MONTREAL TRIP 1961
October 18 - 24, 1961
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18: Up at 7, pack, get to cab, bus, plane, wait while fog lifts at 10:30, to Montreal, wait in nice airport till 3, fly to Quebec, haunt Dufferin Terrace, Gil and bed at 12.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19: Up at 12, move down Grand Allee, eat at Old Homestead, take bus to St. Anne de Beaupre and Cyclorama, back to Wax Museum and eat at Vendome, bed at 11.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20: Up at 9:10, breakfast quickly, bus tour of town. walk over Plains of Abraham to museum and out to walk lower town, getting to eat at 3, "Master of the World," "Atlas" at the Capital, then out to buy ticket and rush back to "Gaieties 61," have supper, bed at 12.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21: Up at 10, see Ursuline Convent and Laval and walk to PO for stamps. Take Ferry to Levis after eating at Kerhulu, wander Levis, back to Dufferin Terrace, eat in Chateau, then to weightlifting till 2:20, walk home till 3:10.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22: Up at 10, pack, take bus to Montreal. Lunch at Y and leave at 1, via Drummondville, getting in at 5, check in at Y and walk WAY down St. Catherine and WAY up Dorchester and end at Tropical for mad show, bed at 1.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23: Up at 10, buy plane ticket and walk through churches and Mont Royal and St. Joseph's then read a bit and walk a bit and see "Thief of Bagdad," bed at 12, bored.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24: Up at 9, pack, through museum and bus to Wax Museum, back to walk through incredible old hospital ruins, plane from 5-6, then home.
NOTES ON CANADA TRIP: 1. The bus from Quebec to Montreal was absolutely perfect in its hurriedness. A baby in back who "ba-ba"ed and "ef foo ah"ed down my neck. Smokers on every side, two garrulous old ladies in front, and an ugly talkative smoker for a seat mate, not to mention the discouragement of going via Drummondville, rather that via Three Rivers.
2. Touring only in the bright summer produces anomalies. Quebec is a harsh city, austere in stone architecture, forbidding on the Plains of Abraham above the St. Lawrence. Best to be seen in autumn, black and dark, with the wind-whipped stream. From the fountain in the Place D'Armes making one-half the walkway wickedly wet.
3. Quebec Gaieties '61: Pink or white, not red, for God's sake. Not blue on HIM, put on a white spot. And all songs punctuated by the sounds of glasses falling between tray-top and floor.
4. Passing through small farm after small farm in the interior of Quebec. Not fences between fields, but hedges of rocks. Every small house has a TV antenna, and some years back there must have been a very successful double-swing salesman, since almost every house had one: the status-symbol of Quebec.
5. The Montreal Airport a veritable wonderland. A glass-on-glass mural, a mosaic suspended staircase, a night club with neat white tables and arrays of multicolored chairs---gray, yellow, blue, purple, green, and black. Spacious lobbies with scattering of colored leather benches. Even the restaurant, jaunty with napkin-hats and colored by an orange banquette in the center, and, above all, charming, cheerful women whom you would feel easier calling dining companions, rather than waitresses. The dazzle of the first customs inspection --when you thought you'd travel through to Quebec without seeing your luggage, then suddenly down a slowly moving chute toddles your suitcase, to drop into a lazy-Susan affair that sweeps the luggage to the rail, yet revolves so as to make space for the next arrival. Then the questions, quasi-friendly: name, from where, occupation, going where, business or pleasure? And then the "just leave it here, we'll get it on your plane to Quebec." And the smile from the TCA steward: "You'll travel first class at our expense, sir," making even the trouble of a missed connection seem almost pleasant. Had I made the connection I may have missed the terminal completely. The welcome mat of Montreal.
URSULINE CHAPEL IN QUEBEC: The sun on the golden leaves of autumn transformed into the beams of candles on antique gilding as I stepped inside the chapel. Off to the right, just in front of an obscuring post, could be seen the white-and-black dominoes of a nun. I walked along the right aisle, and glanced up to the left, to be struck fully by a crimson and gold blaze of sun. Hardly diminished in its intensity by its passage through the vitrine of the Sacred Heart, it burned through the church. A tiny medallion of the blazing window was reflected on my glass lens. With perfect clarity I could see the vision, diminished in brightness, yet bright as the eye could see, glowing vividly before me. My enlarged retina retained the scarifying glow long after I averted my gaze. Then the silent sibilance of robes and rosaries and slippered feet, and the nuns had entered the hidden alcove and begun to sing. Thin, reed-woodwind voices keened upward, and the verse and response pattern established itself. The mood in the church proper seemed stiff from lack of use, and the floor and benches creaked at a touch; but the wood of the alcove must have been well-oiled with constant touching, because, when the nuns left, only the tinkle of their rosaries and the rustle of their cottons told of their exit. A child tourist stumbled twice over one kneeling bench, echoing wooden shouts through the church. After the nuns and tourists had left, an almost embarrassing silence stood over the place, and a package-carrying matron quickly took her thunderous wrappings away. The monstrance was on the tabernacle, and the three letters PAX were three candle racks, with lit tapers forming the letters. The hum of a far-off heating system, and occasional horn-honk from the street, and the tiny crackle as a candle flame bit into a foreign part of a wick. These sounds alone, along with a cold nun blowing her nose, held the church in human contact. The urge for food drove me out of the glittering church. Noon had rung its way through, between morning and afternoon.
LIFELIST ENTRIES:
T 61-10-18 Fly to Quebec for seven days
R 61-10-19 Old Homestead (Quebec)
R 61-10-19 Vendome (Quebec)
T 61-10-19 Quebec: DufferinTerrace/GrandAllee/St.AnnedeBeaupre/WavMus
E 61-10-20 Gaieties 61 (Quebec)
M 61-10-20 Atlas
M 61-10-20 Master of the World
T 61-10-20 Quebec: BusTour/PlainsofAbraham/Mus/LowerTown/Cyclorama
E 61-10-21 Weightlifting (Quebec)
R 61-10-21 Chateau (Quebec)
R 61-10-21 Kerhulu (Quebec)
T 61-10-21 Quebec: UrsulineConvent/Laval/PO/LevisFerry/DufferinTerrace
T 61-10-22 Bus to Montreal:Drummondville/St.Catherine/Dorchester
M 61-10-23 Secret of Deep Harbor
M 61-10-23 Thief of Baghdad (Reeves)
T 61-10-23 Montreal: Churches/MontRoyal/St.Josephs
T 61-10-24 Montreal: Museum/WaxMuseum/IncredibleOldHospitalRuins/FlyNYC