lizii

[Stella]

Welcome back Lizii!

[Heidi]

We missed you! so glad to have you back! I remember you had difficulty getting in and around your apartment. This must be a new place you live in now. So good to hear from you.

[libby]

It's great that you're back! You've been missed! How are you doing? Give us an update on yourself if you can.

[chrisgermany]

How nice to have you back here!

[happy with less]

Hi Lizii, I too, was thinking about you recently and have been wondering what has been happening with you. I have to say, you are one of the most interesting senior people I've met in the virtual world. I look forward to your shared thoughts again.

[lizii]

Hi again, I can't find where I started to tell you about my life during the Depression or WW2, but think I ended up with my memories during WW2. I was born in December 1930, so I've seen many changes since then...

During the war we were rationed as far as food and clothing in order to provide for our brave soldiers, airmen and sailors. Each person was given a ration book to buy enough food for the following week, which my mother took with her to buy bread, meat, vegetables, etc. at various stores such as the butcher, baker, etc. We soon learned how to make our own clothes by sewing them with a needle and thread, passing them on to a younger brother or sister when we had grown out of them, and then saving the rags to use for cleaning our homes. Speaking about homes, I kept my own home spotless, especially when my kids were at the crawling stage I would fill a pail of hot water and soap flakes to scrub them every day by getting down on my hands and knees to scrub them with a scrub brush and then rinse them off using a pail of clean water and a rag. I actually enjoyed housework, believe it or not!

Canada has always been a nation that welcomes immigrants, usually from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, all white people, who spoke the same language we do, looked much the same as we do, etc., so just imagine my surprise when |I saw people with dark skin, yellow skin, even red skin (our native Indians), along with black or brown eye colour, black hair, etc. I began seeing living amongst us...

We had a rag and bone man who went around in horse and a cart to gather the rags and bones our mothers had saved for the war effort, which I still don't know how they did that...a Sihk who grew vegetables on his property to sell, the victory gardens which encouraged us to grow our food in, the potatoes my father grew in our front yard, the ducks, pheasants, deer and moose he hunted and brought home for us to eat, plucking feathers, etc.

[lizii]

more...there was no TV, no computers...the first one I saw was huge and was kept in a small room with the heat regulated so it wouldn't burn out. No birth control, people believed that it was the female who was responsible for the sex of their children (Henry VIII anyone?) There were only 3 options for women to earn money--nursing, housekeeping for others, or working in an office. Once my children had graduated from highschool, I was bored from not being busy, so I decided to go to college in my early 40s. My first class was in English literature, then political science, history, sociology, psychology, to graduate. By then I knew that my marriage was over, so I returned to college to learn how to type, write Pitman shorthand, and bookkeep.

more later...

[Spartana]

Welcome back Lizii - I am really enjoying reading your posts about growing up during WWII and as a child during the depression. My Mom immigranted thru Canada (Toronto) before coming the the states in the early 1950's. She lived and worked there for a year, loved Canada and said Toronto was always her favorite city.

[lizii]

Hi Spartana,

Nice to hear from you too!

I have many more stories to tell, but have to gather my thoughts first. Back later...

[Wildflower]

I love hearing your stories, lizii.