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'My
Commonplace Book'
By Beryl A. (Bock) McPhee
We traveled to Saskatoon and rented two rooms in a boarding house, I was
very put out having to go back to school again and I had a friend Darlene
Ericson who hated it as much as I did because we just couldn't fit in
to a city school and catch up with the subjects. My two years correspondence
in grade nine didn't help me, and try as I might, I just couldn't get
high enough marks to pass grade ten, the only good thing about it was
our English teacher who was marvellous and as a result I enjoyed the subject.
Not
long after we settled in Dad came home on leave, we knew Mom hadn't been
well for years so Dad took her to a doctor, the next day Mom had to go
into hospital for a serious operation but Dad's leave was finished so
he had to go back and was so worried about her. The hospital was on the
other side of the city and we couldn't get there except on a weekend and
the weather was so bitterly cold, somehow we fended for ourselves and
went to school but we could only visit Mom twice.
Christmas
day we were invited to eat downstairs with the Ericson's but we didn't
enjoy it at all, Mom was so ill we nearly lost her but eventually the
happy day arrived when she came home. Then she had to exercise and couldn't
go up or down stairs so she walked around and around a small rug on the
floor. The next thing was that the Ericson children and the three of us
all came down with mumps! I only had a sore throat so I had to go to school
and felt very left out, it was hilarious coming home from school to find
all these huge-jowelled people sitting around telling jokes while Mom
paced around the carpet holding her tummy and everybody clutched their
throats saying "don't make me laugh - it hurts!"
Sometimes
I would go with Darlene downtown to Golf"s chocolate shop where Mrs. Ericson
hand-dipped chocolates in the basement, we watched the deft way she picked
up the chocolate centre and dipped it into the chocolate on a heated marble
slab then placed it on a tray and dribbled the chocolate from her fingers
to make the appropriate decoration on top! While we were watching once
the lights went out, Mrs. Ericson was in the middle of a batch and in
the dark she just kept on "dipping", when the light came on again the
chocolates she'd done in the dark were almost perfect! Mr. Golf would
sometimes come down and tell us to help ourselves to any chocolates we
liked, it was lovely!
We
weren't in Saskatoon very long when school finished and we went to Prince
Albert, Sask. where Dad 
was
stationed and moved into another apartment house, no more school for me!
Instead I went into Youth Training School (YTS) which was run by the government,
girls and boys there learned sheet metal work, riveting and carpentry
as training for war work. I loved riveting and carpentry and was the only
one in class allowed to run the big power saw single handed. Just
before the six month term ended I was picked from the rest as the best
woodworker and sent to work in Aircraft Repair, I was very pleased and
my job there was to make and repair the indicator panel in Tiger Moth
training planes.
By
this time Dad was in the Service Police and he got friendly with another
man called Kirkland who's family lived on a farm, we got invited there
for a weekend to fish and this all led to a lot of enjoyment for me in
particular! The family consisted of 6 girls and the three older ones Elaine,
Pat and Muriel got to be my friends and of course the three younger ones
fitted in with Bubbles, we had many wonderful times with them.
The
three eldest girls each had farm boys as boyfriends (Robbie & Ted McKean
and Arnold Cartier) who took them to shows and dances, from the time I
was first introduced to them I was never allowed to miss out on anything
going on, they did find one of their mates Larry LeMay for me but it wasn't
much of a success as he didn't quite fit in as he liked to drink too much.
If the boys had enough petrol for the cars (it was rationed) they would
take us out somewhere each weekend, looking back it was so nice for me
to be able to enjoy going out anytime and anyplace with fellows who kissed
and cuddled but never went any further.
Then
the time came when the boys were all called up, Arthur and Arnold Cartier
both went into the Navy, Robbie McKean and Larry into the Air Force, Robbie
had to stay home to run the farm, it was a very sad day when we had to
farewell them at the station, eventually Larry went overseas as a tail
gunner and was shot down over Germany, he was very badly hurt and spent
the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. When it happened he just seemed
to vanish and we all thought he'd been killed but after the war he came
home, married and had a family but I never saw him again.
Another
fellow we knew at the time was named Owen and he went into the Eighth
Army and was shipped to Europe in a transport with hundreds of other fellows,
he got talking to one of them about home and "girls" and discovered they
both knew me! The other fellows' name was Bert Bond from Ladder Valley
who I went to school with and was one of the "terrible foursome"!
Things
changed at Aircraft Repair and I decided to move on, Dad was going to
be transferred to Edmonton so I went on ahead and stayed with Art and
Mae Aston till Mom and Bubbles arrived, I got on at Aircraft Repair in
Edmonton doing the bonding (soldering wires to every piece of metal in
the plane and to each other so the plane is grounded for electricity),
the soldering iron was a big electric 10 pounder which I got to handle
very easily with one hand, two other girls did this with me and we were
most proficient.
The
first place we lived in there was in a private home where we had one large
room and we had to share the bathroom, the landlady couldn't speak much
English and she and her husband weren't very nice to us, we were not to
make any noise or have any company after 10 pm and we could only wash
our clothes once a week. Bubbles (not ever being well) was very timid
and one time we were secretly washing our stockings in the bathroom and
the landlady caught her and started banging on the door to complain to
Mom, well this was not a good time because she was peeling potatoes and
had a knife in her hand and a saucepan in the other, when I opened the
door and Mom saw Bubbles' frightened face she lost her temper, the lady's
face went white as a sheet as she backed down the hall with Mom chasing
her all the way waving the knife and saucepan! We thought we'd done very
well because after that we could wash our stockings in the bathroom any
time we wanted!
When
Mom got well enough she also got a job at Aircraft Repair on the 3 to
11 shift, one night Arnold Cartier arrived on leave with my cousin Elgan
Thomas (who was in the Army) for a visit, both boys had loud voices and
hearty laughs so it wasn't long before the landlord was at the door complaining
but it got him nowhere! Dad came home for a few days leave that Christmas
and we had a lovely time, Bubbles was so pleased to get a watch for her
present and she was allowed to stay up late a few nights which she enjoyed,
there was always the fear she would catch a cold or some illness so Mom
took such good care of her and we always considered her welfare so she
could get the most out of life.
Memoirs: Beryl A.
(Bock) McPhee
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