Geology was my major at the university.   The choice was dictated by the nature of the profession at the time - mostly outdoors, working in two major areas:  Mineral and Oil Exploration, or the so called 'hard rock' and 'soft rock' areas.  I chose hard rock.  The year was 1954, and University of Western Ontario was a small, 3 major building establishment with about 2000 students in arts and sciences.  Geology Department was housed in the Science Building, with all the other sciences.  The carnage of the first year science program wiped out 80% of the students.  There were 4 of us enrolled in the second year geology, and the same four graduated in 1958.   The geology departments across Canada did not have field schools at that time- all practical knowledge was obtained during the summer field season with a government survey, and/or mining or oil company.  It was the tail end of the mining and oil exploration boom.  The summer jobs were still plentiful. I started my field work years in the summer of 1956.

The description of and the access to the field seasons is given in the table below.