Mike Filey brings the stories of Toronto, its people and places, to life. Mike Filey’s column “The Way We Were” first appeared in the Toronto Sunday Sun not long after the paper’s first edition hit newsstands on September 16, 1973. Now, almost four decades later, Filey’s column has had an uninterrupted stretch as one of the newspaper’s most widely read features. In 1992, a number of his columns were reprinted in Toronto Sketches: “The Way We Were.” Since then another eleven volumes have been published to great success, with over 5,000 copies sold. In his latest compilation, Filey recounts the story of the controversial (though not altogether surprising) renovations at Union Station, as well as the history of Toronto’s own Kennedy family.

Table of Contents:
Contents  Here’s to Our Kennedys  St. Clair Bridge Still Gives Us Trouble  Cemetery Last Port of Call  Escaping Summer by Boat  They Lined Up to Cross Niagara  Where Is Our Spitfire?  Makin’ Tracks through History  This 1910 Idea Was a Real Lifesaver  Pleasant Streetcar History  From Civic to Simcoe  This Canuck Was a Golf God  Toronto Still Yonge at Heart  The Ill-Fated Ex of 1974  CNE’s Back to the Future  Stately Structures Indeed  World’s First Movie Star  Streamlining T.O.’s Streets  Rollin’, Rollin’ Down the River  Keewatin Comes Home  Tunnel Comes in for Landing  Mother Parker Turns One Hundred  Belt Line Was Short-Tracked  Wharf Lighthouse Turns 150  The Very First Grey Cup  Travels Back in Time  Gardiner in a Pickle  T.O.’s Evolving Skyline  T.O.’s Little Piece of Venice  Identified Flying Object  Toronto’s Master Sleuth  The Best-laid Plans …  T.O. Tried its Luck Before  Starter Motors  T.O.’s Second Subway  A Real Swinger on Bathurst  Gargoyles Get a Second Life  The Fileys Head South  Historic and Truly Moving  Jets Back on Island Radar  A Hot Time in the Old Town of York  Streetcar Inferno  Toronto’s Changing Waterfront  Floating History  Postcard from the Wedge  Toronto’s Early Hotels  The Little Tug That Could  Northern Fighters  The Way We Kept Our Cool  Wonderful Flying Machine  Never Got Off the Ground  Never Taxed for a Topic  Scarborough’s Lost Dream  Getting There from Here  City Joined the Streetcar Biz  Toronto’s Union Station, Then and Then  Toronto’s Worst Disaster  Can’t Beat New City Hall  When Vaudeville Ruled  Take the Time to Go to Jail  Pachyderms from the Past  Our First Remembrance  First TTC Rider Paid 7¢ Fare  Mi Casa Es Su Casa  Streetcar’s Brush with Fame  A Piece of T.O.’s Flying History  When Eaton’s Was Christmas  1944 Storm Still the Worst