Gwen (James) Phillips

1948, 1949, Thedford

Listen to Gwen reading her story in this video. 

My name is Gwen Phillips (James) from Cornwall, Ont. I was a Farmerette in 1948 and 1949 in Thedford. Ont. They were two of the happiest summers ever.

Forms were given out at school and so I took one home but my mother was reluctant to let me go even though I was going with two friends, Margaret Haggard and Kate MacMillan. She finally gave in when my brother-in-law said he would get in touch with a friend near Forest to keep an eye on me. His friend’s name was Bob Lithgow.

The Lithgows said they would be in touch with me and sure enough they did come to the camp a couple of times to see how I was doing and they invited me to their farm for a weekend. I was treated as one of the family. The sons, Jack and Don, showed me around the farm and we spent many an hour on the swings just talking. Mrs. Lithgow baked the best apple pies.  I remember the long lane to their farm; it was lined with walnut trees on both sides. It was beautiful and I hear the trees are still there.

I was secretary at the camp the first year, my friend Kate was treasurer. Our camp mother was Mrs. Dunn. In the morning we rose early and made our own lunches; the food was set out by the cook and we had a lot to choose from. We were also given salt pills. The farmers picked us up between seven and eight o’clock and off we went to the onion fields.

I worked for the Carrothers family. What nice people they were. On the days I worked there alone they would invite me in at lunchtime to have a piece of pie. We headed back to camp around 5 p.m. We showered and changed and used many lemons to get the smell of onions off our hands. Dinner was around 6 p.m. and then we had free time to read or write home and sometimes play games before heading to bed by 10 p.m. We got sunburned but used suntan lotion often.  At the end of the summer, we went home with a great tan.

Besides the Carrothers farm, three of us were sent once to a cucumber farm. The man was mean and surly and when we stopped for lunch and he went into the house, we took off running and ended up near a creek so we had a swim and then hitchhiked back to camp. We never worked for him again, needless to say.

Another family I worked for a couple of times was the Love family. They had a son, Junior. I remember him driving me home one day and he said he wanted a kiss and I said no, so he said he would drive around the camp until I kissed him. I rolled down the window and said stop or I will scream so he stopped and let me out. That was the last time I worked for them.

We hitchhiked to Grand Bend often for a swim and on one occasion my friend and I started back to camp and a car stopped to pick us up but it was full of boys we didn’t like so we said no and they drove off. Well, they turned around and came back and we were frightened so we jumped into a ditch where I wet my pants. It was dark so we waited awhile and those boys didn’t come back so we started to hitchhike again and along came a car full of boys we knew. We climbed in, but the car was full, and I had to sit on someone’s lap and I was hoping he didn’t know my pants were wet. No seat belts in those days.

Another time Kate and I went out with a couple of local guys and they wanted to get some peaches so we stopped at the side of a peach orchard and took some peaches. We filled our pockets. On the way back, in the car I had a chuckle. I guess the fellow with Kate wanted a cuddle because all I heard was “stop, you’re squeezing my peaches!”

We hitchhiked everywhere, unless someone had a car. We visited Forest, Chatham, Grand Bend and Ipperwash.

My parents visited in Forest with my brother-in-law’s parents so I saw them there on the weekend. I wrote home often and received many letters from home. One of my sisters gave birth to a baby girl while I was away.

My cousin Ellen Williams came to Thedford near the end of the 1949 summer. After the camp closed, she and a girl from Quebec stayed at the Sitter farm for a few days before heading home. She remembered working for Grandpa Sitter. She met her future husband Norm Hall in Grand Bend; he was stationed at Ipperwash. After camp days he visited her in Cornwall many times and they married in 1952 and moved to Windsor where she still lives.

Many times we went to Ipperwash Beach and met fellows there for a swim. On one occasion Norm brought a friend Bob Snyder who was in the Navy. They came to the camp on Saturday and we went to Grand Bend for a swim. I forgot my bathing suit there and next day Bob shows up with a bathing suit he had bought for me. Someone took a picture of me in front of the camp. On Sunday we just walked around and ate at the café and then sat on the fence at the local school and just talked and had a great time.

My cousin must have told Bob it was my birthday because after the boys took us back to camp, we went up to bed and there was a parcel on my bed. Seemingly, Bob had gone to a local store and bought a gift and card and gave it to one of the girls and said give this to Gwen. It was a birthday card and a tin of lavender powder. I kept in touch with Bob for a while but then met my future husband in Cornwall.

I have often told my three daughters about those two summers at Thedford and the fun times we had. It didn’t seem like work to us, it was fun. Those memories will be with me forever.

Farmerettes on and around a truck carrying harvested onions from Walt Carrother’s fields. ’W.C.’ for ‘Walt Carrother’ is written on the onion racks.