Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 22.
Wartime in the Gatineau
Ernie Mahoney
It is a little more than a year since the first Blood Donor Clinic was held at the Wakefield sub-station in Gatineau County. This project, under the sponsorship of the Wakefield Women’s Institute, and assisted by many non-members, has been a very interesting and useful form of war service; Jor it gives many a sense of a very personal touch with our fighting men in the front lines.
Thus wrote local author Birdsell Robb in September 1944, giving voice to the aspirations of everyone who wanted to make a very real personal contribution to the war effort.
And indeed, contributions were made by people from every walk of life; from old granny who could knit, to the little tikes who collecied milk-weed pods, some said, for a secret project! Everyone thought that the fibre from the pods was to be used as kapok in life jackets; later reports said that the material was being used by the Polymer Corporation in Sarnia to make synthetic rubber.
Roy Morrison who ran a garage in Wakefield during the war, perhaps put it in perspective when he said: “You just can’t believe how we worked together.” Roy explained that gas was rationed, with the average person allowed only 250 gallons for the year, although commercial users were in another category. Auto parts were another thing in short supply and tires and tubes were rationed too. When the tube was worn out, it was not uncommon to fill the tire with sawdust to replace the tube. Holes in the tires were mended with steel belt lacing, made to join the big belts that were used to drive saws in the lumber mills.
He noted that farm machinery, too, was in short supply, although farmers had an uncanny knack of fixing just about anything and “making do.” Fortunately, the horses that pulled the machinery didn’t need spare parts.
Speaking of horses
Living on a farm within sight of wartime Ottawa, in what was then West Hull, teen-aged Vince Hendrick had a lot of responsibility. His father, John, died in 1942, and he was left to help run the farm.
During the winter he worked a team in the bush, or drawing ice from the Gatineau River and Kingsmere and Meech Lakes. There was a tractor on the farm with big lugged steel wheels, and an old truck used for hauling cattle. He remembers that the rationed farm fuel was coloured, so that it could be identified if used for cars. “There were inspectors around, too, who checked,” Vince noted.
The train was very important to the farm community up the Gatineau, as the roads of the *40s were very poor. Gas rationing helped in slowing the use of cars to go1o the hills. Hence, the war-time crowds from town who wanted to ski at Camp Fortune largely depended on the train to take them up to either Chelsea or to Kirk’s Ferry.
At the Chelsea train station the skiers were met by an array of transport: sleighs and old trucks that would take a gang of skiers about five miles to either LeMays’, on the Kingsmere Road, or to Dunlops’ on the Meech Lake Road. From either spot it was about a half-hour ski into the comfort of the old White Lodge at Fortune. “Sometimes we’d clean out the old cattle truck and use it, but mostly it was by sleigh. We picked up some pocket money by charging twenty-five cents a person for the trip,” Vince explained. He added: “We used io take a few sleigh drives into Fortune for the Saturday night dances. In the summer there was a dance hall at Gleneagle, which was called Summerlea in those days.”
Rationing
In the kitchen, women also were plagued with the problems of rationing: coupons were needed for meat, tea, coffee, sugar, butter, cheese and clothing. The variety was limited. But in the country, many rationing problems were easier to overcome than in the city. Farm wives frequently traded coupons between them. Butter coupons for sugar coupons was common; especially if a farmer just happened to chum-up a can of cream for his own use! Big farm gardens insured that there were plenty of vegetables to supplement the diet. The shortages brought out the best in inventiveness too. Cookies made from a box of pudding mix that already contained sugar were a favourite treat.
The ration regulations, particularly for farmers wamed:
Primary Producers such as Farmers, who produce rationed foods, must collect coupons for all sales of rationed foods and deliver them to their Local Ration Board. Primary producers must also deliver to the Local Ration Boards, according to current regulations, against consumption in their household of certain rationed foods produced by them.
Other regulations spelled out how the ration coupons must be used . . . no individual coupons accepted, but they must be torn off the book by the shopkeeper, and so on. Penalties for misuse were harsh: a $5,000 fine, two years in jail, or both!
Many parties
One the social side, alcohol was rationed, which meant booze was rationed too. Although it varied over the war years, generally three quarts of beer per week could be bought. A 40-0z. bottle of whisky per month was pretty standard. According to one source, only Dekuyper gin was available. But then again, the rural areas of the Gatineau were mostly “dry” and people who wanted a drink, rationing notwithstanding, could always find an alternate source, if they were willing to pay the extra cost. A quart of beer costing 25 cents sold for a dollar!
For good clean fun, the rural folk always had their home parties; it only took a fiddle to get the dancers going for a good jig in the kitchen. Marjorie Stewart, of Edelweiss, remembers well the war years when dances were held during the winter months at the Orange Lodge in Wakefield on special occasions. Starting on May 24th, the dances were held at the Club House, on the hill beside the school. The Anchor Inn, south of Wakefield, was also a popular dance spot before and during the war. Fronr all reports, it was a little racier than the other spots. Billy Wilson, who ran the Tip-Top Inn at Cascades, was well-known for his fundraising events that raised money to buy several Victory Bonds.
There were lots of parties held to mark the departure of the lads overseas, and of course, many more functions to welcome them back when they came home on leave.
Socks and mittens
One thing that is etched in the war-time memories of many women is the interminable number of goods knitted for the “boys,” from the woollen socks, mittens and scarves to cotton face cloths, made from the wool or cotton yarn supplied free to home knitters by the Red Cross.
Marjorie Stewart remembers going to the Wakefield Inn to a meeting where new supplies of yam were handed out. Very often the wool was distributed through the schools, and the students, both boys and girls, were taught to knit.
The Women’s Institutes played a large part in organizing “bees” where a group of women would get together and collectively knit, or pack boxes destined for families in England who had been bombed out or for the troops. The WI was instrumental in organizing Blood Donor clinics in the rural area. A report from the Eardley WI in the early 1940s recorded that during the year the following were coniributed to the war effort: 179 sewn articles, 81 knitted articles, 27 quilts and 21 pillow cases were made, and 6 ditty bags sent to the boys serving overseas. In its year-end report, the Wakefield WI noted that it had sent 113 books (o the destroyer Gatineau and contributed $10 to the Red Cross.
Dams guarded
Although the Gatineau valley was free from much of the excitement of wartime Ottawa, where armed guards in government buildings were commonplace, a young Helen Rutledge said that it was pretty interesting to cross the Paugan Dam at Low during the 1940s. Going to visit her aunt on the Kelly Road meant crossing the dam and being stopped at the gate by guards and asking for permission to cross. “You had to give your name, where you were from, where you were going, and the reason for your trip,” Helen explained.
Apparently there was a guard post at each side of the dam, although Helen doesn’t remember if they had guns. She suspects that they were there to stop people from blowing up the Paugan Dam. “Of course the gate was closed at twelve midnight, and if you didn’t get through before then it was a long 10-mile trip on the back 0ads to cross the river at the Farrellton Bridge,” Helen commented.
Missing in action
The loss of a loved one in war is tragic enough . But, in the rural areas of Canada its impact was more far-reaching than in the city.
“It was always someone you knew,” explained Marjorie Stewart, whose husband Irwin lost his brother, Gunner Glen Stewart, age 20, killed in action in Western Europe in 1945.
‘Wakefield’s oldest resident, Edith Cross, 91, echoes this when she said that while you may try to forget, the memory of the boys that were lost never goes away. So strong is this memory, after more than 50 years, that she was able to remember by name the men of the United Church congregation that did not retum. “I never thought for one moment that we would lose the war, and this was included in my prayers each night,” she said.
Plaques in the local churches and even the Larrimac Golf Club are reminders of those who served and those who did not return.
Gatineau Valley legacy
It was the fondest wish of Dr. Harold Geggie, of Wakefield , who had three sons serve Canada during the war, to establish a hospital to honour those who lost their lives. His words were: “to establish a district cottage hospital in memory of the fallen, and for the use of their families and those who returned and to honour all who wore the uniform.” Thus, The Gatineau Memorial Hospital Centre, founded in 1952, today perpetuates this wish through its name.
War’s end
Historic events are usually well remembered, and this includes the end of the War in Europe.
Young Winnie Hamilton, now La Péche Councillor Johnston, remembers the Reverend Francis Mitchison coming to the Alcove Public School on May 8, 1945, to announce the end of the war to the students of grades 1 to 7. “We all went over to the United Church manse to listen to the radio reports about the end of the war. Tt was thrilling,” she said.
Helen Rutledge fondly remembers going down to Ottawa by car with a group of friends and joining the excited crowds who made their way up and down Sparks Street that had been closed to traffic for the occasion. The party lasted until the wee hours of the morning!
