Scarborough Town Centre's 50th Birthday

Location: Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Address:  300 Borough Drive
Date:  June 2023
Website:  www.scarboroughtowncentre.com

  The Scarborough Town Centre opened in May 1973.  This year it is celebrating its 50th birthday and we took part in some of the festivities.

   The Scarborough Town Centre is one of the biggest malls in the Toronto area.  Scarborough is made up of many different neighbourhoods as a sign in the mall once showed us.

 

  The mall is accessible from the Scarborough RT line. Since 1985 the Toronto Transit Commission has served the station at Scarborough Centre with its elevated Rapid Transit train.  There are plans for the RT line to be replaced at the end of 2023.

     One of the highlights of the mall were the hot air balloons. These balloons would get a blast of heated air and rise up out of the fountains. When the hot air stopped, each balloon would drop again.  It would follow a guide wire and land back on its stand. The hot air would blast once more and again the balloons would rise up to the delight of children gathered near the fountains. In 2009 the balloons were removed due to a building code change. Most likely it was something to do with heating elements in a fountain surrounded by children. 

     For the 50th birthday of the mall, they brought the balloons back.  They are now flying over the centre court.  

 

 

  The balloons no longer rise and fall, but maybe the mall will consider an electronic way of lifting and dropping them again. We can only hope.

 

  This isn't the first time that centre court has been filled with works of art. During Nuit Blanche there were hundreds of inflatable world globes filling the space.

   During Chinese New Year the court was filled with ribbons and lanterns.

    Another time during Nuit Blanche there were hundreds of plastic bags on wires.  It was to represent the plastic polution often caused by mall shoppers.

     During November and December the centre court hosts Santa Claus. If he sees you taking his picture he will be sure to wave hello.

    As the mall celebrates its 50th birthday we are reminded that the mall also celebrates people from Scarborough with its Scarborough Walk of Fame. The Walk of Fame is located on the lower level of the mall near Centre Court. Below are a few of our favourites, mostly from the music industry..

    Wes Williams (aka Maestro Fresh Wes) received his star in 2006.  His song "Let Your Backbone Slide" is arguably one of the greatest rap songs ever written. 

 

    Another rapper on the Walk of Fame is Kardinal Offishall.  He is best known for his track with Akon called "Dangerous".

    The Barenaked Ladies have a star of the Scarborough Walk of Fame. Their biggest hits include "If I Had $1,000,000" and "One Week". The star only includes the members of the band in 2013 when they were inducted. It is missing Steven Page who was a big part of their most popular years.

    Singer Gowan is best known for his hits "Strange Animal" and "A Criminal Mind".  He is currently the lead singer for the band Styx.

    Monika Schnarre also has a star on the Walk Of Fame. She is best known for being a supermodel.  

 

     The Scarborough Town Centre celebrates Scarborough and Scarborough celebrates 50 years of the shopping centre. We keep hoping that the ballons will rise and fall again at the mall. Until then we will look up at a balloon, eat a macaron and hope it happens soon.

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Map of Our World
Scarborough Town Centre

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Post # 324

The Santa Claus Parade

 

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  111 Queen's Park
Date:  November 2022
Website:  thesantaclausparade.com

  In 1904 Santa Claus walked from Union Station to the Eaton's store on Queen Street West. In 1905 there was a single float that carried Santa Claus to the Eaton's store.  The Santa Claus Parade was born.  Each year it marks the arrival of Santa Claus to Toronto.  Santa is here to find out what good children would like for Christmas.  We had not seen the parade in person for many years.  This year we headed downtown to join in the fun.

    Before the parade even starts, you can watch the Holly Jolly Fun Run.  Runners race along the same 5 km route as the parade, in order to raise money.  The majority of runners usually do the run dressed in holiday costumes.

     Finally, we caught sight of the parade coming down University Avenue.  The first to arrive were the Celebrity Clowns.  These clowns have all made a donation to help support the parade.  You never know who might be under all that makeup and wigs.

 

    The parade is made up of many floats towed behind vehicles.  One of the oldest floats is Mother Goose.  A Mother Goose float first appeared in the parade in 1917 and this year was no exception.

 

   The Toronto Police are always a big part of the parade.  Toronto Police do crowd control to keep the parade goers safe.  Sometimes the attendance at the parade can reach almost a half million people.  The Toronto Police also show off some of their classic vehicles like this 1957 Chevy in bright yellow.

    Our favourite Toronto Police car will always be Blinky.  Blinky used to be bright yellow, but when the car colours were changed to white with a red and blue stripe, so did Blinky.  Blinky also used to talk and of course blink those big eyes.

 

     The Toronto Police Mounted Unit also took part in the parade.

    With horses always comes the need for a clean-up crew.  Toronto's Mayor John Tory volunteered for the job.  There are lots of marching bands yet to come that don't need to be dodging road apples.

    Here comes one of the bands now.  The Ridley College Cadets are just one of the bands keeping the crowd moving to Christmas classics.  Bands come from all over Ontario for the honour of being part of the parade.

    Another parade float tells the creation story.  In the story, a flood takes over the land and a muskrat dives to the bottom of the water and grabs some earth.  The earth is then placed on the back of a turtle forming North America or what is also called Turtle Island.

    Other floats didn't have as quite a meaningful story behind them.  This one is simply a lion enjoying a toboggan ride.  Most floats have corporate sponsors who help keep the parade going each year.  This float was sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada.

    The majority of the floats have a holiday or winter theme.  The float above features two polar bears and a reindeer.

    This float features a few of Santa's reindeer in the horn section.

    The McDonald's float also featured some musical woodland creatures out in the snow.

    A few floats required a little more thought to see how they connect to Christmas.  How about this 123Dentist float?  All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.  And of course the Tooth Fairy is a close personal friend of Santa Claus.

 

   How about this float full of creamy garlic and pizza?  Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day.  Especially for that grass skirt wearing pineapple pizza.  At St. Lawrence Market, where the parade ends, Pizza Pizza was giving out slices to all of the volunteers who braved the cold and helped make the parade a success.

    The volunteers walk the parade in all sorts of costumes like the pink octopus costumes above.

 

 

    There was a group of snowmen.  Don't worry the weather was below freezing on parade day.

 

     There was a flock of blue jays.  Some parade goers might have been disappointed that none of these blue jays were part Toronto's baseball team.

    A favourite costume is the upside down clowns, or this year upside down monkeys.  You try walking nearly five kilometres on your hands!

    Mrs. Claus is also a big part of the parade.  After seeing Mrs. Claus, we know it won't be very long until Santa arrives.  

 

 

    A Peanuts float featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy was sponsored by Canada's Wonderland and their Winterfest event.  In 2020 and 2021 the parade took place at Wonderland.  This year the parade finally returned to the Toronto streets to perform live.

    The parade takes about an hour to an hour and a half in order to pass any particular spot.  We saw a float turn the corner and realized it was being led by a group of reindeer.   Santa had finally arrived!   We recommend the Toronto Santa Claus parade as one of the biggest and longest running parades in the world.  Just remember to dress warmly and keep moving.  Most importantly, no matter what age you actually are, we can all be kids at the parade. Merry Christmas everyone!

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Map of Our World
The Santa Claus Parade

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Post # 318

Canadian Tire Turns 100

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  169 Bastedo Avenue
Date:  July 2022
Website:  www.canadiantire.ca

  This year Canadian Tire is celebrating their 100 year anniversary.  Canadian Tire stores sell more than just tires and have been providing automotive, hardware, houseware and sporting good needs to Canadians for a century.  As part of the celebrations, they worked with local residents in order to turn a Toronto street into a giant beach party for the Canada Day weekend.  Up and down Bastedo Avenue there were giant inflatable pool floats on every front lawn.

   We are not sure how the theme for each yard was chosen.  Did the homeowners help set up the displays or did Canadian Tire send in a team?  There were lots of yards with flamingo filled displays.

     Some of the flamingoes were more chill than the others.  The flamingoes above were taking part in a yoga session. 

     Another popular theme was dinosaurs.  In the corporate world some may say that Canadian Tire is a dinosuar.  Meaning that the company is old, not that it is no longer relevant.

 

  Canadian Tire is far from extinct.  Despite being one hundred years old, their website boasts over 500 stores and that 90 % of all Canadians are only 15 minutes away from a Canadian Tire store.

  Parked up and down the street were some brightly painted pickup trucks.  This blue truck was full of ice cream.

    This pink truck was carrying a load of Canadian Tire beach balls.

    There was a yellow truck carrying a flamingo, a pineapple and a pair of crocodiles.

    Seeing a unicorn was not an unsual thing on Bastedo Avenue that day.  The largest unicorn floaties were up to 16 feet long and could hold about 5 adults.  One of them would take up the whole pool and leave no room for little Johnnie to test out his water wings.

    One of the yards had a nice display with a single peacock in front of their bushes.

 

    Other yards did not subscribe to the theory that less is more.  This yard had quite the flock and variety of birds.  If Canadian Tire is offering you free lawn ornaments why say no?

 

    Another yard had a whale and a variety of umbrellas.  Luckily the weather was perfect all weekend or this display may have been picked clean by people needing to "borrow" an umbrella.

    We started to get a bit hungry as we walked past donuts that were half eaten by grazing llamas.

    We started to feel like we needed some refreshment after looking at all these displays of watermelons, pineapples and pink lemonade coloured flamingoes.  

    Thankfully at the top of Bastedo Avenue you can find Gelato On The Danny which can stop hunger and provide refreshment all in one shot.  With gelato cups in hand we headed back south through the beach party once more.

   A sign beside a giant snail told us to walk slow.  Not a problem now as we worked on eating spoonfulls of our gelato.  We were wondering how these floaties stayed upright and if you just kind of hung through the snail shell.  Then we checked the Canadian Tire website and realized these are actually sprinkler snails.  You hook it up to your hose and jump through the hoop to beat the summer heat.

    There was one yard where a group of inflatable cows had been properly fenced in.  Much safer than the flamingoes, unicorns and dinosaurs allowed to just roam free in other front yards.

    One driveway had a different approach.  Someone has drawn a 3D chalk drawing of a canoe headed over a tall waterfall.  These types of drawings mess with your perspective and trick your mind.  We are not sure if the chalk was donated by Canadian Tire.

    There was a yard which had killer whales inside canoes and on a floatation device.  We are not sure why these intelligent creatures would need this mode of transport when they are such excellent swimmers.  Most likely they had just recently displaced the human occupants.

     Canadian Tire has called this their Summer Of The Century Celebration.  We hope they have more events like this across Canada so everyone gets a chance to help them ring in their one hundreth year.

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Map of Our World
Summer Of The Century Celebration

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Post # 313