1943

That's the year I was born!  It was a cold winter day in north eastern Alberta, in a little rural town called St. Paul. I'm not too sure if I was born at home on the farm or in a hospital, but my Mom had a very difficult birth with me and experienced substantial hemorrhaging. She told me a number of times in a less than endearing tone how she almost died having me. When I was a little older I had mixed feelings of guilt for almost killing my Mom and feeling unwanted at times. But, here I am!  I'm a few months old in this picture.

World War II was well under way and times were tough.  Money and supplies were scarce.  Dad didn't have to enlist because he was a little older then and some men were needed to work the farms and keep things running at home.  Mom had already lost one brother at the beginning of the war and would lose another just before it ended.  Farming was not easy either.  Dad did mixed farming.  Growing grain and raising livestock, etc.  The work was hard labour and the machinery old.  The wind and the weather was always a battle to be fought or hardship to endure.  No wonder people were much tougher back then.
This is a photo of enlisted men marching and the next one is threshing grain on the farm.

Here are some popular ads and momentos of 1943.