Canadian Forces base west of Barrie has been a long-standing part of the community. This past weekend there have been numerous local events to commemorate Remembrance Day. We join with others around the world who are paying honor and remembering the sacrifices made on our behalf. Barrie is one of the unique communities that has a military base, practically next door. Most of us are quite used to seeing men and women in uniform around [...]
Ready for another read? This blog series, made possible by the Diana Strachan, daughter of our author Peggy Newman, offers us a look through the lens of a 16-year-old Briton in Barrie during the Second World War. With Christmas time fast approaching, our author is enthralled in her social circles at Canadian Forces Base Borden and Barrie Central Collegiate Institute. She enjoys a gender-bending Sadie Hawkins dance and participates in a moving Remembrance Day ceremony [...]
Read the fourth instalment of this exciting new blog series for the Barrie Historical Archive, made possible by archive supporter Diana Strachan. If you need to catch up, check out the preceding blogs here. Diana’s mother, Peggy Newman, is now fully engrossed in our humble Canadian town. Here, she documents her 17th birthday celebration and some exam results as she completes her courses at Barrie Central Collegiate, though she does gloss over the grades rather [...]
This marks the third installment in an exciting blog series for the Barrie Historical Archive, made possible by archive supporter Diana Strachan. Check out the preceding blogs here. Last time, we felt Peggy Newman’s anticipation for the Barrie Central Collegiate formal dance and heard about her adventures with best friend Joyce Little. Today, we hear about her late-night out at the dance (along with her impressive dancing skill!), and learn about an exciting new course she [...]
This piece marks the first in a new series for the Barrie Historical Archive, courtesy of archive supporter Diana Strachan. Strachan’s mother, Peggy Newman, was just 16 years old in July 1940 when she, along with her younger sister Joan, set sail from the United Kingdom to join her Aunt Rhona in North America. Peggy’s parents had sent the children to live safely, with their father’s sister and her husband, Alan Childs, as war broke [...]
When Mother Nature builds you your very own arena, complete with ice, lots of good lighting, enough space for a limitless audience and a surface twenty-six hockey rinks long, you make the best use of it that you can! Every winter, the cold northerly winds blew and the mercury plummeted and soon after, the waters of Kempenfelt Bay turned rock solid and remained that way for several months. The ice fishermen, skaters and those [...]