thankful for a time to wander...

Wandering again - and watching the world with awe in public! What a treat after 18 months of relative solitude. We arrived back in beautiful Montréal after a two year hiatus. Our last visit found us in a small flat above a liquor store on Prince Arthur not far from where we are staying now. We walked that pedestrian way again last night and found many of the former hot spots closed down and boarded up. The pandemic has been rough for everyone, but especially complicated for businesses dependent upon students and tourists. The open-air dining establishments were doing a booming business - and St. Laurent was hopping, too. But while the Plateau is returning to vibrancy, death and disease have taken a toll.

When we went to a jazz eatery in le vieux porte by the St. Lawrence, a young man was following covid protocols and checking that every patron held a vaccine passport. Tourists have not been included in this Quebec mandate as of yet; but he dutifully looked at our vaccination cards before saying, "I know that if you are here, you have been fully vaccinated in the United States. Please, enjoy and bon appetit." It was a new experience to be in a full restaurant - with live music - basking in the sunshine and seeing hundreds of unmasked faces. The wait staff, of course, remained fully masked. And guests masked up upon entering and leaving. But for the better part of an hour there was lively conversation, laughter, and a feeling of freedom among those taking-in some earthly delights on a late Sunday afternoon.

Such is the promise of the vaccine mandate in the USA, too: there will be a time when many of us can reconnect in public. Oh happy day! Di and I encountered a bit of this at the Joan Osborne/Madeline Peyroux concert at the start of our wee trip. Vaccination records were carefully reviewed, all the concert goers remained masked throughout the three hour show, and both artists were openly grateful that we were respectfully caring for one another - and them - as we all lived into a brave new world where live music was a real possibility once more. Osborne was visibly moved and close to tears. Why 80 million others have chosen to oppose safety, compassion, and respect for others in public continues to baffle me. With nearly 75% of Montreal at least partly vaccinated, the radical minority is slowly being shunned into new behavior - and well they should be. 

Today will be a bit more wandering in Parc La Fountaine (not far from our flat) and then an evening a Diese Onze (our favorite jazz club in all the world!) One of the city's finest contra basse players, Alex Bellegarde, is the headliner. While on sabbatical six years ago, we regularly took in his shows and particularly loved his Tuesday jam sessions where old timers and young music hot shots from McGill University waited patiently for the second and third sets when Alex invited them up to give it a shot. It was like the 40's in the jazz cellars of NYC all over again. It will be a reunion and delight for us to support a small business that creatively found ways to keep the music flowing during the worst of the lockdown and stay afloat with a take away menu. We'll hit Diese Onze a few other times during this stay for sure.