Pay Only 90 cents a Day

Heroes Remember

Pay Only 90 cents a Day

Transcript

I had an experience right after the war to speak to cadets in the armouries at Moosejaw and one of the comical things, I had explained what I had done and the one young fellow said “you told us you made 90¢ a day” and I said “Yes.” and he said, “Well that was a mistake, it must have been 90 ¢ an hour.” and I said, “No, it was 90¢ a day.” and you know they’d just shake their heads and can’t believe it, but we managed very well on that, yeah. But there were, there’s been some that think we should have had an equal pay to men, but that wasn’t the case in those days and so you accepted what you had and you, you could make it up to 95¢ if you had long enough service. But we managed, everything was provided for us so... you know. And I think that it was a good lesson too because you can do without things and I, I think today, young people seem to want things. Everything that’s new on the market right instant on instead of aiming towards saving for it and, and we learned the hard way and well between the dirty thirties and the war years we, it was a good lesson for us.

Description

Mrs. MacDairmid shares a story about her time when speaking with Cadets and the young people questioning her pay of 90 cents a day.

Rea MacDairmid

Mrs. Rea MacDairmid was born in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan on April 29, 1922. Her father served in WWI and brother in WWII. After graduating from high school in Saskatchewan, Rea went to Regina to enlist in the Air Force. In June 1942 she received her first posting and was stationed in Paulsen, Manitoba. Within her In-Canada service she was posted to Davidson, Saskatchewan, and Lethbridge, Alberta, later transferring to Winnipeg where she became a Hospital Assistant at Deer Lodge Hospital. This was Rea’s longest posting of 2 ½ years. In October 1945, she decided to get married and, therefore, discharged from the Air Force. Mrs. MacDairmid chose not to work while raising her family. Her love for service time in the Air Force will never be forgotten.

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