Justin Bieber's Stratford

You can't pass a magazine rack these days without seeing Justin Bieber's impish face plastered all over it. His legendary rags to riches story is compelling and inspirational. Bieber is now one of the hottest young singers on the planet at the moment and has shown no signs of slowing down.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, however, Justin Bieber was just another kid hanging out in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario. I know what that's like. I was that kid once too. Now, my early teenage years were likely very different than Justin's. I went to middle school with Bieber's uncle and knew his mother to say hi as we had some mutual friends. Stratford is a small town and everyone pretty much knows everyone. Unlike the golden boy, though, I hung out all the places I shouldn't have; places that were long gone and turned into preppy, touristy gift shops by the time Bieber was old enough to ride his bike around town. My Stratford included the pool hall, the Windsor Hotel, The Squire, Family Sub, and Eddie's. Bieber's town is now full of Celtic jewelry stores, upscale latte bars, poetry readings, and a disturbing number of ice cream parlors.

While I can't take you on a tour of my long-gone hometown, I can take you on a tour of Justin's Bieber's places.

Madelyn's Diner
377 Huron Street

Now, I have to say that hearing that this place was in Bieber's autobiography annoyed me to no end. This was a "locals" place. Tourists didn't know about it. And we liked it that way. Madelyn's serves the best diner breakfast on the planet. I was recovering from hangovers there with plates of runny eggs, salty bacon, hash browns and gallons of strong coffee before Bieber was a twinkle in his mother's eye. Now, they're probably going to put table cloths on the tables and actually clean the silverware properly. Sacrilege!

Stratford Northwestern Secondary School
428 Forman Avenue

There are three high schools in Stratford if you count the Catholic one, but the rivalry was always between Central and Northwestern. Central had the nerds. Northwestern had the jocks. It's been that way forever in Stratford. It will be that way in the future. Central grads make fun of Northwestern grads and vice versa. Let's just say I went to Central and Bieber went to Northwestern and leave it at that. I never had much interaction with students at Northwestern. Most of the guys I dated in high school no longer went to high school.

Long & McQuade
36 Ontario Street

This is Justin Bieber's favorite music store. Back when I was his age, it was The Carpenter Shop, one of two main music stores in town. Although I hung out at The Carpenter Shop occasionally, they rarely had sheet music for Rush, Aerosmith, Zeppelin and the rest of the music I really wanted to play. For that, you had to go to Filsinger's. I bought my first guitar there, took lessons there and realized that I would never be Ann Wilson there. Although I haven't crossed the threshold of Long & McQuade since the purchase, I have been in several others across the country and I bet I could find sheet music for Black Dog there now. But, Justin, if you really want to hear rock and roll stories to curl your hair, go hang out with Earl Filsinger for a while.

Avon Theatre
99 Downie Street

This is one of the three professional Shakespearean venues in Stratford that make the city the tourist draw it is- at least until Justin Bieber became famous. According to his autobiography, Bieber busked on the steps of the theatre before and after performances for spare change. My guess is that there are now about a dozen young hopefuls doing the same thing these days.

Justin Bieber will continue to attract fans to Stratford to see where this cute Canadian boy came from. Long before Bieber Fever, though, Stratford has been home to many luminaries, some temporary and some more permanent. It has always been an enclave of actors, artists, writers, and musicians. It may have seemed oppressive and tiny when I was fifteen and wanted to see the big world, but now I know it's a great place to live, love and raise a family.