“This is the 1172th column I have written for the Lake Country Calendar newspaper. In the autumn of 1995, Jack McCarthy called me. ‘How’d you like to write a column for us?’ he asked. That’s how it began. Jack was the owner and publisher of The Calendar, a weekly...
In my last posting to this blog, I told you a few of the things you shouldn’t do in writing memoirs. Now let me suggest some things you should do. First, start writing. Even if you don’t know what to write about, start writing. Write, and write, and write some more. You may trash a lot...
Her book on writing lay open to the chapter on Memoirs. “I thought I might write my memoirs,” she shrugged. “You know, so I have something to do when I retire.” Great idea. Not as easy as it sounds, though. As a writer, of course I think everyone should write. But also as a...
Details make a difference. We got out some old pictures a while ago. Like so many old pictures, the prints had no date, no captions. A picnic table, with a broad river in the background; beyond it, a range of snow-capped peaks. Two young children, so swaddled in their bulky sweaters that it was...
Long before electric carving knives and boneless pre-stuffed turkeys, carving was an art form. My mother would call us into the dining room. The turkey, golden brown and aromatic, steamed on its platter at the head of the table. We sat at our places, unfolded our napkins, and watched as my father...
As far as I know, only one member of my extended family has ever served in military forces. I’m not proud of that fact – I suspect it’s pure chance that prevented some male members from enlisting. But I am proud of my Uncle Andy. Dr. Andrew Taylor went out to Central India in 1928 as a mission...
Our Christmas decor has evolved over the years. We used to go out and cut our own tree. That meant every Christmas tree was different. Some trees were short and fat, some tall and skinny. Each tree required its own unique arrangement of decorations. We also created our own decorations, back then....
On November 3, 1917, a young man “somewhere in France,” serving in the Canadian Army as a battery commander’s assistant, sat down to write a letter to his wife back home in New Brunswick. She was due to give birth to their first child. “I have been gazing into the fire, daydreaming,” he wrote to...
Recently Canada Post announced extensive changes to the Canadian mail system, specifically by introducing more community mail boxes. For we older folk, those community mailboxes hearken back to historic mail services. Winfield’s first official post office was named Alvaston by the first...
It was our first Christmas away from family. Joan and I had moved from Vancouver to Prince Rupert, on the far north end of B.C.’s coast. We didn’t have many decorations — we had usually celebrated Christmas with my parents – so we had to improvise. The kids and I cut a tree that we found in...