Attack Transport USS Colbert 1944

[Dutchman]

My grandfather was born 1896 in Toronto, Canada. He was a very proper British subject in every way. He was a liberal socialist democrat and a New Deal democrat. He had 3 daughters with my mother the middle child born in 1926 in Ithaca, New York. Her older sister was born in Virden, Manitoba. In 1916 he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force along with his older brother. In 1922 they left the farm in Virden and immigrated across the bridge at Niagara Falls and settled in Tompkins County, New York by Slatterville Springs.

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,tfqtwrggbskkdwxwfqbfsgtwfb,vi/fkksksfkdxswqfkgwbw/2/28344/2133622/StanleyMinns1916-vi.jpg

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,wqqbwqfqkgtgwdfxwfqbfsgtwfb,vi/sqfwttqgwxdfrbwtggb/2/28344/2133622/f011-vi.jpg

They were sharecroppers throughout the Great Depression with my grandfather taking work at the Ithaca farmer's coop when opportunity presented itself. But by 1944 things were very difficult for everybody in this country and most others. He loaded the three girls in the back of the 1936 Oldsmobile, tied the mattress on the roof and hit the road for the California shipyards building Liberty ships, his role as a carpenter.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/03145.htm
I donated a copy of this launch program so you'll see it at the bottom of the page.

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,rtbktdwdbqwrswxwfqbfsgtwfb,vi/rqqtwrkwgxtsqsrkfs/2/28344/2133622/SSColbert1-vi.jpg

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,rtbktdtsdbswdkxwfqbfsgtwfb,vi/gswssqrqtxgrqkgttrr/2/28344/2133622/SSColbert-vi.jpg

[jonp]

Great history! Do you have any idea why they left Canada in the first place before the Depression hit? Did it hit up there first and harder? As a social democrat they must have had some culture shock moving down here but the co-op must have made it a little easier to adjust to a new country.

Imagine. All the people now standing around on food stamps, welfare, free housing etc complaining they can't find a job and your ancesters not only left their own country for a new start but when it got hard here loaded up and drove all the way across it for another. wow

[Blackwater]

Thanks, Dutchman for a great little glimpse into another set of people in another time. The way those folks took whatever befell them in stride, and handled it with good humor and a lot of very balanced thought is surely heartwarming to us who've known others of that era and ilk. Personally, I can't see the people of the nations today handling adversity anything like the way those folks did. Hope I'm wrong, but I don't believe I am. Great post. Thanks, and love the pics.