My First Interview

Everyone has to start somewhere, to state the obvious.

In my case it was in the lowly capacity of copyboy with The Daily Colonist long before its merger with the Victoria Daily Times—two years of my doing everything and anything but writing, at least on company time.

Any writing I did was on my own dime.

But knowing and getting along well with editor John Shaw no doubt helped me make my first freelance sale to the paper’s Sunday edition, The Islander. This led to assignments—interviewing people suggested to Shaw and to the city desk but who weren’t considered newsworthy enough to justify a reporter’s time.

Victoria was a retirement Mecca in those days and many seniors could tell of incredible experiences and adventures, including service in both world wars—if only they had a way to share their stories. Some actually tried writing their memoirs.

But they’d spent their working lives as loggers, sea captains, army officers...they weren’t professional writers.

Neither was I but, yet, but I was better at it than they were. So came the day that I girded my young loins and made my first contact with an elderly gentleman.

Next week in the Chronicles, some of Charles Taylor’s great stories about his childhood and the colourful pioneers of the Albernis of a century and more ago.

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PHOTO: Many 1960s Victorians were retired and a treasure trove of great stories for those willing to seek them out and to listen. —www.flickr.com