MY LIFE AS A KID

About the Book

My Life As A Kid is a lively autobiography written from the perspective of an imaginative, spirited young boy growing up in the pre-depression and Great Depression years of the 1920s and 30s in Galt, a small town in Southern Ontario, Canada. In the background are the sturdy immigrant Scottish family, with their ethic of hard work and simple, frugal living. The story gains additional depth and broader vision through adult reflections. The style is anecdotal and fresh, providing a wide range of characters with humour, adventure and overtones of the coming world war. Its scenes and memories showcase the remarkable differences and similarities between small town life nearly a century ago and life in the complex modern world of today.

About the Author

Born in 1921 in Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario, Canada, John Cairns’ early life experience of the Great Depression was followed by World War II service with the Royal Canadian Air Force in India and Burma. A postwar M.A. in English led to a varied international career in developing countries. He continued to write radio plays and magazine articles. In 1959 Bush and Boma, his account of life as a District Officer in Tanganyika, Africa, was published with several reprints. His later career focused on educational systems, as Director of the World Literacy Program for UNESCO, Paris, and Director of the Centre for International Programs, University of Guelph, Ontario. The first recipient of the Lewis Perinbam Award for imaginative leadership in international development, he was inducted into the Stairway of Excellence at Galt Collegiate Institute in 2004, and the Cambridge Hall of Fame. He and his wife have five children. Now retired, he lives in Elora, Ontario.