{"id":14623,"date":"2016-06-29T17:33:03","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T21:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14623"},"modified":"2016-07-13T21:19:16","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T01:19:16","slug":"inside-aurora-the-end-is-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-the-end-is-near\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: The End is Near"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this is where the parade starts, eh?\u201d
\nThe older staffer looked over at his younger colleague and confirmed, \u201cyup\u201d.
\n\u201cBut doesn\u2019t the Town have the Canada Day parade every year? Don\u2019t people know where it is?\u201d
\n\u201cThey used to,\u201d agreed the older man, grabbing an extra sandbag from the truck. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s always been on Yonge Street. But, ever since 2016 when the Town started shortening the parade route, the public is never sure where it starts and stops.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re doing this,\u201d he said, indicating the sign they had just erected, and dropping the sandbag at the bottom to better support it.
\n\u201c\u2019Parade Starts Here\u2019,\u201d read the younger man. \u201cI guess that makes it pretty clear.\u201d
\n\u201cLet\u2019s get the other sign set up, and we can head back to the JOC,\u201d said the older staffer, referring to their base on Industrial Parkway, \u201cand we\u2019ll be done for the long weekend.\u201d
\nThen, seeing his colleague open the door on the far side of the truck, he exclaimed, \u201cWait a second. What are you doing?\u201d
\n\u201cAren\u2019t we putting up this other one?\u201d the younger man asked, pointing to the sign in the back of the truck.
\n\u201cYeah, but we don\u2019t need to drive. It\u2019s a beautiful day. We can walk.\u201d
\n\u201cWalk? Carrying that? Isn\u2019t the end of the parade route several kilometres from here?\u201d
\n\u201cIt used to be,\u201d agreed the older staffer. \u201cHere – give me a hand.\u201d
\nThe two men shifted the sign out of the back of the truck, and the staffer continued.
\n\u201cWhen they shortened the route in 2016, crowds were more condensed. There was a more festive party atmosphere. As well, parade participants didn\u2019t spend hours in the hot sun, and as an added bonus, the Town\u2019s costs were reduced. It ended up being a huge success all around.\u201d
\n\u201cSo, the next year they reduced the length by another intersection.\u201d
\nHe pointed to the top of the sign. \u201cGrab that end and let\u2019s go.\u201d
\nThey picked up the sign, and started walking south along Yonge Street.
\n\u201cAnd wouldn\u2019t you know it, it was even more successful.\u201d
\n\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t explain why we\u2019re walking, when we could have driven. Does the parade route now go down some side streets and loop back to near where it started?\u201d
\nThe older man paused, and set down the base of the sign.
\n\u201cNo, but the route\u2019s not as long as it used to be. Based on the growing popularity of each successively shorter route, they kept chipping away at it each year, until the end point wound up where it is now.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd where\u2019s that?\u201d asked the junior staffer, looking ahead down the street.
\n\u201cRight here,\u201d said the older staffer, indicating the spot where they were standing.
\n\u201cBut this isn\u2019t even a block from where we started!\u201d exclaimed his colleague, pointing to their truck less than a dozen parked cars away.
\nThe older man shrugged, as they started the short walk back. Not a lot surprised him, anymore.
\n\u201cYou know,\u201d he said, \u201cI hear if the parade\u2019s a success this year, they may shorten the route a bit more.
\nLooking over at the first sign they set up, as he stepped into the truck, he shook his head and concluded, \u201cIf they do that, it may not be long before we only have to put out one sign that has \u2018Parade Starts Here\u2019 on the front, and \u2018Parade Ends Here\u2019 on the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston \u201cSo, this is where the parade starts, eh?\u201d The older staffer looked over at his younger colleague and confirmed, \u201cyup\u201d. \u201cBut doesn\u2019t the Town have the Canada Day parade every year? Don\u2019t people know where it is?\u201d \u201cThey used to,\u201d agreed the older man, grabbing an extra sandbag from the truck. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3NR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 10:57:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}