374 St Clarens Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
NAC: 8CCWP Q88GX

     latitude:      43° 39' 23.95" N
     longitude:   79° 26' 27.64" W
     elevation:    105m -->

This was my first apartment after I returned to Toronto from my two year sabbatical in Vancouver. It was owned by Mr. Faria who lived on Lansdowne Street, a couple blocks South. Apartments were scarce and I shared, at first with a friend, Hartley Knot. Hartley left after a couple of months and I was left with a huge rent. I occupied the top two storeys of a very narrow three-storey brick house with very poor insulation. With electric heating, the bills for the winter months were outrageous. Even with the heating and the poor insulation, they were too high. I suspected the electrician downstairs, who had the electrical connections in his apartment, was stealing my power. I complained to Toronto Hydro and they advised him that they would inspect in three days. Naturally, there was no evidence. Thank you, Toronto Hydro. I cancelled my lease and moved downtown.

The area was degenerating badly. On Bloor Street, just a short way North, crack cocaine was being sold openly. Crack-whores were plying their trade in the alley behind the house. A man was shot between my house and the house to the North, just a few metres from my front door. I won't miss that place.

With the fact that I was booked into the Orthopedic and Arthritic Surgery Hospital for reconstructive surgery on both feet, I took an rental apartment in the condominium just across the sidestreet from Jarvis Collegiate Institute, where I had returned to work. This would afford me the easiest possible route to work.