Since I was born in 1944, a year before the end of World War II, I experienced little of the effects of those historic six years. My mother gave birth to five babies during that time and my father, who worked the family farm, was considered an essential worker in the war effort and remained home to till the land. Furthermore, none of my uncles served overseas.
I knew that most soldiers were young, single, able-bodied, healthy men who were shipped across the ocean to fight in a war about which little was known. To increase my own store of knowledge on life on the home front during the arduous years of 1939-1945, I turned to the recollections of our Sisters living here in London.
I often heard Sr. Mary Eunice speak of the unique time she had dancing with the soldiers preparing to be shipped overseas to fight. On Fridays at 3:00 pm, a bus arrived at the prominent London Life Insurance building which employed many young women. A group of them boarded the bus that would take them on a two- hour trip to RCAF Station Trenton (now CFB Trenton) training base, located within the city of Quinten West. What followed was dinner with the soldiers and evenings of fun, dancing, and socializing with young single men who missed home and the girls they left behind. This excursion continued for several years with great success.
Sister Lucy recalls vividly her mother knitting socks for the soldiers while caring for her eleven children. Lucy and her classmates at their little Josephsburg country school collected and filled huge onion sacks of milkweed pods for the war effort. The buoyancy of the milkweed floss was used as raw material for life preservers needed for its airmen and sailors.
In a similar vein, silk was in short supply during the war years. Therefore, many an innovative bride wore a gown made of silk parachute material (see video, right) that the soldiers brought home from overseas. There were other inconveniences in daily life, including a scarcity of much-needed items. Food rations and tickets for sugar began in January 1942 followed by coffee, tea, and butter by the end of the year.
Sr. Rose’s only recollection of the war was as a 6-year-old riding the train with her mother. A young soldier gave her a dime. She was rich! No doubt, she reminded him of little sisters he had left at home. Her own eight brothers were too young to sign up for the war.
“It takes Remembrance Day to visit dimmed memories of difficult days buried in aging minds.”
As I chatted with various Sisters, I could see their eyes grow bright and spirits animated as my questions stoked memories of over 70 years ago. It takes Remembrance Day to visit dimmed memories of difficult days buried in aging minds. Sr. Joan was full of vivid recollections that came tumbling to the surface as she recalled St. Mary’s Elementary School on the outskirts of Brantford. It was smack in the middle of a huge army camp - “Army Camp 29”. She grew up surrounded by young, gun-carrying soldiers marching the two-mile route down the street, past St. Mary’s on Colborne Street, and into the neighbourhood in all kinds of weather. By age ten, Joan was marching home from school with them: left, right, left, right down the street. Sometimes, they even let her carry a gun.
Being United States citizens at the time, Sr. Kateri’s brother entered the war in 1942 after Pearl Harbour was bombed on Dec. 1941. After enlisting, he trained in the signal corps and was sent overseas with SHEAF. Sister remembers her mother’s anxiety, always fearing that the mailman would arrive with dreaded news. Fortunately, the war ended, and her son arrived home safely in the late fall of 1945.
Today, in 2020 we mark another November 11th, another Remembrance Day. The world teeters on the brink of disaster at every turn. It is time to look back in praise of so many who sacrificed so much to make us free. Let us pray that somehow peace will prevail in our country and in our fractured world.
-Sister Jean Moylan, csj