![]() ![]() In a little over a week, I had to learn seamanship, knots and splices, Morse Code, and to read messages with flags. I was now a full-fledged member of the Royal Canadian Navy V.R. With the letter, I showed up at HMCS Prevost in London, was given a real fast medical and a Navy uniform. Honeyman from the Presbyterian Church all signed. Statham the merchant, Chief Tanton, and Rev. It took some talking to get my mother to sign, but she did. They welcomed me with open arms but sent me home with a letter that had to be signed by a parent, merchant, police chief, and a minister from a church. A day or two after my seventeenth birthday (1942), I hitchhiked to London to join the Navy. The Navy was the only armed force that would take young men and boys 17 years of age. I was eager to join up but was not old enough, so I had to wait. She always said she made the bullets, and her boys fired them. My mother worked in a war factory in Woodstock. ![]() Older ladies knit sweaters, socks, and mitts to help keep our soldiers warm. Young children and school kids gathered tinfoil, aluminum, and scrap metal. Everyone worked at something for the war. Without farmers, we could not supply food for the Allied countries and our fighting forces. Farm boys went to join but were sent home to grow food for the war effort. I could see young men and women joining the armed forces and going off to war to fight for their country. We all had to have ration cards to buy most groceries and gasoline. When I was a young boy growing up in Strathroy in 1939, Canada entered the war. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |