Truck stop for farmerettes

During World War II, Ontario school kids like Sheila McIlraith worked as “farmerettes,” helping to pick the crops. She first started going out to farms when she was just 13 and still in Grade 9.

Farmerettes at Inniskillin: Courtesy of Sheila McIlraith. Sheila is in the back row, far left.

Before I was old enough to go away for the summer, I remember going to Jane and Bloor and being picked up. We would stand in the back of a truck, maybe eight or 10 of us, and just hold on to the edges as we bounced along to market gardens, probably in the Clarkson area. We cut celery and pulled radishes. Can you imagine letting kids do that nowadays? 

The first summer in Niagara I worked at the Inniskillin farm, which grew peaches back then and is now a winery. That was a wonderful summer with great food and long hours. We worked from 7 in the morning until 10 at night, picking peaches during the day and packing at night. We worked seven days a week, with no days off unless it was rainy. We earned .50 a week, with room and board. 

Peaches have much less fuzz now than they did. I remember once getting a terrible peach fuzz rash and actually having to go to the hospital. I was sick and feverish. They gave me something, I don’t know what it was, but it worked.  

As a treat at Inniskillin, the boss took us to the Fort Erie race track and gave us , which was a handsome sum of money, to bet on the horses. I lost all my money very quickly, probably the first race. 

I also worked three summers in St. Davids near Niagara Falls. In the third year, they trained a small group of us to do grafting. You could have a good strong peach tree and have different varieties on it. So I remember learning how to graft.

As a farmerette, I never felt hard done by because everybody else was doing it. And you know, even now, I never regret any of the jobs I had. I learned very early on, the value of money and the value of hard work and doing a good job. It’s something that’s central to my whole being.

Sheila McIlraith in 2020 at her home in north Etobicoke.