A Boy Growing Up In Blackville
The Memories Endure
The story began sixty-four years ago with three-year-old Pat Fournier sharing his earliest memories of the quaint little village he called home. For the past thirty seven weeks, we followed Pat’s story as he progressed from a five-year-old boy wearing a cartoon mask from the back of a corn flakes box, to an eighteen-year-old graduate…
Read MoreGraduating Class of 1965
It’s June 30, 1965 and it’s Pat Fournier’s last day of school. With prom and graduation over, eighteen-year-old Pat is left to reflect on his past and contemplate his future in “Graduating Class of 1965”, the thirty-sixth installment of his memoir, “Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville”. GRADUATING CLASS OF 1965 Written by…
Read MoreWhat’s My Size?!
While preparing for his upcoming senior prom, eighteen-year-old Pat Fournier has an uncomfortable run-in with the town pharmacist, Cecil Dunne, in this story set in June of 1965. “What’s My Size?!” is the thirty-fifth installment of Pat’s memoir, “Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville”. The following story may contain mature subject matter. Reader…
Read MoreAnother Boy in a Casket
On a late November night in 1964, the Fournier family is awakened with news of a tragic accident: their cousin Pat McLaughlin had been killed in a fatal car crash less than a mile from home. Another Boy in a Casket is the thirty-fourth installment of Pat Fournier’s memoir, “Memories of a Boy Growing Up…
Read MoreThe Pasties
It’s the summer of 1964 and the circus has come to town. Seventeen year old Pat Fournier joins his older brother Johnny for a night he won’t soon forget in The Pasties, the thirty-third installment of his memoir, Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville. The following story contains mature subject matter. Reader discretion…
Read MoreCar Thief
It’s the Spring of 1964 and seventeen-year-old Pat Fournier is anxious to get his driver’s license. In the thirty-second installment of his memoir, Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville, Pat ‘borrows’ the family car with unexpected consequences. CAR THIEF Written by Pat Fournier May, 1964 – seventeen years old The second-hand blue Vauxhall…
Read MorePresident Assassinated
On a late autumn day in 1963, the world stood still after learning that the president of the United States had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. In the thirty-first installment of his memoir, Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville, sixteen year old Pat Fournier recalls the day John F. Kennedy was…
Read MoreThe French Lesson
Sixteen-year-old Pat Fournier is growing up. In the thirtieth installment of his memoir, Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville, Pat recalls an uncomfortable situation that occurs in Avila Colford’s grade ten French Class. The following story contains subject matter and language that some readers may find offensive. Reader discretion is advised. THE FRENCH…
Read MoreThe Paint Job
It’s a Saturday night in the summer of 1963 at Frenette’s restaurant where a local prankster is entertaining the crowd outside. But first, the twenty-ninth installment of Pat Fournier’s memoir kicks off in March 1958 as the same prankster is the star of the show at the annual St. Patrick’s Day concert. So who is…
Read MoreGrandpa and the Buttons
It’s the summer of 1963 and Pat Fournier’s Sturgeon grandparents are down from Dalhousie for a visit. In the next installment of his memoir, the sixteen year old boy recalls his Dad’s retelling of a story about Barry MacKenzie to his visiting family in “Grandpa and the Buttons”. GRANDPA AND THE BUTTONS Written by Pat…
Read MoreHitchhiking Home
It’s the winter of 1963 and Pat’s father Sylvernus is working at the mill in Newcastle. In the twenty-seventh installment of his memoir, the fifteen-year-old boy recalls a cold January morning when his dad has just hitchhiked a ride home from work. HITCHHIKING HOME Written by Pat Fournier January 1963 – fifteen years old It…
Read MoreNinety-Nine Bottles
It’s the summer of 1962 and fifteen year old Pat takes a nostalgic trip down memory lane in Ninety-Nine Bottles, the twenty-sixth installment of his memoir Memories of a Boy Growing Up in Blackville. NINETY-NINE BOTTLES Written by Pat Fournier August 1962 – fifteen years old The swing tree was the focal point in our…
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