May 5

 

I have very few photos of my dad.  This was one that mom had in a double frame - one with her at 16 years of age, this of dad in his Canadian army uniform, no doubt early in the war.  The smaller photo is of dad at age 10, around when his mother died of breast cancer.

He was the youngest child in the family, and as such considered a 'mammy's boy'.  I suspect dad was a menopause baby, and perhaps was treated differently from the rest of the kids.  I will never know because anyone who can tell me is gone, now.

At any rate, he was conscripted, and nearly turned down (according to my mother, but her 'stories' were frequently suspect) because he didn't express enthusiasm about going to Germany to kill the 'Hun'.  (What I did find out was that the recruiting soldier marked down on his file that dad was 'thick' - because dad had no schooling and could not read or write well.  'Thick' he was not.)

Dad's family identified as 'German', although they immigrated from Belarus prior to the first World War.  The story about the family arriving in N. America varied, especially as mom 'dressed' the story up.  Eventually I just stopped believing her about a lot of things, especially when they seemed improbable.

But the fact remains - dad served in the Canadian Army, posted first to the Aleutians, then, when they were scraping the 'bottom of the barrel', he was sent over to England and found himself on Juno Beach.

The only time he ever talked about the war was when the Winston Churchill 'series' The World at War aired, which was yearly for a while.  Dad would park himself in front of the tv and both of us kids were warned that dad was watching 'his' show and we were to be quiet.

We learned early that dad did not answer questions about the war, so stop asking.  But when the film showed the landing on the beaches that day, dad would sit quietly, elbows on the arms of his Lazy-boy recliner with his hands gripped together, fingers 'tented', and leaning his chin on his clasped hands.  As the footage of the Canadians landing on Juno beach played, he would lift his head from his hands, point to the tv and quietly say 'I was there'.  Three words.  With such power.

I honestly don't know if dad would have swallowed the current fascist propaganda.  All I know is that he 'hated' war, but did his duty anyway.  Plus he survived, which was the 'important' part - for *me*.

Whatever the truth of his opinions about what is going on now, I'm actually glad I don't have either parent to deal with right now.  They wouldn't 'get' computers.  Dad barely used the telephone, never mind a computer!  Mom did have a computer, but we made sure she never went online.  

People ask 'when did you become politically active' - and I hardly know what to answer.  Politically, my parents were not party members, but voted according to their conscious on the day.  But my mother (who was willing to discuss such things - dad wouldn't) believed some things I could not.  When did I 'wake' up?  I think I came out of the womb thinking, questioning, deciding some things simply did not make sense (considering I went to Sunday School every Sunday, and attended Bible classes to be confirmed into the church).  Plus I read.  Non-stop, mostly.  Anything.  Fact.  Fiction.  Didn't matter.

Now we have a group of full blown fascists in our neighbouring country, threatening to 'annex' us by 'breaking' us financially/economically.  Today we learned about the tariffs on the movie industry - targeted primarily against all Canadian 'production'.  Given how many Canadians actually 'grew' Hollywood, it's just a tad ironic - but not shocking, if you've been paying attention.

Anyway, we now have 'new' (American) labels for various significant dates.   Like today.  My 'resistance' will remain low key due to my age/health restrictions.  But I will not follow the current president of the US, AND I will continue to use my 'British' spellings (eg 'neighbour' never 'neighbor').  I will continue to boycott US products - as best I can - and support Canadian businesses.  At this point I can see no possibility of crossing the border with the double jeopardy of Covid and fascism...

#elbowsUp