Champions Day

we the north


My bus seemed more crowded than usual. I didn’t really put two and two together until I realized, as the bus was emptying out at the terminal, that the majority of the people were wearing some kind of Raptors shirt or cap.  I was subconsciously counting them when it hit me.

In the subway station, there were lots of people milling around, looking like they had never taken a subway before. If it weren’t for the fact that it wasn’t the second week of September and I didn’t already know what was going on, I would have thought that a new school year had begun.

There was a definite upbeat mood on the subway and on the platforms. Canadians, in general, sometimes don’t talk to people not because they don’t want to, bur rather, because they don’t want to disturb someone.  There was a lot of that going on this morning on public transportation.  The only difference was the smiles on people’s faces.

I heard that the public transportation was really crowded and that some stops had to be bypassed.  I heard that some people grumbled, but what is one day of inconvenience for the Champions?  Besides, construction makes things so much worse, but that goes on unabated.

Several of my students missed class to see the parade. I don’t know how close they got because the footage I saw seemed to be a huge mass of humanity and I don’t know how anyone who didn’t camp overnight was going to see anything.

I watched some of it on TV and thought it was amazing. Sadly, I heard that it wasn’t all the perfect dream of peace and celebration.  Apparently someone got shot.  Thankfully no one died, but I would have loved if this celebration could be a positive, non riot model that other ones in the future could be modeled on.

Thank you Raptors. You brought sporting pride to the city, and you did it with quite a bit of class.  Thank you.


About Anthony

This entry was posted in accomplishment, achievement, Aspirations, Reflections, Perfection, Canadian, championship, inconvenience, parade, police, preparation, public transportation, smile, sports, Toronto, Toronto Raptors, transportation and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Champions Day

  1. capejohn says:

    I had to look up Raptors and saw you defeated my local team. Obviously I’m not a basketball follower but. contrats to your team.

  2. capejohn says:

    Sorry about that. My local team is the Bruins. A different sport. And they just lost also. oops

    • Anthony says:

      I am not much of a basketball fan. I just appreciated how diverse their fanbase is. I am a big hockey fan and your team knocked mine out of the playoffs…

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