Page 16 - Coming Home from Overseas

ISSUE : Issue 34

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1983/8/1

Dan E. MacQuarrie, Middle River: (Where were you when the war ended?) We were in a place called Bethune. A little town. There's where we were when we got the word that she was gone, ended. (Were you fight? ing the day before?) Yeah, and there were 11 of our boys killed that day. And that was the sad part of it. One day, and they'd be safe. (How were you told?) The officers got the message. They signed in an old railway car. You might have heard that. It came over the wire; they had tele? phones, you know. Told us the war was over. And of course, the Germans were pulling out, for home. We started following them. Followed them right into Germany, across the Rhine Bridge. Oh Jesus, their horses were dying everyplace. When we were on the way to Germany, they were trying to pull some of their guns back, and you could see where the horses would give up, dead along? side the road. The guns were still there. And I saw a couple times there was a big piece cut out of the rump of the horse-- they must have been getting hungry. I guess we took about two weeks following them. Till we got to Germany. And they didn't keep us there, though. None of us were allowed into Berlin. It was out of bounds. (What did you do to celebrate?) Came: back, and this is where we found the wine cel- lar--in a castle in Belgium. And we stayed there over 6 months. (Drinking?) Yes, there was quite a bit of drinking. I know, myself and another fellow from Glace Bay, we were pals. He died last fall. And I went to bed--you just think of the luxury of getting into clean sheets, a good mat? tress, after sleeping on the ground. We were put there, you see, there was room for so many men there; I forget how many. It was a big castle. But every man had a bed. My friend came up and he shook me by the shoulder. He said, "Get up!" He was drunk, you know. "What the hell is going on?" I said. He said, "We found a wine cel? lar." Well of course, I got up too, and went down; and we started helping ourselves to the wine. It was in shelves there, in the basement. It was fellows from Glace Bay found it, too. Started exploring, you know, and they saw this door, and wondered what was behind the door. Well, the door didn't last long with those fellows, it was bro? ken in. Here was this big wine cellar, and quite a bit of brandy there, too. They called it cognac over there. Well, we started lugging it out--we got feed bags-- and hiding it--we were putting it into the hedges. And the room I was in, there was a flue going through it. There was no fire in it, of course. We started shoving it up the flue as far as we could reach. We had it there for months, They never bothered us, Oh, they found out, all right; a lot of them were drunk the next day. The colonel raised hell, said, "You fellows will have St. Peters Drug Store Ltd. Don Stone, Ph. C, Proprietor Open 6 Days a Week Mon. to Thur. open until 8 p.m. 535-2203 Fri. until 9 p.m. iSat. until 5 p.m. St Peters, N. a '''' Homes Are Our Business IIBI Kent Homes ??'SSB Builders of: ''''''' HEARTHSTONE COMPONENT HOMES KENCRAFT MINI HOMES KENT MODULAR HOMES For further information, contact your Area Manager: 322 Welton St,, Sydney, N. S, 539-4219 Main St., Dartmouth, N. S. 434-7600 46 Robie St., Truro, N. S. 895-2879 P. 0. Box 3456, Station "B", Saint John, N. B. 657-5550 P. 0. Box 50, Buctouche, N. B. 743-2482 P. 0. Box 355 Kentville, N. 678-6330 1229 Regent St Fredericton, N. 455-2732 P. 0. Box 956 Bathurst, N. B 546-3274 Ed's Saw Sharpening Hand & Circular Saws * Carbide Blades Planer Blades * Paper & Chipper Knives 274 Murphy Rd., Westmount, N. S. (Tel. 564-2160) Overlooking the Margaree Valley at the Junction of Route 19 and the Cabot Trail A full-accommodation Lodge featuring spacious rooms, dining room and lounge, swimming pool. Nearby are golf fairways, beaches, fresh and salt water fishing, camping, hiking. The best of Nova Scotian musicians en? tertain in our lounge every weekend. Check with us to see who's playing, and drop in for an enjoyable evening. P. 0. Box 550, MARGAREE FORKS, Nova Scotia BOE 2A0 Phone (902) 248-2193, William F. Maclsaac, mgr. RELAX IN THE BEAUTIFUL MARGAREE VALLEY

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