PETER PACEY
as told to Mrs. Lorne Pettitt (Marlene Senko) 1967

    I was born in that part of Austria which is now known as Poland, in 1894. After finishing school, I took a two year course in tailoring.

    When the First World War broke out, I enlisted in 1916 in an Infantry Division. During the course of the war I was sent to Roumania and Italy. Many hardships were encountered. Because of lack of sleep and lack of substantial food most of us soldiers would fall asleep while marching in the nights. For food, we often ate bread made from sawdust. When the war ended, our last meal before we went back to headquarters was boiled whole wheat. All this added to the bitterness of war fighting.

In 1924 I sailed to Canada.

    First I worked as a farm hand at Hodgeville, Saskatchewan for a year. Then I left and went to Regina and received a position as a tailor's assistant for one year. From here I moved to Estevan. Then after a year at Estevan, I went back to Hodgeville and bought my own tailor's shop.

    In 1929 I left Saskatchewan and came to Roblin, Manitoba where I tailored for two years. In 1931 I came to Russell. The town was small and everyone thought I was foolish to start a tailor's shop. But nevertheless I went ahead. Mr. Hay Gillespie made me a hand-power dry-cleaning machine. I was in the dry-cleaning and tailoring business until 1937.

    In 1936 I married Verna Keller. We have two children, Gloria (Mrs. Shan Murta), Edmonton, and Lucas, in Winnipeg.

    Gradually, as the years went by, I added dry goods, such as Ladies' and Men's clothing to my tailoring business. In 1947 I bought a garage owned by Doig's and had it remodelled into a store. Then four years later I built on the living quarters in which we now presently reside.

I am proud to say that Russell is my home town and that I am a citizen of it.

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