WAS WORK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 132, 21 July 1941, Page 6

WAS WORK

CANADIAN WOMEN BUSY HELPING AT THE Y.W.C.A. War is no longer a man's affaii. From the first day of this) war Canadian women have been active in war services. Not only arc they turning from tlic luxury trades to work in munitions, but they are learning to drive ambulances, and trucks, and to be motor mechanics, serving as avcill as in the customary ways of knitting and bandage making. Concentration of men in training camps; affectsi women in new ways and brings problems of leisure time that tax the capacity and ingenuity of small communities. On Saturday nights; towns within three to twenty miles of camps are literally taken over by troops on leave. Arranging dances under proper auspices is a service of countless women's committees. Many problems arise because so many women, motheirs, wives and sweethearts come to visit the men in camps. The army has ruled that no women be allowed, within camp bounds. The Y.W.C.A. with its proverbial adaptability, has therefore established hostess houses of great variety across Canada. In an cast coast town where the garrison isi a defence post and 50 to 70 per cent, of the men must always be on call, the hostess house provides a visiting place on the edge of the camp. Quarters are small—only tAvo fair-sized rooms —but 1100 women met their men here in one week. In one centre, air training is continuous twentyfour hours a day because practice in night flying is essential. Here, too, is a hostess house where the women come to meet the men w r ho have only two to three-hour leave during the week. The air force lias an unusual number of brides and these girls away from home find congenial companionship at the hostess houses. "Wives in Waiting." One Y.W.C.A. has organised a club of "Wives in Waiting" and in many associations Avar, brides and young wives arc finding comradeship in club groups and giving leadership to younger club groups. A moon couple too young to have accumulated funds for a trip stayed at one small hostess house near a camp fifteen miles from any toAvn. eral Aveddings have taken placc here nncl arrangements for many others haA r e been made by our hostesses. A small 10 x 15 "tuck shop" has been built to sell candy, cigarettes, etc. Hot Avatcr for tea is iihvavs ready for those who bring their picnics and it is a familiar sight to see a mother setting out the picnic Avhile the children race over to the barrier, a hundred'yards distant, to Avait for their daddy.