A 55+ Walkabout

Today’s walk materialized in minutes.

Gail and I are attending a 55+ Housing and Active Lifestyles Expo fair at a prominent hotel near Winnipeg Airport. Now called the Victoria Inn, decades ago it was known as the International Inn. And it was decades ago that I last visited the hotel with my mother and great aunt for their international buffet lunch. A memorable lunch to be sure.

Then, still in appetizer mode, I had to excuse myself to visit the men’s room, heart pounding heavily, sweating profusely and in near shock as I tried to overcome the MSG-laden consommé. I survived to return to our table and continue my usual over-indulgence when faced with a long buffet steam table.

But times have changed. I now try to avoid MSG, salt and buffets. And I attend 55+ events (I am well qualified). And I walk.

In keeping with one of the expo’s themes, I decided I should walk home. It’s not a long trek but an interesting one that promises a never-before-traipsed excursion through the wastelands of industrial backlots. It got off to a good start with the discovery of a lost memorial wreath, still with its wire stand and faded plastic flowers attached, propped against a large corrugated wall. Next the crucifix-like Leon’s sign reclining against the furniture store’s back wall. I suppose it was waiting to be dragged to its final resting spot, high above the store’s barren parking lot.

And so the journey continues, revealing a theme of aging and decay and death – not too dissimilar to the 55+ expo’s alarmist messaging.

Soon came the hulking mass of the recently built and almost immediately deserted Target Store. The store’s name is gone but the inscription on this thoroughly branded mausoleum, with its cherry red motif, should be:

Here lies the carcass of Target Canada, the spoiled child of a retail giant who, misreading its loyal subjects and incurring their wrath, killed itself.

As I continued homeward along Omand’s Creek Greenway, it was at least reassuring that I have outlived Target.