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Onusko, James. A. (2021). **Boom Kids: Growing up in the Calgary Suburbs, 1950-1970.** Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Reviewed by: Lauren White, MacEwan University

James A. Onusko’s book, “Boom Kids: Growing up in the Calgary Suburbs, 1950-1970,” studies the interplay of class, ethnicity, race, gender and culture and how these factors play a role in influencing postwar suburbia for children, adolescents, and families. Using a collection of media, interviews, images and other data, Onusko highlights how each individual had no single defining experience in postwar suburbia, including those who spent their childhoods living under the same roof. Onusko looks at several factors that defined postwar suburbia for the families of Banff Trail. Some of these factors include: (1) the changing landscape from rural to urban life; (2) the working lives of those growing up in the suburbs and how class and race came into play; and (3) the previous wars and their effects on children in the classroom. Looking at these three factors and the interplay between them, Onusko highlights how growing up in suburbia in Banff Trail between 1950 and 1970 was a shared but individual experience.

Onusko notes that suburban areas became increasingly more common for children to grow
up in the postwar era, stating that “in the first post-Confederation census in 1871 over 80 percent
of children lived in rural households, by 1971, there was a near reversal of this, with over 75
percent living in urban centres,” (p. 21). This could attribute to the fact that there was an increase
in the number of roads, parks and schools built as veterans of World War II and their new families had been placed on housing lists. Onusko points out that many families were also drawn to the suburbs at this time since there was high availability for plots of land at affordable prices. In which one individual remembers only paying 100 dollars for the land that they then built their house upon (p. 23).

Several individuals were interviewed about their homes and bedrooms while growing up in Banff Trail between the 1950s and 1970s. The collection of data Onusko managed to acquire demonstrates that although children and adolescents shared similar environments and experiences, such as recalling smaller bedrooms but larger communal areas of the home, on the individual level, they were still different. For some of the interviewees, growing up, they had to share bedrooms with siblings that restricted the way they had their rooms set up or how they decorated them, for others they had their own room but did not feel there was anything special about it and said it was simple, for others who had their own rooms they remembered them fondly and how they were decorated to their liking, another individual remembered having rented out rooms to university students and having to share the home with them (p. 28). Using these real-life examples, Onusko was able to demonstrate that on a macro-level, individuals shared many similar experiences growing up in the suburbs of Banff Trail at this time. However, at the micro-level, experiences were unique. The social and working class can be attributed to differences in which some families could not afford as much for children or needed extra income and hosted university students.

Onusko mentions that children and adolescents of Banff Trail were known to work from both middle-class and working-class families (p. 71). At this time, Banff Trail mostly contained
middle-class and working-class families. Although these two different classes lived amongst one another, Onusko mentions how interviewees pointed out, “class was not a prominent topic among adolescent suburbanites and there was limited discussion of class in the literature and art created by students” (p. 71). However, it is mentioned that some middle-class children had some extra privileges such as memberships in clubs, nicer clothes and travel opportunities (p. 71). Despite this, both children of middle-class and working-class families usually worked, keeping their own personal incomes. Again, when looking at the macro-level, Onusko demonstrates that both the children of middle-class and working-class families lived similar lives in that a majority worked from young ages to earn their own income, but on the micro-level middle-class children had some benefits that working-class children did not. These extra benefits, however, did not seem to have much of an impact on these children and adolescents. As Onusko points out, “class lines were also blurred culturally in that middle and working-class young people attended the same schools, played the same sports, engaged in similar activities, and had comparatively similar homes in Banff Trail” (p. 71).

Compared to the blurred social classes that existed in Banff Trail, this was not the case for race and ethnicity. Onusko states, “by 1961, Calgary was home to a quarter of a million people, but Asians, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and “others” accounted for fewer than 45,000 people, just over 20 percent of the total population. In terms of appearance, most children were white and did not appear as “others” to children and adolescents at this time” (p. 72). Unlike social class, where children and adolescents from both classes mingled and played together, looking back at photographs from school, interviewees point out that most children in their classes at school
were white, with few children from other racial or ethnical backgrounds (p. 74). This is again at
the macro level. When looking at the micro level, one interviewee remembered being friends with
three Black triplets around her age that she played with (p. 75). Other interviewees can remember
Indigenous children being teased and bullied and stated this was when they learnt about different
races and ethnicities through this experience (p.76). Onusko highlights how children of this time
were mostly exposed to white culture at the macro level, but at the micro level, children
experienced different races and ethnicities. However, they also experienced them in different ways.

Highlighting how social class, race and ethnicity played out in the classroom, Onusko also
mentions how this postwar era still had a big impact within classrooms on children and adolescents
of this time. In one high school newspaper article, a student wrote about spectators going to view
an A-bomb testing site (p. 45). Interviewees commented on the fact that when playing as young
children, “[they] engaged with and used several forms of military imagery, material culture,
disciplining practices, and play within their bounded space [schools, parks, home]” (p. 45). Onusko
points out that within high school yearbooks, there were many advertisements for the armed forces
(p. 48). Other interviewees spoke about how war-time stories were common around the dinner
table and brought families close together. However, it was not all fun; as Onusko points out, by
the late 1950s to early 1960s, air-raid systems had been put in place across North America due to
the possibility of a Soviet invasion or bombing (p. 47). One interviewee could recall the town’s
evacuation signs and route markers forty years later and remembered children and adolescents
being instructed on what to do if there was ever a nuclear attack (p. 47).

Again Onusko points out that most children and adolescents at the macro level experienced
similar family war-time stories and evacuation drills. However, at the micro level, children and adolescents, such as those in the Boy Scouts or Cadets program, had more influence from military standards and practices. Along with these influences and family war-time stories, one interviewee mentioned how this gave him great respect for the armed forces and why he joined the Cadets (p. 48). This also demonstrates how war and the military had more of an impact on boys rather than girls. Onusko mentions that government policies that were put in place had an effect on all children of all ages, but they had the most impact on children of middle-class families (p. 45). So although the previous wars made some impact on all children and adolescents, Onusko highlights how social class and gender had an impact on different individuals at the micro level.

Onusko's book highlights the ups and downs of postwar suburbia and how the children and adolescents of Banff Trail had shared but different experiences on both the macro and micro levels. By using different forms of media and real-life examples looking at different social factors such as social class, race and ethnicity, as well as living factors such as suburban postwar life, Onusko demonstrates that growing up in a small community such as Banff Trail came with its challenges but also created a diverse community of individuals. Although the book does briefly mention other countries, such as the United States and other provinces of Canada, it would be interesting to explore other suburban communities of this time in other places. Overall, the book was enjoyable, with amusing quotes and interesting history. I recommend this book to any sociologists, psychologists and social workers interested in childhood development, environmental influences on childhood development specifically, or someone interested in the postwar era looking for a good read.