A Memorable Meal

There is a lot I don’t remember about this meal, yet it was one of my most memorable.

Growing up, I was a painfully shy figure skater. My passion for skating bordered on obsession. On the ice I could let loose, but talking was not my thing so my fellow skaters and coaches thought of me as the silent one.

One weekend, I and some of my fellow skaters had the opportunity to stay in Toronto (about an hour and a half from where we lived) and skate at the famed Granite Club. It was quite an adventure for me, being my first weekend away from home, and I was excited and scared to death at the same time. One highlight of the weekend was when I landed my first axel, one and a half revolutions, which I had been practicing for months.

Another highlight was the fancy dinner we all had at a Toronto restaurant called “Ports of Call.” Apparently, this restaurant operated between 1963 and 1975. As its name implies, there were several themed rooms in this restaurant, such as the Bali Hai Room, the Dicken’s Room, and the Last Chance Saloon. Sounds a little tacky now, but I remember thinking it was quite exotic.

I don’t remember which room we ate in and I don’t remember what I ate, except that it was very good. I do remember being near the end of a long rectangular table, in a private room with approximately ten others in attendance. And I do remember being terrified that I might actually have to talk to someone.

What made the evening so memorable was what happened near the end of the meal, when the waiter came in to say that he had a special dessert for whoever had the closest birthday to that day’s date. Several others with birthdays just past or birthdays to come quickly spoke up. The waiter then asked if anyone had a birthday closer and I finally chimed in very quietly, “Mine’s today.” I was 11.

Photo Credit: bensonkua on Flickr

© 2010, kimmanleyort. All rights reserved.

Tags: birthday, granite club, kimmanleyort, memorable meal, ports of call, toronto

This entry was posted on July 23, 2010 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Kim, Memoirs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.