From today’s change…a 1947 Canadian nickel. Seldom seen now…but the memories it can provide. (P. Ferguson image, August 2018)
A Little Bit of Change
It’s not every day that one receives a King George VI Canadian nickel in pocket change, but there it was. Perhaps not unusual, and some would allow it to slip by towards the next cup of coffee, the next biscuit, the next something. But there it sat, with me, so I pondered its age commencing with its emergence on the Canadian scene in 1947.
I suspect it has not always been in circulation, perhaps its been resting in a jar found in a desk, rediscovered but then let go. Perhaps its been lost? Discovered with the trowel that digs at dandelions on our manicured lawns. We can never know, but in my hands it is a reminder…of the magic of storytelling and how there can always be more.
In 1947 veterans of the Second World War may have been home for two years, maybe more, maybe less. They may of had a child, born in 1939, that they hardly knew after years away or perhaps that child was of younger years, but how many of us recall our fathers, our mothers taking us for ice cream? Its cost in 1947 was five cents…ice cream…a memory perhaps we all have.
An American Buffalo nickel. My mother, when a girl, used to find these amongst her Canadian change. (Wiki Commons image)
Still today’s found coin takes me to another nickel vintage from outside Canada, the Buffalo nickel, that includes a portrait of one of the United States’ first peoples. My mother gathered the few that she found, amongst her Canadian change, when she was a girl. She liked them. There is a small handful of them lurking about, probably in a jar, in a desk, in some drawer.
Maybe one day this, my rediscovered nickel, will find its way into one of those date oriented coin collector books…but then I remember there is also a film…a scene….a reminder to us all of memories, not based on value but based on love.
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Paul has worked with the Paradigm Motion Picture Company since 2009 as producer, historian and research specialist. Paul first met Casey and Ian WIlliams of Paradigm in April 2007 at Ieper (Ypres), Belgium when ceremonies were being held for the re-dedication of the Vimy Memorial, France.
Paul's sensitivity to film was developed at an early age seeing his first films at RCAF Zweibrucken, Germany and Sardinia. Paul returned to Canada in 1967 and was captivated by David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai". Over time Paul became increasingly interested in storytelling, content development, character, direction, cinematography, narration and soundtracks.
At the University of Victoria, Paul studied and compared Japanese and Australian film and became interested in Australian film maker Peter Weir and his film "Gallipoli" (1981). Paul was inspired when he learned Weir visited the beaches, ridges and ravines of the peninsula. "Gallipoli", the film, led Paul on many journeys to sites of conflict in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Malta, Hawaii, Gallipoli, North Macedonia and Salonika.
When Paul first watched documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, "The Civil War", Paul understood how his own experience and insight could be effective and perhaps influential in film-making. Combining his knowledge of Museums and Archives, exhibitions and idea strategies with his film interests was a natural progression.
Paul thinks like a film-maker. His passion for history and storytelling brings to Paradigm an eye (and ear) to the keen and sensitive interests of; content development, the understanding of successful and relational use of collections, imagery and voice. Like Paul's favorite actor, Peter O'Toole, Paul believes in the adage “To deepen not broaden.”
While on this path Paul always remembers his grandmother whose father did not return from the Great War and how his loss shaped her life and how her experience continues to guide him.
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