Dave Yoho was born August 19, 1928 in Philadelphia. He grew up in a row house, during the difficult times of the Great Depression, commenting that he had no real “fun”. He did not participate in sports, parties or dances: he worked on weekends and helped to support his family. When the war came, Dave […]
Kathryn McGill was born July 21, 1925 in Glasgow, Scotland. She grew up there in the 1930s, and by her account she had a good life, going to school, performing acrobatics and enjoying the odd day at the zoo. Her father was a carpenter who had a disability that kept him out of the Great […]
George Ferguson was born July 19, 1924 in Stenhousemuir, Scotland; his family emigrated to Canada when he was just four years old, the oldest son. George’s father was a Great War veteran who tended the war horses; back home he also worked with fox hunt horses and as those class-based traditions started to come undone […]
John Preece was born October 19, 1926 in Toronto’s Queen-Bathurst neighbourhood. John’s early life was not easy, largely because of family circumstances. His mother had emigrated from Scotland, and – alone in Toronto – she fell into a relationship with a married man and turned to alcohol. John does not have many positive memories of […]
Richard (“Dick”) Pruter was born August 10, 1927 in Chicago. His father lost his job in the tough years of the 1930s though, so the family moved to Westside, Iowa. By 1942 Dick lived in San Francisco near the Richmond Shipyard, and he worked at the Judson Pacific Steel Barge works. He also worked at […]
Bill Balabanow was born February 17, 1926 in the little town of Blue Ridge Summit in southern Pennsylvania, though the family moved to Lancaster in 1931, and that is where he spent most of his childhood. Bill’s parents divorced when he was an infant, so his parental and family memories come mainly from his mother’s […]
John Appel was born August 21, 1937 in what were then the Dutch East Indies, where his parents supervised a sugar plantation. When the Japanese invaded and occupied the area in the Second World War, John and his family were held in an internment camp, living in very difficult conditions. John’s father was taken as […]
Reynolds Tomter was born April 26, 1917 in western Wisconsin, not far from Pigeon Falls, where he lives now. He grew up on a farm in a rural valley, where neighbors worked together to combat isolation, and then the realities of the Great Depression. Reynolds remembers the tough economic times, but he also remembers the […]
Willard McBride was born on January 23, 1924 in west Texas. He grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression, and was forced to leave school in 5th Grade so he could help support the family. Willard worked on farms, fought forest fires, picked cotton, dug ditches…in short he did what he had to […]
Mark Gleeson was born May 11, 1927 in Kokomo, Indiana, though he grew up largely in the Pittsburgh area, where his father worked for PPG after his return from the Great War. Mark grew up in the 30s, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but still enjoyed the typical American adolescence of the time. […]
Howard Pfeifer was born September 22, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, so as a teenger he worked many jobs, delivering newspapers, pumping gas, and so on. When the war came, a cousin of Howard’s told him about the merchant marine; Howard liked what he heard, […]
Hugh Brodie was born October 13, 1926 in Montreal, Quebec. He grew up in the city against the backdrop of the Great Depression, attending school and playing football and hockey. Hugh’s father was a doctor who passed away young, so Hugh was raised by his mother. When the time came to choose his next step […]
Percy Smith was born May 10, 1923 in Ceylon. His father worked in the British civil service there, and that is where Percy spent his early years. The family returned to England in the late 1930s, as the clouds of war were closing in on Europe, and the world. Percy was 16 at the start […]
Clayton Hayes was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and he grew up in the Prairies, first in Saskatchewan and later in Brandon, Manitoba. The Depression was a difficult time for the family; his father’s business went bankrupt, and the family moved to improve their prospects. When the war came, Clayton’s older brother joined the navy, […]
Harley Iler grew up in Essex County, in southwest Ontario. Harley spent his formative years on a farm, where he remembers his parents struggling through the difficult years of the Great Depression. Harley attended school in a one-room schoolhouse, and at home he tinkered with his HAM radio, developing the passion and technical know-how that […]
Harry Sanders sailed the oceans of the world during the Second World War. Born in the small seaside community of South Shields, in Great Britain, he answered a Marconi company ad on the topic of wireless operators, and soon his training was underway, as he left school and South Shields behind him. Soon named a […]
Ray Cameron is a veteran of the Merchant Navy. When the war came he was living in Lindsay, Ontario, where he had been on the farm and had worked on the Great Lakes as a seaman. When Norway was pulled into the war, the Norwegian merchant marine made the decision to recruit in Canada, and […]
George Myatt served in Canada’s merchant marine during WW2. As such, George was a crewman aboard a number of cargo vessels, and he visited many ports of call around the world, especially in Europe and Africa. George saw his share of danger working in this often neglected part of canada’s military force; one ship he […]