Words like “topping” and “thinning” were used often when my family would talk about working in the sugar beet fields. I never really thought about what they really meant until I went on the sugar beet trip in 2019. Someone demonstrated how the tops of the giant beets were hacked off using the very large...Continue reading
Author: Mayu Takasaki
First winter
My mom’s family are story tellers. Family gatherings and dinners would usually end up with them talking about their past – growing up in pre-war Steveston and then the war years in Turin, Alberta working the sugar beet fields. And their stories would often include some humour which would result in much laughter. I think...Continue reading
My grandfather
My paternal grandfather died in 1924 when my dad was 4 years old. My dad, his parents, and his younger sister were living in a small fishing community in Canoe Pass in Delta, BC with several other families from their village of Ibusuki in Kagoshima. My grandfather had been a fisherman and died at sea....Continue reading