Growing up in central Alberta as an immigrant child in the 1950s and 60s wasn't easy — but it was interesting.
Red Deer author Eelkje VanderMeulen-Smart recalled both traumatic and amusing childhood experiences in her memoir Cardboard & Cigarettes. She believes the slim volume will resonate with those who lived through that era and provide a fascinating window into the past for those who didn't.
The story starts in the aftermath of the Second World War. As conditions were poor in Holland, the VanderMeulen family followed a relative to Edmonton in search of better work opportunities for Eelkje's father, who was a carpenter.
The cross-Atlantic sea voyage was so rough that she and her siblings had to be tied down. And then the long train journey from Montreal to Edmonton — on wooden seats with no food provided — was little better. VanderMeulen-Smart recalled her parents had to rush off to find food during brief train stops, and cooked it on a coal stove onboard the train.
"We arrived in Edmonton in mid-October when it was -30," she recalled.
Her dad found roofing jobs despite the bitter cold and helped erect the Edmonton Journal building. He soon came across an opportunity to build housing at the Penhold Air Base (now Springbrook). The family rode a Greyhound bus to Red Deer and moved into a rented "shanty" in the mostly rural West Park neighbourhood.
VanderMeulen-Smart's mother was unimpressed with her new surroundings. "She hated it here," the author recalled. "She really missed her home in Holland."
Five-year-old Eelkje would have to walk several kilometres to the South School, then located near the Red Deer Recreation Centre. While she learned to speak English, integration into her new community wasn't easy, in large part because of her father's strict views on religion and women's roles.
On his long list of forbidden activities for her and her siblings were no movie theatres, no dances, no hobby clubs, and no fraternizing with Catholics (her dad's ancestors fought for the Reformation).
"I don't think I had any friends," recalled VanderMeulen-Smart — until middle school.
But by Grade 8, she was sneaking cigarettes and hanging around downtown Red Deer after class. "We would stop by Eaton's," she recalled, when the department store still occupied a brick building on Little Gaetz. "We could stand and get our feet X-rayed" — using the latest technology to help fit customers with new shoes.
After VanderMeulen learned from a friend how to slip into the old Capital and Crescent movie theatres without paying, her world exploded in Technicolor. "I just loved it. I thought this is what I'm doing every weekend!"
The book also recalls the author's experiences at the Royale Cafe, where teens would hang out around the jukebox — as well as her early engagement to an older boy who would ultimately betray her.
Through recounting bullying teachers and open-mic community singing sessions on CKRD Radio, VanderMeulen-Smart believes her memoir strikes a balance between showing the "unbelievable" austerity of that long-ago world, alongside the fun of growing up in a pretty idyllic community of (then) 9,000 people.
"I wrote this for my sons. I wanted to let them know what it was like then," she said.
Cardboard & Cigarettes, a self-published memoir, is available at Indigo, Amazon and by texting 403-350-6980.