Description
Mr. Perry describes the conditions upon arrival in Egypt and where common necessities for life did not exist.
John Perry
Mr. John Perry was born October 30, 1936 in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. He came from a large family of nine children. During his teen years, he worked on fishing boats and local farms as a labourer and at age 17 decided to travel to Halifax to join the army. He accepted training in Camp Borden and spent two years in Manitoba. Too young to join the Korean War, Mr. Perry became part of the United Nations Emergency Force where he travelled to Egypt and worked in the motor transport area as a motor transport driver. After military service, Mr. Perry used his knowledge in motor transport and held various positions with the motor vehicle branch of provincial government. With 38 years service, Mr. Perry retired and settled with this family in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Transcript
It was hard to imagine though what we went through. We lived in tents and we had one building we lived in for awhile, no roof, no windows, no doors, just a shell of a building, part shell. Our outdoor theatre was against the wall of this shelled building. That’s where we showed our movies and you didn’t live in the elaborate life you’re living, we did have a chance to go to wet canteens, we call to have a beer; you’re allowed two beer only. They didn’t want you to get drunk, you know, or even feeling good. You had to be prepared in case of emergency all the time and in our canteen as well you couldn’t go and buy chocolate bars or tooth brush or tooth paste or writing paper. They just didn’t have it. It took them 10 or 11 months that I was in Egypt, it took them that long to get established and after that I heard that they started selling things like cameras and, you know, portable radios and tape recorders and things like that after but the first group that was there, that first year especially until at least November of ‘57 we had nothing.