A memory

Two bulbs of garlic and two hand carved wooden kitchen implements. Nothing out of the ordinary except that the wooden implements hold a special memory for me.

We bought the implements some years ago, from the craftsman who carved them, on Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Pier 21 is now a National Historic Site and was the gateway to Canada for one million immigrants and the departure point for 500,000 Canadian military personnel during the Second World War. My father was one of those Canadian soldiers, and sailed across the Atlantic in the Queen Mary, the luxury Cunard Liner. I don't think that he enjoyed much luxury, however, the troops being squeezed into the ship like the proverbial sardines in a tin.