The Underground Dance

Heroes Remember

The Underground Dance

Transcript

We had a leave, another girl and I, and we went to Douville, that was a rest centre, you know during the war for the troops, and we went down to Douville, and we stayed at this hotel, but I mean none of the furnishings were there, it was a beautiful hotel, and so we were down for like a weekend and a couple of the boys, officers that we met, one of them said, "How would you like to go to a big party tonight? The head of the underground for this area is coming to town tonight and they're having a big party." Well I admired the underground more than you could ever believe. "Oh, gee," I said, "that would be perfect, I'd love that." So, Pearl and I went, and so we went and we had to go in sort of a speak-easy way, and we got in there and there was one light bulb hanging from the, and all these fellas were sitting around and we were still with our, a couple of the officers, and these were all the underground and everything was fine, lovely and we had a drink, and then they started to dance, and the hero of the night, asked me to dance, and I thought, "Oh Lord, I wonder what's going on now?" But I don't know what hit me, something in my head, and I said to this chap that I was with, I said, "Now don't you get up and dance, you just keep an eye on me all the time. I don't know what's going on." "Okay." So we waltzed around and then somebody came up and tapped him, you know, to cut in? Well, you don't do that to the hero of the night and out came the guns and they shot the light out. Fortunately, that night, he was quite near me and he said, "Come on, we're getting out of here". I thought that was exciting. I just think of the real fun, exciting things, but I think they're interesting. That I often talk to Pearl, she's out in Vancouver now and we phone and we have these crazy chats about you know the fun things so that's, you know, you can only talk to the people that were there, they understand.

Description

Mrs. Page talks about a dance where she met the head of the (regional) underground, and that what you really remember from those times are the fun experiences. 'Only those who were there really understand.'

Nancy de Boise Page

Mrs. Page was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. Her father was a doctor and her mother a nurse. Mrs. Page recalls going to the hospital with her father when she was young and knowing early on that nursing was her calling. She trained at the Royal Victoria in Montreal and in 1942 joined the army as a Nursing Sister. She served overseas in England, France and Belgium loving every moment she was able to help the soldiers. Following the war Mrs. Page returned to Queen Mary's Veterans Hospital in Montreal to continue nursing Canadian Veterans.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:48
Person Interviewed:: Nancy de Boise Page
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Northwest Europe
Branch:: Army
Occupation:: Nursing Sister

Language selection

The Underground Dance

Heroes Remember