Growing Up Canadian – Volume 3, 1970-1985

A Unique Format and a Wry Style:

What a ride. And this third and final volume completes the trilogy. The youthful days of Canada’s boomer crowd are told with wit and humour through a series of quick-read entries on music, television, hobbies, sports, lifestyle, politics, school life, and much more.
There are nine chapters, each with 15 entries of four to ten paragraphs. The entries are listed alphabetically in each chapter and are also in general chronological order from 1970 to 1985.

1. About Time Well Wasted (Hobbies and Games),
   The chapter includes, among others, entries on Skipping Chants, Table Hockey, Sports Cards, Hop Scotch, Playing Guitar, Rubik’s Cube and Trivial Pursuit

 

2. Building a Foundation in Pop Music, Some of the Canadian pop/rock/folk artists with entries are Buffalo Springfield, René Simard, Burton Cummings, Klaatu, Bryan Adams and Northern Lights,

 

3. Constant Change and New Trends, Societal changes such as government lotteries, the metric system, the creation of the megamall, women in the RCMP, abortion laws and the Yuppies are some of the entry topics,

 

4. Mags, Comics, and a Book or Two, The written word with a Canadiana focus—Pierre Berton, Chatelaine Magazine, Captain Canuck, Harlequin Romances, Harrowsmith Magazine, Arthur Hailey, For Better or Worse comic strip, and much more,

 

5. Memories of Good Old School Daze (with apologies for the spelling), Elementary school vaccination days, lunch boxes, and the always present Crayon Queen have entries, followed by grade 8 memories of Sex Education and sock hops. Included in high school memories are friendship cliques, plagiarizing with Coles Notes, and attending high school reunions,

 

6. Quotes of Note, Messaging from a wide range of Canadians including Norval Morrisseau, animator Geore Dunning (Yellow Submarine), Shannon Tweed, Roch Carrier, model Dayle Haddon, author David Morrell (Rambo), Steve Fonyo and politician Robert Stanfield,

 

7. Still Centre Stage for Network TV, The “glory days” of network TV with a Canadian twist includes Star Trek’s James Doohan (Scotty), Reach For the Top, Morley Safer on 60 Minutes, Daytime Game Shows, William Shatner, the Degrassi Kids, and Michael J. Fox on Family Ties.

 

8. Playing in the Global Sandbox, Impacts on Canada from the Prague Spring, the 1973 oil crisis are included along with Soviet spying in Canada, CANDU nuclear reactor sales, cruise missile testing, Canada’s entry into the G7 and Canadian company Seagram, the international booze king.

 

9. The Changing World of Sports, Innovations such as the Gerela brothers kicking field goals soccer-style, Toller Cranston’s “Theatre on Ice”, and the introduction of black quarterbacks in the CFL are blended with entries on well-known personalities such as Gordie Howe, Carling Basset, and Wayne Gretsky, and the less famous, such as Hervé Filion and Sylvia Burka.