august 5 bro

It's my oldest brother's birthday today. He lives outside of the city now, but for a while he lived in Toronto's Corso Italia, which is about a half hour walk from where I live now. In a lot of ways, I live where I live now —— where I also lived in the summer of 2010 and from 2011-2014 —— because he lived where he lived then. Though I was born and raised in Scarborough, I was in the city every time I got a chance. In the late 1980s, the birthday brother worked at a bar called Downtown that was owned by Toronto Maple Leafs legend Borje Salming, among others. Shortly thereafter he became the "hosting" manager (read: guest services) at the CN Tower, which is how a different brother and I ended up working at the CN Tower during our summers off from school. Those summers were the best. I'd work my shift during the days and have adventures at night. This meant house parties, mallratting with various patchwork groups of older employees, sneaking into bars like Vinnie's (which doesn't exist…