How to make a complete stranger's day. by Cameron Porter

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the apartment recently. I’ve been going for regular bike rides to get exercise, but that’s about it. Most of my time is spent in the blue glow of my computer’s monitors. The heat and humidity of southern Ontario in the summer momentarily let up today, so I decided to walk downtown to take some photos around the city and go to the library. Hamilton is odd—the buildings, the people, the smell. It makes it interesting, that’s for sure. You get really nice buildings with great architecture mixed in with dilapidated junk that should be torn down. You got suits and freaks walking side by side downtown and that’s not including the bums and nut cases. There’s a lot of trash among the trees and bushes, especially lining the train tracks. Sometimes I was getting whiffs of sewer and steel in one breath. It’s kind of sad. However, the city is not without it’s charm and magic.

I walked out of Jackson Square after going to the library. I walked west across James Street on King. As I was crossing the street with 20 other people, I noticed a somewhat attractive woman, about my age, walking south on James toward the same corner I was headed for. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I was going to cross the street into the little park that separates the two parallel streets in this area of King to take some pics of the fountain.

I was waiting for a walk signal and I was looking around, checking stuff out. I looked to my left to see what’s going on, then I looked to my right. The aforementioned woman is standing next to me and she’s looking at me. I smile at her, of course. She holds out a yellow flower toward me. “This is for you.” she said. “It’s a daffodil, the flower of Wales and I’m Welsh.” I was so flummoxed, added to the fact that I’m very happily married, the best thing I could come up with was, “Thank you very much. I hope you have a great day and week-end.” She finished with, “You too.” The light turned green and we went on our way. She met up with a male acquaintance sitting on a wall in the park who kind of looked like a hoodlum. I stuck the stalk of the flower in the top handle of my camera bag where it was on display for the rest of my walk. It put extra spring in my step.