The Good Old Days
Chibougamau, PQ
The writer of this anecdote went through great pains to find someone who was present at the opening of the station.
Success was achieved when he contacted CWO Grieve, Fighter Group’s Chief WO, who spent several years with 10 Radar Squadron, in the early days of CFS Chibougamau.
The CWO had many anecdotes to pass on to us, many of which could not be printed. The following story, however, could be repeated without any problem.
During his stay in Chibougamau, CWO Grieve and his wife gave birth to their first two children. At that time the local hospital was located in Chapais and travelling was hard due to unpaved roads and by the rarity and unaffordability of cars, especially for LAC’s or even Cpls. So when his wife was nearing the end of her term, LAC Grieve made arrangements with one of his good friends to provide transportation for the big day. His friend promised that his car would always be full of gas and ready for the trip at the first signs of labour.
At 01:00 hours on the 3rd of January, 1962, Mrs. Grieve felt that her labour was beginning, so LAC Grieve rushed to his friends house with a shoe in his mouth and shirt unbuttoned. When he finally woke up his friend Teddy Adamson, LAC Grieve ran back to his house, grabbed the suitcase, jumped in the car and told his friend to fly. But he forgot one important thing – his wife was still waiting under the houses porch.
Finally with everyone in the car, they left for Chapais.
LAC Grieve started to worry when he noticed the gas needle indicating almost empty, then it happened. They weren’t but 500 feet past the Chapais intersection when the car started to cough and choke and to complicate matters, Mrs. Grieves contractions were nearly every two minutes. They tried to start the car but it wouldn’t. Guess what was the problem? Yep, no gas. At that instant the two brave men looked at each other neither having assisted with a delivery before, said, "Stay here and I’ll go for help".
Teddy being the fastest of the two was out of the car and had started to run in the cold dark night but in the wrong direction. Twenty minutes passed and Teddy had not returned; fortunately for the Grieves, a provincial police car spotted them and stopped. LAC Grieve tried to tell the policeman that his wife needed to go to the hospital but knowing little French and the policeman little English, made things difficult.
LAC Grieve was screaming, "Chapais, Chapais", while pointing to his pregnant wife and the policeman was saying, "Non, Non, Chibougamau, Chibougamau". They all got in the policeman’s car and started in the direction of Chibougamau.
Once on the station, LAC Grieve woke up his Sgt., Doc Dorothy, who owned a car with sufficient gas to reach Chapais. Off they went once again. On their way to Chapais – guess who they crossed? Teddy – still running in the wrong direction. He was wearing only one shoe and looked as if he had seen a ghost; poor Teddy was terrified of bears.
When recollecting this story, CWO Grieve said "that night it seemed as if everybody in the town was giving birth, the place was packed with women in labour".
In the end, Mrs. Grieve gave birth to a beautiful little girl – but only three days later.