Lest We Forget: War changed society in more ways than one

By Gillian Slade on November 6, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

The Second World War permanently changed society, one Medicine Hat resident says.

Before men went off to serve in the war, a woman’s role was to work only in the home, says Ruth Tidy, 86. It was almost an embarrassment for a woman to admit she was working outside the home because it reflected negatively on her husband.

But with men away, there were job vacancies that had to be filled. War industries, such as ammunitions factories, now depended on women, and so war made it acceptable for them to work outside the home.

“Husbands had to accept it; it empowered women economically and that would change our society forever,” said Tidy.

She was born in 1932 in Montreal and has some happy early memories of summers in the Laurentians during the Second World War. There were so many blackberries to pick in the wild. Her mother was skilled in canning fruit and there were plenty of people willing to trade liquor coupons for the sugar she needed.

Being thrifty and using what she had to make a necessity is a memory Tidy still relishes.

She remembers accompanying her mother to a place where people were skilled in clothing design, manufacture and pattern making. A mother would perhaps take a coat and discuss her desire to make a smaller coat for one of the children. Mothers would be told which seams to unpick on the existing garment in preparation for what they wanted. They’d return a week later and watch in amazement as the expert took a few measurements of the child and deftly cut new pieces from the old coat, often without a pattern.

“Dad’s old coat became my brother’s long pants and jacket,” said Tidy. “It’s still one of my favourite things to do, make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

There were also moments of fear in those unsettled war years. There was talk of a possible Nazi U-boat invasion up the St. Lawrence River, remembers Tidy. The games children played revolved around the war. Tidy says playing “commandoes” was a favourite, especially at the lake.

“We hated Hitler,” said Tidy, describing a little game that involved folding a piece of paper that had a picture of a little pig in each corner. If folded correctly the four corners came together to present an image of Hitler.

Christmas presents were often war savings certificates and you never saw any candy displayed in shops. It was kept behind the counter.

“You had to be a favoured customer (to get any),” said Tidy.

Aluminum foil was never thrown away but handed over to the “rag man” who came down the lane with a horse and wagon.

Tidy recalls a friend at school whose parents ran an Italian store. Because of negative feedback they had to change the name of the store to one that sounded less Italian, said Tidy.

There was a returning soldier the family knew at the lake. He had become engaged to a girl in Holland while serving and was awaiting her arrival to become his wife. At the last minute he was notified that she had changed her mind and would not be coming after all.

Tidy’s father worked for Bell telephone and was also a war warden. She clearly remembers the day he arrived home in the middle of the day and informed his wife that he was taking Ruth downtown to enjoy the celebrations of victory at the end of the war. He said it was something she would always remember. People were partying in the streets and climbing up poles in excitement. The mental image still brings a smile to her face. Her father was right, she has never forgotten.

See Wednesday’s Medicine Hat News for the third Remembrance Day story about a Medicine Hat woman who worked in a munitions plant during the Second World War. The first story – Lest We Forget: Hatter recalls growing up in a time of war

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