Lethbridge, Alberta in the 1940s. These are some of the things we remember.
If you'd like to add some of your memories to the list, please contact us at hrc@ourheritage.net
DO YOU REMEMBER...
... playing marbles on the schoolgrounds?
... whirling around the playground on the giant strides?
... the winter recess sidewalk slides?
... sounds from the outdoor rink echoing throughout the neighbourhood on those cold crisp nights?
... Chinese market gardners with horse drawn wagons delivering fresh vegetables?
... red shale sidewalks?
... Saturday morning matinees?
... going to see Gene Autry or Roy Rogers on Saturdays at 2.15 at the Roxy?
... the Santa Clause parade at Hoyts - everyone go a present?
... "The Eyes and Ears of the World - those newsreels that came with every show?
... the Star Weekly and Montreal Standard - and more importantly - the comics?
... burning leaves in the fall?
... making your own fun with Run Sheep Run, Kick the Can or Prisioners' Base?
... playing cowboys & Indians?
... making sling shots?
... when wearing short pants just wasn't cool?
... finding an empty field where you and your friends could dig a cave or build a hut?
... the Metropolitan Stores?
... when Halloween meant Halloween pranks?
... when there were watchmen on construction sites?
... when you would turn on our only radio station,CJOC, and hear "This is the BBC News direct from London?"
... those 15 minute soap operas that included Pepper Young's Family and Ma Perkins?
... the evening programs such as The Shadow, The Whistler, Boston Blackie, My Friend Irma and Lux Radio Theatre?
... when the library would send out library books to the schools?
... our hockey team was the Native Sons with stars like Guyle Fielder?
... when we we used a real toboggan hill and not the Sugar Bowl?
... when kids had BB guns?
... when we would go off on our own exploring the coulees - and pathways hadn't even been thought of?
... when one talked of going out to snare gophers?
... classrooms with ink wells, oiled floors and no florescent lights?
... applebox scooters?
... wagons with one leg propulsion?
... wearing those dreaded breeches?
... collecting tinfoil and taking wagonloads of old newspapers to the car-barns for the war effort's salvage drive?
... those comic strip characters - Little Orphan Annie, Flash Gordon, Maggie & Jigs and Tarzan of the Apes?
... Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr. & Wonder Woman comic books?
... the expressions "boogie woogie", "Kilroy was here" & "hubba hubba ding radar?"
... bicycle clips & Rollfast bicycles?
... burning barrels, chicken coops and outhouses?
... V-J Day celebrations?
... when it seemed almost everyone had a caragana hedge and a cottonwood tree?
... Eaton's store window and just how popular it was?
... being a Happy Heralder?
... cranking your family car to get it started?
... having a car tire blowout?
... gas rationing, wartime rent control,ration books & the Wartime Prices & Trade Board?
... men working in red-circled prisioner-of-war uniforms?
... gymnastic displays at the old YMCA?
... Frank Hosek's Sunday band marches and concerts at Henderson Lake?
... the Henderson Lake waterslide?
... streetcars?
... fall unveilings of new cars - and they all looked different?
... dogs chasing cars?
... the 6 mile coulee bridge?
... St. Mary's picnic site?
... the Gurney Museum?
... Eaton's elevator operators?
... Playing Crack the Whip at the old rink?
... T.C.A. (Trans Canada Airlines)?
... Western Transfer's ice man?
... Baalim Motors, Dean's Shoe Store or Kepler's Radio Sales?
... beer bottle sleeves?
... the Capital, Roxy & Lealta theatres?
... Western Air Lines?
... the Community Chest?
... Broder Canning Company?
... #8 Bombing & Gunnery School?
... a Victory Loan Parade?
... a blackout & aerial blitz demonstration?
... daily Horse-drawn milk delivery?
... 4 cent postage?
... meatless Tuesdays?
... war brides arriving?
... getting summer holidays from July to October?
... the arrival of the new farmers' market?
... when Halloween included "shell out for the bombed out - milk for Britain?"
. . . Eatons selling pastel coloured baby chickens for 25 cents (for a war saving stamp)?
. . . when the back end of the streetcar swaying when the car was going down the hill under the bridge from South to North Lethbridge?
. . . when they had spittoons in the back of the streetcar?
. . . the kids braking up fences to make a fire to keep warm at the out door skating rinks?
. . .Uncle Bob on CJOC reading the funnies to us Sunday mornings while Mom and Dad were still sleeping?
. . .The fluff from the cotton wood trees getting in your eyes, nose and mouth?
. . .The Brick of the Month ice cream from Palm Dairies?
. . .when 5 cents would buy a popsicle?
. . .when we could get 5 cents back on every large empty pop bottle and then buy that popsicle?
. . .when they oiled the roads to keep the dust down?
***
... when tumbleweeds blew across vacant lots?
... the afternoon movies in the school auditorium?
... the shack at the ice rink with the big stove in the centre?
— Contributed by Anne Shorthouse (Paterson)
***
... walking on the 9th Street Bridge which crossed the Railway tracks and seeing the trains on the tracks below between the wooden planks and actually feeling the bridge tremble?
... walking on the 9th Street Bridge and being careful as you stepped across the planks (some were getting quite thin before the bridge was replaced)
... crossing the Oldman River on the narrow silver bridge and waiting to cross if there was another vehicle on it. The approach from the east side had a very sharp left turn but the western approach was straight through.
... watching columns of German Prisoners of War marching to the river bottom for a swim accompanied
by a few veteran guards.
— Contributed by Martha Wojtowicz (Gaetz)
***
... Getting admitted Free to the Saturday Matinee for a Rendered, can of FAT ! , or an Aluminum pot ?
... # 6 ,B & G School at Mountain View (Bellevlle Ontario)
... The AA gas ration sticker on the family car windshield ( about 12 gallons a month)
... The Gas Permit for your boat was a joke ! - I think 10 gallons per season (12 if your cottage was on an island).
... Wind-up, well, Crank-Up, victrola's ?
... The Ice Man ?
... The Big Deal in Toronto when the milk delivery rigs were equiped with rubber tires and the Horses
... with rubber SHOES and the carriers had padded baskets - SILENT DELIVERY.
... Perlux Dry Cleaners on 5th street and was in the same building as the Roxy theater and was owned by Dan Swan who taught me all about dry cleaning.
... selling papers on the street when I was 14 and making a lot of tips from the inebriated men who drank in the Dallas, Alexandera, Commercial hotels which were on 5 st south.
... camping in the summer with just a blanket and some balogne and cans of beans and soup no pots just open them and set them beside the fire
— Contributed by John Currie
... The LCI Snake Dance -- LCI students in line marching and chanting LCI.
— Contributed by Stan Hunt
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