THUNDER BAY – James Aldridge was worried the many stories of local soldiers would go untold, so he did something about it.
Aldridge interviewed over 80 soldiers part of the Lake Superior Regiment during the Second World War, and made sure their stories stay alive.
The book launch event brought dozens of people out to the O’Kelly VC Armory on Saturday to honour James (Jim) Aldridge in releasing his book Follow the Tracks: An Oral History of the Lake Superior Regiment.
At the official launch event, seeing all the people who attended, Aldridge said, “It's something I never anticipated when I started this affair.”
“To see all these people coming here and then for me to remember so much detail of their lives, of their fathers and their uncles and their neighbours and so on. It's been a real nice heartening experience to meet people like that from my hometown,” he said.
Aldridge was born in Fort William, which is now Thunder Bay, and says the book is very special to him since its his hometown.
The whole process collecting stories and writing the book took more than 20 years, Aldrige said.
“My wife says, ‘you did it for more than 20 years.’ That implies or should imply that I came home from work and sat down and started writing a book. No. I’ve done other things in the meanwhile, but the book was always there on the table. To say it took 20 years is not a real reflection of the time I put in,” he said.
Aldridge said he learned a whole lot through the process. “I thought it was a real adventure, a real wonderful experience that most people will never know.
“A lot went into it, but if I put in everything that I learned, that book would be too heavy for us to carry. I had to be selective in what I put in this book,” he said.
George Romick, director and curator of the Thunder Bay Military Museum, said the turnout was very good on Saturday.
“I figure we had probably about 120 to 130 people in attendance and a lot of them were relatives of Lake Superior Regiment (Motor) soldiers from World War Two,” he said.
“It's a great feeling, because I've known Jim for over 35 years and what he was doing and for his time to get the interviews down into paper, the pictures and everything else. This is great. This is just wonderful that this book has so much acknowledgement for Jim's doing.”
Romick said this book is on the Lakes of Superior Regiment soldiers themselves, their first-hand accounts, their original pictures and everything that they've gone through during World War Two.
“The importance to have it in this Armoury is: on June 6, 1940, this is where the regiment was mobilized. This is where, through the front doors, they came in and they enlisted into the Lake Superior Regiment. It's very important to have it in this building,” he said.
Readers can buy Follow the Tracks: An Oral History of the Lake Superior Regiment at the museum’s gift shop.