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GODERICH – Half a century in the making, Goderich resident Sally Walker’s novel, 101, is based on a time in her life when she found herself overwhelmed in a new teaching job.
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Walker started the outline for 101 about 50 years ago, wanting to describe what life was like in the 1960s and 1970s for someone moving from small-town Ontario to a big city.
Walker, who grew up in Unionville, started her first teaching job in Toronto, where some of her students knew very little English.
“I was green as grass,” she said, describing it as a tough assignment, but one during which she forged friendships with five other young women in situations similar to hers.
“We bonded together,” Walker said, adding the book honours those five teachers she started out with.
“Friendships are so important to survive sometimes,” Walker said, “and I was totally overwhelmed. I was not in any way, shape or form prepared to really deal with my first teaching assignment, and I don’t know that I could have gotten through it without these great friends, and my husband. It was tough.”
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While it was a difficult assignment for a new teacher, Walker said there were great kids at the school, and it was a learning experience for someone from a small town.
The novel also moves into the 1970s, a time when Walker and her family moved to Huron County after her husband David became a doctor. Walker eventually left teaching for 15 years to raise a family while her husband was working up to 100 hours a week as a general practitioner in Goderich.
She later returned to teaching and taught at Goderich District collegiate institute for 15 years, a time she said she loved.
“It was a great school. I loved the kids.”
While based on her early teaching and married life, Walker stresses 101 is a novel, not a memoir, and some characters and scenes are invented. She describes the book as mostly a light, easy read, but it also deals with serious issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace.
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After initially making notes for 101 early in her career, Walker put them away in a drawer where they sat for decades. When COVID-19 happened, and she found herself with free time, Walker decided to turn those notes into a novel. She had also become a great-grandmother and told herself the book would never happen if she didn’t get moving on it.
“I totally loved writing it,” she said of 101, “but then I hated editing it. That was just a slog.”
First released in 2022, Walker released a newly edited version of 101 with a new cover in April.
She said readers have told her they enjoy the book, and that she describes the 1960s and 1970s in a realistic way.
“It’s very gratifying,” Walker said of the positive feedback, adding her family has also been supportive.
101 is available at Fincher’s in Goderich, The Village Bookshop in Bayfield as well as on amazon.ca, where it can be found in paperback and e-book versions.
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