My Canadian Years

I lived in Canada from June 1957 to the Fall of 1964. St. Paul l'Ermite, where Gordon and Irene lived was outside Montreal - a wonderful city that I am glad I had the opportunity of living near. If anyone ever has the chance to visit this city, I would strongly recommend it. The mood of Montreal, or I probably should say the province of Quebec, changed while I was there. The French and the English were friends and most French Canadians were fluent in both languages, so the language barrier presented no problem. But as the years went on, the French resentment against the English grew, and people who would talk to you in English suddenly said they didn't know English and the tension grew. It got much worse after I left, with all street signs converting to French only, and Quebec trying to pull away from the rest of Canada.
John Marsh and I married the day after Christmas 1959 and rented an apartment in Montreal first, then moved to St. Paul l'ermite living upstairs in a duplex.
Look at my photos over that time it looks like there was always snow - but I guess I just found that the prettiest time. Montreal was in a 'snow belt' and winters would bring up to 20 feet of snow on a regular basis. I loved everything about it.
I was able to bring my parents out for a month's visit while there and they played like a couple of kids in the snow. It was all magic to them.

I worked for Canadian Steel when I first went to Canada, commuting to Montreal, but was able to get into Canadian Arsenals later which was in St. Paul l'ermite. Gordon worked there also in the engineering department. If first worked in the Safety Department (somewhat boring), but was later promoted into the engineering department where I was the typist for 13 engineers. I found that fascinating and had to have security clearance to work in this department. Canadian Arsenals was the 'filling' plant for bombs and other ammunition. There were various 'secret' projects which required special clearance to be in on, and the engineering department was the most 'protected' department of all. The supervisor was promoted a couple of years before I left to a liason between the buyers (mostly in the US) and the actual production work. He asked for me to be transferred with him and we became a department by ourselves. I loved that job as it required my being involved in all phases of the manufacturing and there was never a dull moment.

They say that you never forget where you were when certain major events happen - and I was standing in my boss's office when someone stuck their head in and said "Kennedy's been shot".
There was a number of reasons that John and I decided to leave Canada and move to the US. It was mostly me - John was easily influenced and would go along with my ideas. He had a relatively good job, but it didn't have much of a future and he had a dream to be a deep sea diver. I did the research and found that there were two schools in the US - one in Florida and one in Alameda, California. I sent away for the newspapers for both places so I could get an idea of (a) how much it cost to rent apartments and (b) what the job market was as it was imperative that I got a job immediately. The Bay area far outdid Fort Lauderdale, Fla. so that became our destination. My reason for wanting to move to the US instead of living in Canada, might sound strange to many people, but I had lived in Canada long enough to become a citizen and I believed that people should become citizens if they were going to take the benefits of a country. But I just couldn't get the idea of becoming a citizen on Canada. I was always 'political' and used to enjoy the heated debates and discussions we used to have work during breaks and lunch, but I was also picking on the fact that the division came from those quoting the British point of view and those quoting the American point of view. I used to say "what about the Canadian point of view". Also at that time Canada didn't have a flag or a national anthem - they used the British flag and sang God Save the Queen. I could not see myself becoming a citizen of a country that didn't think of itself as a country - so after six months of paperwork, physicals, security clearances and proving our financial ability - we were bound for the United States of America........................