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From: mary gair <>
Subject: Re: [WARBRIDES] WARBRIDES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 11
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:50:33 -0700
References: <mailman.1767.1168408924.25259.warbrides@rootsweb.com><000901c73513$99662f10$6500a8c0@MACRUSK>


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michelle" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: [WARBRIDES] WARBRIDES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 11


> Today, Saskatchewan and Alberta (Canada) are underneath what some on the
> news are calling the Blizzard of the Century. 60 years ago, the War
Brides
> who came to Saskatchewan (and I believe to Alberta) also experienced one
of
> the worst ever winters. Blizzard and freezing cold temperatures.
>
> The cold weather is also coming again here in as the current temperature
has
> dropped to -37 C with the wind-chill and will continue to drop overnight
> to -37 without the windchill. We have a 4x4 and we're stuck in our own
> driveway!!
>
> As I stepped outdoors and had my breath taken away by the wind (70
> kilometres per hour), I could only think of the shock to the War Brides
from
> Europe - particularly when they did not have the clothing or the mental
or
> emotional preparedness for this extreme weather condition -no matter
what
> someone tells you beforehand can prepare you for days like today! Our
roads
> are closed, the highways closed, 2 of the 5 bridges in the city have
been
> closed, even the transit system has shut down (not to mention the
airport
> which is closed and that I am supposed to be at by 0400!). Our homes
have
> great insulation now, our cars have heating - I don't think I could have
> endured this weather if my circumstances were the same as they were for
the
> War Brides in 1946!
>
> Joan, or some of the other War Brides on the list - please describe what
it
> was like for you.
>
> Michelle Rusk
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 12:02 AM
> Subject: WARBRIDES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 11
>
>
>>
>>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>> 1. Re: Book "Pardon My Parka" (Lynne FitzGerald)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 22:11:59 -0400
>> From: "Lynne FitzGerald" <>
>> Subject: Re: [WARBRIDES] Book "Pardon My Parka"
>> To: <>, <>
>> Message-ID: <018901c7345c$b7338130$>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>> reply-type=original
>>
>> Annette,
>> That sounds wonderful!
>> I will look for that one.
>> Lynne
>> (daughter of war bride)
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Annette Fulford" <>
>> To: <>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 8:49 PM
>> Subject: [WARBRIDES] Book "Pardon My Parka"
>>
>>
>>> Has anyone read the book, "Pardon My Parka" by Joan Walker? I was
>>> wondering
>>> if it was written by a war bride from WW1 or WW2.
>>>
>>> It won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1954. It is
about
>>> a
>>> Londoner who was married to a Canadian Major and her hilarious story
of
>>> life
>>> in a Northern Quebec town.
>>>
>>> Here is a snippet about the book: "Anyone can be a pioneer. All you
need
>>> to
>>> do is to fall in love with a Canadian major in the London blackout and
>>> find
>>> that he is every bit as attractive when you get him into the light. I
>>> don't
>>> even suppose that he has to be a major. Or that a London blackout is
>>> essential to the romance. That is merely the way it happened to me.
For
>>> me,
>>> it had to happen in London because I am a Londoner born and bred - one
of
>>> those city slickers who can barely tell a cow from a sheep, and
couldn't
>>> care less. Jim tried to tell me that life in the Canadian mining town
of
>>> Val
>>> d'Or was just the smallest bit different from life in London, but I
said,
>>> so
>>> what? Then I tried to explain that I couldn't cook - couldn't even
boil
>>> the
>>> proverbial egg - and the least domesticated of women, and it was his
turn
>>> to
>>> say, so what? I could read a cook book, couldn't I? And he said he
would
>>> rather marry a sense of humour and starve, than marry some
domesticated
>>> little body, madly interested in the home, and suffer from mental
>>> indigestion." Thus Joan Walker begins her hilarious account of a city
>>> girl's
>>> sudden exposure to a domestic life in the Canadian north. "
>>>
>>> Annette
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -------------------------------
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
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>>
>> End of WARBRIDES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 11
>> ****************************************
>>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>Michelle, when I first arrived in Alberta which was June 1945, the summer
was very hot and when the winter came it was just awful. I was living with
my in-laws in an old farm house and the bedroom that was given to me had
frost on the inside of the walls it was so cold. The house itself was so
cold in the winter as my husband's mother let the stove go out so she could
clean it. I was pregnant at the time which didn't help as the out house was
quite away from the house, I was not a very happy person at that particular
time. My husband never came back to Canada until the end of the year and
that was because I wrote to his colonel. Apparently the army had lost track
of his points. I didn't adjust to Canada for quite a while I can tell you. I
came from a big close family and I missed them so much as well as my mother,
my dad dies when I was 7, but everything worked out for the best.
Mary from Alberta


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