Afloat in Time

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

James Sirois’s lively reminiscences of growing up in Ocean Falls and
the logging camps along the remote and rugged B.C. coastline provide a
glimpse into a way of life that has all but disappeared. His family were
gypo logging contractors for 39 years, working from floating logging
camps on rafts that were towed from place to place as needed to supply
logs to the lumber mills.

In part, Afloat in Time is a history of the Gildersleeve family,
pioneers whose names are now permanently associated with natural
features in the area. In part, it is also the very personal story of a
boy growing up in a close-knit extended family. His account of living
and working in the logging camps captures in vivid detail the logging
technology of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s and life in B.C.’s coastal
communities.