To the Editor:
I was born in 1921. At that time we owned a 1921 Buick McLaughlin. In the early ‘20s we could no longer afford to pay 33 cents per gallon for gasoline, so we made a horse drawn vehicle out of the Buick. We blamed the hard times on the Prime Minister, R.B. Bennett, so our horse drawn car was called a Bennett Wagon. We could not afford leather for the lines, so we made rope out of binder twine and these were Bennett lines. Everything we could not afford was home made and called “Bennett this” and “Bennett that”. We used to sell our cream - thick cream for $3 for a five gallon can. We sold eggs for $3 for a 30 dozen crate of eggs. We went to school in overalls that only had the knees out and were patched. The ones we wore around home were embarrassing because they didn’t cover all our parts. We were lucky. We ate the food we grew. The town kids were in relief or they would not have eaten.
I was just a teenager then and I used a six volt generator and made a propeller out of a two by six - six feet long and wired our house with second hand wire and put electricity (six volt) in our house.
Well, in 1939 - 40 I got tired of that and moved to B.C., after meeting my cousin here. We were in love - madly - but in those days they would not allow marriage, so I married her close friend. After many years I lost my dear wife, so three or four years ago my cousin lost her husband and so now we are married and can spend the last few years we have left together. I became a first class mechanic, carpenter, electrician, musician and businessman, I ran locomotives, you name it.
I’ve had a very interesting life and at 92 years, a writer.
As ever, Wilf Miller, Keremeos