Subject: Re: Odds and Ends re Montreal
From: Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 18:06:19 GMT
Chers poissons,
I promised some sort of geographical gloss on <quartiers de Montreal> from
"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" that weren't earlier quoted, or, er,
'fairly used' by Bruce.
Here goes:
"The Sunday that I stepped onto the platform at Windsor Station in Montreal...."
Alas, old Windsor Station has been swallowed by the new Molson Centre (home
of the legendary Montreal Canadiens--probably the most mythic team in all
hockey), although if Jerry actually came to Quebec, in 1940, he probably did
exactly what his hero does, ie. 'step onto the platform'....
"When I came to a lunch bar, I went inside and bolted four "Coney Island
Red- Hots" and three muddy cups of coffee."
I'll give him the coffee, but I think it's extremely unlikey that he'd find
any such product in Montreal, in 1939 or 1940. Montrealers savour a strange
hot-dog-like sausage called a "steamie".... (They're utterly forgettable,
but <pur laine> Quebecois swear they taste like the Old Montreal
Forum--where Les Canadiens played hockey, long before the Molson Centre was
built. Four steamies would probably be washed down with spruce beer--a
evergreen-flavoured soft drink or soda.)
"Tuesday evening I took a bus into Montreal proper and sat through a Cartoon
Festival Week program at a third rate movie house...."
Yup... Probably still there....
"Whle the Yoshotos were still in the kitchen, I slipped downstairs and
telephoned the Windsor Hotel--which Bobby's friend , Mrs. X, had recommended
to me before I left New York...."
Mrs. X had pretty good--and pretty expensive!--taste. Canadian novelist
Mordecai Richler (who's set more than a few novels in Montreal) used to hang
out in the bar at the Windsor. It was a pretty glorious hotel in its day.
"She landed heavily on her bottom, like a skater."
Well, maybe like a 'Meruhcan skater, but up here in the Great White North,
no one can remember when that last time was someone fell on the ice....
"Les Amis Des Vieux Maitres closed down less than a week later, for being
improperly licensed (for not being licensed at *all*, as a matter of fact)."
That's one explanation. But when I was a boy (and there were wolves in
Wales) my academic major was Canadian History. Not long after the time
frame occupied by this story, Canada went to war against Germany, and
eventually Japan. People like the Yoshotos were rounded up and put into
special work camps on the Canadian prairie, where they toiled away for the
remainder of the war.
COMPLETE ASIDE: Rick (of ancient "Rick & Mirjam" fame) after a prolonged
absence has resurfaced in Stockholm (with Mirjam!) whence he sends his
regards to any aging bananafish with fond memories of his contributions here....
Cheers,
Paul
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