100 Years of Memories commemorative book ready for “Grand Opening”

Times Contributor 

 

The highly anticipated book celebrating Strathmore’s 100th anniversary, ‘100 Years of Memories’, is nearly ready to be officially released.

Paul Sonsteby, author of the book, says he was “honoured” to be asked to write the book, and admits he has “always loved history.”

Sonsteby was first approached by town council member Bob Sobol in April, and Sonsteby agreed to work on the book despite the time crunch. The book’s last draft was finished in November, and only minor edits and changes have been made in the past few months.

Since so much has happened in Strathmore since the 75th anniversary book was released, Sonsteby had many people to help with various aspects of the book, including David Coates, the Information and Records Management Co-ordinator for the town of Strathmore.

“He was giving me some great feedback. I had to do a lot less work initially because of what he did,” said Sonsteby

“We did work so well together,” says Coates. “I just felt a connection with Paul…he was so easy to work with.”

Sonsteby said many retired teachers, council members and local seniors were also “great sources of commentary, advice.” 

Sonsteby recalls several times where members of the town would contradict his research and “more often that not, I would do more research, and they would be right.”

“One thing Coates and Sobol stressed to me was they wanted this to be readable,” said Sonsteby. While many older history books are written in chapters or paragraphs with family biographies, Sonsteby says in a town of our size, that wouldn’t be possible.

The book is broken down into years, where he highlights several things from each year.

“It’s easy to read, you can read a little piece of it, or you can go through the entire book,” said Coates.

Along with the timeline style, there are 80 images in the book, “full colour when available,” said Coates.  

Sonsteby also includes what he calls “the very important people, places and events.” While not all important people, places and events are included, Sonsteby picked a few of each, such as George Freeman, the Joyland Theatre, and Heritage Days, which may have one or two pages dedicated to them in the book.

People of all ages can enjoy this book, from seniors who may remember some of the stories and events to the younger generation who can flip through and learn more about the local history.

“I think there’s a lot of people, like me for example, who send their kids to Crowther Memorial Junior High School and don’t know who the Crowther is that’s being memorialized,” said Sonsteby.

Gathering information for this book took several months, and he “knew right away I’d have to go to the Glenbow archives.” 

He also says the previous history book on Strathmore celebrating our 75th birthday was a tremendous help.

“So much has happened in the past 25 years in Strathmore, it could have its own book,” Sonsteby says. He began going through material and from there started to “pull it” to make more specific stories and events for the book.

“You’ve got all this information, and you’re trying to write it all, you’ve got to pull [what you think is important],” says Coates.

Sonsteby says he tried to stay away from any current events or anything still in discussion to stay true to the historical roots of the book.

Sonsteby stresses that “although my name is all over the book” he wanted it to “feel like our book, the town’s book.”

This is how the contest for the book’s title started, which was held in the summer. James Bos won the competition with the title ‘100 Years of Memories.’

The book will be officially released on Aug. 23.  The first 1, 000 copies of the book will be printed in hard cover with numbering along the spine. You can call (403) 934-3133 to reserve a copy, and you are even able to reserve specific numbers. There are paperback versions of the book available.

There will also be a few book signings, where Sonsteby will be able to inscribe your book, the first night being Aug. 23, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Town Council chambers, another on Aug. 28, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Municipal Library.