Hub and Betty

"My family is from Winnipeg." said my pretty dental hygienist in Fallbrook, blond ponytail swinging back and forth as she worked in my mouth. Her bright blue eyes twinkled through her safety goggles as she picked and scraped. "Argh,…warggle fghes thetkljshhe skeldhljl jlejfhljsi." I replied, trying to nod my head. Translation: "Hey, I'm from Winnipeg too."

And so I met the wonderful Beth who as time went by, became a very good friend. Our Winnipeg connection grew and grew as we found things in common. After her mother died she and her siblings inherited a huge and wonderful photo collection. When I saw the prompt for this week I thought immediately of her photo of Hub and Betty, her parents, at the beach.

Hub and Betty

They look so happy and worry free! Like the couple in the prompt photo, they have their camera with them on the beach blanket. The handle means it was likely a Brownie box camera. In the back ground are slides of some kind that you climb up, slide down and plop down in the wet sand or water. Were they a precursor of the water park slides? Hub and Betty liked summers, the water and the sand. It made sense that later they would pack up the family, kiss the relatives goodbye and head for Southern California. But that was after the war.

en-wikipedia

When World War 2 began, the carefree beach days were put on hold. Hub joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He flew DC9's and Mosquitos.  Hub and Betty married on Boxing day, when he came home for Christmas break during the war.  My parents married on Boxing day too (December 26th) - something else we have in common.

deHavilland mosquito

From Wikipedia: The deHavilland Mosquito was called either the "Wooden Wonder" or the "Termite's Dream" because of its unusual plywood construction. Although it's construction did provide drawbacks in tropical climates, in the European theatre and Canada the aircraft proved to be outstandingly successful. Its wooden construction made it one of the first stealthy aircraft in an era of radar. It was probably one of the most versatile aircraft of the Second World War being used in fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, anti-shipping and even in transport roles. Bomber and reconnaissance variants carried no defensive armament relying instead on their high speed for protection.

 A total of 7,781 Mosquitos were built including 1,032 in Canada.

After they were married, Hub was stationed in Montreal and they both lived there in a quonset hut which had nothing more than drapes separating the different families.  

Beth relates, "He flew mostly transport to northern Africa.  He said they would land the plane and the men would come running out knowing he carried cigarettes and booze.   My brother recently told me that he arrived back at his base and he was totally confused about where where all the planes went and where were all the men?  It was D day and because he was away flying he never knew the plans that had been made for that famous day.  "  

Hub in his RCAF uniform

I think Beth looks a lot like her father, don't you? Except she actually has cigarettes and booze!

Beth in her book club party mode. Cigarettes and booze props only.