Backwoods boy

GROWING UP IN RURAL NEW BRUNSWICK IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES
By Richard Irving

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About The Book

In Backwoods Boy, author Richard Irving takes you on a lighthearted romp through the maple trees and blueberry bushes of his childhood in Canada during the fifties and sixties.

Emerging from World War II, the rural county of Baltimore, New Brunswick, was isolated by poor roads and a lack of expensive telecommunications. Nevertheless, this seclusion fostered deep community connections and a solid sense of place in the people who raised their families, helped their neighbours, and built their lives without fanfare or recognition.

Thirty-four pencil-and-ink sketches and thirteen photographs accompany whimsical stories that illustrate the joys and challenges of each season and demonstrate the social effects of technology’s progression.

What’s Inside

Part 1

My World in the Fifties and Sixties
The Old Homestead

Part 2

Spring Renewal
Getting the Farm Ready
Summer Abundance
Recreation
Summer Lessons Learned
Fall Frenzy
Going Back to School
Fall Stories
Winter Recuperation

Part 3

The Day Our House Burned Down
From Backwoods to Big City
Reflections

Preface

As I write this in 2021, I wear a digital watch that tracks my movements, heart rate, GPS location, and outside temperature. That watch connect to my smartphone and notifies me when I have messages. My phone, and tablet on which I write, are connected to the internet — I can find information immediately. Today, from my desk, I can: make video calls worldwide; teach a class of fifty people from my tablet; or take a course from anywhere in the world. I no longer need to travel to boring meetings and can access most services without moving. While attending a Zoom meeting: I can mute my audio and video to make lunch, nap or read a book… while still ‘participating’ in the forum.

People in their twenties and younger have never known a world without cell phones and computers…just living their lives to the rhythm of notification chines, It was not always thus.

Those of us in our fifties and older remember when these things were he stuff of science fiction. If you wanted to know something, you read a book; and you looked up someone’s phone number in a phone book, to hang out with your friends, you went to their house.

Seven decades of changes in technology and society have left their mark. Beginning as a backwoods boy: I grew up to eventually obtain a PH.D. in Management Science from the University of Waterloo and became a Professor at the “Schulich School of Business” at York University in Toronto—-researching the effects of new technology on organisations. I have seen a world transformed by technology. In some cases, made better; in others, not so much.

Still…no one pines for the good old days of dentistry.

Seventy years ago, many rural forks (me included) didn’t have running water, indoor toilets, electricity, or telephones. In the 1940’s, 1950s, and 1960s, we began to see the beginning of changes that led to today’s world. I experienced those changes and saw a globe transformed so thoroughly and people from the forties and fifties wouldn’t recognize much of how we now live. However, despite lacking our modern-day technological advances, they managed to live full, satisfying lives— and may have even formed stronger social connections than we do today.

Our post-industrial world is terrific…but amid all this capability. we have lost connections to our roots, our family stories, our onl histories. To the communities and the characters who populated them where everybody knew your name, who your people were and where you lived. To a way of life that shaped how we do many things today. It’s a world that is long gone but which should not be forgotten

So, come back there with me, to life as a kid in the backwoods of rural New Brunswick in the fifties and sixties. Back to a time when we lived our lives to the rhythm of the seasons; when we checked the weather by going outdoors; and when we shared information by swapping stories around the kitchen table (or by gathering for an evening with a neighbour or two and a fiddle). You will meet my people; hear our stories; and learn (or reminisce) about what we did how we did it, and why. I’ll share stories of people, places, and events, with sketches and photos that evoke a sense of times past when we had no online connections, but we were well connected, nonetheless. And just perhaps…together, we can make some sense of how we ended up where we are.

Chapters

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents, Harold and Gladys Irving, who made me what I am; to my son Alex, my daughter-in-law, Keri; and to my grandsons. Colby, Wyatt, and Lachlan, give me hope for the future.

I also dedicate the book to all the quiet, unremarkable people who lived the best lives they could. They are typically unsung, unheard, and often forgotten. They are the majority, largely ignored by history and historians. My people are Hobbits, quiet and easily overlooked this book honours them.

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“He has my sense of humour, and I want it back.”

M. Twain

“Great whimsical illustrations, but a bit too realistic.”

P. Picasso

“It is no King Lear, but I liked it!”

Wm. Shakespeare^*

* No dead authors or artists were harmed in the production of these fake endorsements.

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About the author

Richard (Rick) Irving, D.Tech., B.A.Sc., MASc., Ph.D., is uniquely qualified to write this book. He grew up in the fifties and sixties in rural New Brunswick, Canada; went to one-room country schools; and ultimately completed a Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo. Eventually, he had a thirty-five-year career as a tenured professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. On the way, he had three marriages, travelled the world, taught on four continents, lived in New York for two years, and spent a year in Provence before it was fashionable. Rick was in Lisbon in April 1974 during the Carnation Revolution; he was once detained by the police in southern France for hitchhiking; and he hiked part of the Inca Trail.

Over a forty-year career, he specialized in studying how organizations adapt to changes in technology. Rick has published fourteen academic articles, numerous reports, and two books—Office Information Systems: Management Issues and Methods, Wiley, 1991, and Don’t Leave IT to the Geeks, Pheasant Ridge, 2001.

Rick was president and CEO of Hazelburn Co-op, a non-profit housing co-op; president of Beatty Buddies, a non-profit daycare; and past president and ex-member of the board of HIMSS Ontario, a non-profit Association for IT Healthcare Professionals. He was a contributing editor for Canadian Healthcare Technology, writing a regular column on Healthcare and IT, from 2000 to 2014, when he retired from that position.

Currently, he is enjoying retirement and is active in his Port Credit community.

Richard Irving