Arnold spent his early years
on a farm in the north part of Huron County. He graduated from Wingham High School, Stratford Teachers’
College, the University of Western Ontario, with a B.A., and the Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education, with a M.Ed.
Arnold began teaching in a
rural school with twenty-four pupils in eight grades. He taught in Toronto for five years, and then for eighteen
years he was the Principal of Huron Centennial Elementary School at Brucefield,
Ontario. He spent the last ten
years of his educational career as Superintendent for the Huron County Board of
Education.
Arnold never got very far
away from his farming roots. Along
with a farming partner, and his wife and children, they farmed 300 acres. They raised beef cattle, cash cropped
and grew and sold Christmas trees.
Arnold began writing stories
during his retirement and has published three family genealogies and a book of
humorous short stories. Thirty-seven of his stories have been published in the Rural Voice, a
magazine that is widely read by Ontario farm families.
Arnold and his wife, Ila,
live in Exeter and divide their time between Exeter, Florida and their 160 year
old log house on their tree farm near Wingham.
Homemade and Hand-Me-Downs is all about growing up in the 1940s, when the world was a simpler place, before colour TV, computers and cell phones. Looking back on those times it is easy to say that all things seemed bright and beautiful. We enjoyed socializing with our neighbours, a game of cards and a chat across the line fence. Another aspect of the stories is preserving the language of our rural community.
Homemade and Hand-Me-Downs is all about growing up in the 1940s, when the world was a simpler place, before colour TV, computers and cell phones. Looking back on those times it is easy to say that all things seemed bright and beautiful. We enjoyed socializing with our neighbours, a game of cards and a chat across the line fence. Another aspect of the stories is preserving the language of our rural community.
