Larry Rafferty was born May 30, 1932 in Blackpool, England, where he grew up against the backdrop of World War Two. Larry has many engaging memories of the time, from the Blitz to the rations and Blackpool FC! Larry grew up in Blackpool and Manchester, returning to the latter after the bombings had subsided. His […]
Raffaella DeSimone was born in Italy in 1943, in the midst of the Second World War. As her parents were farmers, and there was no work, the family relocated to France, and then to Canada. The family arrived in Halifax, at Pier 21, and they began to adapt to their new country, reaching out to family […]
Bill Duncan was born September 23, 1940 in Waterloo, Quebec. He grew up in and around Montreal and when he was 17 he decided to join the Royal Canadian Navy. Training took place at HMCS Cornwallis, and in short order he was assigned to HMCS La Hulloise, a frigate. Bill worked in the engine room, […]
Len Kubas was born May 15, 1937 in Winnipeg. He grew up there during the Second World War, living with his grandparents and tending their victory garden. His father was in the RCAF at the time, and was stationed in nearby Brandon, doing his part in the BCATP. Len’s schooling continued into the postwar years, […]
Don Carter was born January 1, 1925 in Wellsville, New York. Don and his siblings grew up in nearby Hornell, where his dad was a contractor and his mother was a telephone switchboard operator. Don grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression; he remembered that his father’s contracts were suspended and times were […]
John Henry Thomas – Jack – was born September 14, 1923 in Sydney, Australia. He grew up there during the difficult days of the Great Depression, attending school and playing sports. He recalls that the war came to Australia on September 4, 1939, and that from the beginning he and his friends were aware of […]
John McDonald was born January 31, 1925 in Nagambie, Australia. He grew up on a farm in that part of western Australia, experiencing the Depression and drought of the 1930s. In February 1943, while working as a clerk for Victorian Railways, John enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He was mustered as a […]
Tom Kirk was born November 10, 1928 in Richmond, Virginia. He grew up an avid musician, and by the end of high school he was playing gigs 3-4 nights a week – time he should have been studying according to his father. So the decision was made to send him to the Virginia Military Institute […]
Richard Vinet was born December 10, 1943 in Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, Quebec. Adopted when he was three years old, his family relocated to Ontario, first to Cornwall and later to Morrisburg, and that is where Richard grew up in the 1950s. He would finish high school in St. Petersburg, Florida, graduating in 1962; as he was on […]
Hari Jaswant Singh was born January 19, 1924 in Lahore, a city that was part of British India at the time and later became part of Pakistan after Partition. His early life was shaped by both the final years of British colonial rule and the outbreak of the Second World War. His family had deep […]
Michele Melfe was born March 1, 1922 in Caltanissetta, Sicily. He grew up in a big family in this country town, where he bicycled and played soccer and attended school up to 3rd grade. Benito Mussolini was dictator of Italy, and Michele was a member of a youth organization. At the time though, the war […]
Joe Maxwell was born September 4, 1925 in Glasgow, Scotland, the oldest of six children. The family briefly went to Canada in 1929 as Joe’s father had been promised work, but when that didn’t work out they returned to Glasgow, and subsequently Clydebank, and that is where Joe attended school. The war broke out when […]
Harold Musikoff was born in Akron, Ohio on July 31, 1924. His father immigrated from Odessa (Russia), and his mother was from Hungary. At age 3 Harold moved from Akron to Brooklyn, and that is where he spent his childhood – and that is where the family was when the 1929 Crash occurred. His father […]
Russell Hollefeur was born September 1, 1925 in Montreal. He grew up an only child in the city’s downtown neighbourhood, attending school and following the Montreal Maroons. His teenage years unfolded against the backdrop of wartime, and he recalls the rationing and other realities of the war. Russell reported for duty when he was called […]
William Talbot was born in Montreal’s General Hospital on December 31, 1922. He grew up in the Verdun neighbourhood, attending school until Grade 10 and following the Montreal Maroons – and later the Canadiens. His father was a railroad locomotive engineer, so the family got through the Great depression well enough. William’s older brother joined […]
Keith Cunningham was born February 11, 1950 in London, Ontario. He spent his early years on a farm in the Bruce Peninsula, where he did a lot of hunting in the northern Ontario wilderness. Keith attended school in that area too, where he was raised by his grandparents – he graduated in 1968. His mother […]
Pat Keefe was born July 11, 1925 in London, England. He grew up in the Hammersmith neighbourhood, going to the local schools and following his Queen’s Park Rangers. When the war came in 1939 he was 14 years old; his parents had him evacuated during the Blitz, and he ended up in Melksham. Pat received […]
Joe Rosato was born June 8, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York. He spent his early years in Wantagh, Long Island, before the family returned to Brooklyn. Joe’s early years were not easy: his parents had a difficult marriage and divorce, and Joe recalls that he and his brother were caught up in the tumult before […]
Richard Moody was born April 21, 1941 in Fleet, Hampshire, England. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Second World War, and as a very young boy he has a few memories of the time, from the sound of the Luftwaffe bombers to a V-1 that failed to detonate. His father was in […]
Bob von Bargen was born July 4, 1935. His parents emigrated to the United States from Germany between the two world wars, and after a short stay in Germany in 1934 – when they witnessed the brutalities of Nazism – they decided to return to the U.S., settling in New York City. Their first stop […]
Born on September 5, 1924, Frank Stellar grew up in Lebanon, Pennsylvania – in a family of ten children with eight sisters. Both of Frank’s parents were immigrants from Austria Hungary who came to the U.S. in search of better opportunities. Frank left school after Grade 11 and worked so he could help out the […]
Russell Sattazahn was born April 17, 1926 in Rexmont, Pennsylvania, though his parents relocated soon after, and Russell ended up living in a number of rural communities in the southeastern portion of the state. He grew up on a small farm alongside his four siblings, navigating the realities of the Great Depression. He attended high […]
Ralph Galati was born March 22, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in that city in the 1950s, attending Catholic school and choosing Air Force ROTC when he went to college. Ralph remembers the 60s as an exciting but tumultuous time, one which saw a very polarized America, especially in terms of the war […]
Mark Satin was born November 16, 1946: a member of the Baby Boom generation, he grew up in Minnesota and Texas. His grandparents fled the Pale of Settlement during the 19th century pogroms against Russian Jews, and they started their life in America in New York. Those family origins gave Mark a sense of disconnectedness, […]
Gerry Teldon was born August 28, 1924 in the Bronx, New York. The family moved to Cedarhurst, Long Island when Gerry was quite young, and that is where he grew up. His father, a Great War veteran, ran a successful dressmaking business, so even in the dark days of the Depression the family was doing […]
James “Joe” Kennedy was born July 9, 1925 in Newry, in County Down, Northern Ireland. He grew up there in a Catholic family with 7 children, attending school until age 14 and coping with the Great Depression and then the war. Several family members were involved in the war too, and Joe remembers an uncle […]
Philip Salois was born November 22, 1948. He grew up in Rhode Island in his early years, followed by a family move to southern California, where he enjoyed the idyllic life of 1950s America – even against the backdrop of the Cold War. After high school Philip briefly attended college, but it was not for […]
Ken Cameron was born March 24, 1934 in Lumsden, Saskatchewan. He grew up against the backdrop of WW2 and the postwar period in different parts of Saskatchewan, from farming areas to the north of the province. Ken finished his schooling after Grade 10, at which time he worked different jobs, including stints at HBC and […]
Bill Shead was born October 1, 1939; he is the oldest of 7 children. He is a member of Peguis First Nation and is from Selkirk, Manitoba, where he grew up in a very multicultural community doing all the normal things from the time. That includes going to the community school, which Bill was fortunate […]
LCdr Andrew Cumming was born in Guthrie, Ontario, just outside Barrie. He attended St. Andrew’s College and studied engineering at the University of Toronto. He then entered the working world, and unhappy with what he encountered he chose to join the Canadian Forces. Given his background he was drawn to the navy, and he has […]