I think I know why I've been having so many issues sleeping at night lately. My brain, when it's not giving me dreams that tell me I'm less than dirt, is reminding me of things that are gone.
I know it has something to do with my age. I'm 45. Right in that "Middle Age" area.. No mid-life crisis where I needed to run off and get a convertible or a woman half my age. The former I couldn't afford and the latter... Well. What on Earth would anyone of any age want to do with me?? But I digress..
I've been woken up a few times by my thoughts and then kept awake by these thoughts. Memories. Things that used to be that no longer exist. People and places that are gone..
The thoughts this morning started innocently enough. One of the Radio stations in town posted on Facebook asking about restaurants that no longer exist that people miss..
One person mentioned Twilight Diner here in Peterborough. I went there in university with a friend of mine. This was almost 25 years ago now.
That immediately got me thinking about a restaurant my mom loved in Thunder Bay called the Blue Parrot. On the exterior near the front door was a parrot relief in the wall made out of, I believe, amethyst. Well, over time it went from bluish to grey.. So I'd call it the Grey Parrot. My mom hated me calling it that. I was just making the observation of the parrot on the wall.
My mom loved the Caesar salad there. I don't recall what I'd get there. I never really felt comfortable there for some reason.
Thinking about the Blue Parrot got me thinking about the place my parents and I would stop at in Nipigon, halfway between Terrace Bay and Thunder Bay. It was called the Voyageur restaurant. I did some digging this morning and it was a chain owned by Imperial Oil. I guess each major company had their own. Esso was the Voy, Shell had a chain called 1867, and Texaco had Chicken Villas.. I never heard of the other two.
Anyway. There were two Voyageur restaurants between Terrace Bay and Thunder Bay when I grew up in the 80s. Schreiber and Nipigon. The one in Schreiber was one my parents and I went to a lot. I'd get magazines in the convenience store attached to the place. Sometimes play the couple arcade games they had.
The one in Nipigon we would stop at to stretch and let my mom smoke and the parents would have coffee. Sometimes eat depending on the time of day. I remember the kids meals at the Voyageur. They would come in a cardboard canoe called a longboat.
Well.. The Blue Parrot closed in 2011.. The Voyageur in Nipigon is demolished and now a Tim Horton's is on site. The Voyageur in Schreiber closed and, I believe, is being reopened by a private entity.
I think if time travel was possible, the only reason I'd want to go back is to experience things that are no longer available or there. Go back to the Voy in the 80s. Go have a Caesar Salad at the Blue Parrot.. Go see the Whiskey Jacks again.. Hell, see the Jays in Exhibition Stadium. See a game of the International League Maple Leafs..
I don't know. Is this something that happens to other people, or just me??
