Howard’s account of his travels in Ontario reminded me of another story. When Dad was about 16 he and a friend left Saskatchewan and travelled to Ontario, looking for work. This could have been 1937, so maybe thirty years before Howard’s trip. They made it to Fort William and Port Arthur, today Thunder Bay. There was no work for them and they were broke. Somewhere outside of town they bedded down for the night. They did their best to gather some of the high grass around themselves to ward off the cold.
How did they travel? Much of it was on the train. They’d clamber aboard a slow moving train and ride as far as they could. This brought them into contact with law enforcement. When the train came into a town, small or otherwise, here would be a policeman or sheriff whose job it was to keep them off the train. But the town would be reluctant to put them in a jail cell and provide them with a meal. So the sheriff would line them up and tell them he’d let them go, but they had to promise not to get back on the train. They would all promise not to ride the train. Then they’d walk out of town, wait for a train just picking up speed, and climb aboard.
Radiance, I don’t know if you will remember our visits to Abe & Leona. I think they were somewhere near Aldergrove. It was unusual for us to go to the homes of people who were not our relatives. But Abe & Leona were an exception. Abe was the friend that Dad had travelled with as a teenager.