4. AFTER THE WAR.

In October of 1945 we left the rehabilitation depot at Torquay and boarded the QE-1, the Queen Elizabeth One ocean liner for our return to Canada.  After a lengthy train ride from Halifax via Lachine and Montreal I arrived in Regina in my RCAF officer’s uniform to be shown off by my parents as one of the returning “war heroes”.  There was euphoria all around and they were good times. Even in that small Jewish community there were several who did not return. The glory was only brief and then we all went back to our mundane activities of working our way back into civilian life.  I went back to my job as Chief Statistician at the Grain Research Laboratory of the Board of Grain Commissioners in Winnipeg.

GRADUATE STUDIES.

I used my service veteran benefits to go to the University of North Carolina to get a PhD in mathematical and experimental statistics.  There were several returning veterans in the program, American and Canadian, and quickly we went from an attitude of carefree soldiers-at-large to one of serious studious students in an accelerated academic graduate program.  Our social life was once again being neglected for the duration. 

On graduation I was offered an excellent job as Statistician at the Hawaiian Pineapple and Sugar Growers Association in Honolulu with what was considered a high salary at the time. Even then the conventional wisdom was that money and happiness were synonymous but since Hawaii was so far away and air travel was still in its infancy I declined and returned to Winnipeg.  That was the first time of two when I favoured lifestyle over money. My social life resumed.

BACHELOR DAYS

When I returned to Winnipeg apartment rentals were still scarce in 1949, but through a friend I managed to get a bachelor apartment in the downtown area and settled there for a spell.  Several bachelors my age were still left in town and we tended to hang around together even though in many respects bachelorhood was the only thing we had in common.  Freda Furman, the girl I would eventually marry, came back into my life during that period but she left to work in Montréal and our paths did not cross again until 1952.  I continued to work at the Grain Research Laboratory until 1950 when in response to a career ad in the local newspaper I applied for a job in the Operations Research Department at Abitibi Power and Paper Company and I moved to Toronto.

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