O Little Town: Remembering Life in a Prairie Village

W.J.C. Cherwinski is a professor of history at the Memorial University
of Newfoundland and the co-author of Lectures in Canadian Labour and
Working-Class History.

This delightful reminiscence about growing up in interwar small-town
Saskatchewan will strike a chord with almost everyone. The object of the
author’s affection is Dinsmore, a typical agricultural service centre
an hour’s drive southwest of Saskatoon.

With a discerning eye for detail, Jones carefully organizes his account
of village life around such subjects as its homes, schools, churches,
businesses, and sports. His recollections coincide with the heyday of
small prairie towns and the family farms upon which they were based.
(The decline of the service village after World War II affected Jones
and his family deeply.) The stories he relates are often corny, but they
add to the book’s charm.