No black out in Moosejaw!
Moose Jaw – dome of City Hall visible
“We eventually arrived at the small town of Moose Jaw at 7 o’clock at night. We had to stop and gaze at the brilliantly lit streets, a rare sight after the black-out arrangements back in UK.
The river even supported a motor car
“As a result of the delay on the arrival of the Harvards, we had ample opportunity to visit Moose Jaw in the evenings, approximately five miles away. It was a small town, but most interesting and so different from the English towns we knew. There was one long main street and all the others branched off at ninety degrees. There were plenty of excellent cafes which cooked anything from steak and chips to ham and eggs, and also offered marvellous desserts such as apple pie and ice cream, which came as a completely new combination to me. The shops too were stacked with goods of all kinds; no shortages here! We could get anything and everything we wanted, it seemed. After the austerity of Britain this was an eye-opener to us all. And open, free, ice rinks! Whilst skating at night under floodlight, I fell and knocked out a front tooth and damaged another, so I spent some weeks there without smiling! When I went to see the station dentist, whose surgery was in a small room in one corner of a hanger, I was alarmed to see that his drilling equipment was simply operated by a foot pedal like one of the old Singer sewing machines. We were also amazed to find that the river here had frozen hard enough to support a motor car”
Moose Jaw – where Dad and his fellow u/t pilots had a whale of a time in 1941-42
Where They Served 