"Those Darn Girls, Such Romanticists", by Unohoo

Oh, Kristy and Dayna, you are such romantics…somehow I knew you would want to delve into my secrets. Well, where should I start, you already know about No. 1, Andrew, so maybe I’ll just go on from there. To tell the truth, I probably had more b.b.f.s than even you, Dayn, I just NEVER talked about any of them, simply because Grampa wanted to know so badly, and you know me, I’m kinda stubborn! Anyway, you have to realize that my dating years were pretty well also the years of World War 2, so there were skillions of young men available, and indeed willing and gasping for feminine company. So dating servicemen was a given in those times, indeed almost a duty! Only trouble was they were here today, gone tomorrow, because they’d be on training plans in Edmonton, and then be posted overseas or perhaps somewhere else in Canada for further training, so the romances rarely lasted more than a few months. But another big opportunity smiled on us girls in the big E. in those days, we had great guys come from other countries to train in our city, and this was such a privilege to go out with those fellows from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. I only dated one American guy, in 1944, when I spent 6 months in Dawson Creek, BC, at the start of the Alaska Highway. The Yanks were kinda fast anyway, they’d do anything, even stand on their heads to “pick up” girls, but I had my pride and refused to allow myself to ever succumb to wolf whistles.

Anyhow, my first engagement was when I was 18, and yes, I accepted his ring, maybe I was still let down from Andrew, I don’t know, or maybe I was just in love with love. His name was Ernie Fox, he was an LAC in the RCAF, originally from Fox Creek, where his mom still lived. His sister lived in Edmonton, in Garneau district and I spent a lot of spare time at their home with Ernie, he was a nice guy….we went on all sorts of outings, even canoeing down the dang river, when I couldn’t swim???? where was my head. Well, I guess it was in the clouds, we had marriage plans half formulated, then I started thinking, hey, I’m too young to be doing this, and I want to be able to date other guys before he gets back from the war, if he gets back…..so I broke it off, gave him back his ring, and continued on my merry way. Heartless wench that I was, I’m ashamed now to think of how badly I treated him.

The next one was Tony, a soldier in the Canadian Army, who also trained in Edmonton. He also was an Albertan, actually, from a farm in the Bentley district sw of Red Deer. He was from a family of Finnish immigrants, I remember his last name, but I won’t even attempt to spell it for you. He was like Andrew, drop-dead handsome, and SEXY! I really liked him too as he was quite the fascinating guy, and he wanted to marry me as well, but I brushed aside the possibility of another engagement ring. I was beginning to think they weren’t such a good idea, too much commitment, you know? And a good thing that was, as eventually he transferred away too, and that one petered out.

In between these more serious romances, you realize I still dated a lot of fellows that were just casual outings, movies, the odd dinner date, dances, picnics, tobaggoning and skating in the winter time, my gracious, in wartime, a girl could date every night quite easily, especially me who worked in war-related jobs and met eligible young servicemen all the time. I was never a great beauty, sorry about that, but pleasant enough, and enough of a tomboy in my early, early days that I got on well with boys, I knew what made them tick, more or less! And I genuinely liked men! I admit it…in the years following, my co-workers in the jobs I worked at were all men, and they were very pleasant to work with, and although I never dated anybody I worked with, I liked associating with them, and learned to “talk their language” (not swearing, though, that wasn’t allowed around me!)
I was the only female in the warehouse that I worked in up in Dawson Creek, with about 15 GI’s from the sergeant on down. After they found out I wouldn’t go out with any of them, then they treated me as their sister, the girl next door sort of thing, and hang out in the office every chance they could get, tell me about their girl friends back home, I was sort of their best female friend and confidant. Besides I was going steady with a guy from the commissary corps I liked better than any of them. His name was Al Erickson, and he was from Bena, Minnesota, and oh man! Could he dance! We used to jive up a storm and the other dancers used to stop and gather around to watch us perform. He was sort of a little guy, but very charming in his way, and really a very kind person; in 1944 the war was beginning to wind down, and working in the food supply department as he was, he would often load up a jeep and take a load of food to the local orphanage, much to the delight of the nuns in charge of it. We went on a lot of day trips, commandeer an army vehicle and go up to Fort Nelson, Hudson Hope, etc, way back in the boondocks, usually a bunch of us, GI’s and civilian girls.
That came to an end when the base began closing down, and I was offered a transfer to Fairbanks, Alaska, or back to Edmonton. By that time I was sick of the north anyway, and homesick to see my family again, so dang it! Goodbye Al!

Casual dating again for a year or so….my memory is still pretty good, I can remember most of the guys I dated, at least their names, not necessarily where we went on dates…..Bernie, Kanga, Allen, Jim….I really liked Kanga, he was from Tenterfield in New South Wales, Australia, and when I discovered my distant Australian cousins a few years back through genealogical research, I told one of them, Des Lambert, about my long ago friend Kanga, and danged if he didn’t actually go there to look for the guy!
Everybody in Tenterfield (a small place) knew Kanga, but unfortunately he had passed away just a few months before, Des met his widow, nice lady, who was just leaving on a European tour, so they didn’t have much time to visit! He asked her did Kanga ever mention a Canadian girl named Marion! No, not that she could recall! She could remember him mentioning a Sally, and a couple of other names, so he must’ve gone on to conquer the world after he left Edmonon. There’s a story about Allen too, he was my best girl friend’s brother and he trained to be a pilot in the RCAF….I wrote to him for a long time, and a coupla times sent him a bottle of much-prized Seagram whiskey, inside a box of Lux Soap Flakes. Allen flew I don’t remember how many missions over France & Germany, and was wounded, came back after the war, completely BLIND. Somehow with the help of the girl he married, Gladys, he managed to cope with a job for Halliburton Oil, and they lived a pleasant enough life and raised a small family. So courageous. He died 10 or 15 years ago.

And that brings us up to 1946, the war was over at long last, and I met your grampa Doug Naylor, who brought a halt to all my meanderings among the opposite sex!! And that will be THE END OF THE STORY! Which I will tell you sometime in the future, as this post is already much too long, girls.