Arguably the most important night in the lives of Lew, 95, and Hilda Duddridge (neé Thomas), 88, occurred while they were waiting for a train in Crewe, England, during a German bombing raid in 1944.

Lew, on a 48-hour pass from the Royal Canadian Air Force where he worked as a pilot in Bomber Command, was heading back to his camp in Yorkshire and Hilda was travelling to Blackpool for a week’s vacation with friends from her job as a telegraphist in Swansea, South Wales.

“They were five girls on holidays and the Germans had dropped a bomb and all the trains were stopped at this central point,” said Lew. “I watched these girls and I was particularly attracted to one of them (who) happened to be Hilda, so when the all-clear sounded and the conductors started blowing their whistles I noticed they were all getting on the same train as I was going on.

“I walked by Hilda and asked her if I could carry her bag. She said ‘yes’ and I’ve been carrying it ever since.”

“Don’t believe that part of it,” said Hilda.

Hilda’s job as a telegraphist made a relationship with a pilot a fairly distressing thing as all reports of missing servicemen went across her desk.

“Whenever there was someone missing in action they sent a telegram to the next of kin notifying them,” she said. “Where we received the telegrams is the job I had.”

Lew’s name never came across her desk, but he was one of the lucky ones. Thirteen young men from Hanley joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War and only two, Lew and his brother Len, made it back alive.

Lew and Hilda were married six months after their first meeting at the train station. On April 2, 1945, at St. James Anglican Church in Swansea Hilda became one of the 48,000 women who would later come to Canada as a war bride of a Canadian serviceman.

Sixty-eight years later, these women were celebrated by the Canadian War Brides and Families Association at a war brides reunion held April 12 to 14 at the Fairmont Empress hotel in Victoria, B.C.

“It was a great success,” said Hilda, noting at the reunion the brides and their escorts were treated to banquets, a military band, a church service and meet and greets with the other families. “It was really well attended and it was a lot of fun. It was great to meet all the other brides and find out what had happened to them and where they had landed.”

To read more please see the June 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Parishioners flocked to Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church this past Sunday to help celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Ordination to the Priesthood of Father Stephen Ripplinger.

“I’m very happy,” said Ripplinger, 89. “It’s my diamond jubilee. I still feel I’m worth something. The people are very nice here. In the summertime, spring and fall we have our church full with mostly visitors. Some Sundays they’re from everywhere, from Vancouver to the Maritimes. Elbow is a central place that people visit. They really draw people here because of what’s available with recreation and so on.”

Ripplinger said he was receiving calls all the past week leading up to the celebration mass and lunch later at the Elbow Community Centre on Sunday. He said this is really special for someone who actually retired 17 years ago.

“Elbow is my retirement,” he said, noting he served as priest at Davidson’s Sacred Heart Parish for eight years prior to Holy Redeemer. “I have a cottage here at the lake and they claimed me at Elbow. I’m supposed to be retired, but I’m still saying mass every Sunday at Elbow.”

The Kendal, Saskatchewan, native was ordained a priest on May 30, 1953, after spending seven years in the seminary first studying philosophy for three years in Edmonton before moving on to four years of theology study in Regina. His first parish was a 15-year stay in Ceylon, Sask. at Little Flower Church.

Ripplinger said he decided to join the priesthood after serving in the ordinance core during the Second World War with his brother Joseph.

“At that time, brothers could claim each other,” he said. “I was in the infantry in Shilo and he claimed me to Montreal. We worked at the dockyards in Montreal loading box cars and ships with Chevy and Ford motors and axles for our men in Russia and the desert.”

To read more please see the June 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The price of gas is likely to come down five to seven cents a litre over the next few weeks, but will then rise backup to an average of 130 to 133 cents a litre through the summer months, said a gas price tracker.

Jason Toews, co-founder of GasBuddy.com, said the price of gas “always” goes higher in the summer compared to the winter due to the higher summer driving season. He said issues with the Suncor Refinery near Edmonton this year has also caused gas prices to go five to six cents higher than they should be right now.

“In June, we’re going to see gas prices come down hopefully,” said Toews. “The bad news is we’ll see gas prices going back up in July and August. Davidson should be seeing prices probably around, within several weeks, down to around 126 to 127 (cents) per litre.”

As of last Friday the price of regular gas at the Shell gas station at Highway 11 and Gunners Gas and Convenience on King Edward Street was 135 cents per litre.

Toews said the price of a litre of regular gas was flat at 125.9 cents most of last summer. He said this price was “way too high” because there was not enough competition among gas stations to bring it down, but that has changed this year.

“What we’ve seen recently is that Costco came to Regina and is really changing the price trends and patterns in Regina,” he said. “It has had a ripple effect even into Saskatoon and through Davidson. It has really impacted prices all across the province.”

Costco moving into Regina has resulted in a more “competitive” market for gas throughout Saskatchewan, said Toews, resulting in less profit for gas stations unlike last summer.

“Right now the problem is not so much profit, but the supply and demand of gasoline,” he said. “It’s because of the shortage in gasoline caused by the Suncor Refinery in Edmonton. There is profit in gasoline right now, but at the wholesale level rather than the retail level.”

Brian Arend, a Davidson landscaper, said the high gas prices have hurt his pocketbook, so he has to ask customers if he can raise prices for cutting their lawns. He said the gas he buys for his lawnmowers is too expensive, so it is costing him more to do his job.

The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) offices in Watrous, Melville, Weyburn and North Battleford are being closed by the federal government with all employees at those offices receiving layoff notices.

Fabian Murphy, first vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada Agriculture Union, said they are shocked by the cuts. He said it was expected the employees would be relocated instead of being laid off.

“Those offices were the old Agro-Environmental Services or the old PFRA sites, small work sites,” said Murphy. “(When) Agro-Environmental Services was combined with Science and Technology a couple years ago and (the federal government) announced the closure of the PFRA farms it was anticipated that those employees would be affected to a certain degree, but we were certainly taken by surprise when they were given their notice.”

Murphy said this would affect PFRA patrons as they would no longer be able to utilize these offices to carry out their work as well as gain the “human resources assistance” available to them from these employees. He said the union has not received information on when exactly the offices would close, but that also depends on the employees.

“They have some options to decide if they’re going to be taking the transitional measure and leaving right away or if they’re going to try and hang around for a while,” he said. “They’re entitled to 120 days to make their decision and then after that they’re entitled to, if they choose, stay on for a year. The end date on those employees depends on their positions.”

Patrick Girard, senior media relations officer with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), said the government is closing these PFRA offices because they are shifting focus in the way it supports innovation and environmental work. He said with these closures they would now be fully integrated with the rest of the department’s research.

“This is enabling AAFC to better integrate agronomic and environmental expertise to address productivity (and) sustainability challenge in a more holistic way,” said Girard.

To read more please see the May 27 print edition of The Davidson Leader.