Go Trains

A little while ago I was riding a Go train. Before leaving, an overhead voice mentions if there are cars that will not open at the next destination and lists the car numbers. This can be quite anxiety provoking for a few reasons. First of all, if you're not familiar with the system, you will likely not be ready for it and just tune out the voice, expecting the usual spiel of welcoming you to Go transit, saying what the next destination is, and warning about the doors closing.

The first time this happened, I didn't realize the message was different until a few of the car numbers were listed, and I panicked because I couldn't be sure if they'd listed my number or not. You don't get a second chance because they don't repeat themselves, and they don't say it as they near the destination. There is also usually no one around to ask for help.

It's also difficult to know what your car number is because they put it in tiny print in an obscure location that isn't labeled. It's also very difficult to correct yourself after arriving at the destination, because they only open the doors for 15 seconds (I counted). It's intimidating even if you know you're where you need to be.

So anyway, I'm riding the train and they put out this message about certain cars not opening their doors. I'm familiar enough with the system to be paying attention and to know what my car number is. They say that my car will not open, and that I should move in the direction of the train toward the accessibility car.

I try going into the next car, which is not something that I've done from the inside before. There is a button that says it will open the door, but it doesn't. There's a latch that I pull that opens about an inch and locks. A bunch of teenagers are sitting nearby and I feel a bit of a fool for not being able to open the door.

I'm nervous that I'm not supposed to be forcing the door like this, but there's no one that I can ask for help. I put all my weight against the latch and it opens. There is a small airlock and another door which opens automatically.

The next car's number is in descending order instead of ascending, which was not what I expected based on the number given for the accessibility car. It causes pause, but since I'm moving in the direction of the train, I decide to keep going. The next car is latched shut as well.

The train comes to a halt at my destination. I hope that moving forward one car is sufficient despite the fact that I didn't make it to accessibility. The doors don't open. An older woman is looking at me and shaking her head but doesn't elaborate. In a panic, I pounce toward the doors to the next car and wrench the doors as hard as I can. A man on the other side is hammering away uselessly at the button, which isn't working on his side either. He sees what I'm doing and pulls at his handle with full force as well.

We manage to pull the doors open. He's going the opposite direction as me and I had that doubt about car order number, so I figure he must know better than me and together we ran in the direction of the car I'd just come from. We managed to get to the car I was in originally, which doesn't open and we miss our location.

Now I'm moving to a completely different city with no stops inbetween, and since the card system they use charges by distance, this means I'm paying to travel to the next stop. This is the last train, so I figure I'll have to call an uber on the other side but the next destination is a small town and there's no guarantee that there will be any drivers available, or if there are, any willing to travel between cities. The overhead voice lists car numbers that won't open at the next destination, and he mentions my number again.

It's a special kind of fear, shuttling down a rail, locked in a metal tube, further and further from anywhere you know with no way to ask for help.

I play around with the button that doesn't work and find a small bit in the centre of what was presenting itself as a button, painted the same and level with the rest of it. The door opens. I start moving between cars with this knowledge until I reach accessibility. Apparently the car numbers are random and don't go in any particular order.

I've been communicating with Lee-Anne throughout this and she tells me I should complain to the worker in accessibility. I say that there isn't anyone there, and she says there should be.

The train comes to a stop and it doesn't open. Then, an invisible door slides out of a windowless, egg-shaped protrusion on the opposite side of the car and a worker comes out. She has a portable ramp for wheelchair users. The door in front of her on the opposite side of the car from me opens (the one in front of me still doesn't).

Clearly I am the only person in the car that is getting off and I don't need the ramp, but she insists on unfolding it and putting it down before I get off. Then, as soon as I hop by her, she folds up the ramp and jumps back on the car right before the doors shut. I wonder how someone who actually needed the ramp would manage to get off in the allotted 15 seconds when it seems like she spent seven seconds putting it down and seven picking it back up.

I call an uber and luckily I get someone who brings me to Guelph.

Last time Lee-Anne took a Go train, it had barely left the station when it shut down from complications. The overhead voice said that there would be shuttle busses that would replace the train. She gets off with another passenger and the two of them return to the station where they find an employee fielding questions from customers. Lee-Anne asked where the shuttle buses were, to which the employee said they'd already left. Those busses must have left almost exactly as the overhead voice announced their presence, as Lee-Anne had to get off in the allotted 15 seconds and went directly to the station at the same pace as another passenger that was equally confused by the behaviour of the shuttle busses.

Apparently the employee fielding questions was pretty rude, too, and, unprompted, responded to the confused look of the jilted passengers with something to the tune of "Hey, it's not my problem"

The Go train system works well when it works, but when it doesn't, it really doesn't.

Clay Art, Bestival, Multicultural Festival, Baptism

This summer me and Lee-Anne went to a clay art lesson at a local event downtown. Before this, I'd tried it in Katimavik during the Summerside rotation where I made a mug with an anchor on it. I've also attended similar sessions when I worked at the Summer Program every year during Wacky Water Week. Sometimes facilitators got to take part in activities but I might have just supported people. If I did make something, I can't remember what it was.

This was a little different because we didn't get to keep what we made, but we got to use the wheel. In the past, all I did was form the shapes I wanted with my hands, then cut grooves in the clay (called scoring), wet it, and stuck the pieces together. This time, the clay was placed in the centre of a round platform which span when you pushed on a pedal.

You shaped it by running your hands up and down the sides and pushing down on the top, then pinching the walls as they form. Objective was to make a cup. I was pretty good at it, but because the session ended after a time limit instead of when you completed your cup, I wound up getting it where I wanted, but then just playing with it until time ran out. Because of this the walls of my cup got too thin and eventually tore.

There was also a local event called the "Bestival" in Belmont Village. This is an annual event, but the first year we were here it was just a smattering of stands with a handful of people walking around. I guess people were still COVID conscious, or maybe it was required to be scaled down, because this year it was at a totally different level. Huge crowds, live music on stages set up on opposite sides of the Belmont area, lots of local artists and restaurants with stands. An Indian restaurant that's usually sit-in that me and Lee-Anne haven't got around to trying had a stand out and we tried it. It was okay.

We stuck around for one of the bands. I don't know what it was called but it was like big band/rap fusion. Main instrument was trumpet. Kind of cool.

I just looked through my posts for this year, and I guess I never mentioned going to the multicultural festival. I didn't go on purpose, I was just in the area and saw a bunch of people going somewhere so I followed them. I go to the multicultural festival most years, but it's always by accident. I ran into a handful of people I know and listened to a few songs from an Indigenous group called The Sarcastic Onions. I didn't try any food, all the lines were way too long.

I also went to a baptism recently. I'm not Christian so I'd never been to one before. I always imagined them as either fully submerging the baby in a body of water or pouring water over the baby's head. What happened was the person in charge, I think wetted her hands and touched the baby's cheeks and forehead, but I couldn't be quite sure there was any water involved. Much quicker and less dramatic than I was anticipating.

At one point she told us all to reach out in the direction of the baby and offer our protection. Part of me worried that my non-Christian energies would inadvertently cast a hex on the child

Johnny Barnes

 Since I'm diabetic, I have to do bloodwork and have a check-up with my doctor every three months. In my "old neighbourhoods" post, I mention having walked from the medical clinic to the train station, guided by memories from my teenage years. I talked about seeing a few new developments at my old high school, as well as passing "Blossom Junction", a train made of flowers.

Since then I had to do another check-up and had the opportunity to redo the walk. Unfortunately, this time around Blossom Junction had been removed for the season, but I did manage to snap some pics of the developments by my old high school. Classes were in session, so I felt a little creepy as a 33 year old man with my camera out.

Anyway, here they are

I don't know if the arch has more significance than it appears to have, but at first blush it seems pretty self-explanatory. It says "Here lies open the field for the quest of knowledge" which makes sense for a school, and it also says "Since GCVI 1854". The school prides itself on its age, as it is the oldest secondary school in Guelph, and third oldest in Ontario. Back when I was attending, we did a thing where all the students stood in the formation of the number "150" and had a photo taken of us from above, to celebrate its birthday at the time. I myself was 15.

The school has a "new building" and an "old building", and in the old one, you can see dips in the stone staircases made by the footsteps of of students over generations. We have portraits of every principle over the course of the school's history hung up, and the older ones are paintings. It's said that in the painting of the first principle, if you look closely enough you can see the blood flowing through his veins. I remember inspecting it and believing this to be true. There was once a fire that ripped through the school but all the paintings were spookily undamaged. There's a book with the names of every student to ever graduate set in the entranceway of the old building.

As far as the statue goes, there was a bench with a plaque beside it that gave a bit of context

Apparently the person's name was "Johnny Barnes" and it says "Famous resident of Bermuda, exemplifies GCVI's welcoming, inclusive culture" It doesn't say how he managed this, so I Googled him

So first of all, here's a picture of him in the pose of the statue

There was a Guelph Mercury post on the topic as well, here's the link

https://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/6126507-johnny-barnes-welcomes-guelph-cvi-students-with-open-arms/

I'd like to note that that article opens with a quote from Mr. Tersigni, who was the guidance counselor back when I attended the school. 

Anyway, according to the article, Johnny Barnes was "a 90-something Bermuda man, known for waving, smiling, and greeting commuters daily".

Apparently the statue didn't originate with GCVI, and was actually on a property in Caledon. When the land was being sold, GCVI asked to purchase the statue. Despite the fact that Johnny wasn't a graduate of GCVI, a citizen of Guelph or even Ontario, the staff of GCVI believed that he still represented the "welcoming spirit", the "international-mindedness, global awareness and respect for diversity" that GCVI prides itself in. According to the article, GCVI had North America's first black high school principle, which is a neat bit of trivia I didn't know.

I don't know. I do like the idea of celebrating a regular person with a strong personality. It seems like that might preserve us from the phenomenon of honouring powerful people, leading to disappointment when information surfaces that contradicts their public persona. Choosing someone without too many information walls feels like a wise choice.

However, the fact that Johnny wasn't a student of GCVI, and the school wasn't involved in the creation of the statue kind of invalidates him as a symbol of the place, in my opinion. Johnny sounded like a cool guy, though.