Ref: MAT2_B02

Part B –2a

2.a North American Society & Movement

Excerpts & Historical Context: Parallel Lives in Perspective

<<<go back to Paper Table of contents page<<

Quotes from interviews of Wanda and Jack
Wanda’s Early Life: We actually moved into Edmonton because our farm had gone under. Three years in a row we were hailed out. And it was time for Dede to go into high school. Because she went into grade nine when we were there. And it meant she would have to go to Clyde and board with somebody or go to Edmonton and board with somebody. And my father decided he would get a job in Edmonton and we would go to Edmonton and she would go to high school. – Wanda D. Keefe	Wanda with Colleagues in the Yukon We [Wanda & 3 co-workers: Wink, Jerry & Glenn] are going down the mountain. And Jerry stands up and she is screaming. And Wink and Glenn are still trying to maneuver so they can get a hold of the wheel. And Jerry is screaming. And I smacked her in the face, and said: shut up! And I'm sitting there going "steer into the side of the mountain!" And that's how we were stopped; they steered into the side of the mountain. But, it was a horrible experience. – Wanda D. Keefe
Jack in the Yukon The Russian subs were there[west coast of North America]. The Russians were up there too because Whitehorse was one of the places they would ship planes to Russia. They'd [the planes] come to Whitehorse, to Fairbanks and then I suppose they'd jump over. But I've seen the Russians up there … , I think they had the pilots maybe in Fairbanks, Alaska. And then they[the Russian Pilots] would fly them over [to Russia]. I can remember the planes coming through in Whitehorse and I happen to be down at the airfield a couple of times. They would have to check out every thing once they landed. I can still see the Army mechanics going out there, taking their gloves off. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So cold they would put their gloves on again and they'd run back in to get warm. – Jack Keefe.	Wanda as Foreigner entering USA JJK: [Wanda went] to Montreal, and when she came back my mother said to her: Wanda what was it like? Oh, she said, It was just a lot of foreigners and me. WDK: I was disgusted with how they treated the others -- because there was a lot of Russians coming into the country and a lot of other people coming through. And they treated me very nicely because I spoke English, I was Canadian. But some of those people who couldn't speak English, that were coming across, they really treated them like cattle. And I was telling Mom about how disgusted I was. And I said: "a terrible way they treated the foreigners" and his mother started to laugh, she said “what do you think you are?” I said you know, you're right, I never thought of that. (Laughter)

Interview Abbreviations: JJK = Jack [John Joseph] Keefe; WDK = Wanda Davis Keefe; AKK = Adhiratha Kevin Keefe

Table of Contents

2.a North American Society & Movement................................................................................................................. 1

Jack & Wanda's Parents and Relatives................................................................................................................................... 2

Wanda’s Cabinet Maker Father & Great Aunt Athabasca Trail Driver...................................................................................... 3

Wanda's Relatives served in the Civil War]................................................................................................................................. 4

Movement during Depression and Before War:.................................................................................................................... 4

Selling family furniture to survive during the depression............................................................................................................ 6

People moving, taking odd jobs “Honey Wagon”, Relief & Welfare.......................................................................................... 7

Wanda's Schooling and sports..................................................................................................................................................... 7

Adjustment From a One room schoolhouse to city /school -WDK............................................................................................ 8

High School Career Planning l –WDK........................................................................................................................................ 8

Polio, Jack Schooling and Sports Illustrated presentation................................................................................................ 9

Principal wanted Keefe to go to a special school...................................................................................................................... 12

Jack and Wanda’s Yukon Work Experience......................................................................................................................... 12

Midnight Recreation Picnics...................................................................................................................................................... 13

END Note list for B-2................................................................................................................................................................ 13

[B-2 Web version Continued in B-02b]

Jack & Wanda's Parents and Relatives

Jack and Wanda were raised in America and Canada in the years preceding the Second World War. During the interviews they spoke about their early lives and some of what they knew of their parents and grandparents families. During the Depression years which preceded the Second World War and continuing through the War Years, many families in North America were uprooted as their members went in search of employment. Jack and Wanda both were part of this pattern of travel in search of work.

Some of the interview stories illustrate that Wanda’s family had a history of mobility dating back to before the USA’s Civil War. This family “history” possibly helped prepare her for her own migration. The next section begins with Jack sharing a bit about Wanda's Relatives:

Wanda’s Cabinet Maker Father & Great Aunt Athabasca Trail Driver

[excerpt for full see jw00au14.rtf para 20]

JJK: [Wanda's father] started in life as an apprentice cabinetmaker. As a matter-of-fact we have the cabinet which he made when he was about 14 years of age. And it was all made with hand tools. None of the electric tools or anything like that. And of course he had been a farmer for years near Clyde in Alberta, [Canada]. Most of the family farmed up there, the brothers and sisters and brothers-in-law. In Clyde, everybody knew everyone else. They came from Halfway Lakes. They were on the Athabasca trail. And when [Wanda] would tell me about the Athabasca trail, I would think a big wide trail. It's a little two by four dirt road. It goes from Alberta up to Athabasca [see map below].

JJK: One of your grandaunts, [Wanda’s] Aunt Ella, as a youngster was very blond of German extraction. Her father was a drover and transported material from Edmonton up to Athabasca, along the Athabasca trail. And this was back in the 1900s. She would be one of the drivers. She was a kid about 12 to 14. And I said to her,” Aunt Ella where did you sleep nights?” And she said: “Oh, we just slept under the wagons.” And they got up to Athabasca where there were just Indians. They had never seen a white woman before. Since she was very blond, they would rub her hair for luck. (Chuckle) [Aunt Ella] came down to New York when she was in your 90s.

Wanda’s immediate family lived in western Canada. However a part of the interview shows that Wanda’s Great Great Grandfather was from Tennessee and had been involved in America’s Civil War. His descendants, therefore like many North Americans, obviously had some mobility.

Wanda's Relatives served in the Civil War]

[Except see jk00ap16.doc para 3 & 4

Common Families involved, Great, Great Grandfather/

AKK What do you think and specifically about how the common families were involved? [in the USA Civil War]

JJK. Well we can look at that from the standpoint of your mother's[Wanda’s] family. Her Great, Great Grandfather was a man by the name of Willoughby. He at the time of the Civil War was a slave holder in eastern Tennessee. But he loved the Union . And when war was declared, he freed all his slaves and then joined the Union forces. He was in a family that was definitely brother against brother. Some members of the family fought for the South. Other members of the family fought for the North. And he fought for the North and was member of the mounted infantry. There was a 19-year-old who signed up for the South - another William Willoughby. And he was in many battles. His last was the battle of Gettysburg. On the retreat he was captured at 19 years of age. He was imprisoned in the Baltimore area of Maryland and he died in prison. And that was just one member of the family. But there were many, many of them. There was one member who was a Major. He never fired a gun in combat. He was a Major in the Infantry. For the North. He would go into combat only with a Saber, his thinking being if he fired indiscriminately, he might have killed one of his brothers or his cousins. But if he could see you, he could cut your head off and not have to worry. He knew it was no relative. This is your mother's Great, Great grandfather, Willoughby – on her maternal side.

This next section provides excerpts of stories and secondary source comments which may give some of the flavor of the times .

Movement during Depression and Before War:

Wanda's parents and siblings were similar to others who had to move around during the Depression in order to find work and keep the family together. Jack and Wands were well aware of the devastation

[excerpt: see jw00se30.rtf para 15]

AKK: There was a lot of movement during the war too? People moving across country. Jobs were better here -- there.

WDK: Oh Yeah. Well, that had even started before the war. Because of the Depression. Whole families were packing up and leaving.

JJK: Sure, the Okies [Oklahoman, Texans and others trying to escape the devastation caused by dry weather in the Dust Bowl and farm mechanization]. They picked up and went to California.

WDK: The rest of the country, I mean California was very uninhabited for long time until the big storms, the dust storms and everything in Kansas and --

JJK: They used to call it the dirty 30s. The dirty 30s. Because of the dust storms.

WDK: The world really changed tremendously with the second world war. And it was a terrible war but it also changed the whole economy.

[jw00se04.doc para 3]

AKK: You lived by yourself. And then Gwen [Wanda’s Sister] came and joined you when you were working in Edmonton?

WDK: Right. When I finished up at the hospital, and went to work on the south side at the Treasury Department. In the bank. My mother and father then went up to Lessor Slave Lake. My father got a job working on the highways. What they called the superintendent of the highways at that point? A big fancy name. All the roads were gravel and he had a grader and he went up-and-down the roads keeping them in shape all the time.

AKK: But, it was pretty good pay for that time?

WDK: Yeah, for then it was. And Gwen and June went with them first and then Gwen had to finish high school, so she came and lived with me

The Davis family had to sell their furniture when times were bad. The Depression was difficult for families in Canada as it was in USA.

Wanda Davis Keefe, Davis Family

Figure 5 = 4.d 1929 Fred, Wanda, Gwen, Wildie & Stanley Davis The Davis Family before Babe June was born. Wanda's quote - me in t he bee bonnet & knock Knees. At side of family car - model T?

Figure 6 = 4e 1931 Dede, June, Stanley, Wildie, Gwen, Wanda, Fred A candid Shot of the Davis family before they left the farm in Canada

Selling family furniture to survive during the depression

[excerpt see jw00se04.doc para 4]

AKK: When was the time you told me it was really tough, where you would get some money together and then you would buy back the beds you sold?

WDK: 0h, that was when we lived in Edmonton when I was growing up.

AKK: That was during the Depression?

WDK: Very much so. After we first moved in there. We actually moved into Edmonton because our farm had gone under. Three years in a row we were hailed out. [Hail killed the crops in the field before they could be harvested] And it was time for Dede to go into high school. Because she went into grade nine when we were there. And it meant she would have to go to Clyde and board with somebody or go to Edmonton and board with somebody. And my father decided he would get a job in Edmonton and we would go to Edmonton and she would go to high school.

AKK: And at least she wouldn't have to board then too. And you would be together?

WDK: Right, right. And be with the family. And that's why we moved to Edmonton. My father had different jobs in Edmonton.

AKK: And that was pretty common to everyone at that time for what I hear everybody was moving around and...

WDK: Oh, yeah! It was terrible. Jobs were scarce. That's when men were really selling apples on street corners. I even remember that.

AKK: All the way up there? I know in the big cities down here they were, but up there too?

WDK: Yeah, they were doing the same thing there. And they were riding the freight trains. Wasn't surprising at all to see somebody at your back door asking for sandwich or a cup of soup or something. And they moved from here to there just trying to get by, trying to live.

AKK: And it wasn't considered sort of unrespectable at that time, it was just what did you do. At least they were moving around trying to get work?

WDK: Right, right, right. And they would come and say "Can I chop wood for the day for a meal?" and all that. No, it was tough, it was very tough times. People are more familiar with it in the United States but it was the same in Canada. It was exactly the same.

People moving, taking odd jobs “Honey Wagon”, Relief & Welfare

[excerpt see jw00se04.doc para 5]

AKK: Basically, people were moving around. They were doing anything. They put all their belongings from the farm on the car or whatever and moved to the next town and tried to get something?

WDK: We also lived on, what you call here Welfare. We call it Relief there. But the men worked for it. They would give them city jobs going around picking up garbage and junk. They would work so many days for that. Then they would get tickets for clothes and money for the family. They would get, vouchers. So my father worked at jobs like that.

AKK: Since they did not have something like running sewage from the outhouses, did they have to go around and clean them out?

JJK: The honey wagons.

WDK: That's right. They had to go and pick that up. That was a terrible job.

AKK: Did they have honey wagons down here too?

JJK: Not to my knowledge, no. They probably had been in different parts of the states. They just didn't have them in Brooklyn where we're brought up.

AKK: But you knew about the honey wagons and you had heard her stories.

JJK: Well I heard her stories...

WDK: We didn't call them honey wagons up there though. No, but they had lots of funny stories about it. But the outhouses were built for it, with the trap door that came up in the back.

JJK: Sure, when I went with her and met members of her family before we got married they had the back houses right there. Still there, this is in the city of Edmonton and of course up on Lesser Slave Lake they had the same thing.

The interviews provided a glimpse of the different type of background and experiences Jack and Wanda had before they met in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The early school experiences may have been the most different.

Wanda's Schooling and sports

Wanda was originally in a one room school house. But at 11 years of age, she moved to the capital of the Alberta providence, Edmonton. Wanda had some initial trouble adjusting to the city but by the time she reached high school she had the opportunity to be considered for a feeder team to the famous Canadian girls Olympic basketball team.

Adjustment From a One room schoolhouse to city /school -WDK

[excerpt for full see jw00se04.doc para 02]

AKK: We were talking about you going from a one room schoolhouse to having 40 children in class. What was that like for you?

WDK: Scary, it was really overwhelming. When I look back. I didn't like it. I was very unhappy for quite awhile. I did not want to leave the farm in the first place. You leave all the animals ,including your horse which you rode all the time. All the great things about a farm you leave to go to the city. And then of course there are all the city kids that are making fun of the hicks from the farm.

AKK: How old were you?

WDK: Eleven.

AKK: They all had bicycles when you had a horse? Some of them had bicycles?

WDK: Not all of them.

High School Career Planning l –WDK

WDK So, I finished up at the Eastwood school. I finished there and went to start grade nine, which was high school at Eastwood. I went there for two years, grade nine and 10. And then talked my parents into letting me go to a commercial high school. To switch. Because I wanted to take commercial courses.

Schlesinger reports that in 1935 in New England, basketball was regarded as primarily a pastime for girls [B02-N01] Wanda has an interesting story about a long-legged Canadian girl drawn to the sport but withdrawing because of some unwanted attention.