Gail Halvorsen was born October 10, 1920 in northern Utah, where he grew up on a sugar beet farm, enjoying the great outdoor life the state had to offer. Gail worked hard during those years, and he decided to look into a civilian pilot training program that he had heard about. When the Pearl Harbour […]
Roland Glenn was born June 5, 1924; he grew up in small town Pennsylvania, against the backdrop of the Great Depression. He recalls a good childhood, where his family raised him with love and positive energy, in a time when that was in short supply for many Americans. His father and grandfather had instilled him […]
Stanley Grizzle was born in Toronto in 1918, to Jamaican parents who immigrated to Canada in 1911. He grew up in downtown Toronto, where he attended Prince Edward School and later Harbord Collegiate. He became a railway porter at the age of 22 to help support his family. In 1938 he became involved in the […]
Julia Parsons was born March 2, 1921 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father was an instructor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. Julia recalls her childhood as being a traditional one, as dictated by the Victorian mores of the time. The family was not heavily impacted by the Depression, […]
Guy Prestia was born April 26, 1922 in Pennsylvania. The son of an Italian immigrant and a Pennsylvanian, he grew up alongside his siblings against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Guy recalls that his father worked hard, supporting the family during the economic downturn and then doing war work once the United States entered […]
Dear Parents, While it was a short week with students in school enjoying the glorious warm weather, we still managed to squeeze in some important events! Thank you to the admin team of the CSPA for hosting the first ZOOM CSPA meeting this past Tuesday. We were so pleased by the exceptional turnout, and […]
Ron Goldstein was born August 16, 1923 , in London, England. His parents, looking to escape the anti-Semitism and lack of opportunity, had immigrated to England from Poland in the years before the Great War. They went on to raise a large family, and Ron was the 10th in a family of 11. Ron left […]
John O’Henly was born March 15, 1923, and he grew up in the east end of Toronto. He attended RH MacGregor Public School, and after one year at East York, he opted to go to Danforth Tech, as he was interested in their art course. He spent much of his spare time with his friends […]
Bill Morgan was born April 23, 1925 in Consett, England, a small city on the east coast, not too far from Newcastle. Bill’s mother passed away when he was just five, and at that time he moved in with his grandparents and aunts, and his father’s role in his life diminished. Bill grew up an […]
Tyler Smith was born in Calgary, Alberta, a city that had a very deep tradition for the navy, in spite of its inland location. One of the first steps he took in order to achieve his goal of joining the military was to join the sea cadets, a program that the navy sets up in […]
Leslie Mezei was born in 1931 in Hungary in a little town called Gödöllő. He had a good relationship with his mother and father. His father was an officer in the Hungarian army, and a lawyer. Leslie lived in a small house and had a tough childhood with some anti-Semitism appearing in his neighborhood and […]
Rod White was born in Trenton, Ontario in 1925. Rod’s father died when he was only four, and some of his early memories are of his mother struggling to raise her seven children in difficult economic times. Rod was a sickly child, suffering from bouts of tuberculosis and jaundice; combined with wearing glasses from an […]
Frank Rees is from Toronto. He grew up in the city’s east end, against the backdrop of the Great Depression. He attended Danforth Tech and served in the reserve army during the early part of the war. When the time came for him to join up, Frank chose the RCAF – he remembers that it […]
Norman Cash was born January 1, 1920 in Russia, in the city of Odessa. When he was one year old his family made the decision to emigrate as the anti-Semitic violence associated with the pogroms was intensifying in the wake of the Great War, where Norm’s father had been a veteran. The family settled in […]
Alyre Gallant was born December 23, 1923, in Piusville, Prince Edward Island. He grew up during the time of the Depression, and when his father died when he was quite young, Alyre left school and began working on the family farm. And that was the theme for the rest of the decade and into the […]
Walter Swirski was born in Poland on May 7, 1922. His family lived in a small village, where they were prosperous farmers; Walter’s father owned a share in a flour mill, and had been an officer in the Soviet-Polish war. Walter had one brother and was going to school when the Second World War broke […]
Jim Parks was born September 22, 1924, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He grew up there during the hard days of the Great Depression, making money anywhere he could, selling magazines and blocks of ice. When the war came along, Jim was in high school, and he remembers learning about the war in history class. He joined […]
Harry Gower was born in Toronto in 1922. He grew up in the city’s west end, where he attended Western Tech. With the death of his father and the coming of the Great Depression, Harry had to leave high school after one year, and he took a job at Eaton’s, where he operated the elevator […]
Richard Hodgins was born in Toronto in 1919. He grew up in the city’s east end, in the Danforth and Jones neighbourhood. He has been a hockey fan his whole life, and many of his prewar memories centred on the Toronto St. Pats and the Mutual Street Arena, and then the Leafs at the Gardens, […]
Larry Lamantia was born in Toronto, growing up in the city’s east end in the Pape-Danforth neighbourhood. His father ran a grocery market, and Larry grew up in the care of his grandmother, as his mother died when Larry was only five. The family experienced some of the anti-Italian backlash that spread through Toronto at […]
Robert “Bud” Jones was born in the St-Henri District of Montreal, and educated in the school districts of St. Henri, Montreal and Verdun , Quebec. Bud Jones is a decorated career soldier of 30 yrs, and a veteran of WWII who also served in Korea. He grew up in Depression-era Montreal, where Bud remembers his […]
Victor Squigna hails from the west end of Toronto, where he grew up in the interwar years. Victor recalls that conditions in the Great Depression were not too bad for his family; he in fact had a car, and worked at the local gas station. When his 18th birthday came in 1942, Victor made his […]
Norm Gogo grew up in Toronto and Michigan, as the family moved when his father was transferred and began work in the Motor City. But the good economic times did not last, and as the Depression worsened the family returned to Canada along Hwy. 5. Back in Toronto Norm went to school in the city’s […]
Gordon E. Smith was born in Humber Bay, Toronto, on March 19, 1925. He grew up in Depression-era Toronto, and left school, working on the family farm and a machine shop. In 1944, Gord joined up, knowing that he was soon to be called by the military. Initially he joined the Artillery, and completed his […]
Bob Chartre grew up in prewar Quebec, one son in a very large family. He remembers well the difficulties of the Great Depression, and even recalls that his father was happy when he and two of his brothers were called up for the war as that meant fewer mouths to feed! When Bob went into […]
Peter Castellan was born in Toronto in 1918, making him one of the centenarians that we have interviewed for the Crestwood Oral History Project. Peter grew up in the east end of Toronto, in the Gerrard/Broadview neighbourhood, where he remembers days spent at the YMCA and the local firehall, as well as the many local […]
Ardwell Eyres served in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Born in Cameron, Ontario, Ardwell grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression. His father was a farmer, so Ardwell remembered that they always had food to eat, but he was aware of the economic circumstance that befell others. Ardwell did go […]
Gord Allen served in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. He was born October 2, 2022 and grew up in prewar Toronto, where he remembers the tough times of the Great Depression; Gord recalls his father being out of work, and he remembers that he and his friends used to bring food to […]
Harry Preston served in the Canadian army during World War Two. He grew up in western Canada, in and around Winnipeg, where Harry and his family experienced the realities of the Depression. Harry kept himself busy though, and with friends, he got involved in the militia and the Sea Cadets, where he was able to […]
Richard Field served in Canada’s 2nd Division during World War Two. He grew up in Toronto during the Depression years, where he was able to finish school and join the prewar militia and sea cadets, two organizations that would teach him many valuable lessons in the upcoming war years. When Richard moved into the regular […]