One more thing before I leave Moxam (or maybe more than one thing).
When we lived there, our mother rejoined the Militia. She joined with her friend Gail Dumas, who had also come from Winnipeg (with her four young children – but no husband). They lived with us for a short time. By the time we moved from the house on 14th ave to Moxam, Gail and her kids lived in a rented house not far from Model Dairies, where our father worked until he got fired. She sometimes babysat the Monster Angel and one time I saw him sitting on the kitchen floor, at her feet, rubbing on her calf while she was standing at the sink washing dishes. He had this thing about nylon stockings (even when he was just three years old – or maybe it was a thing about rubbing a woman’s leg).
Anyway, our mother and Gail Dumas did the Militia thing together. They had been Militia pals back in Winnipeg and did some training at Camp Shilo, where Mother learned to drive a five ton truck. Militia was like going to Cubs. You didn’t go every day, just once a week, or something like that. Except in Militia, you got paid. Not very much, but still you got money just for going to hang out with your buddies and dressing up in your uniform. This is what Mother looked like in her Militia uniform.
I got to wear a uniform at Cubs and at Scouts, but they were not as cool as Mother’s uniform. Also I didn’t get paid to go to Cubs. In fact we had to pay money (our dues), every time we went. Sometimes I got dues money and some extra, so I could buy a day old donuts from the bakery on the way home from Cubs (in Winnipeg, where my Cub pack was the 22nd Winnipeg). In Calgary I went to the 51st Calgary Cub pack.
This photo was taken in our apartment at the Moxam. The red Lazy Boy chair was new then but eventually got a cigarette burn on the arm.
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Wade Harold Johnson - Canadian Novelist/Poet 