Sample Memoir
The following excerpt is from an interview I recorded with a very interesting man in Edmonton who had been a bush pilot in the Northwest Territories, and what is now Nunavut, for 25 years beginning in the early 1950s. Over the course of the interview, he revealed some amazing stories about various characters and experiences that helped to shape his life. More importantly, his sense of humor and character is brightly illuminated in his recounting of these anecdotes.
* The actual binding of a fully completed, saddle stitched memoir is not represented in this sample; this graphical binding is only for the purpose of the website.
This section of his finished story comes complete with maps of many of the places he flew, such as this one:
Chesterfield Inlet (Inuktitut: Igluligaarjuk), is located on the western shore of Hudson's Bay in Canada's Nunavut Territory. The community is served by air and by annual supply sea-lift. The population is 345 according to the 2001 Census.
Many photographs of the actual places he describes:
Port Radium is located on Great Bear Lake. The mines were discovered in 1930 and yielded deposits of pitchblende, from which much radium was produced. During World War II the mines were expropriated by the Canadian government when scientists found that these ores contained a rich store of uranium oxide, a source of atomic energy. They were exhausted and closed in 1960.
Photographs of many of the airplanes he was flying, such as this:
Altogether there were 903 Norsemans built, beginning in November 1935. The last one was completed in 1959. They have been flown in, or over, 67+ countries in the world, plus the Arctic and Antarctic continents.
And photographs and details about many of the characters he describes. In this way, his story has context and a vivid picture of his experiences becomes easily accessible to the listener/reader. By listening along to his stories, so much more of his personality and the details of the story itself comes to life. Please click on the following link to listen along to this fun anecdote about working with Al Oming, a man who ran a zoo in the North in the 1960s. In the following recording, P is the main speaker, R is the interviewer from Memories To Memoirs, and H is a friend of P who was there to help P with some names.
* Note - for the sake of this website, the following audio track has been compressed for space, the actual product has a sound quality far superior to the one featured here. The version here is just meant to serve as a sample.
Al Oming, Polar Bears And Other Animals
Oral History Interviews are used for historic preservation. Audio tape recording and interviews through memory establish oral history. Available from Memories To Memoirs, Victoria BC.