Athabasca Seasons: A Memoir

Frits Pannekoek is an associate professor of heritage studies, the
director of information resources at the University of Calgary, and the
author of A Snug Little Flock: The Social Origins of the Riel Resistance
of 1869–70.

The author’s recollections of her pioneer youth in northern Alberta
have been gathered in this charming collection of essays, many of which
were previously published. Through individual vignettes, Audrey Reid
traces her early life on the farm just north of the town of Athabasca.
While the writing is sometimes a bit on the sophomoric side, she
succeeds in evoking the sights and sounds of the 1930s and
1940s—decades marked by a poverty of dollars but not, in her case, of
spirit and joy. At times, it seems that Reid wants to tell us more but
is restrained by the respectability that so marked her upbringing; after
all, she was a schoolteacher of the old type.

The descriptions of Reid’s day in town, her relationship with her
sister, her first dinner party, and life on the farm are enough to
recommend the purchase of the book by every Alberta public library. The
photographs offer a privileged glimpse into a complex life.