Shunpiking Online Vo.3 No.2 Wolfville remembered from the sunset of a life Review by ALLEN MCAVOY*

My Real Name is Charley, Memoirs of a Grocer's Clerk
By Glen Hancock
Gasperau Press
2000
$19.95 CAN
ISBN 1-894031-36-9

THERE IS SOMETHING in the passing of time in small towns and boyhood that stir in the heart lament for what will almost always be left behind with each passing minute and with the onset of puberty. Horses naturally give way to automobiles, while youth surrenders to manhood. And there is something compelling about a book that is able to hold our attention -- if only to remember briefly how life has changed -- with its eloquent and overlapping descriptions of youthful wonderment, small town values, depression-era poverty, and historical events from those decades when "little things like the introduction of wax cartons for milk, replacing glass bottles."

Such is the case with Glen Hancock's recent work, My Real Name is Charley, Memoirs of a Grocer's Clerk. This is evident, as Hancock states in the introduction: "This book is the biography of a town as much as it is a memoir of a man who in the sunset of his life remembers what it was like to be a boy in an enchanting place."

The town, of course, is Wolfville and Hancock, who grew up in Wolfville and attended Acadia University, has a way of sweeping through and mingling both the town's history and his life together with a voice tinged with happiness, disappointment, and hope

Hancock is not naive about either subject matter. Nor does he speak of his town in any idealized way. As a trained journalist, Hancock puts both sides forward. He weaves in the enchanting carefree days with the depression, the racism, the poverty, and the broken, or tense, ties to his mother and father. Still, Hancock's memoirs are a quick, fact-filled, eloquent, and humorous read with ample examples of personal feelings and thoughts that you almost feel that the author has invited you on a journey and is willing to re-live these personal and at times painful events relating to his family or living the town to join the military. One of those painful moments comes at the realization that his mother, who left the family of five boys and a husband, will not be returning to Wolfville. He writes ". . . it became more and more inconceivable how any mother could just up and leave five young children without an explanation."

If there is a slight complaint about the book it is that it contains numerous references to specific people making it at times a book for insiders. But this fact is one shared with most local historical narratives. Indeed, the people, or "characters" as Hancock calls them, in local histories have a folkloric ambience or mythic presence with deeper meaning to local residents. They unfortunately lose their greater appeal to those outside the community. The outside reader won't understand the nuances of each character. However, Hancock's ability to personalize the changing societal values in the pre-war years and provide background information on now well-known but former Wolfville residents who have emerged from this town give all readers -- local and non-local -- something. It is to Hancock's credit that he can weave various threads together to make a brilliant tapestry. And his narrative blend easily dispels any suggestion that this book is for local consumption alone.

The book's strength is in providing a glimpse into the childhood and youth of a future member of the RCAF, a journalist, and writer and editor, and its ability to offer insights into how small town life can shape individuals and how individuals can shape small town life.

In the end, reading through the combined history and personal recollections we know more about one of the most pleasant and tranquil towns in Nova Scotia and how a person was shaped by that tranquility. But alas, while time must march on thanks to a grocer's clerk the residue of time -- those important and exciting events that alter our lives and our towns -- can be re-lived.