Canada 1976

Fifty years ago today I flew to Canada. I know because I kept a diary of the trip and here's the cover. It was the best, biggest and longest holiday my family ever went on, also totally out of the ordinary for the era. Most families still holidayed in the UK, indeed when I got back to school in the autumn only two of my class had been abroad that summer. It was doable because we weren't paying for accommodation, we were staying with my Mum's penfriend who she'd been at school with in the 1940s, at least until her sudden emigration to Canada. I was now about the same age they'd been, i.e. 11 years old, and my parents were keen to make this one-off transatlantic holiday before I'd have to pay full adult fare. Somehow they wangled me out of my last week at primary school - it'd never be permitted today - and so began an amazing three weeks in and around the province of Ontario. 13th July 1976 (London → Toronto) We got up early ready to head off to Heathrow by taxi, it being too risky to…