Peace of the past: Pioneers of 1992

'1942 U.S. Army Visit was fun'

By Karla Marsh  

It was a pleasant time for 11-year-old Elsie Becker and her family when the U.S. Army made a camp near the family's farm at Montney, in 1942.  

For a brief period of time, the lives of American boys far from home and the lives of a pioneering family would be gently intertwined.  

There were about one hundred men in the camp, Elsie (now Myhre) recalls, and she remembers them being kind and very friendly towards the family.  

The camp cooks were happy to let the Beckers take leftovers from each day's meals, to feed their pigs. The Beckers would take their wagon to the camp and load buckets of food that otherwise would have been wasted.  

Army rations, though plentiful enough to be wasted, were monotonous fare for the soldiers. When an opportunity arose, they would gladly trade their canned and powdered "grub" to the locals in exchange for anything fresh. Chickens, pork, and vegetables were the homesteaders' stock in trade.  

One food item that the homesteaders didn't see much of in 1942 was candy. The soldiers seemed to have a ready supply, but as much as they would have loved to, they weren’t allowed to give it to the children directly.

The men took to hiding the candy in places they knew that the children would find it. Elsie remembers butterscotch being her favourite ‘find’.

Elsie also remembers them leaving peanut butter for the family to find.

There must have been a practical joker amongst them, as they didn’t leave it in a pail or a jar, but smeared all over the farmhouse gate. Elsie wasn’t too disappointed. She says, “the peanut butter in those days was full of oil and not pleasant at all to taste.”

On another occasion, the Becker family lent several of the soldiers a horse. They had planned to go visiting around the countryside for the day. The soldiers must have had quite a time visiting, as four of them rode the horse home backwards. Apparently, they had quite an intoxicating stay.