Covid-19 Diaries: Toronto (36). When boys cry

The 36 is just the number of Bill Taylor's lockdown musings that have appeared here. He posted many more at his Facebook pages and, with his agreement, they re-appeared selectively and lazily at Salut!

 

Bill's description of an emotional cocktail of sadness, relief, weariness and maybe hope, after a year of Covid despair needs no protracted introduction. But as well as making us believe, at last, in the possibility of closure, he quotes from a wonderful (Scottish, Bill) song of parting. Different versions of The Parting Glass were discussed in recent edition of the Cover Story series at Salut! Live ...

 

 

 

This is where the past year has brought us. Tonight, I cried. Real tears. In public. Didn't care.

 

The way of it was this: Patios come and patios go and Toronto patios are gone now, at least until May.

 

Drom Taberna* went big; took over the sidewalk, opened at 9am, sold their first pint of beer at 9:30. The joint was jumping. There was a combo out on the sidewalk with a singer with a lovely, lovely voice doing classic jazz standards.

 

Then to close one set he went into an a capella version of - of all things - an old folk song, Irish or Scottish I’m not sure which, that I've known and loved for more years than I care to count (Colin Randall, I thought of you). The Parting Glass*...

 

Of all the money that e'er I had

I spent it in good company

And all the harm I've ever done

Alas, it was to none but me...

 

I sat at my table, muffled up against the chill, and fell apart and wept.

 

Still not sure why. It wasn't cathartic but it wasn't embarrassing either. It's just where the year has brought us.

 

Fill to me the parting glass

And drink a health whate'er befalls

Then gently rise and softly call

Good night and joy be to you all

 

And now I'm crying again. Just a bit. Still don't care.

 

 

* Bill adds:

 

I’d love you to experience Drom. It’s a very special place — an offshoot of a bistro we’ve been going to for the past 20 years (which is a whole story in itself), eastern European in theme, with amazing live music and one of the very few places in Toronto that was filled to capacity every night of the week. It’s run primarily by two young guys, one Irish and one Siberian (he’s the one in the royal blue hat in my pictures) who work like dogs. They and their staff are lovely, warm, caring people. And draconian when it comes to enforcing mask and distancing rules.

 

* I add:

 

When I wrote about The Parting Glass, Bill expressed a preference for the Dylan derivative, Restless Farewell. You'll find it easily on YouTube. I enthused about this gorgeous version of the song itself and it works here because it evokes a time when we could walk into a pub and, if not sing, order a pint of Guinness (the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire Women's Concert Chorale did both, at Peadar O'Donnell's bar in Derry).