This is Dad when he was doing some training with dogs for service in the war. He said he loved this part of his training - although he spoke very very little about his military service. "Oh yeah, the heavy ack-ack training was interesting..." he'd toss off and change the topic. Heavy ack-ack - Heavy anti-aircraft artillery guns. Here's a very interesting link about training in Canada on these guns, on the Memory Project.
After this time, he was trained in reading the new invention - RADAR - in Halifax, tracking the convoys coming into Halifax from the open seas. I must - MUST - get his military record. Apparently they did some testing of him (IQ test, perhaps?); and as a result of the findings, he was put on the RADAR after specialized. training.
The joke between him and mom was that he went in with lots of curly hair and no glasses, and came out with bald spots (although I see a bit of receded hairline) and needing glasses all the time - from the effects of watching the RADAR.
This photo was part of a Christmas card which has my name as well as my older sister's name, and since I was born in 1943, I'm assuming that the photo might have been taken that year as well. Of course, it could have been taken at an earlier time as well.
Dad: Johnny Gillespie, b.7 April 1907, Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Immigrated 1914 to Canada with family; d.19 Sep 1975, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
Celia, I love your dad's photo, I mean with his smile and the cute puppies, who wouldn't. People must have loved getting the photo at Christmas. BTW, we were born the same year!
ReplyDeleteDad had a great smile - made you want to smile back. I think he really enjoyed his time with the puppies. Thanks for commenting, Barbara.
DeleteI remember the photo well and the balding curly hair ..... but I do not remember Dad ever wearing glasses! I'm sure he might have needed them at times, but all my memories of him are without glasses, right to the time he died. I'll have to go check the albums again.
ReplyDeleteIt was his joke, Lee - he didn't wear glasses. You don't remember him joking around about how radar ruined his eyes-? He and Alex Finlayson used to joke about losing their hair, and Dad used to blame everything on the Radar installation, long hours in the dark room watching the screen etc. Hmmm. I wrote about it in my diary when I was in my late teens, too.
Deleteyou got me on that one - I don't remember hearing the joke about radar ruining his eyes, but he did blame his helmet for the bald spot!
DeleteWhat a great photograph Celia! I'll bet his military record would be very interesting indeed.
ReplyDeleteI know Jana - I have to get it soon. It's on my list to order very soon. The problem is that one never knows how many pages there are, and they don't tell you the cost until it's ready to ship (then they use your charge card) - it could be $20 or up to $80, and that could definitely foul up my budget! Maybe in the next month or two.
DeleteGreat photo! Your father reminds me very much of one of my cousins -- same smile. I like how two puppies seem to know their picture is being taken and the other two apparently having something off camera that is grabbing their attention. Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteI'll bet those 4 puppies looked 'perfectly-posed' a moment before the photo was taken! Thanks for commenting, John.
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