A Scientist In the Making

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My parents were both from Montreal, Québec. They met on a blind date at a jazz club shortly after my father returned from the Korean War. They were married in 1953 and I was born in 1954. My father was posted to a military base in Germany where I started school - Kindergarten and the first half of Grade 1. In early 1960 we moved to Camp Petawawa (as it was known then) in Ontario. I continued my education on base schools, graduating from Grade 13 in 1973.

It was apparent to my parents that I was keenly interested in science, so they provided many materials for me to learn at home, including a chemistry set, rock and mineral collection, weather station, and my Dad's binoculars to study the stars. When I was 11 years old I signed out the book shown here from the Camp Petawawa Community Library. The due date card entries at the back of the book, from the first borrow on November 12, 1965, were all my loans. When the library closed in the early 1970s, they let me keep the book since I was the only borrower!

Reference

"Introducing Astronomy", J.B. Sidgwick, Faber and Faber Limited, London, UK, 1958.