The place, the bald-headed prairie of southern Saskatchewan…. The time, the present … the principal characters, Jake and the Kid. And here, as the first episode in a new series of radio plays by the Canadian writer W. O. Mitchell is the story of the Oldest Old-Timer….

The date was Tuesday, June 27, 1950. And so began the radio series that was to run for six seasons and over two hundred and fifty scripts, and which was to make Crocus, Saskatchewan one of the enduring towns of the Canadian imagination. (p. 33)

The timing of Mitchell's series was apposite. By 1950 Canada's transition from a pioneering and agricultural country to a predominantly industrial and urban one was almost complete. By this date, the fears and anxieties of the Depression and the War years behind them, Canadians had settled down to peace and prosperity, ready and eager for diversion and entertainment. The Canadian Broadcasting...