It’s a moment that remains etched in Stanley Lamb’s memory 80 years later.
Lamb, 90, grew up on his family’s grain farm just outside of Clareshome, Alta., a small town located about 125 kilometres south of Calgary. As a youngster, he attended classes at a tiny one-room school situated about 15 km east of town.
On a Monday morning in 1942, Lamb and his classmates were startled when they heard a loud, booming noise over the school. They rushed outside to see what the cause of the disturbance was and were greeted by the sight of a single-engine Harvard training aircraft flying overhead. Minutes later, the pilot of the plane made a U-turn and flew back toward the school. As he approached the school a second time, the pilot opened a window on the plane’s canopy and dropped a small box, which landed on the school grounds.
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The students rushed to the box and opened it. Inside they found a pair of lady’s gloves and a scarf. As it turned out, the gloves and scarf belonged to their female teacher who had recently gone on a date with the pilot, who was training at the nearby British Commonwealth flight school.
“That was his way of returning her scarf and gloves,” says Lamb, who shared his story with Grainews after readers were asked in a recent issue to share their wartime memories.
“It was a pretty big thing for country kids 10 miles from town. Most of us were pretty isolated at the time. It was one heck of a lot of noise. I don’t think I’d ever seen an airplane before that.”
Lamb and his brother eventually took over operation of the family farm. He retired from farming about six years ago but still provides guidance to his grandchildren who now run the farm.
