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Annie Smith

Annie Smith was born on September 29,1912 in the Woodville, Codroy Valley on the Southwest coast of Newfoundland. Her parents were William and Mary Ann Kendall. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a farmer and fisherman. Annie had one brother and four sisters. Her parents were lifelong residents of the Codroy Valley except for a short period of time when they lived in Halifax before they were married. Her parents were a hard working family that worked for whatever they got.

Her mother cleaned, cooked, looked after the children, and helped dig and plant vegetables. She also sheared sheep, washed wool, carded wool, cared for animals and helped bring in wood. Her father fished on his own in his own boat. There were times when he went away fishing on a schooner out of Halifax for up to six months at a time. The fish caught was codfish and it only sold for five cents a pound. Her parents grew carrots, cabbages, potatoes, turnips and parsnips. The family had a horse, some sheep and a cow. All of the work on the farm was done by hand using a horse, a cart and a plough. The family kept some of their produce to sell and lived off the rest.

Annie's family lived in a two-story house. The home had a wood stove for heat. The family used kerosene lamps for light. Electricity did not come to the Codroy Valley until 1963. Annie's mother used to scrub her clothes on a scrubboard using homemade soap. The family had an outhouse for a toilet. The family got their water from a well on their property. Annie and her siblings brought their water home in buckets.

Annie's mother made all the clothes that her family wore. She bought the material at local stores or she made over old clothes. She also spun and carded the wool from the family sheep to spin it into yarn. She used this yarn to knit clothes for the family.

If someone became sick when Annie was growing up a doctor had to be sent by train from Port aux Basques. There was no hospital in Port aux Basques until one opened there in 1952. If the patient was really sick then they had to be sent by train to Corner Brook or St. John's.

There was a mail service in the Codroy Valley when Annie was young. The mail would come in by train.

Annie and her family attended the local Anglican Church. The minister would come there occasionally from Port aux Basques on the train. She went to a local two-room school for three years until she finished grade two. Annie recalled that school was not considered important when she was growing up.

Annie remembered Christmas from her childhood fondly. She used to go mummering at Christmas. She remembered that her family had a roasted turkey or duck with vegetables for her Christmas dinner.

Annie left Newfoundland when she was seventeen years old to work as a serving girl in Halifax for two and one-half years. Her duties were to cook, clean, wash and serve meals. Annie remembered having to squeeze oranges in the morning to make juice. She was paid thirty-five dollars a month. When Annie came back to Newfoundland she was offered five dollars a month to work as a serving girl.

Annie remembered the Second World War because her brother was overseas in the Armed Forces.

Annie got married to Benedict Smith when she was nineteen years old. He was a fisherman and a farmer in the Codroy Valley. Annie had to become a Roman Catholic so that she and her husband could get married by a priest in the local Roman Catholic Church. Annie and Benedict had thirteen children. All of her children were raised Catholic. Annie gave birth to all of her children in her home with the help of a local midwife. This was not unusual at that time.

Benedict grew cabbages, turnips, carrots, potatoes and parsnips. The family had five cows as well. They made thirty pounds of butter a week that they sold to a local store for sixty cents a pound.

Annie made the clothes that her family wore and knitted items like caps, socks and mittens. She bought her groceries at a local store in Millville until a co-operative opened in the area. The groceries were charged and paid off or produce was traded for them.

When asked if it was hard raising a family Annie said, " It was hard but I didn't mind because I was happy." Annie feels that if she had more education her life would not have been much better. She knew people that had more education than she did that were no better off. When asked what the biggest change was in regards to the role of women that she has seen was, " There are more women out working today."

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Charlotte (Lottie) Dale, date of birth: November 29, 1915
2 July 2003
Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

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Charlotte Helena Matthews Dale (Lottie)

Charlotte Helena Matthews Dale, who is commonly known as Lottie, was born November 29th, 1915, in Charleston, Bonavista Bay, a community located on the East coast of Newfoundland. At eighty-eight years old she currently resides in her own home in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

Lottie's parents, Effie Lethbridge-Matthews and Charles Edward Matthews left Bonavista Bay in 1918, just after the First World War. They moved to St. John's, where they raised their family and later moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her father died. In 1964 her mother moved to Port aux Basques to live with Lottie, until she had a stroke. Her mother died 1975 in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. She was buried with her husband in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Lottie's grandfather was a boat builder. When they lived in St. John's her father was a contractor and a builder. He did do a little fishing and farming. When Lottie's family lived in Bonavista Bay, her mother was a homemaker, who cared for her three children and looked after her garden. In St. John's she owned a small grocery store.

Lottie went to George Street United Church in St. John's. There was a full time minister. Lottie did volunteer work for the church. She was in the senior choir, taught Sunday school and had the junior congregation. They would leave before the session started, and the Mission Band, which consisted of younger children, would meet once a week in the afternoon in the Bible classroom in the Church. Lottie was in the C.G.I.T program, which was a group for girls ages twelve to seventeen. After the age of seventeen they would become leaders. They would meet every Friday, seven o'clock in the evening in the Bible room at the church. She would go to camp every summer.

Lottie went to Centenary Hall, a school in St. John's. There were about fifty students in her class at school. There were classrooms upstairs and downstairs, bathrooms for girls, and the boy's washroom was in the basement. The gym was also in the basement. For fun she would go skipping, play hopscotch and marbles. She would play baseball in a field across from her house and play hockey on Murphy Pond.

Christmas wasn't like it is today - children get almost everything they want. When Lottie was a child she got three gifts from Santa and a stocking filled with fruit, candy, nuts and chocolate. Since her birthday was November 29th, her birthday gift was also under the tree. For Christmas dinner they would have turkey and all kinds of vegetables. For breakfast on Christmas day, they had eggs and bacon. Supper was a cold plate with macaroni salads, potato salads, chicken or turkey. Lottie went mummering once. About four or five of us went out from Lottie's house, and everywhere they went, people would join in the singing and dancing and telling jokes. They left with four or five people and ended up with twenty people going around. "We sure had a good time."

Lottie can't remember much about the depression. Her father always had a job and he would help the people around him that didn't have a job. He would give them food. Her father gave children money to buy candy and chocolate. "We all helped out in any way we could."

The Second World War affected Lottie a lot. She lost a brother. Her brother was a flight sergeant in the Royal Air Force and he was reported missing in action August 1943. Lottie often spends time looking at his picture and wondering what happened to him. There were often blackouts in St. John's, where all the lights would be turned off. She had two sisters who volunteered to go overseas. One was in the Air Force and the other was in the Army doing office work. Lottie could not volunteer because she had an ear infection. Instead she would knit socks and volunteer to work at the Air Force base on Kenny Hill in St. John's. She would darn socks, sew on badges and hem up uniform pants. She knows very little about the sinking of the Caribou on October 14th, 1942 because she was living in St. John's at the time. One hundred and thirty-seven people lost their lives.

Lottie was married in 1950 to Chesley Dale, who was working as a machinist with the Canadian National Railway in St. John's. Lottie and Chesley were married by Reverent Roland Baggs at the George Street United Church in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Lottie and Chesley moved to Port aux Basques in 1956 with their three children. It took them thirty-one hours by train from St. John's to Port aux Basques. They got stuck in the snow on the Gaft topsails. They were happy to get into Port aux Basques. They moved into a boarding house until they found a house to buy. They bought their new house from Mr. Isaac Davis in 1964. They renovated it and she still lives there today. Lottie's husband worked as a supervisor with the Canadian National Railway when they moved to Port aux Basques.

When they moved into their new house, they did have electricity and running water, but the water was dirty brown in color. It would be boiled to drink, but still maintained its dirty color. Water was boiled to wash the clothing as well and they had to wash in it to. Now they get their drinking water in Cape Ray.

When her husband was at work, she did the housework. She would cook and made clothing for her family. She baked cookies and cakes. Lottie bought her groceries at Martin Brother's. She would pay for her groceries every payday. She washed her clothes with an electrical washer and dryer; the dryer was used only on rainy days or when it snowed. They used a coal stove for heat. They would get their coal from Mr. Raymond LeRiche. He ordered coal from Sydney and it came across in a coal boat, loaded on trucks and brought to the door. There was a post office. It was on Main Street and she would walk to the post office. They did have a telephone. It was on a partyline. The first car they saw in Port aux Basques was owned by Mr. F. Pike. They owned their first car in 1967.

Lottie would cook typical meals. For the last thirty years she has been on a diet. She has had heart surgery twice, so she can only eat diet food. She eats all kinds of fruits and vegetables, "it was hard at first, but I got to like it."

Three of Lottie's children were born at St. Clare's Hospital in St. John's. One was born in the Cottage Hospital in Channel-Port aux Basques. All four children were born by a doctor. The Cottage Hospital was open when they moved to Port aux Basques. Dr. LeGrow was the doctor and his office was located in the Cottage Hospital.

Lottie has some home remedies that she would use when they couldn't get to a doctor. They used mustard plasters for pains, she mixed dry mustard with warm water. Sulphur mixed with molasses in a tablespoon was used for colds and a sore throat. They would mix molasses with liniment, boil it on the stove until it was taffy like, then removed from stove to cool. After it was cooled, they would stretch it into long strings that were cut, and made into candy to sooth a cough or sore throat.

The hardest part of raising a family was that there was no transportation. She had to walk wherever they went on gravel streets. There were no cars, only horses. Lottie never found it hard growing up. Her father always had a job. She wouldn't change anything about her life, "everything is perfect, always was." "I have fond memories from living on the Southwest coast. The best way to get to know people when you go to a strange place is to attend church and do volunteer work." She has traveled quite a lot, visiting Halifax, the Rockies, Winnipeg and Lake Louise. Lottie says, "Port aux Basques is a nice and friendly place to live in."

Over the years Lottie has volunteered for many organizations and has received awards for all her hard work. She has a life membership in the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Care Auxiliary, which was presented to her by the Dr. Charles Legrow Health Center Auxiliary. She is also one of the founders of the Channel Hospital Auxiliary, now known as the Dr. Charles Legrow Center Auxiliary in Grand Bay, Port aux Basques. She has volunteered with the gift shop at the Charles Legrow Center. She also volunteered at the old Cottage Hospital in Port aux Basques. She would go around with a cart of books and everything else for the men, women and children that were in the hospital. She has twenty years of service with the Girl Guide movement. She has a life membership with the Ladies Orange Benevolent Association (LOBA.) She has the 125th anniversary of Confederation of Canada medal from the Governor General of Canada. In 1990 she was given an honor from the Gateway Status of Women Council for her outstanding contribution to her community through leadership. In 1991 she was an honoury patron of the Port aux Basques Winter Carnival. She has the Red Cross long service pin, the Order of the Red Cross (she is the second person to receive this honor). She holds a Homecare Certificate of Red Cross Health. Lottie would go into people's homes and care for the sick before the hospital homecare came to Port aux Basques. She also has a certificate and merit pin from the Red Cross for her volunteer work. Lottie has volunteered with the handicapped students at the elementary and Junior High School in Port aux Basques. "I loved the work I did there." She was also one of the founders of the World Day of Prayer, a church service held in March of each year, that all faiths take part in. She is the coordinator and a contact person for the World Day of Prayer Committee in Port aux Basques. She is still actively involved in the Red Cross and she is still campaigning for the Cancer Society.

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Lottie Dale showing volunteer medals
2 July 2003
Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

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Charlotte Dale holding some of the medals that she has received for volunter service.

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Lottie Dale's father
1940
Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

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Charles Edward Mathews

Charlotte Dale's father on his way to service in the Second World War.

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Effie Billard, date of birth: September 5, 1916
7 July 2003
Margaree, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

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Effie Billard

Effie Billard was born on September 5, 1916 in the community of Deer Island on the South Coast of Newfoundland. Deer Island is a community that was located near the current community of Ramea. Her parents were John and Mary Northcott. Her father was a fisherman and her mother was a homemaker. Effie had two brothers and four sisters in all. The family was not very well off. Mary helped her husband with the fishery by helping split the catch and putting it out on the flake to dry. The family lived in a two-story house that was quite comfortable.

Effie regularly attended church when she lived with her parents on Deer Island. There was an Anglican chapel in the school on Deer Island. There was no full time minister assigned to Deer Island. The minister traveled to Deer Island by boat once a month. A lay reader conducted services when the minister was not there.

Effie remembered that she used to skip rope and play cards for fun when she was a child on Deer Island. There was not a lot to do on Deer Island because it was such an isolated community. Effie attended the local school in Deer Island until she finished grade nine. The school was a one-room school. Her mother got sick and Effie had to leave school to look after her. Effie would have finished school if her mother did not get sick.

Christmas was a good time when Effie was a child. She could expect to get an apple or some candy in her stocking. Her family had sheep and they would kill a lamb to eat during Christmas. Mummering was especially fun when Effie lived in Margaree because a mummer could come from Margaree, Port aux Basques or Isle aux Morts.

Effie left home and went to work as a serving girl when she was sixteen years old. She crossed over to Nova Scotia on the old Caribou. She worked for three years doing housework in Port aux Basques and she worked for three years in North Sydney. Effie was required to do all the work around the house and scrub the clothes on a washboard. Effie was paid five dollars a month and she knew some other servant girls that only got two dollars a month. She left this job when she was twenty-two years old to get married.

Effie got married to Gabriel Billard from Margaree when she was twenty-two years old. When they got married, he was working on a coal boat bringing coal from Cape Breton to Newfoundland. Later on, he worked as a fisherman and went on to become the owner of Billard's Fisheries in Margaree. When he was fishing, Gabriel fished for himself catching cod. This was prepared by frying or baking. The cod tongues were fried.

Effie and Gabriel got married in Port aux Basques. They had eleven children over the course of their marriage. Two of her children were born in the hospital and the others were born at home. A doctor came to help for two of her children at home and for the two born in the hospital. There was a midwife for the other seven children. After she was married, Effie moved to Margaree where she has resided for the past sixty-five years.

When Effie was first married, she remembered buying her groceries on credit. All your groceries were taken from the credit received based on the fish that your husband caught. They were married for five or six years before people started getting cash for their fish. Effie would buy cloth in Port aux Basques and make clothing for her children.

There was no health care in Margaree when Effie moved there. The closest doctor was in Port aux Basques. There was a Mrs. Ingram in Margaree who tended to people. She could set broken limbs. She could also stick together cuts with the turpentine from trees.

The home remedies that were used came right of the shelf. There was Scotch Emulsion and Bricks Tasteless that Effie would buy to treat her children.

There was no telephone service in Margaree when Effie moved there but there was a mail service. She had the first telephone in Margaree and Thelma Walters had the first telephone in Fox Roost. People would call and leave a message for a telegram.

Despite having such a large family, Effie enjoyed raising her family. There was a lot of work to do. There was no electricity so washing clothes for her family was a big chore because water had to be heated on the stove and clothes had to washed by hand on a scrubboard. Even ironing was a big chore because the irons had to be heated on the stove.

The family ate a lot of simple food like bread and butter. The family did not eat as people do today because there was not as much money around. Effie remembered that she was married quite a while before her family could afford a chicken from Port aux Basques. People could not get chicken or turkey easily then like they do today.

Effie remembered that she grew a garden and raised chickens to help feed the family. Effie grew carrots, potatoes, turnips and cabbages in her garden.

Effie can remember the Great Depression after she was married. She remembers that there was little money and that fruit was scarce. Her family was lucky because they got enough money and did not need dole.

She can also remember the Second World War after she was married. There were submarines in the waters off the Southwest coast. There were corvettes in the area trying to sink the submarines. In the nighttime, people would have to put up dark green blinds to block out all the light so that people could not see the shore from the water. People could not light up a cigarette or use a flash light outside. The women in the community used to meet at the school in Margaree to knit socks to send overseas. Effie remembers getting thank you letters from the soldiers when they got their socks.

A coal stove heated Effie's home in Margaree. The family used a slop pail instead of a toilet. The family heated water on the stove and took a bath in a galvanized tub.

When asked if she would change anything about her life Effie said that she would not change anything because, "I enjoyed living my life here." The biggest changes that she has seen since living here was the coming of water and electricity. She feels that life was harder growing up when compared to today. One of her big experiences was helping run the fish plant in Margaree. Most of the community worked there plus many others from other communities. Effie had to make the bread for some of the workers.

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Etta Maude Wells, date of birth: July 18, 1918
17 June 2003
Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

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Etta Maude Wells

Etta Maude Wells was born to Mae and Manuel Matthews on July 18th, 1918 in Grand Bay, Newfoundland. She is now residing in the Mountain Hope Manor retirement facility.

Mae and Manuel, Maude's parents, lived on the Southwest coast all their lives. Together Mae and Manuel had seven children (two boys, five girls). Manuel was a farmer at Barchois. Mary would help him with the work required for the family to get by. The family made hay, reared animals and grew vegetables. The vegetables that they grew were turnips, carrots, parsnips, onions, potatoes and cabbages. The family didn't have to buy their vegetables for the winter like some others because they grew their own. The family was not rich but they didn't want for anything. They ate a lot of what now would be termed as old fashion food. They ate potatoes, cabbage, turnips, salt-beef, pork, etc. What Maude recalled about the food of that time was that, "It tasted better then." This might be due to the fact that the vegetables and meats were fresher and not full of chemicals like today.

To buy their groceries the family had to walk to Channel-Port aux Basques to go to Battiste's, and other stores in the area. The only things they had to buy were beans, tea, sugar, molasses and other items that they could not provide themselves. They paid cash for everything and didn't rely on credit. Manuel raised horses, sheep, pigs, hens, and ducks. They made their own clothing by knitting and sewing. They would get sewing materials at a store in Channel. They would shear their own sheep, card the wool, spin it and use the wool to make yarn.

As a child, Maude would play games like hopscotch, and hide and blind for fun. They didn't have many toys like children do today. Maude and other children at that time always had work to be done. Maude had to scrub floors with a scrub brush and do other chores around the house. She grew up in a warm and comfortable home. "It wasn't fancy like the houses today, but they were satisfied," Maude recalled. There were four rooms upstairs and a kitchen and a pantry downstairs. There were no telephones in the home. Maude attended Anglican Church services in the chapel at St. Paul's School in Grand Bay. Reverend Martin and Canon Reid would come from Channel to hold the church services. St. Paul's school was located in Grand Bay where a minister's house is today. Maude attended school in Grand Bay as far as grade six. At that time after grade six a pupil was required to go to school in Channel-Port aux Basques if they wanted to continue their education. Maude's parents could not afford to pay for her room and board there and she was forced to leave school. Maude still has her old slate that she used in school. She says they use to wear long jackets and they use to use their sleeve to clean the slate. Maude also says when she was in school some teachers were strict and some others were not. Maude traveled to North Sydney when she was young for throat surgery. People were subject to a doctor's examination to determine if they were in good health before Canadian Customs would let them into Canada. This was before Confederation and Newfoundland was considered a foreign country. Maude says, "There is quite a difference now."

Christmas was different for Maude when she was a child than it is today for the children. Christmas was much simpler and a lot less commercial when Maude was a child. The only thing a child would get for Christmas was an apple, orange, or a piece of candy. Anything that you got was in your stocking rather than piled on the floor like today. They might receive a dress or a piece of clothing if they were lucky. The Christmas dinner would consist of things like a duck or a hen rather than the turkey dinners eaten today.

Maude married her husband, Rand Wells, at the age of twenty-one. Canon Martin married them in St. Paul's school chapel. She was one of the first people from the local area to get married there. Maude and Rand never had any children. Rand worked on a few different jobs throughout his life. He fished, he was the boss of a fish plant, and he worked in a store they owned in Grand Bay. Maude also worked at the store they owned. If someone got sick there was no hospital but there was a doctor available to them. The home remedies that they used involved using ginger wine and peppermint for an upset stomach. To get the little bit of mail they would receive they would have to go to Channel to pick it up.

Things have changed so dramatically in a household over the years. In those days they had to get water in buckets and carry it home from the well in Little Bay. Clothing had to be washed in a washtub with a washboard. Washtubs were also used for bathing in because most people had no bathtub. To make a washtub they would use a puncheon (a large barrel that molasses or other products came in) and cut the top off of it. Today we have running water, electricity, and washer and dryers. For light they used kerosene lamps and woodstoves for heat. They also used slop pails for toilets. They never had the modern conveniences that we have today.

Maude tells the story of what she remembers about the tragedy of the sinking of the ferry Caribou during the Second World War. She was in North Sydney at that time because she had to go there for an operation on her throat. She stayed at her brother-in-law's home for three weeks. She had her operation and didn't want to come home right away and she stayed there for a while. Her husband was fishing on a boat out of Port aux Basques at that time. She said that she was going to return home but someone told her to stay a couple of days longer. She told them she had to go home because something was telling her to. That was on a Wednesday and she landed in Port aux Basques on Thursday morning. On Friday morning she woke up in her own bed at home. Her husband went fishing but he was sent back because the Caribou was sunk. The ferry had been sunk by a German submarine Thursday night while crossing the Cabot Strait from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. Rand and other local boats were sent out to search for survivors. She knew people that died on the ship and others that survived.

Maude says she doesn't know about everybody but she did not find it easy growing up when she did. Life was hard and you had to work hard to get by.

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Eva Hann

Eva Hann was born on August 8, 1915, in the community of Rose Blanche on the Southwest coast of Newfoundland. At eighty-eight years old, she currently resides at the Gilbert's Place senior apartment complex in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

Eva's parents were Mary and Augustus Ashford and lived in the area of Rose Blanche referred to by locals as, "the neck." Augustus was a fisherman and Mary was a homemaker. Mary died at a young age when Eva was only four years old. After Mary died, Augustus married again. Over the course of two marriages, Eva had six siblings. These included three brothers and three sisters. Augustus caught fish in the ocean around Rose Blanche and salted his catch before sale. It was difficult at times when Eva was growing up. Her father had to make moccasins for his children to wear because it was not always possible to get boots for them. The boys would wear them but Eva never did because she always had a pair of lace up boots.

Eva worked in the fishery herself when she was fourteen years old. A fish processing area was set up aboard a schooner in Rose Blanche harbour. Eva worked packing the fish in brine. She would have to walk six miles back and forth to get to work. Eva received twelve cents an hour for packing fish. Eva never received actual cash. Instead, she received a slip of paper that was redeemed at the local merchants for goods and services.

The home that Eva grew up in was a two-story home with three bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, pantry and a porch were downstairs. There was one bedroom upstairs for the girls, one for the boys and one bedroom for her parents. Light for the home consisted of kerosene lamps. The home was heated with a stove that burned both wood and coal. The government would supply a family with one ton of coal for the winter if they needed it. Eva's father cut wood for the stove in the winter after the snow was down and the brooks were froze over. He would go out, cut the wood and bring it back on a sled. There was no bathroom in Eva's home when she grew up. Instead of a toilet, a slop pail was used. Adults would take a sponge bath with a pail of water because there was no bathtub. Children would bathe in a large washtub. Eva remembered that some of the home was furnished with homemade furniture.

Eva regularly attended the local Anglican Church in Rose Blanche. Rose Blanche was lucky because it had a minister assigned to the community. She attended St. Michael's School in Rose Blanche. She went as far as grade three in school and had her books to go to grade four. Eva left school because she had to go to work. St. Michael's had two rooms in it with one room for the high grades and one for the low grades. School was considered important when Eva was growing up because it was not open to everyone. Many people could not afford the books. Eva went through school up until grade three on second hand books that her uncle used. The only new books that Eva had in school was her grade four books and she left school before she could use them.

Eva remembered getting an orange or a few candies for her Christmas gifts. Sometimes she might get a wooden doll carved by her father or grandfather. Eva remembered getting a real doll one year for Christmas. She was not allowed to play with the doll and had to hang it on the wall and look at it. Eva took this doll with her after she was married and gave it to her oldest daughter to play with.

The family usually had salt water birds for their Christmas dinner such as turrs, ducks or tickleasses. Eva remembered one Christmas when her family had baked haddock for their Christmas dinner because there was nothing else to have.

Eva played the usual childhood games like hopscotch when she was growing up. She remembers having a lot of fun as a child. One of the chores that she remembers having to do as a child was scrubbing the floors of her family home. This had to be done with a scrub brush on your hands and knees because the house was floored over with white board. Eva's family was a little better off than some others in Rose Blanche because they had some canvas on the floor of their home.

Eva left Rose Blanche when she was fourteen years old to work as a serving girl in Burgeo. She worked in Burgeo for eight months for the Caines family and the Mercer family. Eva was paid five dollars a month and had to do the housework, wash clothes, and clean floors. Eva had to return to Rose Blanche when her stepmother died to look after her father and brothers.

Eva remembers that the Depression years were bad when she lived in Petites after she was married. Some people were in such a state that they only had one slice of bread for the entire family. Fisherman would have to go fishing with only molasses bread in their stomachs. The problem was not that there was not any fish to catch but fish was only selling for one-half cent a pound and it was hard to make money. It reminded her of another bad time back in the 1920's and 1930's. It was a bad time because the ice stayed in during the spring and the local fishermen could not get out. The family had to go on dole and all they got was molasses and flour, tea, beans and pork. The family received no sugar, milk, or butter. Her father said jokingly that the molasses was so black that he could tar the roof with it.

Eva used to help the local women knit wool socks for the soldiers overseas during the Second World War. The women from Petites would get together once a week to knit. The wool for these socks was donated by an outside agency. Eva can remember that submarines used to patrol off the Southwest Coast. These subs would come up and talk to the local fishermen. She could not remember if these subs were the enemy or not. The subs were reported to go into Bay Lemoine near Lapoile to charge their water tanks.

The sinking of the ferry Caribou really brought the war home for Eva. Before this event, Eva only heard about the war on the radio. The local merchant for Petites, Mr. Newman, was on the ferry. He was down in his berth getting ready for bed when the ferry was torpedoed. He only barely managed to get on deck in his underwear before the ship sank. Mr. Newman and the other survivors were taken to North Sydney. Eva remembers that a woman and a little girl from Rose Blanche were drowned when the ferry sank.

Eva got married in 1933 when she was eighteen years old to Percy Hann. They were married by the minister in Petites. Eva left Rose Blanche after she was married and moved to Petites. After she moved to Petites, Eva went fish making for the local fish merchant in Petites. Percy was a fisherman who fished out of Petites. He had his own boat and caught cod, herring, red fish, haddock, salmon and halibut. He used nets to catch salmon, herring and hook and line gear to catch codfish. Some of the catch was sold fresh to Newman Brother's and some of the rest was dried and sold that way. Eva remembers that Mr. Newman set up a fish plant in Petites to process fish one winter. The next year a new freezer unit was placed in Petites so that the fish could be frozen fresh and shipped out of Petites.

Eva made some of the clothing that her family wore. The material for these clothes came from the local store if the family could afford it. Sometimes she would make clothes out the empty sacks of one hundred pound bags of flour. This material would be bleached out with lye to take off the lettering and soften the flour bags. This material could be dyed any color depending on what was being made from it. Eva remembered that she made a dress from this material one time and dyed it red. The cloth made from these flour sacks was quite strong and could last a long time.

Eva had to wash her laundry on a scrubboard to get it clean. White clothes would have to be boiled on the stove with Gillette's Lye to make the clothes white.

Eva and her husband had three children over the course of her marriage. Sometimes it was hard raising their family but they always managed to put food on the table and clothes on their children's backs. Eva had a midwife for some of her children and a doctor for others. Eva's last child was born at the Cottage Hospital in Port aux Basques.

Petites was an isolated community and the closest medical care to them was in Port aux Basques. Home remedies were often used in times when medical help was not immediately available. A mustard plaster was used on a person's chest to break up a chest infection. A butter and pepper plaster was used if a person had a chest cold. Another cure for a chest cold was to rub the person down with goose grease. A cut finger would be treated by sticking it together with the gum from a spruce tree. A tonic made from sena leaves used to clean a person's blood was taken in the spring of the year.

The diet that her family ate was different from the diet eaten by people today. The family ate salt water birds and moose meat. At this time, there was no special hunting season for moose and it was legal to kill a moose at any time of the year. Another thing that the family ate a great deal of was berries from the local area. The moose meat was canned and the berries were jammed for preservation.

When she lived in Petites, her family kept their own animals and grew their own vegetables. The family had sheep, hens, chickens and ducks. The family had to go down to the bays and make hay to bring home feed for the sheep. The family did not have enough land to keep all their animals. Eva said it was fun to be outside all day working. Eva grew the vegetables that her family ate. The family grew carrots, turnips, cabbages, pumpkins and rhubarb. The family used kelp and sheep's manure for fertilizer. All the work in the garden was done by hand. There were no horses in Petites due to the lack of land. Eva remembers being in Port aux Basques and walking along the road when a man came along and gave her a ride on his horse and carriage to her destination.

Eva feels that life was different when she was growing up then it is today. Everyone was happy with his or her lot in life. It was hard work but no one complained. Eva was taught to obey her parents and always had to go to church when she was growing up. This a lot different from today Eva states.

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Evelyn Parsons

Evelyn Parsons was born August 10th, 1917 in Fortune Bay, located on the South coast of Newfoundland. At eighty-six years old, she now resides at the Mountain Hope Manor, in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

Evelyn's parents, Esther and Jerome (who was called Jerry), lived in Fortune Bay. Her father fished and her mother stayed home to look after the children. Her father did not own his own fishing equipment, he fished with someone else and they shared equipment. He caught cod, halibut and salmon.

Evelyn's family lived in a nice wooden house that had no bathrooms and no telephone. They did have a toilet but there was no bathtub in the house. There was a huge washtub. Water would be brought in to the house from a well. They had lamps that would be lit with a match, and stoves for heating. Every Monday morning everything would have to be done.

Evelyn helped look after the babies because she was the oldest. She would have to nurse them. She baked bread and she would buy the family's groceries down at the store. She never made her own clothing, but she had an aunt that did. "We worked hard." Evelyn was allowed out every three nights.

Her father had some sheep and her grandfather raised some animals. They grew vegetables and sometimes Evelyn would help in the garden if she didn't have too much to do. Her mother would boil, fry, bake and steam the fish her father caught. If someone got sick, a doctor would come down from Harbour Breton, a community on the South coast.

There was an Anglican church and Evelyn attended services as often as she could. She attended school for a little while, but left school to work at home after grade four.

For Christmas they would get a lot of things, but Evelyn was the oldest so she didn't get much. She used to go mummering at Christmas time, "It was fun."

Evelyn came to Port aux Basques as a servant girl when she was fourteen years old. Her duties included cleaning dishes, making bread, washing clothes and preparing dinner. She would make five dollars a month. When Evelyn came to Port aux Basques there was a hospital but only one doctor.

Evelyn can remember the depression, and she remembers that her family did receive some assistance. The war was on when Evelyn was young, but no one she knew was in the war. Some of her family worked at the train station, but they joined the army or the navy. Her husband was on the Caribou when it sunk and he was saved.

Evelyn has been married twice. She was married twenty years the first time, and she is currently married to George Parsons. Evelyn stayed at home, looking after her children. Only one of her children was born in the Cottage Hospital in Port aux Basques, most of the time she would have a midwife.

Evelyn thinks that women have it easier today, they have more to work with.

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Georgina Leriche, date of birth: 1917
16 June 2003
Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada