As Dave has mentioned over the last few months, we left Kitchener for Hamilton this Summer. Perhaps Dave referred to us entering Hell, or falling into the Hellmouth, or passing through the Gates of Hell, or maybe that was all in my mind.
Dave and I have been together forever (literally knowing each other from childhood) and our lives have been an endless rollercoaster of ups and downs. But, rather than settling down with our feet firmly on the ground, we just go on to the next ride and on to another nausea-inducing experience.
So, here we are in Hamilton: The Hammer, Ambitious City, the Armpit of Ontario. Hamilton has been called many things. But, after three months here, what we would say unequivocally is it is a wonderful place to live. (It’s not Toronto. But, no city ever will be for us, and it is just forty miles down the road.)
Upon first moving here, we of course held a fair bit of trepidation. Kitchener was a lovely, sedate place where we lived as if we had been cryogenically preserved for nine years. Now we were waking up and going back to a real city not knowing what to expect. Our first impressions were significantly coloured by a downtown core overflowing with the homeless and the helpless. (Dave, a pretty burly guy, literally kept me on the phone during a walk one of our first nights here wherein he was accosted and screamed at the entire way.) Clearly, we were witnessing up close what many cities have become at the hands of every level of an uncaring and arguably malicious ruling class. (At least Canada has MAiD, I guess.)
Not knowing anything about Hamilton, we did our best and picked a small affordable house referred to as a “gem” in Crown Point. Yes. The house IS a “diamond in the rough”. What came as a pleasant surprise was that we were now living in a very neat area offering endless textile stores, antiques shops, art galleries and so many unique establishments to explore all within walking distance. For the first time in over a decade, I strolled to a pub at the end of our street with my cane in hand, downed a bizarre green alcoholic concoction and walked home again.
The people of Hamilton (for the most part) have been engaging and welcoming; almost nice enough to blunt the edge of my disdain for humanity these days.
We are still learning about Hamilton but so far we know it is home to a stunning array of street art; it is the “Waterfall Capital” of the world; its culinary scene is fresh, vast and exciting; and it’s given the world Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Neal Peart, Daniel Langois, Teenage Head and so much more. As we embark on our new ride, we will continue exploring this fascinating Canadian city and we welcome recommendations. Dave will try to write a little piece every month or so about his Hamilton impressions and we hope you will find these shorts both entertaining and illuminating.
Thank you for reading. Reminder to any creative folks who would like to guest post on this Substack page, please email davidmunroe@substack.com.
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