Gord Downie And The Country Of Miracles - The Grand Bounce

A couple of hours before we left the apartment, I told Mar about the countless times that I had listened to the Kingpin's "Let's Go To Work" in high school and romanticized living in Montreal. Summer day rays must have blanketed these people and their streets differently. The allure of catching the "Last Train to Expo '67" to lay hands on the promise of new life beneath the futuristic canopy in a city truly special, something pulled against the grains of time.

"Yellow Days" greeted us when we entered LaRonde on the island dreamed from the documentary stock footage that came to life with the passing of the covered monorail that toured the amusement park. We rode the plot driven named rides like how we must have in our younger years. Le Monstre was the fastest wooden rollercoaster I think I've ever let take control of my life. In line at the haunted house rollercoaster that was intended for children mostly, but not advised for pregnant women, we enjoyed chats about birth's from women who didnt' even know they were pregnant. We screamed a few laughs when the operator put us through the ride twice in a row and we left when the sun was peaking through the July skies. Beneath the LaRonde tower, The Pirate, swung back and forth until at the top you felt your seat fall from under you slightly and you could have sworn for a second, you had flown. I got the courage to wait until the cusp to turn to my left and towards the Montreal skyline underlined by my growing chest that Montreal was where I belonged. The night brought a fireworks display carefully choreographed with the background vocals exploding minature powder flashes in the sky.

The gates shared a view with the iron Jacques Cartier bridge and it's abandoned supporting building gave off an expression of being mostly haunted. I imagined that this may have been where hundreds of people went to work everyday for the port, under the boom of the bridge and the fleuve. I've crossed that bridge once before, near the end of that long bus ride back from la Beauce with Len which was the first long trip for me at 15 years of age. In the middle of the night, the iron structure took us well above the island and I looked down at LaRonde for the first time. We were incredibly hungry when we stumbled into some fast food and ate before the final leg of the journey back to Ontario. My personal landmark of that Burger King is nowhere to be found today.

At work that week, we had gotten an email with the dashboard of the Delorean from "Back to the Future" with the date Jul 6 2010 on the time circuit. This was dubbed the year when Marty McFly arrived into the future of hover cars and pizzas that grow from the size of a dollar to an extra large in 30 seconds of microwave time. A co-worker promptly told the email chain that this date was lifted from another scene and, in fact, it was 2015. So, we survived meeting up with the future for another five years. The magic of moments in the summer with great imagination can put too much promise and importance into the future. We'll never stop romanticizing it and hoping for the best, and in some way, we always end up living it.

Fair Day from Jun Kang on Vimeo.