Bob Gee was born January 8, 1948 in Vernal, Utah, a rural community- that means he shares a birthday with a man named Elvis Presley. Bob’s father served in the Army Air Force during WW2, and his uncles served in different capacities during that conflict too. Bob grew up during the Cold War when there […]
Derek Prohar grew up on a farm outside of Avonlea, Saskatchewan. He attended high school at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, where he played hockey, football and rugby. Those sports and academic interests took him to McGill University in Montreal, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and played varsity hockey with the McGill […]
Richard (“Dick”) Pruter was born August 10, 1927 in Chicago. His father lost his job in the tough years of the 1930s though, so the family moved to Westside, Iowa. By 1942 Dick lived in San Francisco near the Richmond Shipyard, and he worked at the Judson Pacific Steel Barge works. He also worked at […]
Doug Raynbird was born September 12, 1932 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Second World War – without his father, who went overseas in 1939 as part of the first contingent. Doug’s father would be away the whole six years, stationed in England and Italy, and Doug and his […]
Don Smoke was born February 24, 1926 in the Alderville First Nation in Northumberland County, Ontario. In 1937 the family moved to Cobourg and then Brighton, where Don remembers working on the family farm. He also had a number of trap lines and remembers that he used to cover a lot of ground along the […]
Wing Yoke Lai was born January 27, 1925 in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He was the fourth of five children living in a small 2-bedroom housing unit. He grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression in a tough neighborhood where the YMCA and the movies offered an outlet. Wing attended Galileo High School, where […]
Bill Snow was born September 13, 1922 in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland. He grew up in that small community alongside his five sisters. Bill recalls that his father was a fisherman – but that he did many other jobs in the off season. Bill went to school but left in Grade 8: work was available and […]
Kenneth Cooke was born August 8,1925 in East Kirkby, Nottinghamshire, a coal mining district. He indicated that he had a rough early life growing up: there was a general strike, and there was no income. He attended school at age 5 and completed his education at age 14, and then had to find employment. […]
Howard Kingsland was born October 4, 1921 in Montreal, Quebec, the son of a Great War veteran. He grew up in the city’s north end, and he recalls that while the Great Depression was difficult, the family was able to make ends meet. Howards completed high school and went to work for the CNR, and […]
John Foy was born October 12, 1925 in Rochester, New York. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, in a large family of ten children where four of the brothers would serve during the war. In the 30s John went to school and did all the normal things for a teenager […]
Robert “Boots” Chouinard was born December 21, 1923 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of 8 children. His father was employed in a paper mill and as a barber. Robert attended various schools, including Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, where he played football on a scholarship. He said that he went from being […]
Bill Balabanow was born February 17, 1926 in the little town of Blue Ridge Summit in southern Pennsylvania, though the family moved to Lancaster in 1931, and that is where he spent most of his childhood. Bill’s parents divorced when he was an infant, so his parental and family memories come mainly from his mother’s […]
Frank “Tex” Davis was born August 24, 1926 in Sackville, Nova Scotia. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, second youngest of eight children, and Tex’s mother died when he was only ten years old. Tex remembers his father doing what he could to keep”the wolf from the door”. Tex’s family […]
Clayton Bihl was born September 9, 1923 in Buffalo, New York. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, attending Bennett High School and Canisius College. He and some friends enlisted in the army in 1938, and Clayton went through all the regular training. He decided though that the army life was […]
Emily Drake was born July 4, 1925 in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. Her parents had emigrated from Vilna in the period before the First World War, and Emily remembers growing up speaking Polish at home. Her childhood took place during the Great Depression, but – too young to be aware of pressing economic and political matters- she […]
George Pouder was born January 18, 1923 in New York City. He grew up in the Bronx during the difficult times of the Great Depression, a period that impacted his family and the neighborhood. George recalls that the quality of his schooling varied, but that he took full advantage of the city, exploring it with […]
Wolfram Forster was born October 22, 1925, in Berlin, Germany. He grew up in that city during the interwar years, witnessing the political changes that were taking place around him as he attended school. Wolfram’s father was a Great War veteran who became a police officer, and who later fired when he refused to join […]
Wayne Bell was born June 6, 1947, in Montreal. He grew up on Montreal’s south shore, with a strong affinity to the United States, where Plattsburgh offered luxuries such as drive-in theatres. Wayne and his friends would go there often, visiting the beach and escaping the 1960s political tensions that were emerging in Quebec. While […]
Bob Harbula was born January 2, 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a working class area there, and he expected to work on the railroad, as had his father and grandfather. As a young boy he saw the Second World War unfold all around him, and he was inspired by the stories of […]
Mervyn Kersh was born December 20, 1924 in South London. He grew up with two older siblings in a middle class Jewish family in the neighbourhood of Brixton; he experienced significant anti-Semitism at school, until his parents moved him to a Jewish school. They also enrolled him in the Jewish Lads’ Brigade, and Mervyn too […]
Stephen Foreman was born August 3, 1946; he grew up near Pittsburgh, in the small town of Jefferson, Pennsylvania. Life was good in that small, racially-mixed town; Stephen’s father worked at the steel mill, and the family raised its own chickens. Stephen was a boy scout, and later played football and other sports in high […]
Becky Sprecher was born in 1950 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky – the Baby Boom had begun. Becky remembers her elementary school teachers saying on the first day of school, “I’ve never had a class this big!” There were certain advantages in small town America in those days in that the kids could ride their bikes just […]
Carl Zipperer was born on May 4, 1950 in Savannah. He grew up in that part of Georgia, and most of his early years were spent in the country on the family farm. Carl learned to be self-reliant there, a character trait that would serve him well in future years. Coming out of high school, […]
Keith Miller was born March 11, 1946 in Pittsburgh. He grew up in small town America in the 1950s, enjoying what life had to offer, from TV to baseball to playing in the street. It was also the time of the Cold War, and Keith remembers that his childhood was also interrupted by “duck and […]
Philip Daniel was born July 24, 1925 in Toronto. He grew up on a farm in the Leaside neighbourhood, where his father – a Great War veteran – delivered dairy goods. Philip’s father was part of the Canadian Engineers in the First World War, working with horses and keeping the supplies moving; his mother was […]
Rick Claggett was born March 19, 1947, not too far from Philadelphia. Rick grew up against the backdrop of the “Fabulous 50s” – and the Cold War. By his account he lived a good life, enjoying the outdoor life and just being a child in postwar America. Vietnam entered the American consciousness in 1964-65; initially […]
Edwin Cottrell was born January 17, 1922 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His parents moved to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania the next year though, and that is where he grew up. Edwin remembers a good childhood – and one where he played all kinds of sports. His father – a Great War veteran – worked at the […]
Dorothy Jones was born November 29, 1920 in Lancaster, South Carolina. She grew up there with her five siblings, against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the early years of the war. Her father was a barber, and as Dorothy recalls that meant that he held onto his job during the lean years, but […]
Wally King was born October 31, 1923 in Cortland, Ohio. He grew up in that rural part of the Buckeye state, not too far from the Pennsylvania border. Wally recalls a pretty normal childhood, growing up against the backdrop of the 1920s and the Great Depression 1930s. His father had two sons from his first […]
Don Martin was born June 9, 1933 in Toronto, and he attended Danforth Tech in the city’s east end. Don grew up during the war years, and two of his older brothers served in the Second World War. That includes Jack, who stormed Juno Beach on D-day, and whose story also appears in the Crestwood […]