Noel's Account of Crossing Canada in 1931 - Audio

When I first wrote about Noel's crossing through Canada on his way to the YMCA conferences in Toronto and Cleveland, I didn't remember that I had more first-person information about the trip to share.

In 1982, when I was only 12, I made an audio tape of my grandfather, Noel, recounting some family history, including a story about his trip through Canada with the Hawaiian delegation on the way to the YMCA conferences.

It's been a learning process for me to get the recording off the cassette tape and into a digitized format that I can share, but I'm finally finished with it.

So, below is a YouTube video link of Noel telling the story, plus a transcript of the recording. I hope you find it interesting.

Noel: "In 1931 when I came over to America, when we arrived in Honolulu, about 30 young Hawaiian boys got on the boat. They were going to the World Conferences of YMCAs in Toronto and Cleveland. And so, I being by myself, I joined them. And, they were singing Hawaiian songs and everything on the boat from Hawaii to Vancouver.

"And, when we got to Vancouver, I stayed at the same hotels they stayed at. We were invited to a basket-- a baseball game and we sang at intermission -- at half time we sang Hawaiian songs in the stands.

"And then, we traveled on the same train, the Canadian Pacific into the Rockies, and I traveled with them. And we sang in the First Class section to amuse the First Class people on the train. And we got into the observation cars, you know, with the glass roofs.

"And then, when we got to the station for Lake Louise, we got off there as guests of the management, and we stayed one night at the Chalet at Lake Louise. In return for that, we sang on the terrace at sunset."

Haley: "And by then, you knew all the Hawaiian songs."

Noel: "That's right. And then the next day, we all piled into a bus, and they took us the 40 miles to the Banff Springs Hotel. And we stayed overnight there and in return for that we sang on the terrace of the Banff Springs Hotel.

"And when we continued, then, we had a special car on the train for us all the way to Toronto."

No. 5 -- 18 June 1931

Mr. N. A. Hughes,
Passenger, R.M.S. "Niagara",
C/o Young Men's Christian Association,
Cambie Street,
VANCOUVER. B.C. Canada.

My dear Noel,

Here is another letter sent ahead of you , so that it might be awaiting you on arrival.

I need hardly say how anxious I am that you should watch your expenditures, especially when you take the train journey across Canada. My experience in my two crossings, indicates that you will be badgered by attendants on the train, to buy  postcards, books, fruit, spectacles and all kinds of things which they have for sale. Be adamant in your refusal of the things which you do not want and make it unmistakably clear that you do not want them, or you will have the life worried out of you.

The Banff train station as Noel might have seen it
on his journey through Canada
on the Canadian Pacific Rail in 1931.
Courtesy of Lictio via Flickr

The Pullman attendants are generally decent enough fellows, but naturally they live on the tips which they receive from tourists. Keep your tipping within reason. This will also apply to the hotels you stop at at Lake Louise and Banff. Most of these hotel employees are students from the Universities and Colleges who are earning money over their College Vacation and they naturally expect some degree of help for attention they give, but in many cases very little attention is expected and given and consequently you must be very wise and judicious in what is done by you in the tipping line.

Always ask the price of the room at the hotel before you engage it. Tell them flatly that you want a cheap room. Then remember that you may find in most of the hotels a considerable section of people who live on the tourists. All kinds of confidence tricks are worked. You will discover how may friends there are who want to make your acquaintance because they imagine if you are travelling you have money to burn.

Watch the pretty girl who drops her handbag, or her handkerchief, or otherwise attracts your attention. There are scores of them who are doing the rounds at the tourists resorts, who are of no class. They are generally attractively dressed and have any amount of self possession and poise. They are looking for "suckers", especially the chaps who come from Australia with plenty of money!

I hope you will have a thoroughly happy time as you cross the Great Continent. Don't forget to look up Archie Kirkpatrick at the Winnipeg Y. He is a New Zealander who was at Chicago Y College, and you will find him full of information concerning college life. You should be able to gather a great deal of helpful advice from him when you make contact with him. I have written him telling him of your coming.

Well, Cheerio! Keep a stiff upper lip; face the future with optimism and trust.

What I said in my earlier letters I repeat -- the effectiveness of your future work will be largely dependent upon the sense of comradeship you cultivate with Christ. I know of no other incentive to successful service that is not based upon devotion to Him and His cause.

Again, our hearts follow you on your journeyings.

With love from us all,

Dad

See related posts: Crossing Canada on the CPR

Crossing Canada on the CPR

Approximation of the route Noel took across Canada: (A) Victoria, British Columbia;
(B) Vancouver (C) Banff, Alberta (D) Winnipeg, Manitoba (E) Toronto

The next letter was addressed to Noel in Vancouver. He would have received it right before starting his train journey on the Canadian Pacific Rail across Canada on his way to Toronto.

For more about Noel's crossing of Canada, see
this post from 26 January 2013:

Noel's Account of Crossing Canada in 1931 - Audio

The post contains an audio file from 1982 of Noel
recounting his trip across Canada.

Also, for more about the Canada crossing, click
the tag Canada, which will bring up posts about the
crossing.

It's a trip that George writes about in his letters with fond memories and a certain amount of wistfulness, although that doesn't come through that well in the Vancouver letter.

While he does end with the wish that Noel has a "thoroughly happy time as you cross the Great Continent," most of the letter is full of advice on how to save money and avoid being swindled. The advice makes me wonder what first-hand knowledge George had of the experience.

It is in the other letters that his fondness for the journey comes out.

A travel poster of the correct-looking
vintage found through AllPosters.com

"Well, I suppose you have had a remarkably interesting journey so far. I know the run through the Canadian Rockies will remain a vivid memories for years to come," he said in an upcoming letter addressed to Noel in Toronto."Then your contacts with the beauties of Lake Louise and Banff will also please you."

And in his Hawaii letter: "You will have a wonderful time going through the Rockies, and I envy you the trip as it is one of the most remarkable railway journeys to be had anywhere in the World."

That sentiment that it is a great train journey holds true today, as the trip is consistently listed in the travel literature as one of the best in the world.

The above video is for the Mountaineer, which is a train that makes the trip across the Canadian Rockies today. Much of the route, especially around Banff and Lake Louise, is in a national park, and I can only guess that it is very similar looking to what Noel saw in 1931 and George saw in 1917 and 1919.

A travel poster of the correct-looking
vintage found through AllPosters.com

On a personal note, my family did  the car trip across the Canadian Rockies twice, both in 1977 and 1979, when I was 8 then 10 years old. I remember it vividly, and I also fell in love with Banff and Lake Louise.


I remember seeing the rail lines carved into and through the mountains, and my parents telling me what an incredible engineering feat it was.

Someday, when my son is older, maybe we'll get back there. Maybe we'll even get to take the train.