In September of 1939, war was declared and along with many others on the prairies, our world was turned upside-down, which was not necessarily a bad thing at the very local level.
Mother remembered it well. "They would write about the patriotism of Canadians, especially from the West. Saskatchewan men were the most patriotic of all Canadians. Well, the fellows just roared, you know. Everybody was trying to get in so their families would have something to eat."
Tom laughed, "They were the hungriest!"
Pat remarked, "I remember from doing reading on this period that there were people who went around, jokingly, saying "Heil Hitler!" to each other!"
"Oh yes," said Molly; "People did; Dad did!"
Tom added, "Remember Tommy Douglas and that famous speech? He led a delegation to Ottawa to try and get some money for the unemployed people in Saskatchewan. ...And who was it (was it R. B. Bennett?) said, 'Money doesn't grow on trees'. That was in July or August. In September, they declared war and they voted six million dollars to carry the war on, over the weekend! Douglas said, 'They must've found the trees!' ...it boggled the mind how quickly they could come up with the money."
"There was money to burn, all of a sudden," Molly remembered. "It was like they could buy anything for the war. Jobs everywhere. It was just unbelievable. The Depression was over. Within days."
Dad successfully lied about his age (he was technically too old to join up), hoping to get over to Europe to visit his family. He got as far as Regina to the south, and Prince Albert to the north. But there was money coming in monthly, and veteran's benefits, and a war-widow's pension later... As Tom observed, a substantial inheritance for his family.
The Urban Experience
We moved to Saskatoon, a city of maybe 50,000 people, or about 49,985 people more than we were used to. Billy went to a regular school.
"In elementary school, we had a little bit of hockey in the winter; we had a low-level league in the school, and we played occasionally at the arena against other teams. ...The better players played pee-wee hockey. Of course, when I was in the school, when I was in Grade 1 and 2, Gordie Howe was in Grade 7 and 8."
"In that school?" asked Pat incredulously.
"Yeah. In King George School."
"Really?" said Molly. "In that school?"
"Yeah. He came in from Floral [a small town just outside of Saskatoon], and he went to our school. Now I wasn't playing hockey, and I was a million light years below him anyway, but there was that semi-league of teams that played a few games, and then at the end of the season, they had an all-star game: the East Side versus the West Side."
"I remember that," said Pat.
"The West Side was our side; we were the low rent district; the East Side was Nutana and all the high class places. I remember the Saskatoon Arena seated about 5,000 people, and they would get about ten to fifteen thousand kids packed into the place, at 10 cents a ticket to see this all-star game between the East Side and the West Side. And I remember when Gordie Howe was playing for the West Side. The score was 15 to 1, and he scored 14 goals! I remember one goal, in the middle of the third period. He took a slap shot from center ice and the goalie simply got out of the way!"
Pat was laughing. "He saw it coming and he thought: 'I don't want to have anything to do with this!'"
Bill added, "Well, Gordie looked like he was about 20 years old, and all the others looked like they were twelve. [They were twelve; they were all twelve including Gordie.] He was a really big kid."
Molly wanted to know if Bill had dined out on this famous connection over the years. He admitted that from time to time he interjected the fact that he had gone to school with ol' Gordie. After all, it was definitely a
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