My Life and Times

This book is two things: it is both an autobiography of a second generation Romanian Canadian pioneer and a history of the community around him.HISTORYIn My Life and Times, John A. Goodes tells not only his own story but also creates a detailed picture of those around him. His family, relatives, and neighbours come alive for us and we hear segments of their stories as well. John also describes in detail the conditions of the different times and places in which he sets his narrative....
More Description

This book is two things: it is both an autobiography of a second generation Romanian Canadian pioneer and a history of the community around him.HISTORYIn My Life and Times, John A. Goodes tells not only his own story but also creates a detailed picture of those around him. His family, relatives, and neighbours come alive for us and we hear segments of their stories as well. John also describes in detail the conditions of the different times and places in which he sets his narrative. Sometimes he is blunt in his descriptions, but he is no less blunt in his portrayal of himself.We can look forward to reading about life in a Romanian community of settlers during the Great Depression and portrayals of a commercial nursery, a lumber camp, a boot camp in Ontario during the war, and more. We can peek into the history of the fertilizer industry, different universities and schools at those times, and work in various government programs.AUTOBIOGRAPHY"I was ordained to live a life of pioneering."John A. Goodes was born into a community of pioneers who cleared their own land, built their own farms, and learned to live in an often hostile environment. The consciousness of a pioneer was a part of him and he would carry it into his future endeavors.John describes his farm life in interesting and entertaining detail: its challenges, its rewards, and the family tragedies. We experience with him his love of the land and of the community, his frustration with parts of the lifestyle and his dream of something different.When he reaches young adulthood John sets out on his own journey to pioneer a new life for himself. Along the way he finds that he himself is to be a pioneer in many aspects of his life and career, from finding a way to get a university degree starting with only a grade eight education, to helping introduce the use of fertilizer to the Canadian prairies, to helping design English instruction for technical students.Early in his career John also discovers that he has a passion for industry and training and the development of Canada into something more than "a place to go fishing". This passion leads him to yet another pioneering role, this time in helping develop new government assistance programs for industry.The story moves between the academic and the historical to the intensely personal. John does not hold back his experiences, even when it comes to showing his own weakness. ABOUT THE AUTHORJohn A. Goodes wrote My Life and Times while retired and living in his condo in Winnipeg, Manitoba.His two other books include Where Money Grows on Trees, a popular history of the Romanian community in the area around Lennard, Manitoba in the early 20th century, and Beware the Tentacles of Darkness, an espionage novel set in World War II in Poland.