Walkabout around Toronto

Whenever I pop into my old home town of Toronto I love just to go on walkabout around to see whatever has changed or whatever hasn't over the years, here me and Oscar when walking around Toronto's old train station.

On the left of the station there was an old wooden shelter where the Paperboy would sit and sell their newspapers each morning.

The old stairwell you had to take to get down to the train station, every weekday I made my way down it in the morning and back up it in the arvo when I was on my way home. It doesn't look like it has changed much over the years.

The old train line has seen better days but it's still there well most of it is, but as you can see the bush is trying to reclaim the area.

The old train line over the bridge of Stoney creek is still in one piece, and still walk-able as Oscar found out. How much history this town has still got around is amazing.

I love that trees are now popping up in the middle of the old tracks.... cool

This wharf is new well when I say new it's at least been built since I left the town maybe twenty years old, you can see the old yacht club at the end of the wharf it's a pretty cool view from out here.

The old Toronto Wharf that's been here for longer then I know as when I was a kid I use to fish off it, you could catch pan sized fish from their and if you were lucky some blue swimmer crabs. As I got older I use to just throw out a line and sit back and have a beer, which was much better then catching a fish and then having to gut and clean it before going home.

This is where the old Wangi Queen use to dock back when I was a kiddie and just another place to chuck out a line, in the background you can see the Toronto swimming club where I use to swim when I was younger.

Back when yours truly was a little whipper snipper I played baseball for the legendary Toronto Tigers baseball club which back then was located on the corner of Cook and Thorne streets in Toronto, which was across the road from my great old friends Jeff and Ronda (Mrs H) Hitchens and there two ripper sons Chad and Luke.

Over the years I spent a lot of time with the Hitchens and like a lot of others were just a part of there family, many laughs and just spending many Saturday arvoes' having drinks and great times. Jeff was a legend when it came to his home made brew, which rubbed off onto yours truly but mine was never up to his high stands.... trust me.

Here is my little kiddie Chase standing where the pitchers mound would of been, and as you can see in my shadow I got down on my old worn out knees to receive the pitch. I remember all the car windows that we smashed over the years, whenever we hit a left field foul ball along Cook street. And some batters like Brad Ping who quiet often hit home runs over James street into the bowling green of the Toronto Workies ha, ha, talk about the Workies management being pissed off ha, ha. I played for twenty four seasons over twenty one years, with ten of them being as a catcher which I loved. fairdinkum as a catcher you are in the whole match from the start to the finish. But as you can imagine your knees take a real hard beating which as a kiddy you don't really think off, just another cold bath and some deep heat will fix things up till next weeks match ha, ha. I was lucky enough to play in every position on the field even coming in to end some matches as a pitcher. Not that I was a great pitcher with the best fast ball, but because my pitches were that bloody slow most batters were through there swing before the ball got to them! Fairdinkum. But it worked for me...

Then one day the club decided to move the field out to the old Waterboard Oval, which became our new home and to be honest was a real good idea, but still it was hard to say goodbye to all the old memories that we sharded there over the years. I was lucky enough to win a 5th Grade grand final at waterboard oval so it also has some great memories, but the ground across the road from Lyall Peacock Oval will always have a special place in my heart...

And of cause no walkabout around Toronto would be official until you sat back on the road of Brighton Ave and have a gander at our old home of 122. Dad painted that house more then twenty years ago and yet the paint job is still up to scratch, just goes to show if you do a job right it can stand up to the hardships of time... Dad always did a good job on anything he put his time into.