Montreal, Canada October 17, 1941
Dear Mom, Dad and All:
Am still here on Friday morning after having
packed up once and then being disappointed at having the draft called off.
However, it won't be long now. We have been instructed to keep the
time and day of departure secret so as not to give any information to the
enemy about the sailing times of the boats.
Martin, E.L.. #314
That #314 may save a lot of grief in delivery.
This seems to be about all I have in mind
at the moment so will sign off once again. Will go to Communion Sunday
if I am still here. One never knows.
Bob
George just came in from downtown with the
pictures we took a couple days ago. They were fair so I'll send them
to you. The prints are enlarged, since it costs no more here than
the regular size.
Just had to take time out for a little drill.
It's just about dinner time and the smell of fish being cooked is reeking
through the place. Doesn't smell particularly appetizing either.
About like the smell of codfish. Will have to go and try my luck
now as the ball just rang for dinner. Will continue later.
Well, it wasn't codfish after all, but fresh
lake trout.
By the way there's some question here as
to whether or not our letters to the U.S. are being censored. You
might let me know in a future letter if any I have sent have been.
Today is pay day here. We will be
paid just after the 1:30 roll call which takes place in about ten minutes.
We get paid from Wednesday to Wednesday on Fridays. It's in Canadian
money too, but equivalent to $21.50 in US currency.
Back again now and it's about nine o'clock.
After roll call and collecting our easily earned pay we walked down town
and after purchasing a couple of films we took a bus out to St. Anne de
Ballevue, a small town in the Montreal suburbs. The reason for taking
this trip being that practically all of it's 26 miles lie along the shore
of the St. Lawrence. It is a beautiful drive and was well worth the
80 cents it cost us for the round trip. It followed the irregular
shore of the lake past all the yacht clubs, lighted buoys, summer resorts
and exclusive homes. Part of it wound through the narrow old fashioned
streets of Montreal's west end and the town we ended up at was really quaint.
I took a few pictures of the streets and shops. All the houses are
built right up to the sidewalks and are the most peculiar style of architecture
I have ever seen. All are shuttered and have small overhanging balconies
on the second floor extending from each room. Many of the stairways
to the second floor are on the outside front of them. We had supper
at a small french cafe and it being a Friday I had to content myself with
fried eggs, french fried potatoes, wax beans, french bread, peach pie and
coffee. Of course the meal started off with pea soup. It was
all very tasty. We left Montreal at 3:15 and arrived back again at
8:30. George went to see the "Reluctant Dragon" at one of the theatres
but I decided I'd had enough for one day and came on back to the room.
There were eight more fellows came in here
today and if they don't ship some more of us guys out pretty quick I don't
know where there will be room for them to sleep. One fellow came
into our room last night at a quarter to twelve. That filled up all
the vacant spaces created earlier in the week by the men who left for overseas.
He hails from Syracuse, N.Y.
George and I have been playing cribbage
and chess in our spare time. He's won every cribbage game so far,
but I've won all the Chess games except one. We usually play in the
evening and accompany the games with coffee and doughnuts. They have
coffee in the canteen where we play and it's pretty good. You get
a cup of coffee and a doughnut for a nickel. They also have pop and
candy. It is run by some volunteer woman's organization and we usually
have a couple of McGill College Sorority girls working there. The
room has a goodly supply of books (most of which don't interest me), magazines,
a ping pong table, combination radio-phonograph, cribbage board and cards,
and a baby grand piano. It must have been a second floor living room
in its day as there is a large colonial firaplace at one end and it opens
onto a terrace on one side. I did find one book among the lot, Vincent
Sheans "San Felice" which I am reading now.
I see by the evening paper that a U.S. destroyer
was attacked again by a Nazi sub. Imagine that will help Roosevelt
get the Neutrality Act repealed. I'11 mail you a copy of the paper
so you can get an idea of the Canadian attitude toward the war. As
you have heard before, the war is not the chief topic of conversation here
as it is in the U.S. They're too busy doing something about it to
have time to talk about it. You have a hundred and one different kinds
of uniforms here in Montreal and about one soldier, sailor, or aviator
to every ten civilians. Since the population is about one and a quarter
million people that's quite a few.
And the French they talk around here!
Sure get a kick out of it, I can't get one word in a dozen, although I
can pronounce all the french names of streets, towns, shops and the like,
which seems to be quite an accomplishment to the other members of the corps.
When a cop or pedestrain tells them some building or place is located on
Rue Ste. Anne or the like and pronounce the name with the proper French
nazal pronunciatlon they might just as well told them nothing at all.
They haven't the slightest idea of what they mean and they look at me with
amazement when I tell them I can understand. For example, today in
the bus depot when they called out the destinations of the various buses,
like they called the trains in the Union Depot at St. Paul, George was
lost. He wouldn't have known whether they called his or not.
I have been doing a pretty fair job of keeping
my diary and if you will save it and put it in an album or something, along
with the pictures I send you from time to time, I'll have a sort of illustrated
biography of my adventure.
I don't know whether I told you or not,
but we get ten days leave upon our arrival in England and I hope to do
a little running around London sight-seeing during that time. We
will have 10 [pounds] ($40.00) to live on for the ten days so that ought
to be enough. One of the fellows who went over landed in Glasgow
and after seeing what there was to see they went to London, I hope to do
the same, but of course won't know where I'm going to land until I get
there. I'll have to send my camera home though, doggone it.
They absolutely won't stand for anyone taking one along. Field glasses
are also taboo.
It being pay day, it's pretty quiet around
here tonight as the boys are all out spending their dough. It probably
won't be so quiet about one o'clock and on when they start coming in.
You sure can spend money in this town if you want to. Whiskey sours
and the like are 50 cents which sort of gives you and idea, beer is 25
cents a bottle in any of the taverns. I stopped into a jewelry store
yesterday and had my watch tightened up in the case. I asked the
Jeweler what such a watch would cost me here and he said $50.00 for the
watch and $15.00 for the bracelet.
Boy do I feel aristocratic. The new fellow just came in and
said he had been down and had a couple of beers. He said it cost
him a dime a glass, I haven't had any beer since I've been here so I didn't
know how much it cost on tap. There are no bars here and you can't
serve any drinks to a person standing up. They have to sit at a table
or in a booth. Another odd thing is that no drinks can be served
on a train.
I received Art's letter and your's today
but have not received the package as yet. Expect I'll get it on Saturday.
It will have to go through the customs so I'll have to call for it.
Anything you mail to me here will be forwarded to England if I have left
before it gets here. By the way, to avoid any mixups with other Martins
in the corps address my mail with my last name first, then my initials,
and then my number, like so:
Civilian Technical Corps, etc.