Photos like this contain a lot of information, and I’m glad now I paused a few seconds to take it. The smokestack is the Walton Street steam plant, built in 1971. The Orange Crush sign was a fixture there for a few years. I liked it because it displayed the time and temperature, and also because it seemed to be crushing the building below. I don’t think I was ever in the Health Foods store, Kelly’s Stereo Mart, or Times Square Billiards. But I was often at the World’s Biggest Bookstore, which operated from 1980-2014. I went there many times. It was the kind of place that you never visited for just five minutes. There were so many interesting books, and the prices were good, too. They liked to play up their no frills image with slogans like, “Books priced so low even people who don’t read too good is buying them.” I remember buying Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums there around this time. It was a hot summer afternoon and I walked across the sizzling pavement with the book (and camera) in my hand.
From the series: Toronto in the 1980s
precious memories
Oh, to be young and alive.
I love how your photo evokes your memory of the sizzling pavement and your new book.
Thank you, Suzie. I like how a photo can spring so many memories. Free and alive–in the spirit of Kerouac.
While I grew up in Toronto, I had left by the time you got there. Your photos paint a slightly alien Toronto that I didn’t experience. A great documentary set.
Thank you. I grew up on a farm, and had never lived in a city before i moved to Toronto. I think that may partly explain the alien quality.