About the Author
I grew up in Sunny Bank in the 50's and 60's. This was during the transition from a small community life-style to a more global community. When I was young we knew everyone in Sunny Bank. Most people bought groceries from the local "General Store," picked up their mail at the "Sunny Bank Post Office," and attended church fairly regularly. Now strangers move in and out steadily, we have mail delivered from the Gaspe Post Office, and people of all religions form the population. In my four and a half decades I've seen the first pavement laid on the street; the first snowy picture on a black and white television; the small rural schools amalgamated into one large school; and the gradual disappearance of most of our youth.
I was born in Sunny Bank in 1952. The year I began school was the first year students were taken by bus to Gaspe High School, which I attended for 11 years. My life-long passion of genealogical research began during my youth while listening to stories of by-gone times. After graduating with a Bachelor of Education in 1972 I began teaching high school at a DND school in Bagotville. The next year I married Debbie Carmichael from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in 1974 we purchased the house built by my great-grandfather more than one hundred years earlier in Sunny Bank. We both found employment in Gaspe Elementary School.
Struck by the computer bug back in 1982, I purchased a Texas Instrument's TI99/4A. Within a few years I bought an original 512k Macintosh, an remained faithful to Apple until 1995 when I began teaching Computer Science at the Gaspe Polyvalent. Currently I am using a 1 ghz Athelon with 256 meg of RAM, which is more than sufficient for my use.
We were blessed with 2 wonderful boys, Dale and Kevin. Both were fortunate enough to grow up in Sunny Bank, enjoying an extended family including grandparents and 9 nieces and nephews.
Debbie, Dale, Kevin and myself