LitArk » Books » Romance novel

William Humber - Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge

Here you can read online William Humber - Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 1997, publisher: Natural Heritage, genre: Romance novel. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Book:
Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge
Author:
William Humber
Publisher:
Natural Heritage
Genre:
Books / Romance novel
Year:
1997
Rating:
4 / 5
Favourites:
Add to favourites
Your mark:
- 80
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

Description
Author's other books
Similar books

Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

William Humbers Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge is an extraordinarily detailed, often affectionate and occasionally critical account of a modern small town on the edge of a rapidly expanding metropolitan region. The book recounts stories from the time of Charles Bowman, the potential ambition of railroads from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay, the legacy of grand pianos found in every corner of the world and the fateful decision of a rural businessman which gave General Motors to another community.

A treat for small-town enthusiasts, urban designers and community activists, Humbers book provides a fresh look at the present life of small towns and how their character can be recreated in future decision making.

When I first started broadcasting baseball, I read everything and anything related to the game. I kept encountering the name William Humber. When I finally met him in person I understood his passion and love for and knowledge of the game is indeed genuine. That passion obviously extends beyond baseball and is evident in his writing on his adopted hometown of Bowmanville, Ontario.

- Brian Williams, CBC television sports announcer

William Humber: author's other books

Who wrote Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Bowmanville circa 1991.

BOWMANVILLE

A SMALL TOWN AT THE EDGE

William Humber

Bowmanville

A Small Town at the Edge

Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.

P.O. Box 95, Station O,

Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8

No portion of this book with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.

Design by Steve Eby

Printed and bound in Canada by Mothersill Printing Inc.,

Bowmanville, Ontario

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Humber, William, 1949

Bowmanville: a small town at the edge

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-896219-21-7

1. Bowmanville (Clarington, Ont.) - History. I. Title.

FC3099.B685H85 1997

971.356 C97-930511-X

F1059.5.B685H85 1997

Natural Heritage Natural History Inc acknowledges the support received for - photo 4

Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from the Canada Council Block Grant Program. We also acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of the Association for the Export of Canadian Books, Ottawa, and the office of the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto.

Acknowledgments

Writing a small towns story presents problems that other types of histories avoid, particularly if one is a resident of that town. One risks offending some while angering others for neglecting their place in the towns past. Having said that however the opportunity to express both affection for common places and experiences, and occasional criticism of inappropriate decision-making, is one that one would not wish to avoid.

I begin by noting my debt to the many fine histories of the town written over the years including Colemans History of the Early Settlement of Bowmanville and Vicinity, Fairbairns History and Reminiscences of Bowmanville, Squairs The Townships of Darlington and Clarke, Hamlyn, Lunney and Morrisons Bowmanville: A Retrospect, the various editors of Picture the Way We Were, and Leetoozes The First 200 Years: A Brief History of Darlington Township.

My greatest debt however was to the inestimable Canadian Statesman newspaper, whose pages over the years brim with the life of the community. I say it elsewhere in this book and repeat it here, that in many ways Bowmanville is the Canadian Statesman and it would be hard to imagine one without the other.

Among the folks who have given advise, ideas and inspiration I mention only a few when so many are entitled to recognition. Garfield Shaw has collected as fine a pictorial record of a small town as exists anywhere. Garth Gilpin of the Bowmanville Business Area and Charles Taws of the Bowmanville Museum have read this manuscript in its early stages and provided helpful commentary. Neighbours and friends Marjorie and Eileen Couch and Muriel Crago have helped in many unseen but significant ways.

Institutional support from among others, Central Public School, including my former co-author Doris Falls, the Bowmanville Museum, and Bowmanville Branch of the Clarington Public Library have been invaluable.

My wife Cathie and children Bradley, Darryl and Karen share in the experience of living in Bowmanville. I salute another distant relative and wonderful popular historian, and the man I refer to as Mr. Bowmanville, Stu Candler to whose memory this book is dedicated.

I acknowledge, the many important writers including Garrison Keillor, William Least-Heat Moon, Peter Ackroyd, James Kunstler, Simon Schama and others whose words have influenced my own interpretation of the history and life of a small town and a special place.

I remember, in conclusion, my mother who gave me the love for reading and writing. Her inspiration will always be part of me.

A classic photo of Bowmanvilles Market Square celebrating Queen Victorias - photo 5

A classic photo of Bowmanvilles Market Square, celebrating Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee, 24 May 1897.

The Brick Town

An Introduction

In Bowmanville we had quite a gala day on Thursday last, when the Firemans Annual Gathering took place. The brick town has seldom looked so gay or lively.

The Gossiper, The Canadian Statesman, 12 September 1872

To palliate the shortness of our lives, and to compensate our brief time in this world, it is fit to have such an understanding of times past that we may be considered to have dwelled in the same. In such manner, answering the present with the past, we may live from the beginning and in a certain sense be as old as our country itself.

Peter Ackroyd, English Music

A rationale extension of bygone religious systems, fairy tales, and above all of psychoanalysis into architectural expression becomes more urgent every day.

Ivan Chtcheglov, as quoted in Lipstick Traces (Greil Marcus)

Long time residents, particularly those born in Bowmanville, often seem to pronounce their hometowns name as Boneville. The Canadian Statesman once reported that a New England newspaper used that spelling because a reporter interpreted it this way after interviewing an old lady who had been born here.

A local history can not avoid being at least partially an exercise in this kind of nostalgiaa looking back to a supposed golden age in which folks met each other daily on the towns streets, were proud of their home town and shared common institutions like their local public school where they met those both like themselves and different. Nevermind that the reality was often at odds with the memory. It at least had to have elements of truth to be preserved in such sepia tones.

The story of Bowmanville, Ontario contained in these pages is told from a point of view. The past may not have been as rose-hued as wed like to imagine, but it had real elements of public affinity in which folks saw themselves as part of a larger polity, one based on human comradeship and not the private pursuit of consumer identity.

One can read different points of view today which suggest either that we are returning to a more clamorous public sense of obligation and lifestyle, or another which argues that our real destiny is a soothing, mall-like existence of private realities.

What is particularly apparent, however, is that regardless of what takes place (and it will probably be a mixture of the polar opposites), successful urban living, as opposed to that which just gets by as a collection of gated communities and monster stores, will be based on the uniqueness and community spirit of a place. It will embody what James Kunstler calls, chronological connectivityin which the past is allied with a vision for the future. The development of these types of places, now commonly referred to as renaissance communities, is controlled to a greater extent than might be thought by local residents.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge»

Look at similar books to Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Marion Lennox

City Surgeon, Small Town Miracle

Dr. William Cooke

Canary in the Coal Mine: A Forgotten Rural Community, a Hidden Epidemic, and a Lone Doctor Battling for the Life, Health, and Soul of the People

Paul Dhillon

The Surprising Lives of Small-Town Doctors

Lyn C. Macgregor

Habits of the Heartland: Small-Town Life in Modern America

Beatriz Carrillo Garcia

Small Town China: Rural Labour and Social Inclusion

Philippe Burger

Mining and Community in South Africa: From Small Town to Iron Town

Ryan Porter

You Cant Get There From Here: The Past as Present in Small-Town Ontario Fiction

Sherryl Woods

A Small Town Love Story: Colonial Beach, Virginia

Jessica Nunemaker

Little Indiana: Small Town Destinations

Ling

Small Town, Big Secrets: Inside the Boca Raton Army Air Field During World War II

Wuthnow

Small-town America : finding community, shaping the future

David Wharton

The soul of a small Texas town: photographs, memories, and history from McDade

Reviews about «Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge»

Discussion, reviews of the book Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.