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Santa Claus at Owen Sound, 1958

December 20, 2016

“Ho, Ho, Ho.”

That merry sound catches Angus’s ears as a parade float nears him. Old Eddie’s time-travelling 1956 Ford has transported him back to the 1950s again. This time, he stands with Amanda side-by-side. Both tapping their running shoe-clad feet to stay warm.

They’re standing on a sidewalk in a place that looks somewhat familiar. The sky is grey. Snowflakes are swirling around, melting on their faces. And in front of them, coming their way with a tromping march of people, is the tail end of a Santa Claus parade. That marks the time of year, anyway—mid to late November.

But where are they, and in what year? There’s a sign in a shop window talking about the upcoming fashions for... 1959. Okay. They’re in 1958. A year later than their ongoing adventures that Angus has named King’s Highways & Steam Trains.

Those two stores across the way—Legate’s Furniture and Wardell’s Furniture—look awfully familiar. Of course they do. Angus and Amanda have stood in this very spot, in their regular 2016 lives, not two months ago. It had been after having lunch downtown.

They were—then and now—standing on 8th Street East in Owen Sound, Ontario. And that mural they’d admired on the yet-to-be-built city hall, the one that depicted a streetscape of yesteryear?

That scene is alive and well in front of their eyes and noses—in November 1958.

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