The Adventures of Teddog and Twenty Years Gone By

[teddog]

I often go on lunchtime adventures with pyat around the downtown. Sometimes we discover cool things, like the CIBC building on King! That was neat.

Today, however, I finally got the answer to a childhood mystery.

I grew up just outside of Toronto, so we got to go into the city a lot. At some point during the 1980s, I went in with my mom and my dad (who met up at lunch, I think), originally planning to take part in this "Lunch with Santa" event. However, when we got there, my parents discovered that it was horribly misrun disaster and we ended up having lunch somewhere else. So, I didn't get to meet Santa, but I don't remember it really bugging me at the time. I think we had McDonalds instead, which was naturally much more awesome than some stuffy sit-down meal given that this was the 1980s and they were still serving "normal" food.

Frankly, I was more bothered because we where in a department store at some point and passed some TVs with Teddy Ruxpin on! And we didn't get to slow down to watch it! I was heartbroken.

But what had always baffled me was WHERE this ill-fated Santa event took place.

My memory was spotty. It was in some sort of populated area of Toronto. I remember going up and down some escalators at some point, but that could honestly be one of many places. I also couldn't remember for the life of me if this place was in the upper levels of the building or in the basement. For the longest time I assumed it was the basement.

Confounding myself more was that my memories of the place included seeing a room with arc windows-that-were-not-windows (thus fueling my theories of it being a basement). For some reason I connected these windows with a kid's TV show I liked at the time. So, I was confused if the two were connected and if this event was actually hosted on a set or something else completely.

For years, I never got an answer on where this place was. Oddly enough, it haunted my dreams from time to time, a strange, fancy place that was upper class, but we rejected it.

Skip forward to 2008.

Pyat had never seen the top floors of the Bay building in downtown Toronto. After checking out the CIBC building, I suggested we'd go look at this. After all, I knew there was supposed to be a famous restaurant up on the top floor. The mezzanine was open, so we went in to explore up there...

Ever had deja vu so strong that it knocks the wind out of you, leaving you in a lightheaded daze? When every detail is completely overwhelming? When you're not sure if you're walking around in a dream?

Yeah, that's what happened to me.

The mysterious location was... the Arcadian Court. It's a restaurant and banquet centre located on the top of the Bay, formerly Simpsons, store in downtown Toronto. The connection to that kid's show makes some sense, now, as the show was set at that store. THe former home of some of Toronto's elite was a half forgotten childhood memory.

Comments

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

I've sort of had experiences like that before. Good for you!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

As I observed to nottheterritory the time we stumbled across the grave of Sullivan Ballou completely at random:

"Magic's easy when you know pyat!"

[gypsyjr.livejournal.com]

Dude, I loved that show when I was little.

I vividly remember watching Owl TV too. Thank you, Canada.

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

It's such a strange feeling, isn't it?

I have to ask - did something like that happen in South Bristol? Since you've researched it so much and then suddenly were there?

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

::laughs:: If you ever make it up here, I'll show you where some of those shows were filmed. I saw Owl TV growing up (got Owl Magazine too, as my father's company did some of the preprint work for it), although I don't know where that was film. But Today's Special? Yep, know that one.

We've also found some of the filming locations for Overdrawn from the Memory Bank, which you might remember from MST3K:
http://pyat.livejournal.com/781601.html
We're still looking for more information on the locations for that. We know another was the Yorkdale subway station:
http://flickr.com/photos/27825439@N00/55070298/

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

I've long believed that Toronto is the epicenter of fandom crack. This just confirms it AGAIN in an not-fandom way.

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

No, that was different. More like a realization of something. Most of my de ja vu has been more because of dreams I had, of places likely I visited at childhood or something, and then found as an adult.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Why South Bristol? Was it chosen randomly?

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

In a way. I needed a home town for a story character of mine, way back in 2001, and decided I wanted him to come from New England. Narrowed it down to Maine, and then went off on a random image hunt, found one of South Bristol (back when it was the only one of South Bristol on the 'net) and made that his hometown. Have researched it much more since then, then finally went. Especially since it started having more and more significance to the storyline.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Interesting. :) I had the same sort of thing going on with Providence, curiously.

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

Awesome!