World War l - Outsidelands

11/08/12 - posted by Frank Grant

Now I suppose you are wondering why Frank is bring up the subject of that long ago war? Well, here is the reason: It is my belief that a large number of Outsidelands early "settlers" were veterans of that conflict. In the case of my family, that was the situation. My father was a veteran of that most horrible of all wars. My father and mother bought our place on 20th Avenue across from the southernmost Larson Park in 1926.

When my brother Charles and I were little kids we were often running in and out of garages on our block and frequently we would see uniforms from that war hanging there along with doughboy helments, gas masks, and rifles complete with bayonets. That helped bring that war home to us. Not only that, but is seems like there were many of my classmates at Parkside who had fathers also involved.

My mother had two older brothers who were in the Canadian Army. One, Charles, from whom by brother obtained his first name, died in combat in Flanders in Belgium. The other brother, Alan, from whom I won my middle name, was in a Scotch Highlander outfit, and they actually wore kilts in the trenches. The nick-name of their outfit was, "Ladies from Hell." He suffered from what they then called shell shock, and suffered from this for the rest of his life. He visited us once in the Outsidelands.

My guess is that there may be many of you Outsidelanders who also have relatives similarly involved in that long ago conflict. Am I right?