June 1940 - School’s Out, Duty Calls

Within a few days I walked to Saskatoon to join up. That was the nearest one, a hundred miles away. It was easier for me to hike down there. And I had enough money to stay overnight at a hotel and go back the next day. So I signed up, and I met a fighter ace of the First War. And someone said to me, well if you do as well as this fellow did, I forget this man’s name, he said, you will be doing alright. Anyway, I passed the thing with flying colours and I went to the hotel and the next morning I walked home. And I had started walking in the morning, I think on the way down I got a ride part way, someone had picked me up. But on the way back, and this is all gravel roads in those days, cars are going by, I hiked it for about 60 miles, and I came to this little town and it was around 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. I went into the restaurant, and I thought, well I was pretty hungry and I told the restaurant owner my plight. And he said, where are you going, and I told him Battleford, and I had been down to join up, and he says, I bet you are hungry eh. So he gave me a good meal, and then he gave me the two dollars and a half to get on the bus to go home. And I never forgot that, but I thought that was wonderful. Of course I paid him back, it was sometime later with a letter and everything, but that’s about how it went.