Why do we pay taxes for a planning department which appears to be unable to do basic planning work? Why would our politicians not hold staff to account? It has been almost a year since the information was requested. And why would they make a decision in the absence of that information? In the end they voted unanimously to kill the project as currently planned. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be short-sighted, but I fear that it will be.

Just after 5pm our power went off for no apparent reason. The sky was clear and sunny. I called Brampton Hydro, but the line was busy. We had a power outage under similar circumstances back in June and it took hours to get the power back. At that time I started following Brampton Hydro on Twitter as they sent out tweets as information became available. This time I tweeted to them right away and they responded within minutes to say they were investigating.

Since they didn’t know the cause we figured it would be a while before we had power again so we headed out to Casey’s for dinner. We ordered a bunch of appetizers – onion rings, deep fried shrimp, garlic bread, fries, sweet potato fries and artichoke dip – and shared. It’s been a long time since I have had that much greasy food. I realized that I don’t really miss it. By the time we finished the power was back on and we headed home.

Every year since 2007, I and at least one of my children, have climbed the CN Tower to raise money for the Toronto United Way in October. We train in the parking garage at the local hospital where there are 108 steps. We begin after Labour Day and work up to climbing up and down 17 times, which approximates the effort involved in climbing the tower. This year Trystan and Owen are climbing along with my nephews Jason and Ryan. Alun holds our family best time record and we are trying to encourage him to come out this year to defend it against Jason, but we haven’t convinced him yet.

This evening Alun, Trystan, Owen and I picked up Jason and Ryan and headed to the hospital. Just as we we entering the staircase a security guard approached us to ask what we were doing. I told him and he told me he didn’t think that was allowed. I expressed surprise and told him that this was the eighth year I had trained at the hospital. He left to check with his supervisor. I told the kids to start climbing. To be honest I had long expected to be told not to climb there, but it had never happened before. To my surprise he returned about ten minutes later to tell us we could continue. How reasonable.

It was hot and humid in the stairwell, however that didn’t stop Jason from climbing up and down 17 times. Congratulations Jason, you are ready to go. If Alun doesn’t come I think you will beat his best time of 16:42. Ryan and Alun each climbed 11 times. Trystan climbed ten, I climbed six, stopping when my knee started hurting, and Owen climbed three. We are going to try to go back every Monday and Wednesday evening.

Friday August 29 – Final Day of Golf Camp

Parents were invited to come an hour early for pickup today so they could see their children putt and chip and to have a buffet lunch. Owen enjoyed his week at golf camp. He was especially excited that lunches were included. It was a beautiful day to be out on the course. Blue skies with pretty clouds and a comfortable temperature and humidity.

Here Owen shows me his swing.

I thought it was clever the way the golf bag had backpack straps to make it easier for the children to carry them.

Owen enjoying his last lunch at camp.

I ordered a seat post rack for my road bike so I could carry a small bag with me on the bike instead of on my back. When I tried to ride with it though, I found that the fitting on the seat post hit my legs as I pedaled. I went to Cyclepath this evening to exchange the rack and bag for a handlebar bag. Nick at Cyclepath recommended against using a handlebar bag because of the way my cables are situated and because it makes handling harder. He found an alternative rack and has ordered that for me. I hope it will work. It means I have to ride with a backpack for a few more days, but it is cheaper than the one I just returned.

I had packed a salad for dinner since I was going to the Brampton Critical Mass ride after Cyclepath. When I grabbed it from the car I couldn’t find my fork. Since it wasn’t finger food I headed over to Subway where I bought a chocolate milk and asked for a fork. They gave me an odd look, but provided me with one anyway. I ate my dinner in the alley between Cyclepath and Beaux Arts Brampton which has been fixed up nicely with tables for playing checkers or chess and paintings on the buildings.

Critical Mass rides are cycling events generally held on the last Friday of every month. Cyclists meet and travel as a group through the city on bikes. It orginated in San Francisco in 1992 and is held in hundreds of cities around the world. Critical Mass has been described as a “monthly protest by cyclists reclaiming the streets”. Brampton’s began in January of this year. I have been out to two rides. Each had only eight riders including me which unfortunately isn’t enough to bring attention to the needs of cyclists in Brampton. However, I have made some new friends and hopefully the movement will grow over time and result in the City improving cycling facilities.

Tonight we met at Gage Park and rode our bikes to Chinguacousy Park and back.

Tuesday September 2 – First Day of School

Trystan and Owen started back to school today. Alun just had to go in to have his picture taken and to pick up his timetable. Megan did that last week. It was back to elementary school for Trystan.

When we opened our front door this morning Owen’s friend Emma was walking by with her mother.

When we first moved to our current house one of the reasons we chose it was because it was within walking distance of one of the few K-8 schools in the Brampton public school system. However, when Megan was in Grade 4 the school board decided to create a middle school for Grades 6-8 to relieve crowding. They held a parent meeting which was advertised as a consultation meeting and every parent in attendance was against the change. The superintendent had no significant arguments to convince parents the move made sense. Weeks later it was announced that the change would take place.

The new middle school was overcrowded. The elementary school continued to use portables. The one concrete goal stated for the change was not met.

Megan attended Grades 6-8 at the middle school. By the time it was Alun’s turn the crowding was so intense at the middle school that the city would not give the school board permission to put any more portables on the property. Alun stayed at the elementary school for Grade 6. He then went onto a different middle school for the Middle Years International Baccalaureate program. When it was Trystan’s turn he stayed at the elementary school for Grade 6 then went on to the middle school for Grade 7. However, the new school board director (who was the superintendent at that meeting all those years ago) decided to change the schools back to K-8. Thus, Trystan has to return to his old elementary school. For Trystan and his friends it feels like a bit of a backwards step. Owen will be our only child who spends all his K-8 years at the one school.

Additionally, their elementary school is only this year, in the final year possible, implementing full day Kindergarten. All these changes have led to the school needing an addition.

Now onto my second story of the shortsightedness of the school board. The school was opened about 1998. By the time Megan began attending school there in 2001 there was already a “portapak” addition – a section of classrooms attached to the school so the children didn’t have to go outside to get to them, but the rooms were cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Several years ago an addition was planned for the school because in addition to the portapak there were at least five portables. The portapak was to be removed and a two storey addition added. In the end the portapak was bricked over to make it more permanent, and a Kindergarten class and an elevator were added.

At some point last year someone at the board realized that the school needed to be expanded. It has been known for years that full-day Kindergarten was coming. It has been known for almost a year that the Grade 7 and 8 children were coming back. Yet construction didn’t begin until late May. I can see the school from my bedroom window. I rarely saw anyone working on the school all summer long. It is still a construction site and will be for months.

Getting the children to the correct place this morning was a disaster. I didn’t get a picture of Trystan before he left the house, but we caught up with him at school where he was trying to get around the construction fence to where he was meant to line up.

Here the construction fence was place so closely to the Kindergarten fences that there was only about a metre of room to get to a temporarily, due to the construction, dead-end part of the playground. There were about seven classes along with parents trying to get into and out of this area. People were going in, finding they were in the wrong place and having to come out again. Some were making their way in to be told they were in the wrong place to later be told to go back. It was a disaster. The first morning is always busy and confusing, but this is the worst I have experienced.

The other change we are experiencing this year is a switch from short morning and afternoon recesses with a one hour lunch to two forty minute nutrition breaks. One of the reasons we wanted to live close to the school was so that the children could come home for lunch which they have generally done. They still can, but it is quite rushed in just forty minutes.

Trystan decided to stay today; Owen decided to home for for the first break. I went for a 15km bike ride to test my knee, which is still swollen, but not painful to move. I got back just in time to go to the school to meet Owen. Unfortunately, we missed each other. I came through the valley and he went across the school yard. I looked all over and couldn’t find him. Alun had to come fetch me to say Owen was at home as I had not taken my phone. Fortunately, Michael was home and made Owen a grilled cheese sandwich so he could eat and get back to school on time.

It’s going to be a mucky fall until the construction is done. The multi-use path is blocked and we have to go across the grass playing field or take the longer route through the valley. It was pouring rain after lunch and when I met Owen so we decided to go through the valley. However, there had been so much rain that the path was covered deeply enough that the ducks were swimming on it. We turned around, went back to the school and cut across the field to get home.

Get busy construction workers!

Sunday September 1 – Last Day of the Season

Today we went to Wild Water Kingdom for the final time this summer. The adults hung out at Caribbean Cove for a bit and then Michael and I took a revolution around the Lazy River. Boy was it lazy this morning.

Joe and Michael went to the driving range next to Wild Water Kingdom. The boys played mini-golf and I tried to get Owen to show off his newly acquired golfing skills from camp last week, but he was irritable about school starting tomorrow and the putter provided was now below his standards! When the boys arrived back from their adventures we had lunch at Subway.

The rock climbing wall was free today so Ryan and Owen gave it a try.

Uncle Joe bought the kids a traditional end-of-season BeaverTail on our way out.

The weather wasn’t the best and at one point it actually poured rain, but the adults stayed dry under the table umbrella and the kids were wet anyway.

Thursday August 28 – Culture Day with Alun

A couple of weeks ago, Owen, Trystan and I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Frank Gehry addition is quite stunning and Alun has expressed an interest in architecture so I invited Alun to go to Toronto with me to check it out.

After dropping Trystan and his cousins at Canoe and Kayak camp and Owen at Golf Camp, Michael dropped Alun and me at the GO station. I am not sure if I have ever been on the GO Train before. If I have it was certainly a long time ago. The train arrived on time and was fairly empty as it was the last train into Toronto from Brampton for the day. All day, two way GO Train service from Brampton to Toronto has been talked about for many years, but as yet is still a pipe dream.

We decided to visit the Bata Shoe Museum first. It is a lovely little museum on Bloor Street at St. George. It is also of interest to someone interested in architecture as it had to fit on a small, oddly shaped, corner lot. When viewed from across the street it resembles a giant shoe box. We got off the GO Train at the Bloor station and transferred to the subway station on Dundas West. One of the sights I love when walking around Toronto is the exuberant street art. We saw this on construction hording at the train station.

We have been to the Bata Shoe museum several times over the years. When we were there I told Alun that I used to get my shoes at the Bata Shoe stores when I was young, but that Bata no longer operated in Canada. He asked me what had happened but I wasn’t sure. I googled it when I got home and found that although Bata doesn’t operate in Canada any more it is still a large international company with over 30,000 employees operating in more than 50 countries. When Thomas Bata left Czechoslovakia in 1939 because of the fear of war he came to Canada and continued in the family business of shoe making. The town of Batawa was named for this family. Shoes are no longer manufactured there. Thomas’s wife, Sonja, collected shoes for decades and realized her dream of creating a world-class shoe museum when the family built the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

We had lunch at Over Easy which is across the street from the Royal Ontario Museum. Alun had French toast and I had a wonderful wrap with bacon, avocado, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, mixed greens and goat cheese. Yummy.

Across from the museum was a condo with wonderful balcony boxes of plants across the front from bottom to top.

I took Alun to Yorkville to show him the controversial (in 1993) Muskoka rock that weighed 700 tonnes and cost a million dollars. The first thing he wanted to do was climb it. It’s a great little park and would be very different without the rock.

After that we walked down Philosopher’s Walk between the Royal Ontario Museum and the Royal Conservatory through the University of Toronto and then onto the Art Gallery.

I love the Henry Moore sculptures out front and the fact that one can touch and climb on them.

The glass front of the Gehry addition makes for great reflections.

Alun loved the south staircase and took photographs of the details to add into a design project he is doing for his IB program.

We both enjoyed the Group of Seven galleries. I particularly like the frame on this painting. We asked for the gallery trading cards and found four of the five including one that Trystan, Owen and I had missed.

Once we finished inside we headed outside to Grange Park so he could see the original brick home that housed the Gallery and the massive Gehry addition as well as the wonderful Ontario College of Art and Design building adjacent to the Gallery.

On John Street the northbound lanes were temporarily blocked off for a linear park. Great idea.

We walked south so I could show him Shangri-La, the Trump building, Commerce Court and Brookfield Place. By then we were quite hungry so we grabbed dinner at Marche in Brookfield Place. We missed all the afternoon GO Trains so grabbed a GO bus home. Michael met us at the station.

What a great day.

Sunday August 24 – Back to Wild Water Kingdom

Today, as we have been doing on many Sunday mornings for the past few years we headed to Wild Water Kingdom. My sister and her husband and two boys gave us passes for Christmas. Today Victoria and her family joined us. Victoria is my sister’s sister-in-law.

I stayed out of the water because of the wrap on my injured knee but helped out with the smaller children, something I haven’t had to do for a while. Mine are old enough to go around the park unsupervised.

Olivia

Hunter and Shawna

Owen and Ryan

Ariel

Ryan and Lara

Saturday August 23 – Nostalgic Play Day

Today we didn’t plan an outing. Michael and I cooked a big breakfast of waffles, sausages, bacon and eggs. Our friend’s children always ask for it when they visit us. It has become a tradition.

By the time breakfast was prepared, consumed and cleaned up most of the morning had passed. Instead of heading out with the kids we got out toys like Duplo Lego and Rokenbok which we haven’t used for years. Victoria and I had a ball building for the kids.

Chinguacousy Park

This morning I rode my road bike to physiotherapy for my wrist. The round trip which normally takes just over an hour took 43 minutes. I love how much faster I can get around on my new bike. What I don’t love is the learning process for riding with clipped in shoes. I had my third fall today.

On Wednesday, Owen and I were riding on the bike path in the valley near our house and there was a Parks operations truck parked on the pathway. We went around on the grass and I was going quite slowly, glanced down momentarily, looked up and saw lamppost right in front of me. I braked quickly, forgot that I was clipped in and fell over onto the grass. I realized what was happening and managed to fall quite gently and without hurting myself, other than my pride.

My physiotherapist took a look at my knee. He thinks I probably banged the tibia causing it to bleed and create the large bruise and swelling. He wrapped it up for me.

He thinks I should still be able to do the Tour de Mississauga on September 21, but I am supposed to stop running for a couple weeks and ride only short distances until the rest of the swelling goes away.

On the way home I had Fall #3 as I approached a light. My habit has been to put my right foot down when I stop but I find it easier to clip in my right foot first so I have been only unclipping my left when I stop. Today I unclipped my left and then tried to put down my right. Duh. Fortunately, I didn’t really hurt myself. I’m getting good at falling.

This afternoon we went to Chinguacousy Park. They have a lot of activities for kids this summer. The petting zoo and the pony rides have been there in the past.

New this summer, or at least new to me, is train rides and a merry-go-round.

We also played at the splash pad and playground.

Aren’t Owen and Olivia cute walking hand-in-hand with Hunter?

It was all too much for Hunter who is three and fell asleep on the short drive home.

Victoria and I tried to get in on the picture action at a stoplight. I really need to get better at selfies. Actually, I just learned that a group selfie in called an “usie”. I’m not very good at “usies”, either.