Oh god, it’s been a long 3-plus days…and I have a great deal of experiences and information to disseminate. So without further ado, I bring you:
Windsor Revisited
It’s been almost five years since I last set foot in the city I lived in for almost a year, while I attended teacher’s college at the University of Windsor. I didn’t come away from that time with the most pleasant memories: I recall a seedy, grimy, crumbling city that didn’t seem very sure of itself or its own identity, aside from an affinity for industrial starkness.
Five years later, I’ve discovered and re-discovered a few things:
1-The industrial starkness remains, though it seems to be slowly giving way to some amazing structures. On Walker Rd, I discovered an old factory had been transformed into an amazing farmer’s market/shopping complex with impressive height and impressive windows to match. On the other side of town, a brown field along the hellish gateway to the U.S.A. known as Huron Church Rd. has been taken over by a very pretty, if rather tame, Miami-influenced collection of swanky outlet stores. Even the Ambassador Bridge has a new coat of aqua & white paint that I’m still trying to classify as either hideous or inspired. All over Windsor, failed and closed industries are being transformed and replaced…although the terrifying number of Shoppers Drug Mart mutant superstores that have sprung up all over the city made me pause for thought on more than one occasion…
2-The smell remains. The smell is Detroit, but it slams into Windsor in fierce waves, akin to German mustard gas advancing on World War I trenches. It’s an odd mix of car exhaust, sewer slime, and farts.
3-I was terribly nostalgic as I drove around town, discovering old haunts that were more charming than I remembered. I passed my old student residence, and actually felt a warm glow. I revisited the beautiful little enclave of Walkerville, and was rewarded with my first and only glimpse of a wild possum, running for its life across Wyandotte St. It was the size of a dog! I even felt giddy revisiting Devonshire Mall, as pleasant memories of haunting Chapters with my friend and housemate John rushed back in raging river fashion.
4-Transit Windsor buses are still an appalling snot green and yellow paint scheme.
5-I still knew my way around, back-to-front. I covered every square inch of that city by foot and transit, and the knowledge has (apparently) never left me. It was like driving around Kitchener…I felt right at home.
Which proves the old saying…being it ever so humble…or smelly…Windsor was home. And it was an interesting homecoming.
More later…
