October 9th, 2007
A Traditional Toronto Thanksgiving
By Shawn Micallef // 4 Comments
A few of us spent a day or two this past weekend giving into tradition and doing what so many Canadians have done for years on Thanksgiving: we went to the beach. Like our sweaty pioneer foreparents who, once the harvest was in, applied sunscreen and made decorative sandcastle gourde arrangements celebrating Simcoe Day the fall bounty, we found ourselves on Toronto Island surrounded by scores of other folks who also believe in tradition. On Saturday we even experienced the summer's most intense thunderstorm -- a fierce, Windsor-on-a-humid-day sky black-as-sackcloth kind of storm -- taking shelter under the great 1960s concrete lilypad pavilions that dot the island. Lightning hit the ground nearby, and the dry earth flooded immediately, unable to absorb the water quick enough. When we returned to the beach after the storm the water was smooth and silken. The air, still hot, felt all cleaned up and calm. The lake was fine to swim in, as it has been all summer. On the ferry over somebody had a cooked turkey on the seat next to her.
Thus concludes Spacing's Toronto Beach proselytizing for the season (we hope, for the sake of the planet, etc.). Posts encouraging Torontonians to embrace their inherent beach culture will begin again around May 24, or perhaps sometime in March, if this keeps up.
More pictures after the fold.
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Your photos really capture the mood on the island at this time of the year. They are a treasure in this city that a lot of people take for granted.
I notice that you don't have a photo of a Q400 taking off from the Island Airport. Right now they fly to Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, but they have been given permission to fly into the United States. The owner has mentioned Newark, N.J., Washington, Boston and Chicago as future destinations.
The Island Airport occupies 215 acres; that's about 25% of the island. Let's see where your beach and the traditional Toronto Thanksgiving is in 10 years.
"The Island Airport occupies 215 acres; that’s about 25% of the island. Let’s see where your beach and the traditional Toronto Thanksgiving is in 10 years."
It will be buried beneath condo towers, like the rest of the waterfront.
Actually, it's being eroded away by Lake Ontario a couple of meters a year, because the Leslie Spit is blocking the sand off the Scarborough Bluffs from getting to the island the way it used to.
I heard it was really hot, hot hot too
Comment by Last in Line
October 9, 2007 | 8:13 pm