At last I was on my way home on Christmas leave, and here we were probably a hundred or more fellows heading home. After a two night two day trip the train pulled into the station at Swift Current Sask, and my folks were there to meet me. The last leg of the trip from Winnipeg to Swift Current was straight and fast across the prairie. It did not seem to go fast enough.
Here I am ahead of myself.
The train if I remember rightly was all troops, and they were not any niceties about it . Old time colonist cars that had a pull down type of wooden overhead bed without any mattress -bare wood and hard seats. But we were young, and on the way for Christmas. No dining car either. The newsy sold sanwiches and cans of tomatoe juice and sold and resold the papers picked up along the route. Mind you hard liquor and beer if you were fleet of foot and could find a liquor store at a station stop to purchase same and not miss your train. One fellow ate about thirty cans of sardines along the way washed down with a couple of forty ounce bottles of rum, and every time he was thirsty he would say, "I must give those fish another drink" { This same chap some 58years later had undergone quadruple bypass was recovering well and I guess was depressed and committed suicide in a pioneer home in Swift Current Sask}.
Arriving home was great. Mum of course had to feed me as she knew after that long train ride I would be hungry. How true. When I came home my folks were living on our farm and if I remember rightly it was not too cold weatherwise and no snow. I had brought home Maple Leaf hockey sweaters for my younger brothers and likely lockets and broaches with the artillery crest on them for my Mum and sister. For my Dad and older brother likely a tie, as I do not recall after all these years .
I was in a hurry to get down to Aneroid to see Louise whom I had met in July of 1940 and so when the chance came I went down to see Louise, and I think I stayed a couple of days with Eric and Toots Corbin, friends of Louise and me. Eric Corbin at the time was also home on leave, he being in the same regiment as I. Louise was as charming as I had remembered and was glad to see me. Also her folks gve me a good welcome. Being winter and the town being small so there was not much to do. We walked and skated on an outdoor rink. I thought I was in love mind you. That thought seemed easy to come by. In those days romance was not the hot and heavy way that you see on TV today, Pretty tame, walking hand in hand a few hugs and kisses, least that is the way we both were brought up. I think I wanted to get engaged but Louise, if memory correct, thought the war would and could last a long time. So we better wait until we saw how we felt in the ensuing years. I was 19 and I think Louise 18, so there was lots of time.
Mind you thousands rushed into marriage with the war frenzy only to have a lot of them go to pieces.
It looks like I am out of space. Sorry, no passionate love scenes, just a couple of kids enjoying life on the prairie. Oh yes, Louise thought the dress blues made me look a handsome chap.
Gordie
