Through oral history, Evelyn Benson succeeds in capturing the ambience of a small town in the Pacific Northwest by relating real-life events that happened to ordinary people through four generations. Learn about "street games", "Sunday Blue Laws", "wartime rations" and life before antibiotics and deodorants. With every story, young readers will learn something new, and old-timers will experience a flood of nostalgia. The author's folksy way of telling stories immediately engages readers of any generation. Read about: - the day an irate sports fan took a pistol shot at a referee - the horror and the humour of trench warfare as witnessed by a youngbuck private in WW I France - the fear all mothers felt as they fought deadly infections before the miracle of antibiotics - riding in the open trunk of a car on a family outing to the beach - witness the penitentiary escape of the infamous train robber Billy Miner through the eyes of three eleven year old boys Its people, their problems, their secrets and day-to-day happenings could be anywhere. The book is arranged in three eras: Part I 1893-1938 covers the late Victorian era, World War I, the Twenties and Thirties. Part II 1939-1947 describes the WW II years when the author was a child. Part III 1948-1993 brings us to the Fifties when she was a teenager, and beyond. As a high school substitute teacher for 27 years, Evelyn captivated her students with tales "of bygone years" and they urged her, "Mrs. Benson, you should put your stories in a book!" This is that book. Many of the stories were passed down through family lore or recorded from interviews. The author lived many of the events herself. Evelyn Benson is uniquely qualified to author this book. Her middle class family has lived in the same town since 1893. Five generations have lived in the same house where many of the stories take place. Although New Westminster is in British Columbia, Canada, it could be a small town anywhere in North America. Most photos in this book were taken by the author's father who got his first camera in 1904. Over one thousand of his negatives were gifted to the New Westminster Archives in 2013, slated for display on the New Westminster City website.
About the Author: Born at New Westminster near Vancouver, British Columbia in 1934, Evelyn Benson is a member of the pioneer Sangster and Appleton families. Five generations of the continuing Appleton-Sangster-Benson family have lived in the same heritage house for more than a century - a rarity on the West Coast. Her father was New Westminster Mayor J. Lewis Sangster. In 1953, Evelyn married her high school sweetheart, Don Benson, who is today City Poet Laureate Emeritus and an accomplished Masters Pentathlete. Both Bensons are regular history contributors to local media and devoted community activists. The Bensons have five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A trained vocalist and actress, Evelyn conceived and co-founded the highly successful Royal City Musical Theatre Company. She is a former Citizen of the Year and the only New Westminster recipient thus far of the coveted national Lescarbot Award for outstanding contributions to Canadian culture. An award-winning journalist and former high school teacher, Evelyn recognized over half a century ago that when pioneers passed on, their stories would be lost forever if they weren't recorded for posterity, so she began interviewing old-timers to make sure that didn't happen. She continues to preserve precious oral history.