Reaching the venerable age of 100 is a cause for celebration. When you reach that age and launch your second book, that’s truly special.
Centenarian Frank White has just released That Went By Fast: My First Hundred Years (Harbour Publishing), a sequel to his first memoir, Milk Spills and One-Log Loads, published in 2013.
He addressed a full house at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre on Nov. 8 from his wheelchair, using his own prepared remarks about his book and his life.
“One thing about reaching 100,” he quipped, “is that you don’t have to do much to attract a crowd. They drive miles just to watch you breathe.”
His son, Howard White, who assisted in the process, told the audience how keen Frank had been to do a second book. Frank’s first published writing was an article in Raincoast Chronicles in 1972, but the following years were filled with his other roles as a pioneer truck driver, camp owner, boat builder, garage mechanic and waterworks operator. He was the boss of a Green Bay logging camp in the 1950s and one of the stories from the book, read aloud by Howard, told how the men coped with delivering a baby at the camp, far from the nearest doctor. It was Frank who welcomed the baby into the world, using techniques he had learned while delivering calves on the farm.
Other stories involved encounters with skunks and the trials of settlers during the bitterly cold winter of 1949/’50.
Late in life Frank married renowned writer Edith Iglauer who attended the book launch, sitting proudly in the front row.
As Frank would recall an incident, he would jot down a few words about it in a specific computer file. Later, using tape recorder and interview method, Howard worked with Frank to tease out the story behind the memory. It was to be a legacy for grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and also a historical document about life in B.C. and particularly about Pender Harbour in the early days.
There is a question that everyone wants to ask of the aged. What is the secret to a long life? “It’s not under our control,” Frank replied. “It doesn’t follow any script. It just happens.”
That Went By Fast is available in hard cover for $32.95 at Coast bookstores.
