Hades of the Danforth

           

            There was a 70% chance of rain on the Friday evening of August 5^th when I took my bike ride. I was really hoping for it. There were rows of beautiful towering thunderheads along the horizon, but nothing above me.

            On Brock Avenue I saw Barry Carleton on his way home with a bottle and a book. He said he’d probably play a little guitar as well.

            On my way east I got tangled up in the Taste of the Danforth Festival. I got off my bike and started walking, but this wasn’t some wimpy little five block long street festival. It went on forever! It was really more like a carnival than a food based festival like the name implies. It’s even further from the Greek cultural festival that it started out to be years ago. I found all the crowds extremely annoying. Even if I had money I certainly wouldn’t go there to stand in line for a little plate of food. Even the line-up at the food bank for a week’s worth of groceries isn’t as bad as the Taste of the Danforth line-ups. I guess if I were in a relationship with someone and going there on a date it wouldn’t bother me so much. The fifteen blocks in that crowd and in that heat felt like a hundred blocks. Of course the businesses on the Danforth have a right to a street festival like all the other communities, but I really think that it’s a shame that the Greek community allowed its annual event to be swallowed up by that circus. They should have a separate Greek cultural festival in Toronto to which people can go to taste the food, hear the music and see and try the dancing. Something more relaxed than it’s become with all of the products being sold and the company promotions. I was very glad when I reached the end at Jones Avenue and got back on my bike.

            I rode up Greenwood to Sammon and explored all the streets between Greenwood and Lennsmore.

            I certainly wasn’t going to go back down to the Danforth, so I rode west on Sammon to where it ends at Pape and then up to Mortimer to continue west to Broadview. It was good to be crossing the bridge towards home.

            At young and Dundas there was a man wearing a boa that didn’t make him look feminine at all. I guess it could have though if boa constrictors came in pink.