{"id":15219,"date":"2016-09-07T18:16:05","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T22:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15219"},"modified":"2016-09-07T18:16:05","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T22:16:05","slug":"inside-aurora-the-silence-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-the-silence-of-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: The Silence of Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I was surprised to hear that 3,000 people attended the Town\u2019s recent screening of the final Tragically Hip concert.
\nMy surprise didn\u2019t stem from a perception that this wasn\u2019t a Town partial to this band. It was more because I didn\u2019t think there were that many people left here this summer.
\nIt seemed that ever since school let out, Aurora had been a ghost town. This was especially true on weekends, and even more so on long week-ends.
\nPerhaps there\u2019s more enjoyment in battling bumper to bumper traffic on the 400 on one\u2019s way to Muskoka to spend time with close friends and eight bazillion mosquitoes than the rest of us are privy to.
\nOr maybe the weekend GO train service was being even more effective than we imagined at whisking our shopping and entertainment dollars southwards to be spent well beyond our borders.
\nIn any case, it has been quiet in Town, and for what I admit are entirely selfish reasons, that was great.
\nThe traditional construction challenges aside, traffic was lighter. It was much easier to get around, and on occasion I\u2019ve been able to get through the intersection of Yonge and Wellington without having to wait for more than one traffic light.
\nBetter yet, I\u2019ve never parked so close to the places I\u2019ve wanted to go. Usually my spot is far enough away that my destination is not always visible over the curvature of the Earth.
\nDining out has been a breeze. Reservations? Ha! Just walk in anywhere, anytime, and take a seat.
\nRetail space was also quieter. You\u2019d step into a store and while the salespeople didn\u2019t physically have a coating of dust, and cobwebs connecting them to the counters and merchandise due to a lack of activity, they certainly seemed that way.
\nAnother noticeable difference this summer has been that the traditionally long checkout lines have been shorter at everything from grocery stores to coffee places. That hasn\u2019t always increased the pace of service, but if more people are out of Town, I guess that should logically include not only customers, but a number of people behind the counter, too.
\nThis couldn\u2019t have been good for business, but it sure made life easier for those of us left in Town.
\nAs for entertainment, the Hip concert aside, it was great enjoying the Town\u2019s special events without pushing through hordes of people. While for the most part they have been well attended, such things as Shakespeare in the Park, Concerts in the Park, the Farmer\u2019s Market, Movies in the Park, Doors Open, Canada Day and Dance in the Park activities, were all relatively hoard-free.
\nThis applies, as well, most recently to Ribfest, which made a rare summer appearance in August, rather than its traditional September run. It was a lot of fun.
\nThe general quietness of Town was also made evident by the… well… quietness. With windows open more frequently to let in fresh air, one would expect the usual summer noises to waft in, too. They did, but there was a greater proportion of soothing bird song, and less grating human generated sounds.
\nSimilarly, with the late night parties, and revving cars having moved northwards with the cottagers, it\u2019s made for more relaxing times outside on our patios and decks.
\nSo, for those of you who traditionally head out of Town in July and August, I suggest that next summer you have a bit of a rethink in plans. There\u2019s lots to enjoy here, and it\u2019s even better with the extra elbow room.
\nBut if you decide not to stay, thanks in advance.<\/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 I was surprised to hear that 3,000 people attended the Town\u2019s recent screening of the final Tragically Hip concert. My surprise didn\u2019t stem from a perception that this wasn\u2019t a Town partial to this band. It was more because I didn\u2019t think there were that many people left here this summer. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Xt","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 07:32:56","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\/15219","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=15219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}