A Collingwood author’s new book seeks to chronicle the South Georgian Bay community’s history through snapshots.
Retiree George Czerny-Holownia recently released his 12th book, Come Fly with George. The 76-page book has full colour photos of areas such as Collingwood’s downtown, the shipyards, the harbour and some of the ski hills in the Town of The Blue Mountains. Historic images, as well as images from the more recent past, are juxtaposed alongside images from this year to show how areas have changed over time.
“I like to preserve history. The Collingwood Shipyards are a testament to the people who used to work there and who eventually lost their jobs when it closed in 1986,” said Czerny-Holownia. “I love to tell people about our area. This is my hometown.”
Czerny-Holownia has been taking photographs around Collingwood for about 40 years, and decided he wanted to do something with his aerial shots. After his last trip with Genesis Flight College in June, he thought it would be interesting to compare Collingwood over the years from a bird’s-eye view.
“It was a beautiful day, so the detail in my photographs is really good,” he said.
“Even my own subdivision, it used to be fields. You can certainly pick out your own neighbourhood in the photos.”
Previous publications by Czerny-Holownia include Kiss the Ground You Walk On, Canada!, travel guide George’s Georgian Bay and The Collingwood Shipyards.
“This is my own little project. It keeps me off the streets in my retirement,” he said with a laugh. “Canadian authors really are struggling authors. Writing books is really a labour of love.
“It’s an affordable gift, too, for the people who have everything.”
The self-published book costs $24.94 and is available to order through Blurb.ca here.