The True Faces of Queen St. West

It’s been a bit since I’ve been able to put pen to paper, the reasons for this vary, but today I got my motivation from a source least expected. Not from some YAHOO calling me the “The joke of the community”, (Yeah you ignorant Jerk, I’m talking about you)

But from a couple that has supported my efforts.

Jack and Anna are two seniors who, whether with a kind word or a Toonie, have let me know they appreciate me de-filthifying the Queen St. west. Heck these fine folks actually took the consideration to give me one of the three Christmas cards I got this festive season just past!

While my many encounters with these fine folks, just east of Bathurst have left me grinning like the cat in wonderland. One day was different though, I really got to know these people, by hearing, (not just listening) about their life. I had run into them, not as per usual in front of Michael’s (a hole in the wall of a watering hole), but rather inside when all my bending over and picking up trash forced me and my
bloated bladder towards the nearest facilities.

Where inside, after a brief debate on whether a person who rids someone’s storefront of garbage, (often without pay) should be exempt from the mantra of “washrooms are for paying customers only”. I was granted the glorious privilege of using a facility that could, for the fear of Internet censorship due to the obscene nature of the facilities, be described as a washroom in name only. I was then offered to sit and
enjoy a beer with Jack and Anna.

While normally I would be in too much of a rush to get on with my work, I was ever so glad to know two of the real faces of Queen West, as great as it was. I was then told of Anna’s experiences as a young girl in Holland, when the Canadian forces freed the country from the sadistic grip if the Nazis. A thing no Adult let alone Child should ever have to go through. To see the wonderfully caring person in front of me, despite, of perhaps because of, these unimaginable to most hardships is a true testament to her great character.

Then Jack went on to tell me how he worked his way up the ladder, and down the tracks of different railway companies going from emptying box-carts to being a brakeman with everything in between for the made famous for monopoly’s B+O railroad. This is but just a small sampling of what I heard that pays, and what is available to anyone who takes the time to hear what I think Queen West is all about. Something that in our
increasingly busy days, we tend to forget. It’s not the buildings that make the city, it’s the people. So if something as important as this couldn’t motivate me to write, than I don’t know what could.

On a side note to the fella who asked if I found a Alberta drivers license… no such luck so far, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

Found a CBC radio card of Nicola Lucsic on Queen West on Halloween.

IN SERVING EACH OTHER, WE BECOME FREE

--Knights of the round table, Camelot-