Stubs' General Store, Long Point, Ontario
July 25, 2025 | #queer
we disgorged the car onto the campsite, and hit the beach.
we splashed against the waves, and ate cherries in the shade, and now my children, tired, lay like clumps on the sand. it was time for dinner.
a fire takes a while to get going, so i led the kids on an expedition: we walked through a path in the bush and checked out Stubs’ General Store.
i had spotted it from the car.
a squat white house, adjacent a beach trail, its roof decorated with a mannequin dressed like a pirate. on a flag pole, below the red and white, flew a six color pride flag, the first pride flag i’d seen in over a hundred kilometres of driving. (i notice these things).
the sign out front, decorated with a pink flamingo, read “a sunny place for shady people”. i smiled, and we stepped inside.
to our left there was a thrift section, unusual for a general store in cottage country, and we wandered through shelves stacked with a pleasing mix of beach toys and sundry items useful while car camping. behind the cash register sat two or three well-worn upholstered chairs.
we were all alone. the kids ran between the aisles and begged for ice cream.
the golden hour light flooded the room. i tried on an article of form-fitting mesh beachwear, and the radio started playing father figure by george michael. i swayed my hips and grooved to the song.
this place, it had a real vibe.
someone walked in and sat behind the register.
i read him as a gay man in his late forties, early fifties, lean and trim with salt and pepper hair. i bought a previously-owned beach towel, and he assured me that it was fine that the children were running wild, we are very chill here.
he told my oldest son, you should listen to your mom (correctly gendering me), and i now loved this man, and engaged him in conversation.
i told him i appreciated the flag, and he said he wanted people (people like me, people like him) to feel at ease here.
are you Stubs then?
ah, no, that’s a nickname. actually… this is my ex-wife’s place, i’ve been running it for her. actually… she died two weeks ago. cancer.
his kids inherited it, so he’s helping them out. normally, he teaches some kind of art at sheridan college out in oakville.
they divorced five years ago, because he is gay, and they stayed friendly. she went and got this store and ran it for four years and when she got sick he came to help out.
in the end she spent two months in the hospital.
the day before she passed away she got a day pass, and came by the store, and sat right here at the counter and all sorts of people came by to say hello. this place, it’s become a neighbourhood institution.
they had a little photo shoot right at the beach over there, and that was that. he’d asked her at the end of June if he could put up the flag and she said sure.
he used to teach all year but these days he doesn’t have to work the summer anymore. with a twinkle in his eye he said he might help run it in the future.
i said wow. you’ve been going through a lot. i’m sorry for your loss. i told him that i had gotten such a vibe from the store, that it had so much personality.
the pride flag, the décor, the thrifting, the george michael playing, you could really feel this positive energy emanating from this place.
and he came around the counter and gave me a hug, and told me my children were beautiful.
i walked out filled with lightness.