TRANSCRIPT

AS - Ada Summers, interviewee / LR: Lyn Royce, interviewer

LR: [first bit cut off - 'with Ada Summers'] ... again, and um, we're gonna go back... you were gonna start to tell me some of the stories that you know about Harriet Tubman as specific to this... to the BME Church [Salem Chapel] here.

AS: Well, the 1... the 1 story that they seem to enjoy is when, uh, she was on the train. And, um, there's 2 of the bounty hunters were on the train and she heard the 1 say to the other 'isn't that that lady we're looking for with that big reward?' So she reached in her bag and pulled out a book and she didn't know if she had it right side up, or upside down, or what, and pretended to be reading because we all know she couldn't read or write. And then she heard the other 1 say 'no, no; the one we're looking for can't read or write - that lady's reading.' So they seem to get a kick out of that 1.

LR: That's great.

AS: And then, yeah, another 1 is when, uh, they were taught to follow the North Star. And I love when I have the school children in, because our quilt upstairs has the North Star and everything on it. And I'll say to them 'well what happened when they couldn't follow the North Star because it was as rainy night?' And there's usually 1 or 2 of the students that will say 'oh, they felt for the moss on a tree,' because the moss always grew on the north side of the tree. And I just learnt that myself a year ago. Watching a documentary.

LR: That's great...

AS: Then I had to ask is that true? You know. So...

LR: Very good!

AS: Yeah, there's several. And then of course like I said that... about no 1 ever being able to return once they started out with her. And how the 1 gentleman kept saying he had to go back, he had to go back and she said well I'd have to shoot you first. And I try to be careful with that with the students, but 8 out of 10 times they tell me! You know. So it's okay - so I kinda... I try to downplay that she'd shoot them and I say well she never had to shoot anyone that we know of, so obviously, you know, that man made it to safety, kind of thing. Yeah, so... but it's amazing the stuff that the students do know. And then it's amazing the stuff they don't know.

LR: What are the things they don't know?

AS: Especially... especially um, whatever tours coming in from the States. Where... Okay, here it wasn't taught in our schools, that that... you know back then before all our Network [Central Ontario Network for Black History] and Wilma [Morrison] and Gerry [Rodney] and all of them got busy getting it out there. But, um, I thought it was always taught in the States. And when I get the school classes, god, they know next to nothing about Harriet. They've heard... oh, you've heard of her... That's it! So I find it totally amazing. So I have since spoken with different teachers that have come up and they're saying this is why they're now getting into it, why they like to have these tours and things; that's why they're getting into it and a couple of the teachers have felt that we were far more advanced with that than they were.

LR: Oh really?

AS: Yeah.

LR: Interesting...

AS: You would figure through the States they would know that. But no. Oh, we've heard of her...