Banker's Woman, Eh!

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. She is the
author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

When the author’s husband was made the manager of a bank in a Northern
Ontario town in the 1950s, she was not prepared for the wall of
indifference, rudeness, and downright hostility that she met on all
sides. This short book catalogues her woes, her gallant attempt to make
friends, her frustrating alliances with other newcomers who invariably
left, and her long struggle to convince her husband of her problems. He
was seldom home, spending his evenings at committee meetings and the
Lions Club, and was always reluctant to upset a client of the bank. The
story is at times unbelievable, but then history often is.

Sheila Hill admits that she was shy and “never got anything right,”
but her recollections establish that the townspeople hated newcomers.
The clearly written chapters give us a glimpse into the worst of
small-town attitudes 50 years ago. The dismal cast of characters
includes a womanizing doctor, a drunken dentist, a church rector who
didn’t call, and hordes of eager church workers who spurned the author
at every opportunity.

There were some small victories. Tired of hanging laundry outside in
subzero temperatures, Hill went shopping for one of the new electric
clothes dryers. Shopkeepers said women hung laundry outside and when she
tried to place an order, it was refused; but when the dryer arrived from
Simpson’s catalogue and she extolled its utility, 11 women in her
church group bought one. Hill even managed to escape at times, notably
when one of her newcomer friends took her to a Conservative convention
in Ottawa, where Diefenbaker winked at her.

At the end of the story, the mystery of the shocking treatment handed
out—to the author, not her husband—is hinted at but never explained.
The solution is: her husband finally saw the light and asked his bank
for a transfer.