Travelling Road Show - 1972

On a Friday in the late fall of 1971, my friend, Charlotte, and I called in sick to our respective jobs and hopped the train to Toronto.  Resumes in hand, we went to Canada Life on University Avenue.  A couple of hours later we came out with jobs.

I was leaving home.

We found a two bedroom apartment on the 11th floor of a high-rise on Gloucester Street, just off Yonge.  (If I remember correctly, the rent was $170 a month, and my new salary was $72.50 a week.)  For the first time I had a bedroom to myself, and shared a bathroom with only one other person.  What luxury! 

We scoured the newspaper for good deals on furniture, and even rescued a couch from someone's garbage pile.  We hung bed sheets for curtains.  Charlotte macraméd a screen between the kitchen and the dining room.  We let the dishes soak in the sink for days.

I remember getting a bad cold that winter, and desperately wanting my mother there to tell me I was going to be okay.

Toronto water made my skin itch.

Alexander Street - Beloeil QC

 

Gloucester Street - Toronto ON