After reading about my love for the old Star Weekly magazine, a local collector of all things vintage named Ken Hatt lent me eight original wartime issues for my reading pleasure! Here's a peek inside.

(TO SEE THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, CLICK www.elinorflorence.com/blog/118739).

It’s still puzzling why so many prairie boys went to sea in World War Two – including George Crewe of landlocked Lethbridge, Alberta, who had never even seen the ocean until he joined the Royal Canadian Navy at age seventeen to train as a Boy Telegraphist.

Jim Ashworth of British Columbia wanted to become a fighter pilot – so badly that when the Royal Air Force ordered him to become a flight instructor, he deliberately failed the test – twice! His plan worked. He was sent to India, where he flew his Hurricane II-D fighter over occupied Burma, strafing Japanese supply boats.

Fearing an enemy invasion, thousands of Canadian girls as young as sixteen joined volunteer militia groups in wartime, learning how to conduct air raid patrols, use firearms and incredibly, how to handle exploding bombs. And two of them still live right here in my little town.

When war broke out, Canada’s Parliament refused point blank to allow women into the armed forces. Two years later, it finally gave in and women flocked to recruiting centres by the thousand. But only a small percentage earned the coveted overseas posting. Nancy Lee, from a remote ranch in the Rocky Mountains, was one of the fortunate few.