With a Little Bit of Luck

In this fascinating memoir, author Doug Lester tells of growing up in southwestern Ontario in the years after the Second World War---a time much like our own in some ways, yet in others startlingly different. Much of his childhood was spent living on a chicken farm near the small town of Tillsonburg, Ontario. Doug’s father was Flock Manager at the farm, working “six days a week from seven in the morning till six at night, with basic egg gathering and chores left to his discretion on Sunday. In return, Dad’s pay was fifty dollars per week, a rent-free home, all the chickens and eggs needed to feed his family, and a week of summer holidays at a trailer owned by the boss.” The farm proved a rural wonderland for Doug and his brother, with its hundred acres of pastures and woods, and also served as a jumping-off point for adventures further afield, including fishing in the nearby creek, ice skating on a neighbour’s rink, and tobogganing at the town’s golf course. The author’s contemporaries will enjoy being reminded of (in the words of the hymn) “the dear dead days beyond recall,” while younger readers will find the book a lively and colourful introduction to a world without smartphones or social media.

In later chapters, Lester recounts summers working as a teenager on a local tobacco farm during harvest season, and also writes of his journey of faith, his experiences at university and teacher’s college, his career as a teacher and principal, and his life as a husband and father. With a Little Bit of Luck is a lively account of a life well lived and keenly remembered.

Includes more than three dozen vintage photographs from the author's collection.

About the Author
Doug was born curious. A life-long learner, he acquired a B.A. and M.Ed. (Western University), and certifications in Myers-Briggs, Strong Interest, Grief Recovery, Reality Therapy, and Coaching. He was a teacher and principal for thirty-one years in Oxford County, then taught in Waterloo County, managed a youth counselling program in Toronto, and coached leaders. He’s been writing for over 65 years---poetry in his teens, then over the years, county-wide curriculum, blogs, song lyrics, and governance/leadership development programs, and his first book, 12 Steps of Self-Leadership: The Difference Maker’s Guide to Living and Leading on Purpose (2016). ---And, he’s still curious.