Pull up a Chair

About the Book

This is a book of memories. Sitting at the kitchen table, seven children of different families of early settlers recount stories of growing up during the opening quarter of the last century. They all lived in or near the small city of Armstrong, which is surrounded by the rural municipality of Spallumcheen, in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Six of them live here still.

Go, West, young men, and young women too! Their parents came from eastern Canada, the United States, and Britain, each with a varied and fascinating past. They told these stories to their children.

They were looking for adventure, love, success, a place of their own. Some achieved their desire by hard work, luck, perseverance, and ingenuity, and their children shared the experience. Others were overcome by circumstances and their children shared that too. Together parents and children helped to build the community of Armstrong Spallumcheen. These stories tell a part of how it happened.

About the Author

Shirley Campbell had a career as a high school English and History teacher in Canada and overseas and is now a non-fiction writer. She attended school in Quebec and Ontario, and graduated with a B.A. (Hon.) in history from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and an M.A. in curriculum and administration (education) from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington.

Shirley Campbell grew up in the Gaspe Peninsula in eastern Quebec and saw at first hand the triumphs and tribulations of mixed farming. She lives with her husband, Kevin, in Armstrong Spallumcheen, where they raised their two children.