I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1942 during WW2. I drew this picture of my father when I was three.

My father was an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force stationed there, training troops for the war in Europe. His name was Richard William Freeman James and my mother’s name was Ruth Katherine Porter Wood James. After the war I grew up in Toronto, with no siblings, but close friends, Chinese and refugees from Estonia, Latvia, Poland and the Ukraine.

I liked those first school years at downtown Brown School, and I wonder what has become of my good friend Lydia Ranta. We shared a birthday, 16 May 1942. I lost touch with her and the rest of my friends when I was taken out of that school and sent at the age of 12 to Bishop Strachan (BSS), a private school for Anglican females. So much for my 1950s.