Jim Adams

Joined January 2021

0 stories

Bio

I've always been a storyteller. Either sharing stories verbally or documenting a business plan or procedure. Using events from my past, I create stories that will transport the reader to places and events of interest around the world.

Stories (14/0)

Tiny Imperfect Strip of a Beach
I had to walk down 70 stairs to get to the beach. Of course, that meant walking 70 steps back up. I know there are 70, as I helped my father build them after he had a house built at the corner of Main Road and Birch Hill Road in Hudson in 1974. We made the steps of former railway ties, stones and old beams. One misstep and an extended tumble would be in the offing, especially in the winter. The steep hill was well-treed, so little direct sunlight reached the ground during the warm months. That protective canopy and moist earth from a small underground stream meant it was covered in ferns every spring. That attracted a few fiddlehead pickers braving the last of the snow and the muddy slopes during the late spring, cutting the fern tops for salads and stir-fries.
By Jim Adams11 months ago in Humans
Swimming backwards in the Gulf of Aqaba
It’s not a skill I set out to learn or even one that I thought I would need – but I did learn how to swim backwards with flippers on. And I learned how rather quickly. But I never expected to have a moray eel challenge me when I was snorkeling in the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba just north of Dahab Bay on Egypt’s Sinai coast.
By Jim Adamsabout a year ago in Humans
Do You Speak English?
"Do you speak English?" I was standing on the platform in Marseille’s main railway station. I had just travelled northeast from Spain and was looking for the next train to Nice, on my way to the famed Riviera. At 19, I was on my own for the first time, needing a break from school after two years of CEGEP, a community college system in the province of Quebec. In Quebec, high schools go only as far as grade 11 -- I guess the powers that be don’t think 16-year-olds who’ve completed grade 11 are ready for university. At CEGEP, I excelled at extracurricular activities such as community organizing, participating in political demonstrations and, oh yes, beer drinking. I cruised through academics (except calculus, which I flunked three times).
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
The Day Jack Died
It didn’t seem possible. The images of him campaigning in his last election with his cane had shown him gaunt but still energetic. At ease with his cane, using it to wave to the crowds. Smiling eyes, exuding the Layton family energy. The thinning, greying hair and that mustache. Campaigning about hope, a brighter future for the many. Reaching the pinnacle as leader of the official opposition. Briefly moving into Stornoway -- the opposition leaders’ official residence in Ottawa’s Rockcliffe neighbourhood.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
Saturday Mornings at Peter's
My Saturday mornings used to start at an old diner called Peter’s Restaurant at Annette and Jane streets in Toronto’s west end.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
The lost roads of Morrisburg
To get to Morrisburg from Toronto by train, you have to go to Cornwall. Same thing if you try to take the bus. Years ago, when I was in my teens, I could take either the train or the bus to Morrisburg, but now I can only wave at it as our train passes its boarded up station. The powerful lure of automobiles has left train and bus travel an experience limited to suburban commutes and big city links.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
The Road
The line. It's there. A few feet from our rental cottage. It's the line in the road when the asphalt ends and the sand begins.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
Eulogy for the Cottage
Dearly beloved, we are gathered today to mourn the passing of The Cottage from Doug and Kathy on this 31st day of July 2020.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
Top Story - May 2022
Waking up in the Train StationTop Story - May 2022
I don’t make a habit of sleeping on tables in train station waiting rooms. Sometimes there isn’t a choice but on the bright side, it was certainly better than the out-of-service escalator I tried to bed down on earlier; but more on that later.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Confessions
Our Man Cave
You would never know it looking at it from the street. You have to look down a long narrow shady driveway squeezed between two houses and populated by a couple of cars.
By Jim Adams2 years ago in Humans
The day Toronto's Outer Harbour was quiet
It was so quiet I could hear the water gurgling under our hull. Usually I would only hear that on a canoe in placid waters.
By Jim Adams3 years ago in Wander
The pandemic descends on my City
I last took the subway on Thursday, March 19, 2020, at noon. The TTC normally carries one million passengers a day. A single new subway train can hold over 1,000 people. Today I was one of seven people on the entire train.
By Jim Adams3 years ago in Longevity

Jim Adams

Bio

Stories .css-19zxm0z-Text{display:inline-block;color:var(--text-default-mute);}(14/0)

Tiny Imperfect Strip of a Beach

Swimming backwards in the Gulf of Aqaba

Do You Speak English?

The Day Jack Died

Saturday Mornings at Peter's

The lost roads of Morrisburg

The Road

Eulogy for the Cottage

Waking up in the Train StationTop Story - May 2022

Our Man Cave

The day Toronto's Outer Harbour was quiet

The pandemic descends on my City

Stories (14/0)