Life on the Farm Lands

October 19, 1941

I survived a Great Depression and an intensifying drought. But no longer were those days in my head. The only day that stuck in my head was September 10, 1939. It seems like just yesterday, when I went for a glass of water in my kitchen, the radio broadcast announced that Canada had declared war on Germany. I thought, “Will things start to look up or will I continue this endless ride of depression?” My thoughts were answered.
It was a dusky afternoon. While my wife and son were attending the fields on the farm, I went out to the mailbox. The red flag was up, we had mail. I opened the mailbox and to my surprise I had a letter from the government. I brought the letter home and opened it with my wife. The letter stated that farmers had to produce more crops and produce for the soldiers out on the battlefields. The need for food was increased even more. Soldiers could only fight so long as they had food to fuel their bodies. I soon realized that the nation was called to war. Not only were soldiers out on the battlefields fighting but the whole nation was fighting. This may just be my chance to have a new beginning on my farm and to show our troops that we had their backs.
Two weeks after I received that letter, things were changing around the farm. We had gotten new workers on the farm. The government had put posters in the city. Posters that urged teenagers to participate in the war effort by working on Farm Service Camps. I got a couple of volunteering teenagers on my farm. I was told to teach them how to harvest the crops, milk the cows, and check on the eggs and chickens. But I believe that I was taught more than I was teaching. These youngsters, full of energy, patriotism, and hope had shown me a true nation, a nation that would not rest until the war was over. They taught me to believe and to show the world the Canadian identity. Besides youngsters, I had gotten a handful of German Canadians on my farm. When the war broke out, many German Canadians were isolated and put in areas where they could be monitored and pose no threat to the nation. German Canadians were kept in Southern Alberta to work as farm laborers. Boy, I found the idea to be all wet! Germans on my farm! But even though I hated the idea, more hands on the farm wouldn’t have been bad. But there sure was tension between the German Canadians and the youngsters on my farm. I almost thought a war was going to break out on my farm.
Two months of hard labor, the farm was looking up. We had produced way more than before. My net income had increased drastically. I could afford better and new equipment on the farm. Continuous production of wheat, dairy and eggs to the market was booming. Those three months on the farm had been full of activity. But now I could see it, my farm taking a new turn. Things had finally begun to seem brighter…

-Gurt Bachett