GUELPH – In the years following the Second World War lots of heroes were honoured – mostly men returning home, such as former military officer and then-future-president Dwight Eisenhower.
But “no one ever talked about the kids.
“So this is their story,” Harriston resident Don Cerson told the Community News of his creative non-fiction book The Norwich Street Bridge Gang.
The “gang” was Cerson and his eight childhood friends, who grew up in Guelph and spent lots of time on the Norwich Street bridge.
“The book deals with the struggles youngsters had,” Cerson said, such as making money, having fun, causing mischief, going to school, and forming friendships that lasted a lifetime.
After the war, Cerson said their parents all had jobs but little money, so the kids, between about 10 and 14 years old, were often left to fend for themselves.
“We were river rats,” Cerson said – they loved swimming and floating down the Speed River in truck tire tubes and steel boats they built.
When they weren’t in the water they road bikes around town – bombing down hills at top speed, building soap box race cars, flinging rocks with slingshots, checking out old gas engine trains, watching films at the drive-in theatre and butting heads with their rivals – the Perth Street gang.
They worked as pin boys at the bowling alley, often spending their hard earned pennies on Flip – a pop that was manufactured in Guelph.
“We made a lot of money doing that – about $4 a night,” Cerson said, and a can of Flip cost four cents.
The book is full of dialogue, historical explanations and photos, including originals from Cerson’s childhood.
Cerson said he’s spoken to readers from 13 to 96 years old who enjoyed his book.
“It has absolute clean language and stories,” Cerson assures, and it’s easy for “youngsters” to get into the story as they can relate to the characters, even though childhood looked very differently back then than it does now.
The biggest difference, Cerson said, is the technology.
When he was growing up there were no dial phones, let alone cell phones, he said, and “riding a bike sure beats playing on a phone.”
Cerson has lived in Minto for 11 years but was born and raised in Guelph.
He spent time in Wellington County with his childhood friends too – “Eden Mills was a stomping ground of ours,” he said.
He started writing the book after his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, “in an effort to combat short-term memory loss, hallucinations, depression and tremors,” Cerson said.
“I decided to write, layout and publish the book myself. I’m so glad I did,” he said. “The experience has been overwhelming.”
Writing the book has been “a good therapy” and the people he’s met throughout the process are “just fantastic,” Cerson said.
He conceived the idea when he was in his 40s, but was too busy at the time so he put it on the back shelf – for almost four decades.
And then at 80, Cerson completed the first edition.
Since publishing the book Cerson has spoken at the Guelph Historical Society and attended the Eden Mills and Wellington County Writers Festivals as an author.
Songwriter, author and former Guelph councilor James Gordon met Cerson at the Wellington County Writer’s Festival in 2023, where Gordon bought a copy of Cerson’s book and “devoured it right there at my booth,” Gordon writes on his website jamesgordon.ca.
“The tales were very engaging, and I asked permission to turn his tale into a song,” Gordon writes. The song is also called The Norwich Street Bridge Gang.
To read The Norwich Street Bridge Gang, pick up a copy from Cordial Clove Books in Elora or Janus Books in Guelph, find Cerson’s table at the Guelph Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, email him at donandnancy@hotmail.com, or call his publisher at 226-429-2029.
Cerson said he’s working on his next project but is moving away from non-fiction; the next book will be a novel.
