I was sitting with Louise tonight and I asked her where it
is that she considers home.
The obvious answer would be right here in Calgary ,
and of course that is right. However, it is only part of the answer. This is home
and has been for decades now. We moved here long ago, found our careers here,
got married and had children her, raised those kids here (mainly), and I have
retired here. In every sense of the word, this is now and has been my home. It
will be my home for the foreseeable future as well.
Well, unless I can figure a way to move to Hawaii .
Then, I would be a Hawaiian without a doubt. I’ve already started to learn how
to play the ukulele. I am going to draw the line at eating lots of raw fish or
really any Spam. Maybe I will just tell people that I am part Hawaiian. I think
one of my great-great-great grandfathers landed here in his ship and I would
imagine after many months at sea he would have done what sailors all over the
world did. Get a tattoo. There would be drinking later on and eventually he
would have met a pretty wahine and after a suitable courtship, they would have
married and had children. I just might be a distant cousin of many of those
modern tattooed Hawaiian men and women. I could be…
I don’t really think of myself as a Calgarian or an
Albertan, even though I am one. When push comes to shove, I guess I am a Toronto
boy. Toronto is my home town, it is
where I was born, went to school, made lifelong friends, made many, many stupid
mistakes, had my first girlfriend and my last girlfriend, found my first job
and became an adult. I guess Toronto
is the benchmark for me of what a city should be.
I’m pretty sure that the Ken I am now couldn’t live in Toronto
anymore. Just as I have changed, the city has changed and not necessarily for
the better. There are far too many people living in and around the city. Every
where you go is crowded and I am just not comfortable in crowds and lineups.
Yes, I still have some very good friends in the city and Maegan lives there, I
miss them all. Not enough to write or phone, but things would be different if I
could send smoke signals.
If I ever become famous, and there is a fight between Calgary
and Toronto about which city can
claim me for their own, I would lean towards Toronto .
However, there is plenty of me to go around and for a smallish fee; pretty much
any city or town could claim me as a favourite son. Perhaps future historians
will write books trying to determine just where it was that I called home.
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