Faces Along My Way

Percy Maddox was a Vancouver librarian.

“Recollections of a School Teacher” might be a more descriptive title to Mrs. Vivian Martin Smith’s little book of reminiscences which she calls Faces Along My Way, referring to people she encountered in her career, chiefly children.

The recollections begin in 1925, when the author took up teaching. Born in 1907, she has spent her life in Manitoba, and at times she writes of the province as though she were the tourist board, rhapsodizing about the scenery, the flowers, the wild life. However, she does not neglect reporting on her teaching work, giving anecdotes here and anecdotes there. Her marriage occurred in 1928 and her teaching employment ceased until 1949, shortly before her husband died. Until then she had taught in rural schools. Now for the first time she went into an urban school, specializing in the primary grades, starting with the Queen Elizabeth School, St. Boniface, ending with retirement in 1972.

The narrative is often interrupted by flashbacks, which tend to confuse the reader by taking him out of the time bracket. In some places the author stops to moralize or discourse on some particular subject that is not part of the narrative.

Despite this lack of organization, the book is a lively one. All that the author writes is interesting. So, even though her literary product is a rambling affair, the incidents related and the author’s comments keep the reader’s interest. There are also black-and-white pictures, some of them very good!