Grace Alice Holmes (nee Farndale) Diary
This
is the diary of Grace Holmes (FAR00659) which touches on Tidkinhow and
then tells of the family emigration to Alberta
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IMPRESSIONS OF A JOURNEY
By Grace Alice
Holmes (nee Farndale).
1927
Tidkinhow
1927 was one of the wettest years I remember. It rained and poured
the whole summer and the grain was swept into the rivers in many places all
over the country. The water poured down Burk Brow like a river. The people at
Charlton 's Terrace had to camp upstairs as the water seeped into their lower
quarters. They had planks on the floor to walk about. We were ok on the hill
top at Tidkinhow, for once we had the advantage!
For many years we'd had hot weather during the summers and everyone blamed the
First World War with all that shooting big guns and small. This must have
opened the clouds and the floods came down. The years were wet at any rate. I
suppose we were in for a change of seasons. Never nothing was ever the same
again after that terrible war that we can all remember.
Brother Martin came over
from Canada during the Christmas of 1927. Father was very
ill and he died in January 1928 at the age of 82. It was the first and last
illness of his life. He had had prostate gland trouble and they wouldn't
operate in those days on the elderly. The doctor said he was as sound as a
bell, except for this trouble. So ended the worthwhile life of a fine old man.
One of the best in his upright, honourable life and outlook. At that time I was only at home casually as Peggy
and I were at the poultry farmer Leeming Bar. She and Alf had got
engaged to be married in March so that was that! Both father and Martin had
discussed the possibility of my going back to Canada with Martin. I had serious
thoughts and I felt I knew I was going to do just that as I was at a loose end.
I had always wanted to go anyway. Then when Peggy and Alf decided to go that
did it.
It was an exciting and busy time. I was thrilled to bits. Dorothy and
Alf Ross got married. There was so much to do selling our poultry farm etc.
‘We were all hell bent for election’, to use one of Howard's expressions. One
of our neighbours said he had never seen such an exodus of a family. I guess it
was Gran really, we all stayed as long as he lived, though he never asked us to
do that. We were to do as we wished. After all we were all grown up and we were
all very independent. John stepped into
Tidkinhow with the help of Lynn and did very well for himself during the Second
World War.
There was a touch of sadness deep down about leaving the old
place, for us all i think, and England. One never
does these things likely. But for me the excitement of going overseas
counterbalanced all that. It had to be done and I never tried to shirk
difficulties. Sometimes I thought I rather enjoyed the challenge in my quiet
way. It made life more interesting. I had already found out life was far from
Rosie all the time long ago, just occasional little glimpses. I was always an
optimist and felt that there was a new life ahead of me. At the time of leaving
for Canada, I said I would stay five years or so.
Dorothy and Alf got married, just family in a few neighbours and
off they went. Peggy and Alf were the next. Ditto. A family quiet wedding and
they were off to Canada. I was left to pack up which was a big job. Martin was
at the bungalow with me. Lynn and John were ensconced at Tidkinhow and Martin
went up again. I took as much of our stuff packed in trunks and everyone packed
solid. This chap took me to the train and thought I had rocks in my baggage.
Martin had asked me to go alone to Liverpool on March 30th as he wanted to go
to a big race at Liverpool - The Grand National. I was a bit nervous really.
However, he didn't go to the race and met me at the train, was I ever glad to
see him? I was a bit of a ‘green horn’ travelling and I was terribly thrilled
at going to Canada. I would have got anyway, whether or not Peggy and Alf had.
I have made-up my mind.
1928
The Journey to Canada
I went on the Athenea a small ship, ill-fated as it was
sunk in the Second World War. It was a nice ship. There were 1,000 third class
passengers in the bowels. I was second class and I got mixed up with a lot
going on to the ship. There was a doctor asking questions in a sort of wire
cage place, about health etc and how many illnesses we'd each had we'd had etc.
He asked me the name of my doctor and I said I hadn't one. He gave me a hard
look and smiled and said, “very good”. Martin was around and was mad and said
they had no business to be questioning me. When they found he was with me and I
was going to relations and had enough money, they let me through. Great relief!
It was a great thrill going on the boat and finding one's berth. There was a
lot to do and all our papers were again checked. One was continually pestered,
and red tape. I was so excited, I pushed back into my handbag and could never
find anything.
We were in time for lunch when we got on board. It was a bit of a
scramble but an excellent lunch. In fact the whole voyage the food was sumptious. I shared a berth with a middle-aged woman going
out to be married. She was an old fashioned cup of tea. It was 1928 and I was
amazed at the amount of clothing she wore, woollen combs and about half a dozen
petticoats, to say nothing, over a red flannel and white embroidered one on
top. I didn't know people wore so many in that day and age. I had only a vest,
girdle, stays, and pants and pulled them off with one stroke and was into bed.
This person was very nice and told me she hadn't seen her future husband for 26
years and wondered if he'd think she'd changed. I tried to persuade her that
she would be alright. I wondered though.
After I got settled into my berth, I went out on deck and I met an
awfully nice girl from Pickering, a doctor's daughter, travelling alone, Joan
Kirk. We chummed up and had meals at the same table and were together the whole
way. She was visiting her brother at Hamilton, Ontario, a poultry farmer. We
had a lot of fun together. She was a tall pretty slim girl, quiet, age 21. We
were both seasick and sat on deck chairs. A very nice young waiter brought our
food out on deck for us. We had rugs and were very comfortable until we tried
to walk and we were like drunken sailors. But we never missed a meal. Joan and
I did rather keep our keep to ourselves. Martin lectured us from time to time
about not walking and getting our sea legs. But we went on sitting. There was
another girl who rather hung on to me, a nervous young person, on her own. I
just had to look after her in the end. She was delicate and couldn't cope with
herself. She was alone.
It was a rough journey and took nine days and we were glad when we
saw land. I remember Martin saying, “take your first look at Canada.” We were
held up with Canada fog before we could enter Halifax. The minute we stopped,
the sea sickness ended. I never felt better in my life, could have jumped over
the moon with joy. They made Joan and I go through a lot of paraphernalia again
when we arrived. Martin went right off and he said he would be there when I got
off. The delicate girl they found was TB and wouldn't let her enter. She got
hysterical and clung on to me saying, “don't leave me.” However they took her
away and I never knew what happened. I was distressed about her. I was worried
sick Martin wouldn't be there, we were so long in getting off the ship. Joan
and I had our hand luggage, as much as we could carry, and a black man carried
the rest for us to the train, which was wasn't far away. He set off at such a
rate, we ran and couldn't catch up to him. We giggled so much, and Martin came
along, very amused.
We had berths on the train and the man put our baggage in. He
really looked after us, but we were afraid he was running off with our luggage!
Well it was a bit of fun. That night we got to Hamilton and Joan had to leave
us. We exchanged addresses and we were both sorry to part. It was April 9th
when we arrived in Canada. When Martin called on the ship, “take your first
look at Canada”, I looked from a porthole. It was clear, bright and sunny I
thought, what's the matter with realising the low lying hills were brown
instead of green I'd been used to, first impression! People we had met on the
boat kept leaving us, not many were going as far as Alberta. But there were a
couple from Scotland, the man was a real character in that he made his presence
felt and was always conversing. He had a loud voice and seemed always to be
airing his opinions and embarrassing us. His wife was quite helpless and just
tagged along. Someone had told them to be sure to see the Canadian National
Railway in Montreal. So see it he must! Another thing, we walked, he thought 5
cents was too much for the buses, a good traditional Scotty. We must have
walked the length of Montreal. The joke was this man was stopping people on the
street and asking, “Where was the Grand National?” Martin and I were in fits of
laughter, we couldn't speak! His poor wife said, “if anyone tells that man to
see a place he'll go through hell”.
My feet were killing me, it was very hot and I foolishly put on
new shoes to break in. We had spent the whole day in Montreal. I remember
Scotty (forgotten his name) was well dressed in plus fours with all the
trappings, binoculars slung over his shoulders etc. I think he was on holiday.
Nice people though. He'd stop a bus to ask how much it was to the Grand
National and then say the fare was too much at 5 cents. He was a wonderful
character, he led and we followed. Martin and I were enjoying him ourselves,
except my feet!
Montreal is a lovely place, so full of interest. It all looks so
new and it seemed a pity to meander around, like we were, on foot. There were
sightseeing buses galore. Hard walking on pavement in new shoes. I soon felt
the effects of the dry climate. I was wearing a wool jumper and skirt. I went
into a shop to try to get a thinner one, but everyone spoke French and they had
to get an interpreter which was quite novel. I got what I wanted. Huge stores
and masses of goods of all sorts. Next day the Scotties branched off and left
us, we were sorry. They were likeable people we laughed so much, all of us.
Quebec, we passed on the train. It looked interesting, lovely old
buildings and the river as a setting. I remember a lovely sunset. There were
lovely buildings, the oldest in the foreground. The oldest place in Canada but
very backward. I was sorry we didn't stop there and I never did.
To go back, when I got off the ship at Halifax, I felt a sense of
exhilaration, as if I had shed a load of care from my shoulders. Looking back I
think it was the total freedom and the unconventionality of this country, one
filtered immediately. Another thing that always impressed me the blue skies,
glorious sunsets and clear visibility and the ability to see for miles and
miles. We had now got to the Prairie. There were many little towns and Hamlets.
I didn't sleep too well on the great lumbering trains, they didn't go as fast
as ours. Though huge, comfortable and warm, one could walk about jerkily. One
swayed with it. As I looked out and saw, here and there a faint dim light on
the great expanse, I thought nostalgically, “What have I done, so far from home?”
The excitement was dying down a bit. The skies were cloudless and the stars
really like diamonds in the sky. There was never pitch darkness as in English
moonless nights.
Next we came to Winnipeg in Manitoba, the first Prairie town. It
was as clear as crystal, one could see miles and miles of flat prairie. It was
very treeless and the coldest place I'd ever experienced, around zero. It is a
large town, we spent a day there and I was not much impressed. It was so crisp
and dry and the ground was frozen. That evening we boarded another train
continuing west. I didn't sleep very well and the towns were more sparse. At
night the farmsteads looked lonely with dim lights, it seemed so vast, lakes
and forests. I had many I had misgivings many times. In those days it was a
long trundling journey and seemed slow. One got so tired of the train also the
heat, which was very necessary, had a prickling sensation as one felt one
wasn't dressed right for it. I guess I was too warmly clad in tweeds.
From to Saskatoon in Saskatchewan it was straight bald headed
prairie and very monotonous. From Montreal to Winnipeg there had been lakes and
forests all the way which had been more interesting. There was still snow on
the ground but it wasn't too far to our destination, Trochu, now. There was
Moose Jaw and Regina, the latter the training centre of the famous Canadian
Mounted Police, with their black horses and smart uniforms of redcoats.
Lethbridge, another good service town. Martin kept on saying (the weather had
deteriorated from Winnipeg and was snowing and no sun), “Wait till we get up to
Alberta, it will be sunny there.”
When we arrived at Edmonton, Alberta, which was 100 miles from
Trochu, it was even snowing more! Outside it was much colder, somewhere below
zero and after the hot train I found it very cold when we alighted. We changed
trains at Edmonton and boarded a smaller local train to Trochu. It was getting
exciting now; thoughts of seeing Kate
and family and brother George. Kate I
had not seen for 25 years, George had been and over on a visit. Peggy and Alf
would be there. It was still snowing a little at Trochu and I was a bit dismal.
No one had been able to get to meet us and Martin got a taxi. It was below zero
and the roads were frozen hard. What a ride! Before we started Martin had taken
me to a hotel lounge to wait until he rustled up transportation. I felt so
strange. There were men sitting around and one spat into a spittoon which
rather disgusted me. They were dressed like working men in overalls and
windbreaks, no ties and had caps on. One of the men said there was a nicer
sitting room upstairs if I wished but I thanked him and said I was all right.
At last Martin arrived so he came on he had persuaded a taxi man to drive us.
Two weeks before, the weather had turned mild and the frozen roads
had thawed. They were dirt roads. Then it had frozen again leaving ruts ever so
deep. The taxi bounced around and I bounced in the car, hitting the top
sometimes. The driver was sympathetic and said, “I guess you never had a ride
like this?” Martin just laughed his head off! The driver said if he'd known how
bad the roads were he wouldn't have attempted it.
Well, we finally got to Kate’s and it was quite a meeting after so
long. I was tired out not having slept much on the train and I knew I looked
awful. I had to meet Will and the children for the first time. After a bit Kate
said, “You were fair when I left home Grace.” and she sounded disappointed in
me. I didn't blame her, I did look a freak! After a few days though I had
blossomed out and looked like myself. It was so hot in Kate’s house with all
the heaters going full pelt. One could scarcely breathe. It was very cold and
frozen up outside. Kate looked wonderful, not a lot altered. She had bobbed her
hair and looked younger if anything. The children were 11, 9 and 7 years. Alf
and Peggy were there and there was a great deal of chattering in the next few
days. Peggy and Alf both seem to be liking the country but it was difficult to
assess anyone's feelings.
I was thrilled because it was such a total change from England.
The weather was rather grey, blowing snow for a few days, but it was warm and
cosy indoors. Kate was busy and happy to see us and we had wonderful meals.
Dorothy, George and Alfred Kinsey, K’s family were nice kids and very shy.
Martin stayed one night at K’s, next morning he was away to his own place
getting ready and warming up his shack (it was little more), for Peggy and Alf
to go. P had her own bedding so all was well. Though Kate would have us all to
stay, it relieved the congestion somewhat, it was only two to three miles away.
I forgot to say brother George also came to see us, but he went back to Three
Hills that night, about 20 miles away, it was a great family party. I remember
Martin explaining to me that the men sitting in the lounge of the hotel were
men of substance of the town, some etc. Nothing to write home about the bare
necessities.
My Life in Canada
I went for a buggy ride, borrowing Will’s buggy and horse. I had a
blue woollen dress on. This was May and it had warmed up considerably. The
‘gumbo’ (clay), did splash and I never did completely get it off my dress. We
started out to Three Hills from Martin's shack joyously. A matter of 10 to 15
miles, I forget the exact distance, most likely 10. Well I can tell you it was
a long way in a buggy in Canada. The altitude, 3,500 feet above sea level
affected one and there was a harsh, dry wind, though not cold. We were so new
to everything and had not acclimatised. It wasn't the soft mellow climate of
England. I remember we came back sleepy and washed out and very quiet. It was a
bit too far, for a start anyway! However, we had to learn the hard way. We were
what they called in Canada, “green Englishman”.
Martin and Alf were busy scouring the country for land for Peggy
and Alf and finally settled for a farm at Huxley. There were more trees there,
it was what they called “park land”. Then house building began on the site and
they had a builder and Martin and Alf did the labouring part. I expect Martin
was experienced but not Alf. It was amazing how quickly they got it up and they
were soon in it, though a lot had to be done both inside and out at least they
were on their own. I stayed alternately between them and Kate for a month or
two and then I went to British Columbia. Kate had got in touch with the
Johnsons, Herbert and Evie, and I had been invited to stay. Also some people in
Trochu had asked me to call and see their sister in Vancouver. Kate was against
this idea, saying Vancouver was a wicked city and I should on no count account
go alone. However I had different ideas and was sure I could take care of
myself. Nevertheless I was a bit nervous being shy and of a sensitive nature.
Visit to British Columbia
However I set forth intending to visit these people and look for a
job eventually. It was June when I left the family in Alberta. There was Mr and
Mrs John Leng in Calgary. Kate had got in touch with them, wasn't she busy!
They were from Cleveland whom the elder ones in the family knew and they met me
at Calgary station and I stayed that night with them. They were kindness
itself. The next evening they saw me off the train to Vancouver and I got a
pressing invitation to go again whenever I returned. Calgary is 80 miles from
Banff in the Rocky Mountains. It was an impressive journey through the
mountains, 900 miles from Calgary to Vancouver. One had to have a sleeper. It
took all night on the train and all next day, till late evening to arrive.
After Banff it was soon dark but next morning I woke up in not so much the
granite towering Rockies as at Banff, but the tapering of lesser ones and also
beautifully green fir trees, densely covered.
It was much warmer than ever in Alberta and as we neared Vancouver
the hills diminished. There were fields, villages, it looked more like England
and it was, though I would say the climatic conditions were more like the south
of France. It was so much warmer than England. Coming through the Rockies from
Banff the altitude was 6,000 feet and it looked very precarious (the train had
two engines), looking from the train to the valley below. Field was the highest
point and a stop there it felt heady, one felt the effects of the altitude,
must have been 7,000 feet there. After that we descended till we got to sea
level at Vancouver. The guard who came through the train frequently seemed very
friendly and I found him interesting to talk to about the country etc. When we
approached Vancouver I asked him if he could recommend a nice hotel for me to
stay and he told me of one right opposite the station. I didn't like the look
of it and I met a lady, very English, and asked her if it was alright. She
said, “Oh no my dear, don't stay there.” She walked with me until we came to a
YMCA. She said that if you are alone and a stranger that is the best place.
Another impression. In England, 1928, one could have asked a Bobby or train
people and been assured of reliable advice, but not here apparently, though I
never had another experience like that in Canada, but I learned quick!
I had the address of a lady whose sister I met in Calgary and a
friend of Kate’s. Scots folk. I called and nothing would do but to stay with
them and they were most kind. I stayed a few days then went back to the YMCA
and looked for a job.
They all liked people from the old land. They showed me Vancouver.
At that time it was a beautiful seaport city as it was said in huge letters
strung up from one side of the street to the other, “Vancouver spans the
world”. One could see it for miles on Granville Street. There were fascinating
places on the outskirts of what I thought a huge city. Today it is vast, all
built up to such an extent that there's hardly a blade of grass to be seen.
There is Stanley Park, what a glorious place, it was beautifully wooded and a
tremendous acreage, 1,000 acres. In the zoo was every animal and bird in the
world, parks, lakes, playgrounds, it had everything. I've only seen one to
compare and that was San Diego in USA. The colouring of the trees in the Fall
was ravishing. I'd never seen the like. There were many lovely suburbs and
villages around Vancouver but they had all been taken into Vancouver in a
massive conglomeration of high rise apartments etc, too numerous to mention.
That is over the years. It was a lovely spot until about the 1960s.
I spent a couple of weeks in Vancouver, then went to Victoria
where I had been invited to stay at the Johnsons, old friends from Guisborough.
Eva had a shop conveniently near Victoria, ladies wear, where she and her
mother lived. Previous to this visit I first went to Duncan, British Columbia,
to stay with Mr Herbert Johnson and his wife Evie, an awfully nice girl who was
the daughter of a Mr Hind, super of police at Northallerton. They had a poultry
farm and I stayed with them a month before I went to Mrs J and Eva. Being
interested in poultry, I enjoyed helping with all the work around. I found
Herbert J a strange man. He was spiteful and irritable and he took it out on
his wife. One day it was 100 degrees and over in the shade and he took it upon
himself to get up on the top of the hen house which needed repair, hammering
away, sweating, all hot and bothered and stayed there sweltering for hours.
Evie would go to bed with migraine headaches and no wonder. We got along so
well, I liked her. Herbert was the bugbear and could make it very
uncomfortable.
Duncan, British Columbia, was considered the hottest place in
Canada. It jostled at the foot of the forests. There were massive timber camps.
H and Evie took me up many times that I was very thrilled to see these massive
trees being cut down and sawed up with the latest machinery in the world. It
was a busy little town, a lot of wealthy people lived there, retired etc.
Probably the assets of the timber. There was also poultry, fruit and dairy
farming. I was a girl just left school when the Johnsons went to Canada and
didn't understand or know them well, so I had to find out, and did so with a
vengeance! Next I went off to Courtney to stay with Mrs. J and Eva and I got a
very warm welcome. Eva had a ladies’ wear shop in Courtney, very thriving
business and a good sized shop. I got hold right into it whether I wish to or
not. I've never had such an experience. I was hauled from pillar to post and we
never stopped, there was no peace till one went to bed. It was very hot but
much cooler than Duncan, being nearer to the sea.
I was allotted to help Eva in the shop immediately. Mrs. J was up
with the lark making tea every morning without fail. She was over 80 years old.
Then we hurried off to the shop. Eva went earlier than me and I went at 8 am.
Sometimes I would go into a cafe for a cup of tea or an ice cream, just to sit
there for a few minutes on my own. I was sleepy all the time as going from the
high altitude in Alberta to sea level in British Columbia took a lot of
adjusting to. I could scarcely keep my eyes open. The best of it was, Eva had a
car. The moment we got home in the evenings, Mrs Johnson was waiting with a
picnic tea and we got in and went off to the beach as they said, parked the car
right in front of the water, I believe it was a lake. Once we had our tea we
just sat in the car till dusk and time to go and hopefully to bed. I had been
warned by H and Evie what it would be like at Courtney, and how true it was. I
must say they were all kindness itself to me and all wanted to stay with me to
stay with them. Eva soon offered me a job in the shop, I must have stayed about
six weeks. I went on till I was nearly dead.
Eva said I could even become a partner in her business. I knew I
could never live with people like that, it was impossible. Actually Mrs J was a
positive slave driver. Of course they didn't like it when I wouldn't, but I
know I earned my keep and I was glad to do it. It was hard for me to refuse,
they were done and nice. I never went back to Courtney. I went to Duncan again
after leaving Courtney and started to look for a job at Queen Margaret school
as matron and was there only a few months. From there I went to Huxley to Alf’s
when Martin was born.
Incidentally both the Herbert Johnsons and Eva changed their
attitude to me because I wouldn't stay among them. I tried to be the same but
they wouldn't alter so I gradually saw less of them with Herbert and Evie. I
met s nice couple of friends of theirs, a very well educated English woman, a
nurse, a travelled woman who had married a lumberjack, a very fine man but
quite uneducated, so different. They kept up a friendship with me and of course
H and Evie resented that and would not ask me to visit which upset me, it was
so petty and small. I was disappointed in Evie because I really liked her.
These two other people were very normal and very kind to me. I was most
interested in the lumber mills and they took me around a lot. They lived not
far from the private girls’ school where I got where I had a job, St.
Margaret's.
The school at Duncan was affiliated to Queen Margaret School at
Scarborough, England, hence the name. At Duncan the heat was intense during the
day and the nights were warm. I can remember being impressed by the stars at
night, diamonds in an indigo sky. They seemed to come closer. The visibility
was as clear as crystal above the town and into the forests. It was one of the
sights that impressed me and I've never forgotten. I love to go outside and
walk around warm evenings, it's a wonder I never met a bear because they came
down from the mountains to invade the garbage cans. We were that close to them.
It was the same at Banff, Alberta.
In winter in Vancouver it was traditional that it rained all
winter. I was told in Alberta that it rained so hard in winter that it bounced
back a foot or so. This I didn't believe but when I stayed there over winter I
found that it was true. The winters were wet at both Vancouver and British
Columbia, very like England in temperature. I was often homesick, but meeting
different people and nationalities, scenery, customs, Indians and timber lands,
which greatly interested me, kept my mind occupied and I never dwelt on it
much, but it was always at the back of my mind - homesickness.
1929
When I was at Duncan in January 1929, Martin
Junior was born and my brother Martin phoned from Huxley for Peggy and Alf to
ask if I would go and help them out as neither had experience with babies and
me having so much at Tancred. “Yes”, I said, “I will come right away, if I can
get leave of my job.” I made up a good story and they let me go next week. I
was overjoyed to get back to my own folk for a bit. I had not yet got a warm
winter coat as British Columbia was milder than Alberta. I had only a thin coat
I had bought I had brought to Canada from England. I had no rubbers which
everyone had to wear against it's cold in Alberta. First of all there was some
delay on the railway and the train was very late at Calgary, around 2 am I had
travelled with such nice people from Bavaria and Serbia which triggered off the
First World War. She was telling me all the terrible things that happened in
that little country. I found it quite interesting.
After several hours delay we finally arrived in Calgary, there was
a nice quiet hotel opposite the station which I knew. This lady and I preceded
to it and we stayed the night. Unfortunately there was only one double room
left, which meant two beds, but we accepted it. Upon settling in I notice this
person looking at me searchingly. When we got into bed she was clutching her
handbag. I at once realised that she was wondering if she could trust me. I
honestly had never had any such thoughts of her. I was, if anything, too
trusting. But I immediately wondered about her and I put my handbag in bed with
me. However nothing happened and all was well next morning. We had breakfast
together next morning and went our own ways quite act amicably.
I boarded the train for Huxley at 10 am and arrived at about 3 pm.
Although only 80 miles, it was a slow journey in those days. Afterwards we got
diesel engines which were quicker. It was very cold in Calgary and I had no
rubbers on my feet crossing from the hotel. I got my heel caught in the track
and the train man came over to me and asked me where I was going. He said I
wasn't warmly enough clad and I should have rubbers. He wanted to know if I was
being met etc. When I assured him I was being met and would be ok, he put
beyond the train and said that in that case I would be warm on the train. He
was most kind and I was amused. They have to look after us out here, we are
what is known as ‘green Englishmen’ and it was true too. When I got to Huxley
there was Alf on the platform with Peggy’s Aquascutum by now lined with fur, so
I was ok. I'm sure the temperature was 50 below zero.
It was great to be back with them all again. Peggy and Alf had
their house so hot. Martin Junior was just a month or so old and they were
afraid of him getting cold. The sides of the heater were red hot with heat. I
wonder there wasn't a fire! Martin was there also and I guess he knew how to
bank a fire at night time. I was roasted. The heat was hard to get used to, I
felt prickly all over.
1929 was very cold in Alberta. It was said it got to 60 below
zero, which is very cold indeed. In my 40 years in Canada I never knew a winter
so cold. 20 or 30 below was normal. In one page I mentioned the Chinook which
occurs during the winter. Warm winds from the Pacific blow through the
mountains from British Columbia to Alberta. When Dorothy Drake was staying with
me in 1965 in Canada it happened. It was 40 below zero when we went to bed and
during the night we had to throw off the bed clothes. I remember saying to
Dorothy I was glad she had experienced this as I always felt no one believed me
in England. It was a welcome change and we rejoiced in it.
Sadly the journal ends at this point.