It Strikes Me Funny by G. Harrison: Dad's Navy days: 1944

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Dad's Navy days: 1944 - Comox, Vancouver Island (30)

"He took me to jail, but the cell was already

packed with sailors and cleaning equipment"

[Pg. 42, "DAD, WELL DONE"]

[Combined Ops badge, photo @ rafbeachunits]

[Doug Harrison w member of Canadian Women's Army Corps;

perhaps in B.C. Click here for more information re CWAC]

My father, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and of Combined Operations, experienced many trials and tribulations while overseas during WW2. Back home in Canada and attached to a Combined Ops training base, however, with more time and money on his hands and access to dances, beer, baseball and movies, he was known to be a trial and tribulation to others - but, surely, only on rare occasions.

In his memoirs he writes the following:

We used to go to the Riverside Hotel in Courtenay

and rent room number 14 because it had a window

that opened into an alley just about hip high. Then

we proceeded to drink Riverside dry, go to a dance

and return to the room and find another dozen sailors

who had come in the alley window. The room was

crammed, and when we left on Sunday morning the

manager’s head turned to and fro, like someone

watching a ping pong game. He was utterly astounded

but never called a halt because we were such nice guys.

["Riverside Hotel, top of hill (on right) w trees out front"]

I had a fight with an OPP* Constable named Carson.

I was drunk and he asked me for my I.D. card. I took

a punch at him, missed him by a pole length and he

assisted me to the cruiser, he was very kind. He had a

hammer lock on me so didn’t open the door, he just put

me through the open back window. You know, that

shoulder is still sore. He took me to jail, but the cell was

already packed with sailors and cleaning equipment, i.e.,

mops, brooms, etc. They lit the equipment on fire and

smoke forced us all out. He didn’t like me because our

team used to beat his team at ball. Big sissy. Poor loser.

["Ball team played often, e.g., in Courtenay and Campbell R."]

["My father and Chuck Rose. Good mates"]

At Givenchy L/Sea Rose and I took a job washing dishes,

but we gave everyone to understand that we had to be

at the beach at 1300 hours (1:00 p.m.). There were 150

ratings to start but many were shipped out. If we were

going to be late we grabbed dishes half full and said,

“you’re done”, because we couldn’t keep the girls waiting.

["Yup, I'm done!": Water colour from Legion magazine]

If Captain Windeyer ever wondered where his landing crafts were, he wouldn't have far to look. My father, Acting Coxswain by then, was known to pick up girls in the landing craft and take them for a swim or picnic at Tree Island, not far from The Spit.