Jackie Takahashi
Magrath, AB on May 10, 1942
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: c/o George C. Card.
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: Magrath, Alta.,
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: Sunday, May 10, 1942
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: 2:00 P.M.
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: Dear Joan;
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: I received your letter on the fifth day of May but I didn't get it until the next day for I was out working somewhere else for a couple of days. We have been here 18 days. On the 8 and 9th my brother and I started planting the garden. Boy! What a place to make a garden. Clumps of hard dried dirt all over and the ground hard as stone. We had to plant the garden for there isn't no body else to do it.
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: Last night it rained and thundered and lightning flashed so bright that things could be seen plainly. This morning it was still raining. Boy! You should come down here and walk around. Mud about 2 inches. Go out side and you get mud all over your shoe. All we can do is sit in our little wee shack which is only about 10’ by 20’. No radio no nothing in fact no room to move. Yesterday it was so darn windy that your had, paper, cans, pails, and every thing was blown around. The wind made a terrible noise around the corner of the house. Gosh! I'm getting sick and tired of this country. Gee wiz the wind is starting to blow again. Anyways maybe it will dry the ground so a person could walk around with out getting a new sole on your shoe. Friday night about 11 o’clock the irrigation water came down the ditch which is along the side of the road right near our house. The water comes from a mountain in the United States. I haven’t told you about the surrounding yet. Well towards the north the land is quite level without large trees like B.C. Towards the east and south there is a high hill which is about 600ft higher then [sic] where we are. On the
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: side of the hill strips of green and brown can be see. From near our home if we look westwards we can see part of the Rocky. From Yoshio’s place which is SW of our place and much higher we can see part of the sugar factory at Raymond which is about 18 miles away. From there we can see about 4 train stations. We can tell if there is a station for we can see grain elevators.About a mile east of our place there is a low steep banked river or a creek running. This is a nice place, clean water down below and small trees and green grass.
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: One thing I miss is the big trees. Out here you pay 50 cents for a spruce tree about 2 ft tall.
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: There isn't nothing to do at all around here but go see your friends or catch goffers [sic] or try to. Riding a bike isn't much fun when the wind is blowing against you. I don't mind the rain but darn the wind and rain.
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: But soon I guess I will be saying gosh it’s hot I wish the wind will blow. The darn wind blows dust around the place and into your eyes. When the sun shines it gets too darn hot and dry.
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: In another two weeks time we will be working on our good old sugar beets for some are out all ready [sic]. Boy! Oh Boy! You can think of us bent over sweating and thinning the beats. Gosh!
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: I feel going to school but they told us not to consider school till September.
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: And about your hope. The letter you wrote came to me with black letters reading “examined by censor.”
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: Gosh I will miss the cherry and other fruits and even the flowers. Anyhow I remember seeing a tulip before I came here.
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: I am fine and I wish you are too. Well Good-bye till I write again.
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: Yours
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: Jack Takahashi
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: P.S. Where you get the idea that I write interesting letters
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Preferred Citation
Takahashi, Jackie. Correspondence from Jackie Takahashi to Joan Gillis. 10 May 1942. RBSC-ARC-1786-01-24. Joan Gillis fonds. University of British Columbia Library Rare Books and Special Collections, Vancouver, Canada.