By Earl Boan – Moose Jaw, Sask.
I can’t remember what year it was, but the economy had slowed down and I got laid off from my job in Moose Jaw. It seemed nobody in the city was hiring at the time.
Being young and adventurous, I’d suggested trying to find work in Calgary, but it was met with doubt. All of Alberta was in a slump as well, and it was equally difficult to find employment there.
I’d been stationed there for a short time during the war, so knowing a little bit about Calgary, I jumped on a train bound for Calgary. At that time, passenger trains travelled regularly.
Sometime after we’d crossed the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, I fell asleep. I woke up and saw we were slowing down.
In a rather nervous state
I looked out the window and thought some of buildings look familiar. When we stopped, I left the train with suitcase in hand. I found a hotel close-by and booked a room. It was already dark out, so I decided to go bed for the night and would look for work the next day.
As I started to undress, I glanced down at the phone directory sitting on the side table. In bold letters, it stated Medicine Hat Phone Directory. I was in the wrong city!
Panic set in. Hoping the same train would still be there, I dressed and rushed to the guy at the hotel desk and tried to explain that I was in the wrong city. I was in a rather nervous state by this time, so probably babbled at him.
He was probably thinking “How could anybody be so foolish?” but, he gave me back my money.
When I got back to the train station, I realized I had been on the wrong train. I tried the next one and it was the correct one, so I ventured on to Calgary, where I found a job the following day.
From then on, I stayed awake while traveling by train!
