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 […]
Archives: Oral History Project
Gold, Daniel
Daniel Gold was born in Lithuania on February 10, 1937. When the war began for Lithuania – in 1941 – the country was quickly overrun by the Germans, and Lithuanian Jews were placed in ghettos, and not longer after the mass murder began. Daniel remembers having to be quiet while Lithuanian neighbours were initiating the […]
Polowin, Alex
Alex Polowin’s official birthday is April 15, 1924 – but it was really May 15, 1925. That’s because like many young Canadian men he was anxious to go to war, and since he was born in Europe the official records had been lost. So with the help of a lawyer, Alex filed his new birthdate, […]
Smith, Percy
Percy Smith was born May 10, 1923 in Ceylon. His father worked in the British civil service there, and that is where Percy spent his early years. The family returned to England in the late 1930s, as the clouds of war were closing in on Europe, and the world. Percy was 16 at the start […]
Roberts, Earl
Earl Roberts was born November 24, 1923 in Madoc Ontario. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but Earl doesn’t remember it as a period where he and his family wanted for anything; rather he remembers the family house, and the time he spent on his bicycle, riding the country roads. […]
Quan, Gordon
Gordon Quan was born Jan. 14, 1926 in Cumberland, B.C. His father died when Gordon was very young, so his mother decided to take her young family back to China, where they lived in a village in Guangdong Province for several years. The Japanese invasion of China forced them to return to Canada though; the […]
Remembrance Day
In November 2020 Crestwood’s annual Remembrance Day commemoration has gone virtual. Unable to meet as a community as we normally would, we have made this film highlighting our relationship with the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Wing. We welcome you to watch it as part of your own virtual ceremony. In 2024 student Max Herriott won 3rd Place […]
Russo, Ralph
Ralph Russo was born July 7, 1917 in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, when times were tough. Ralph’s father was able to hold on to his job during that time, and Ralph picked up work at a local foundry. When 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbour […]
Wilson, Bill
Bill Wilson was born in Winnipeg on November 5, 1924 to Scottish parents Thomas and Marion Wilson. Bill was 14 when the Second World War began and he planned to follow in his father‘s footsteps as he had served in the First World War. When Bill couldn’t get a place with the Highlanders cadet corps […]
Callowhill, Jack
Jack Callowhill was born in Hamilton, Ontario on April 13, 1923. He grew up in that industrial city against the backdrop of the Great Depression, where he attended school and choir, and was as well a “Saturday Night Soldier” in the reserves. That saw him sent off to Valcartier Camp in Quebec at the outset […]
Goldstein, Ronald
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 […]
Zwaagstra, George
George Zwaagstra was born August 9, 1933, in Friesland, a northern and low-lying province in the Netherlands. George grew up in this largely agricultural area, and when the Second World War was about to begin, George was just starting school. When the Germans did invade, the Dutch surrendered after five days of fighting, and the […]
Lunn, Rae
Rae Lunn was born March 29, 1920, on a farm outside of Edmonton, Alberta. He grew up during the difficult years of the Great Depression; he remembers that his family was fairly self-sufficient, but he wanted to help, so he left school early to work at another farm. War clouds were forming in Europe during […]
Patrick, Ian
Ian Patrick was born January 29, 1938, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He and his siblings grew up in the shadow of war, as St. John’s was a busy port city during the Second World War. His father was a railroad machinist who worked in the dockyards: his war was spent on the home front, working […]
Protected: Fontaine, Theodore
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Stafford, Ed
Ed Stafford was born in Toronto on January 31, 1921. He grew up in the city’s west end, during the Great Depression. Ed attended school until Grade 10, when he decided to apprentice as a tool and die maker at GE. When the war came along, one of Ed’s friends joined the Governor General’s Horse […]
O’Henly, John
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 […]
Fazekas, Judith
Judit Fulop was born in the small city of Debrecen, Hungary on September 23, 1928. She grew up an only child in a comfortable middle class environment, attending a Jewish school and then her local high school until the war broke out in 1944, when Jewish students were prohibited from attending public schools. Despite these […]
Fazekas, Leslie
Leslie Fazekas was born on September 28, 1925, in Debrecen, Hungary. He grew up in a middle class family in the well-assimilated Jewish community, alongside his younger brother. He did well in school, and was preparing to go to university, just as wartime anti-Semitic restrictions were beginning to be felt in Hungary. But his […]
Morgan, William
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 […]
Kelley, Travis
Major Travis Kelley had a family background in the military, so he was interested at a young age. He studied Engineering at the University of Waterloo and joined the Army Reserves when he was finishing his undergrad. He then did basic training at the Wolseley Barracks and completed other training as a Combat Engineer in […]
Smith, Tyler
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 […]
Tinsley, Brenda
LCol. Brenda Tinsley was born in Hamilton, Ontario. She grew up in a military family and as a teen was a member of the Sea Cadets. After high school she attended the Royal Military College of Canada where she obtained a degree in Military and Strategic Studies. She began working in the NORAD Operations Centre […]
Lister, Jim
Jim Lister was born January 5, 1928 in Toronto. He grew up in the tough days of the Great Depression and well remembers that the family lost their home. He also remembers exploring the Don Valley, and how different a city Toronto was at the time. Jim had older brothers and two of them enlisted […]
Wolfe, Evelyn
Evelyn Wolfe is a survivor of Canada’s infamous residential school system. She visited Crestwood in December 2019, speaking to Grade 8 and 10 students about her experiences and her own path to reconciliation. Evelyn was born in northern Ontario, growing up in a traditional lifestyle in a family that hunted and trapped. When she was […]
Snider, Charlie
Charlie Snider was born August 26, 1919, in Woodbridge, Ontario. He was one of nine siblings, growing up on a farm amidst the realities of the Great Depression. Charlie remembers working very hard, doing all sorts of chores on the farm, and going to school too. The family had food in the dark days […]
Mezei, Leslie
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 […]
Levine, Evelyn
Evelyn Levine was born on June 25, 1917 in Hamilton, Ontario. Growing up Jewish during that time meant dealing with a lot of anti-Semitism. Evelyn was unable to get an appointment at a hospital; she had to leave Canada to go to Boston just to get into a nursing school. Evelyn grew up in the interwar period, […]
Fentum, Albert
Albert Fentum was born April 6, 1925 in London, England, in the Lewisham neighbourhood. He attended school, and like the rest of the family, he lived day-to-day during the Great Depression. Early in the war, Albert experienced the Blitz. It prompted him and a friend to join the Royal Marines. After going through vigourous training, […]
Shinwell, Bert
Bert Shinwell was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 28th, 1925. Bert has two sisters and one brother; he was the third child. Unfortunately, the Great Depression took away his father’s job as a tailor. Bert left school at the age of 14 and started working to earn money. When the war came, he and […]