Saddles and Service, Winston Parker's Story

Okotoks resident Winston Parker will sign copies of his new memoir, Saddles and Service, on Thursday, November 10th from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at the Foothills Centennial Centre in Okotoks. During a short program at 1:30 pm professional auctioneer, Stacey McInenly of Vulcan, will sell the first book out of the box and the proceeds will be donated to the Foothills Country Hospice.
A colourful addition to the pages of Alberta's history, Saddles and Service's mid-November release is appropriate as Canada marks Remembrance Day and remembers its heroes.
Parker, who earned a distinguished World War II service record and a chest full of medals, will spend Remembrance Day just as he has for the past 66 years. He will pay his respects to his fallen comrades at both formal community observances and later alone in pensive reflection.
Never in his wildest dreams could this young Albertan have imagined how the war would change his life. As soon as Parker heard that England and France had declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939, he drove from the farm near Red Deer Lake to Calgary and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. It was only natural. A first-generation Canadian whose parents emigrated from Britain, he had been raised with a strong sense of patriotism and was influenced by World War I flying ace Wop May when he was a child.
Parker, whose memory is exceedingly sharp, told his life story to writer Elaine Taylor Thomas, who captured his recollections. Her company, Calla Communications, Inc. of La Grange, Texas, has published this entertaining and insightful 330-page book.
“Perhaps it was only fitting that Winston Churchill Parker should meet his namesake at 10 Downing Street, London, during World War II. It is in keeping with other events in the colourful life of this southern Alberta rancher,” said Hugh A Dempsey, Editor of Alberta History and Chief Curator Emeritus of the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.