Marilyn Purcell

1945, Thedford

It was 1945 and I lived in Toronto and went from school for three months to work at Camp No. 6 at Thedford. I worked for Mr. Donald who had a peppermint farm.

When it was time for the peppermint to be harvested, it was put in a big vat and we trampled it down, with steam coming from the bottom (a very hot job.)

I had another great job working for one man. Most of the girls, as I recall, worked in the fields weeding and had calluses on their knees. They planted and weeded celery and onions. I drove a caterpillar up and down the rows with the farmer sitting on a contraption behind that pulled the weeds out.

My farmer had taken me into Forest to get my drivers’ license and I don’t think they even had a traffic light. I passed and am still driving without an accident.

I also helped the farmer’s wife pick cherries and she made pies for the harvesting when farm families got together to help each other.

We also had to stack the hay which was very heavy and hot work. We usually wore band aids on our noses as we were in the sun from early morning onwards, but we sure got great tans.

Sometimes on a Saturday night they would bring soldiers in from Camp Ipperwash for music and dancing and that was fun.

I think we made about $2.00 a day but as I recall, it was a great experience and we did have a lot of fun although I remember at night we were exhausted.