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| Where memories were once made Montreal, QC August 2025 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
It’s a giant orange ball that looms over the landscape beside a crumbling concrete expressway, an historic icon that stands in defiance of the mix-and-match chains and franchises that now litter our cities and towns.
This place has been a rite of passage for generations, including mine. As a newly minted teenaged driver, I’d beg for the car, then meet up with my friends in the parking lot, where we’d bond, often loudly, over greasy hot dogs and fries, washed down by OJ’s eponymous whipped drink. We never could figure out precisely how it was made, but we knew it tasted like friendship and life well lived.
Eventually we brought our kids here and as we munched away we shared the stories from long ago that had played out in this very parking lot that curves around the historic structure.
This place of rough asphalt and haphazardly painted lines is comfort and home, something that wouldn’t otherwise exist today. Already the condos are being built ever closer, as well as a multi-billion-dollar mall just down the road. The area is gentrifying and redeveloping, and it’s likely only a matter of time before a developer makes an offer no one can refuse.
Nothing lasts forever, after all. But for now, I needed to stand in the parking lot and appreciate the simple scene of orange backdropped against a perfectly blue summer sky. It was an integral part of my narrative, and I was lucky to have experienced it.
#montreal #quebec #yul #canada #oj #orangejulep #streetphotography #abstractphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone
Related:
Reflecting on life by the giant orange, November 2018
Thematic Photographic 279 - Threesies, January 2014
Even birds prefer OJ, January 2013
Paying homage to OJ, November 2009
A closed window, October 2009
A OJ memory, April 2009
A photographer grows, October 2006
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