Comox Valley resident Clyde Woolman set out to write a book blending Canadian folklore and nostalgia with surprising facts that might not be immediately obvious.
From this idea he wrote Growing Up Canadian, Volume Two, 1960-1980.
It’s Woolman’s experience as a history teacher that led him down the track to writing these books.
This is the second book in his series about growing up in the boomer generation and the specific Canadiana that came with it. He combines historical facts with pop culture tidbits and puts them in an easy-to-read collection. While a lot of pop culture came to Canada via the United States, Woolman was able to find uniquely Canadian references to fill the book.
“It was challenging because a lot of what we remember is American but [I thought] there must be more stuff that’s Canadian. When I started looking in more detail, there’s by far enough Canadian stuff.”
Some of the uniquely Canadian things are bands or band members of popular groups that spanned the two decades Woolman covers. There is a chapter in the book called “Charting in the Pop Music World” that shows just how Canadian musicians made it big in both the Canadian scene and beyond. Bands such as The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Band, Steppenwolf and Tears are featured.
Woolman pulls ‘Quotes of Note’ from various people. He wanted to balance female and male voices, pop culture icons, sports references, writers, artists and politicians.
“It was a little bit challenging because that was one thing I learned about so much of the past – it tended to be male-oriented and I thought there needed to be more of a balance there.”
The book gives boomers a look back with both a sense of nostalgia and historical clarity.
“Some boomers have a distorted view of the past. Not all boomers were on college campuses protesting, it was really a minority. In the 1970s only 25 per cent of people went to college or university but the memories are of boomers protesting.”
Woolman has written various books after retiring from teaching Canadian history to high school students. Of all the books he has written, the Growing Up Canadian series is what he enjoyed writing the most.
“I think this has resonated with me the most. When I was writing the education novels, I [had] just retired from teaching and wanted to encapsulate a career that way. But this has been more fun, this has been more looking back at my youth and then trying to transmit that to other generations or people of my age that have forgotten a lot of that or have a distorted view of it.”
He also hopes that the book connects with other generations besides boomers. Children of boomers may get references and some of the nostalgia from growing up with the music of their parents and stories from their youth.
“One of the things I wanted to do with younger people was to say a lot of the issues that Canada faces now were there then too. They’ve been kind of forgotten about a little bit or pasted over with super positive memories but there’s a couple of entries in the books that have to do with some really serious divisions.”
He points to the Mackenzie Valley pipeline and other Indigenous issues that Canada still faces today.
While Woolman touches on these hard topics, the book is meant to be a light-hearted read that also provides information so that people can remember their youth or have long-forgotten memories pop back up in their minds.