Your story was putatively presented in the magazine but a bit longer than I have time for so I skimmed through it rather than the usual detailed reading. I found it filled with incidents from from a childhood of the 1980s (?) with the kind of detail that I am unable to bring up from my childhood memoirs that I am currently writing here.
On my visit to Toronto in 1980, I found that it wasn't a very interesting city except for the tower that I toured. But it was the site of my only international conference where I led a panel of futurists in a lively discussion that had the room filled completely to standing only. On a cruise about 2005 a guy came up to me and told me that he remembered hearing about my talk from the radio reports of the conference.
I visited Montréal on a trip across the country briefly during Expo 67. Along with Ottawa with its characteristic government buildings in gray stone with green copper roofs, Montréal with its French character was one of the most memorable places I've ever visited.
I do recall trips with my father driving and my mother at the map. We never missed a turn. She gave me that old Atlas of roadmaps from Rand McNally and I used it for over 20 years. Driving across the country and getting directions from a local telephone call on how to get to where I was going. Got so that I hardly needed to use the map at all. But in recent years, when I tried to go somewhere that I remembered from 30 or 40 years before (a lot of people use ago, I don't), I come up short and have to call again. Fortunately not having to use a payphone.
It's a good story and certainly nostalgic. If I were your editor I would've helped you make it better. But I'm not an editor, so I'll pass on it. I just read a lot and written a bit. Studied a little.
