Toronto Sketches 4: "The Way We Were"

Contributor to newspapers and magazines in Canada, Britain and United States on travel- and transportation themes.

Author: Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific's greatest ship (Erin: Boston Mills, 1992).

Reviewer for CBRA since 1993.

No one is more tenacious at uncovering Toronto’s past than Mike Filey,
whose weekly column appears The Toronto Sunday Sun. He has an
unquenchable appetite for stories of the city’s distant and more
recent past, particularly those that may be overlooked by historians
writing in a more formal vein.

This latest collection consists of 52 columns that appeared between
August 1994 and July 1995. In them he writes about theatres and tunnels;
big bands and small cabins; Wurlitzers and warehouses; streetcars and
trains; ships and aircraft. He also includes anecdotes about people,
famous and obscure, some of whom caused big things to happen in Toronto
and others whose memorial might be the name of a local street or a
phrase on a tombstone. The text is quick-paced and easy to read, with
one to six well-chosen illustrations accompanying each story.

In a city that frequently ignores or downplays its history, “The Way
We Were” offers a pleasant introduction to historical Toronto.