I missed Elvis in Toronto in 1957. Tickets sold for $1.25 and $3.50, and were gone in 48 hours. This was before Ticketmaster and online sales and scams. Remember cheques and box offices?

I missed the Beatles in 1964, at $5.50 a ticket. Beatlemania had swept the world, and young Canadian girls screamed their lungs out in Maple Leaf Gardens.

But I did see Gordon Lightfoot in 1966 in the Sudbury Arena. He was a ruggedly talented 28 and sang “In the Early Morning Rain” twice.

And as I rambled a few years ago, I missed Woodstock in 1969. Prices for the generational hippy happening on Max Yasgur’s bucolic dairy farm were $18 in advance, but due to organizational difficulties, the gates were eventually opened and admission was free.

Jimi Hendrix was the highest-paid singer at $18,000 and he played the final song of the four-day event (“The Star Spangled Banner”).

Yes, I know Rod Stewart sang for three and a half million people on Copacabana Beach in 1994, but he was a relative flash in the pan.

This is a long introduction to the fact that I was not going to miss the Eras Tour in Toronto.

Until my 24-year-old daughter Carrie recently provided her précis version of Taylor Swift’s life and contributions to society, I hadn’t really paid much attention to the Swiftieworld.

I now believe she is bigger than Elvis and the Beatles. With us for almost two decades now, she released her first country song way back in 2006.

She is a giant and has helped a lot of people through a lot of life.

An iconic influencer for a long time, Taylor Swift has had such a positive effect on so many lives.

Relationship challenges and life changes have been made survivable by the lyrics and lessons of her songs. Her guitar player and vocalist Paul Sidoti has been with her since 2007, and her backup dancers almost as long.

She is a genuinely good person and always treats people with kindness and respect.

As the Eras Tour is proving in its own unique way, my wonderful and wise father was right when he taught me, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

A few months ago, my London, England studying daughter and two of her former Parliament Oak classmates went to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Lisbon, Portugal.

Everything included, including great merch, it was cheaper than buying a ticket for an Eras Tour night in Toronto.

It was definitely expensive, but “the greatest night of her life.” Remember, value is what you get.

Rambling a bit awkwardly out West to the Canadian Rockies, I compare this comment to what every passenger on the Rocky Mountaineer Railtour trip says after the iconic train ride.

No one says, “It was great, but a tad expensive.” Everyone says, “Everything about this vacation was perfect, and I can’t wait to get home and tell Marjorie and Frank to do it.”

Luxurious and Canadian, indeed.

Back east now to the Eras Tour in Toronto last weekend. On the GO train in from Burlington, so many happy, polite, dressed up and enthusiastic Swifties. Two or three of them offered me their seat. On principle, I declined their kind and elder-respecting offers.

“Thanks, I think.”

Everyone was in their best mood. Expectant, emotional, a bit giddy, going to the show. I was a thrifty Swiftie, just along for the ride. A voyeur, as it were.

My lifetime favourite Swiftie has been Bill Swift, founding partner and mean dude up at Algonquin Outfitters, renter of fine canoes and camping gear on Oxtongue Lake. My dad took me on my first Algonquin Park canoe trip in 1962, when they had only six canoes to rent.

This American Swiftie was a great Canadian, and his children are now the biggest employers in Muskoka.

Rambling back now to oft-maligned Toronto. Say what you want, but last weekend, the city worked. Clean, safe and big events in several locations. Lots of extra people working the crowds, and everyone positive and polite.

Exiting Union Station, a good number of Leaf fans, many wearing sweaters (not jerseys) with “Matthews 34” printed expensively on the back, were going in one direction, looking hopeful but somehow resigned to another frustrating season suffering under the Shamaplan (No, that’s not a typo).

Going in the other direction, to enjoy the nights of their lives with Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour, were thousands of dressed up, psyched up and tuned up Canadian females. Happy, getting great value for money. Multigenerational.

I was just a fly on the wall, but it was wonderful to be a tangential part of such a positive phenomenon. Not that I noticed, but not one drunk or otherwise impaired Swiftie. And, no foul language or cussing.

For this rambler, once in a lifetime.

By the way, nobody was scalping really cheap tickets, so my daughter and I had a nice and reasonably priced dinner at Jason George on Front Street. Her new local. Blackened haddock for me, and then we watched the Eras Tour video on Disney Plus in her very conveniently located apartment.

Perfect. Because we made it perfect.