Michel DrouinB次元官网网址檚 reflections on growing up in mid-century Port Hardy make for a fascinating read.

Drouin, who lived in the rural northern Vancouver Island town from 1953 to 1977, decided to write a memoir about his youth, primarily because he had previously written B次元官网网址渇ive unsuccessful fiction novels that didnB次元官网网址檛 go anywhere,B次元官网网址� he stated with a laugh.

B次元官网网址淭hen I thought, B次元官网网址榳hy donB次元官网网址檛 I write a non-fiction book, that way I wonB次元官网网址檛 have to make anything upB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� well, not much, anyway.B次元官网网址�

Drouin realized quickly on that if he sat down and wrote B次元官网网址渁 good story about growing up in Port Hardy,B次元官网网址� that a local publishing company would B次元官网网址減robably be interested in picking it up.B次元官网网址�

ThatB次元官网网址檚 exactly what happened. Drouin spent around six months writing his first-draft manuscript, which he submitted to Harbour Publishing, and it was then published after about a yearB次元官网网址檚 work under the title B次元官网网址淧ast the End of the Road: A North Island BoyhoodB次元官网网址�.

According to Drouin, the book is not just about growing up in an isolated, rugged little coastal community, but itB次元官网网址檚 also B次元官网网址渓aced with Indigenous history going back 8,000 years and an account of the boom/bust of the logging, fishing and mining in the area at the time the book takes place.B次元官网网址�

DrouinB次元官网网址檚 story began in 1947, five years before he was born, when his father moved to B.C. from Quebec.

B次元官网网址淗eB次元官网网址檇 worked on the log drives over there so he was a natural at working on floating logs on the water,B次元官网网址� he said, noting his father ended up in Port Hardy after working in Haida Gwaii for a few months in 1953. He was actually flying back home to Vancouver when they had to stop overnight in Port Hardy along the way.

While there, checking in at the logging camp, he was quickly offered a job on the boom and a house for his family, which he accepted immediately. His family moved from Vancouver to join him months later.

B次元官网网址淢y father liked the fishing opportunities and he liked the idea that you could just walk out of your house and go deer hunting,B次元官网网址� Drouin said. B次元官网网址淚t was a quiet life away from the city where he could do all the outdoor opportunities he used to enjoy when he was growing up in Quebec.B次元官网网址�

Drouin noted he grew up in a little home that was situated along the shore between FishermanB次元官网网址檚 Wharf and the Glen Lyon River, which is long gone now.

B次元官网网址淎pproximately where the Glen Lyon parking lot is now is where one of the houses we lived in was,B次元官网网址� he said as he reminisced on his childhood, B次元官网网址渁nd approximately where the seaplane base is now is where another house we lived in was.B次元官网网址�

His earliest memories of Port Hardy are going down to the shore and finding baby crabs and slithery eels, but also the B次元官网网址渉ustle and bustle of the grocery store, ScottB次元官网网址檚 store, which was really the center of the community.B次元官网网址�

Drouin estimated Port HardyB次元官网网址檚 population in the late 1950B次元官网网址檚, early 1960B次元官网网址檚 was around B次元官网网址�400-500 people,B次元官网网址� and because they had built the Robert Scott School in 1955 just two years after he was born, B次元官网网址渋t was always there as long as I can remember.B次元官网网址�

He said he spent much of his childhood wandering up the Quatse River.

B次元官网网址淚 would walk all the way there from the Glen Lyon River where we lived,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭here were logjams in the water from logging debris that had washed downstream, so my friends and I would bring along fishing line and a hook and try to catch the large cutthroat trout, but we could never convince them to bite.B次元官网网址�

During the fall season, they would go and watch the salmon spawning and B次元官网网址渄odge bears that were doing the same thing.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檇 go into the woods with a hatchet, and I donB次元官网网址檛 know how many log cabins we started and never finished,B次元官网网址� he said with a laugh, adding they would also borrow a rowboat and go out into the bay, spending hours and hours fishing or exploring the original site of Port Hardy on the East side of the bay.

They would also find trade beads in the crushed clamshells on the shore there too, he noted.

B次元官网网址淲e were free-range children, our parents didnB次元官网网址檛 worry about anything, there were cougars and bears around all the time but nobody ever got injured by a wild animal. We injured ourselves B次元官网网址� I got whacked by an axe, shot with a BB, lit myself on fire, we did all kinds of stuff B次元官网网址� it was an exciting time to be a kid and I have many fond memories.B次元官网网址�

Drouin said he felt the settler population had a friendly, but not too close relationship with the Kwakiutl First Nation, whose traditional territory Port Hardy was built on.

B次元官网网址淚 used to ride my bike out to Fort Rupert (Tsaxis) and play with my school friends all the time, I felt welcome there,B次元官网网址� he said, noting that a lot of the First Nations worked in the forestry industry and everyone was friendly when they would meet in the grocery store.

Then in 1964, the GwaB次元官网网址檚ala-B次元官网网址楴akwaxdaB次元官网网址檟w First Nations were amalgamated together and forcibly relocated to Port Hardy from their traditional territories on the mainland, and Drouin said there was suddenly B次元官网网址渕ore tensionB次元官网网址� in the region.

B次元官网网址淚t was a big shock to everybody, they had their whole lifestyles taken away from them,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭hey were living in their traditional lands where they could go fishing every day, dig clams, hunt seals, and then they were all of a sudden forced into moving to Port Hardy.B次元官网网址�

Drouin noted he wrote about this period in a chapter called B次元官网网址淐liffhangingB次元官网网址�, where he tried to put down as many details as he possibly could about this part of Port HardyB次元官网网址檚 difficult history.

As for any favourite stories in his memoir, he noted he always starts with the introduction whenever he does a reading, and thereB次元官网网址檚 also a specific story about going commercial fishing with his father that sticks out.

B次元官网网址淚 remember around the time I finished Grade 1, I went fishing with him in his 31-foot boat,B次元官网网址� he said, noting his father had only one marine chart on board, and he managed to memorize all of the islands and the channels that were listed on it.

B次元官网网址淭o me, it was almost as if the world was flat B次元官网网址� it started at Pulteney Point and ended at Egg Island on the other side of the Queen Charlotte Straight B次元官网网址� to go beyond that felt like going into outer space or something,B次元官网网址� Drouin laughed, B次元官网网址渟o that was the extent of my world.B次元官网网址�

As he grew up, Drouin went away for a year to stay with his relatives in Montreal, but then he came back to Port Hardy and entered high school, which is where he first began to explore his passion for the written word.

B次元官网网址淎round 1966 they built the North Island Secondary School,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭hey started taking the senior high school students by bus there, so I entered Grade 10 in Port McNeill in 1968, and shortly after the beginning of the school year there was an announcement on the PA system that the North Island Gazette was looking for a correspondent, and I think I was the only kid in the whole school who was interested, so I got the job.B次元官网网址�

When asked about what kind of news he covered for the Gazette, he said it was B次元官网网址渏ust high school stuff B次元官网网址� bake sales, basketball scores, lunchtime sock hops.B次元官网网址�

He noted that in 1970, the North Island school district and the Campbell River school district collaborated together and managed to get enough students and teachers together to buy a charter to the Expo in Osako, Japan.

Drouin brought a camera with him on the trip and began documenting everything, which he eventually turned into his B次元官网网址渇irst real newspaper feature in May of 1970.B次元官网网址�

When asked if any of the different areas in the North Island socialized much back then, Drouin said there was B次元官网网址渙nly a rough gravel road, so no, we never really went anywhere,B次元官网网址� he confirmed. B次元官网网址淐oal Harbour though, we did use to go over there and watch them cut the whales up, they were still processing whales there until 1967.B次元官网网址�

After graduating high school in 1971, Drouin worked for a bit with his father in the log boom and managed to save up enough money to leave by the time he was 18. What was the reason he left Port Hardy? He wanted to travel and see more of what the world had to offer.

Drouin said what he ultimately wants people to take away from his memoir, is for people to have B次元官网网址渁 snapshot of what it was like there in the 50s and 60s B次元官网网址� it was a very intimate and friendly town where everybody knew each other, and it seemed to have a very large number of unusual characters.B次元官网网址�

Drouin noted there was a well-known coastal log pirate named Einar Johnson, as well as numerous older residents with alcohol problems who worked intermittently and some who were war veterans who were secretly suffering from PTSD.

B次元官网网址淭hey sort of buried their awful memories in alcohol,B次元官网网址� stated Drouin. B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檇 work really hard when they had jobs, and then drank really hard when they didnB次元官网网址檛.B次元官网网址�

Drouin will be holding readings of his book at the Port Hardy Library at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15, at the Port Hardy Senior CitizensB次元官网网址� Society building during the seniorB次元官网网址檚 lunch at 11:00 a.m. on May 16, and at The Book Nook at Caf茅 Guido on May 16 at 3:00 p.m.

The appearance at The Book Nook will be a joint musical event and reading with Sointula author/musician Jon Taylor, who will be reading from his book B次元官网网址淔ried Eggs and Fish ScalesB次元官网网址�.

Drouin and Taylor will also take their two-man show to the Book shelf at Shop-rite in Port McNeill at 2:30 on May 17.

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