The Clark Family in the 1930s
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
If you were ever asked to guess which one my father is in this photograph from the 1930s you might want to look at the centre of the shot… at the wild haired child with the dolly. It says a lot about my late father (who died of emphysema in his early 60s). Like many men of his day he left school at the end of Grade 6 and worked to support his growing family… in a culture that failed to recognise potential and intelligence in the poor.
My father was a self-educated man who had an obsessive personality and an untrained curiosity. There are many admirable qualities to the man that I probably failed to acknowledge in his lifetime. And I recognise that it must have been a living hell working over 40 years as a labourer (and later as a foreman) in the aluminum industry.
Until he died you could walk into his backyard shed and find piles of old computer magazines… yes he was an early adopter. In fact I probably owe him a lot for his influence in regards to the future of technological education. When he passed away a decade ago I was unskilled, unemployable and drifting.
I like to put old family photographs online occasionally… they’re interesting… they offer linear connection through the generations.
