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From: "joan reichardt" <>
Subject: Re: [WARBRIDES] WARBRIDES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 11
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:26:03 -0800
References: <mailman.1767.1168408924.25259.warbrides@rootsweb.com><000901c73513$99662f10$6500a8c0@MACRUSK>


Hi, Michelle, The weather is no screaming hell here either!! In the
Kootenays we are used to vast quantiries of heavy snow, followed by warm up,
followed by rain, followed by freeze up that turns everything into a skating
rink, but it has been pretty normal for us, unlike those fragile creatures
(Kathy included) who live in Victoria.
My husband had tried to explain to me how cold it was in Saskatchewan but it
is hard to put into words what 50 below feels like, so I hadn't a clue. I
was well kitted out, with fur coat etc. but still went out wearing a stylish
hat instead of a warm scarf or woolly toque because it looked sunny and
bright. I froze my nose walking to the bus the first winter, and I can
still remember the agony as chilled feet and fingers returned to normal. I
found the cold so restricting in terms of what I could or could not do.
Going out with small kids was impossible and I can remember dragging our
first child, bundled up beyond recognition, on a sleigh, going to my sister
in laws to play cards!! With more than one child, and still no car, that
ceased to be an option. Even when we did aquire a car the cold weather
meant we had to plug it in overnight, we had 'square' wheels and dead
batteries if we left it parked too long and copious piles of blankets were a
fact of winter travel anywhere. My oldest son was born on December 31st
1949 and the thermometer never got above about 20 below all through
January - and this was the old farenheit scale!!
Two memories come to mind: the first winter we were living with the in-laws
and although their house had indoor plumbing there were some across the
alley that did not. I was gazing out the kitchen window one bitterly cold
day when I saw a horse drawn wagon coming along the alley. It stopped by
what I now knew to be an outside toilet, the driver got down, lifted up the
flap and proceeded to use a PICK to dislodge the contents - when people talk
about s--- flying I know what they mean! The second event was many years
later, after the invention of leotards (heavy weight tights). I had to go
downtown to do a number of errands and it was very, very cold, and of
course, the wind was blowing, so I borrowed a pair belonging to one of my
daughters. They were a little small but I hauled them up as best I could,
put on all my winter gear, including long fur coat, high boots and off I
went. By the time I was walking back from City Hall to get my bus home said
tights were rapidly working their way down, and the crotch had reached my
knees. I crossed the road to the bus stop like a demented penguin, barely
able to put one foot in front of the other as my knees were tightly bound to
each other. In the privacy of my seat on the bus I managed to hoist them up
enough to make it home, but it was still not a pretty sight!!
Keeping the house warm was a challenge, especially in the days of coal and
wood furnaces. The kids all stayed in bed while dear old dad ventured down
the basement and stoked up the temperamental octopus-like monstrosity that
kept us warm. What a joy it was when we got natural gas!! And the frost
laden windows were another one of our winter hazards, as well as frozen
pipes, but I truly think the wind was the worst! That icy blast that took
your breath away, and those little frozen granules of snow that bit into
your skin, oh yes, I remember it well!! Thanks, Michelle, it was indeed a
shock coming from the south of England where we hardly ever saw snow or
freezing temperatures for more than a day or so to a winter that lasted for
onths on end. Joan
ps Should I mention the frozen washing (which we felt duty bound to hang out
on the line) and the time I snapped one leg off my husband's long johns as I
came in the back door?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michelle" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 4:01 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
>> ****************************************
>>
>
>
>
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