It happened slowly, then all at once. First the patios opened, aglow with twinkly lights and crowded with wine-buzzed patrons, giddy to be out of their homes. Then there were picnics with long-lost friends. Then backyard family reunions. Soon we couldn’t walk a block without coming upon a park concert, an impromptu street party, an outdoor play. For the first time in forever, we danced, celebrated and hugged our grandparents. The memoirs below describe Toronto’s reawakening from the people who lived it. The best part? How wonderfully normal the whole thing felt. Now, with the fourth wave upon us, seems like as good a time as any to reflect on what reopening means to all of us.
“Big jetés and tours require a great deal of physical power, and it took a while to build up the strength to execute those moves again”
“The Warhol show had to be hung virtually. We invented a whole new system using virtual couriers”
“I must have said, ‘It’s so great to see you!’ dozens of times—and I meant each one”
“We made four separate guest lists because we didn’t know how many would be allowed on the day”
He had to lay off 98 per cent of his 2,000-person staff at the beginning of the pandemic
“In the school’s auditorium, we sang in clear, three-sided booths built from pipes and plexiglass”
“One particularly powerful gust sent hundreds of pages of scripts flying, and the the entire company chased after them”
“After teams scored, there were a lot of elbow bumps instead of high-fives”
“Playing together again reminded us of who we are and what we love to do”
“When we opened registration for our first candle-making class, it sold out in half an hour”
My regulars come in and say, ‘We’re home at last!’
They threw her a llama-themed birthday party
“The first night, my eyes welled up with tears. I was seeing this vision come to life”
“Each audience member downloads an app and listens to the dialogue on their headphones”
“Clients have showed up with champagne and doughnuts. One even brought us a new Nespresso coffee machine”
People drove in from across Ontario to hit up the Leviathan and Behemoth
“We’ve just been waiting—we didn’t want our first impression to be in boxed form”
This feature package appears in the September 2021 issue of Toronto Life magazine. To subscribe for just $29.95 a year, click here.