Green Team 2008 Interviews.

              Table of Contents
1.0 Charlie Power
1.1 Interview Report
1.2 Consent FOIl11
1. 3 Interview
2.0 Mary Roche
3.0
2. I Interview Report
2.2 Consent FOIl11
2.3 Interview
3.1 Interview Report
3.2 Consent FOIl11
3.3 Interview
4.0 Interview Questions
(
Charlie Power
2008
Interview Report
Interviewee: Charlie Power
Interviewers: Skye Fisher, Emily Roche, Sean Kennedy and Jenna Barney
Date of Interview: August II'h, 2008
Time of Interview: I :00 pm - 1:40 pm
Place of Interview: Council Chambers, Town Hall
Recording Device: Sony HDD HandyCam
Transcription: Yes
Consent Form Signed: Yes
Notes:
- Dairy farming (number of farms)
- Delivering milk to town
- Description- typical day on the farm
- Family histoy in farming
- Changes with machinery and pasteurization
- Winter on the farm
- Dances
- Movies in town
- Differing roles of men and women
- Christmas
- Cold remedy: rum and molasses
- Collie dogs
- Old homestead
- First car in Outer Cove
- Chewing Tobacco Story
- Forges and Blacksmiths
- Tuberculosis
- Weddings
- Clubs in St. John's
- Skinny Dipping Story
- Norms for marriage
- Vacations- past vs. present
- Regatta
- Nix Power
- Plane Crash
- War Stories
* Charlie Power confused Emily for her cousin Colleen and mistook Sean
Kennedy as Jack Griffm's grandson, rather than great-nephew.
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Interview Consent Form
, agree to allow the
Conservation Corps Green Team for Logy Bay-Middle Cove­Outer
Cove to record my interview on video for the town museum.
I understand that the museum will keep this video interview on
file, and I give permission for the museum to present a
transcription or a digital video file of the interview as part of an
exhibit on the history of the town.
Signature
Date
Interview with Charlie Power
Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Green Team 2008-08-20
SKYE: My name is Skye Fisher and I'm here with Jenna Barney. Today we' re
interviewing Charlie Power. We will be asking questions about the farming industry and
the lifestyle in the town of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove in the past Let's get
started.
SK YE: So, um, approximately how many farms were in, like, Outer Cove in the past?
CHARLIE: There .. . were six farms, but at that time just about everybody had a cow and
they ... you know ... they had their own produce, their own milk, you know. At that time,
you know And that's ... there were six dairy farms; Power's, Pine's, Kelly' s, Dyer' s, and
uh ... Roche' s, and that was it there were five, five dairy farms.
SKYE: Okay ...
CHARLIE: And that's what they call, known as big farms, you know? Between twenty,
fifteen, or twenty five cows at that time. That was considered a big farm at that time ...
yeah, yeah
SKYE: So were most of the products from these farms like used by the people who
owned them, or did they sell them?
CHARLIE: They would sell them to St John's, yeah.
SKYE: Okay.
CHARLIE: We used to deliver milk instead to St Claire's hospital, we used about eighty
quarts a day in there, those big quarts, there wasn 't litres at that time, it was quarts.
SKYE: Okay.
CHARLIE: And then we used to go out to different people in town you know, and they
used want a pint or a quart a day.
JENNA: So, how much did it cost to get like a quart oflike if you sold it?
CHARLIE: A quart of milk ... well , milk was about 70 cents a gallon back then you know
back in that day and milk was $3.60 a litre (gallon).
JENNA: Yeah?
CHARLIE: Now, I'm going back now 25 or 30 years. I left school when I was fourteen
to start the farm . I was supposed to be a farmer then.
JENNA: Mm hmmm
CHARLIE: Yeah, that's it. ...
SK YE: So how did, how did you deliver it to people? Did you have cars to bring it in?
CHARLIE: It was delivered by horse and wagon first you know? And then we usually
moved it to a truck, see? For years we went to town in a horse and wagon in the
winter. .. the summer and a horse and sleigh in the summer. .. the wintertime. And the
roads used to be ploughed at the time, go to town crossed wheels and everything ­gesture-
right through the snow banks that time. Times have changed quite a bit since
then ... Yeah ...
SKYE AND JENNA: Yup ...
SKYE: So what would be like a typical day if you were working on the farm? What time
would you get up and like what would you have to do to like to like get the product ready
and stuff?
CHARLIE: There is some times when you' re farming that you have to get up at five in
the morning at that time you milked the cows by hand, you know? Uh ... and ... milk them
with your bare hands at that time, see? And then you'd farm all day long and put the milk
in the bottles and then you'd deliver it to the city. Then you'd come home then and work
on the cows, brush them down and clean 'em up and have to be breeding cows in
between, you know?
JENNA: So it took all day?
CHARLIE: All day, sometimes between five in the morning until ten in the night. When
the cows were having calves you had to watch them because, you know, in case
something could go wrong. Cows meant a lot to you in that time. Yeah ...
SKYE: Were farms, like, typically passed, like, through, like, the same family, like,
would you take over the farm ... ?
CHARLIE: Yes, mostly always.
SKYE: Oh, okay.
CHARLIE: When [ left school when I was fourteen, [ started farming with my father and
my brother. And, uh, well my father, got the well- the farming, from him, from his- his
grandfather. Now his grandfather got the land granted to him in 1842, I got the papers
down there now. And he farmed there until he died in 1923 and then my father took the
farm, and I worked for my father when I was, I was- whenever he died, really, he died ...
1958, he died. So [ went on myself, my brother ... yeah, the farm, see. The farm 's still
there but there 's no farming anymore. I retired in uh '98 and ended farming. My sons all
work in St. John's and the place got built up with houses all around us we had to you
know ... takes the exquisiteness out offanning ... yeah ...
JENNA: So everything was by hand? Was there like any machinery or any tools or
anything?
CHARLIE: No, we had machinery you know after, uh, what. .. whereabouts ... milking
cows since ... milked my first cow when I was seven and we used to milk cows by hand
and then in the sixties we got the milk machines you know. We milked them all by
milking machines then.
JENNA: So did they cost a lot of money, to buy the milking machines?
CHARLIE: Not necessarily ... oh well they cost. .. at that time the money is the same as it
is today, the price, the price went with the times. You take it my father bought the first
fann tractor in St. John's East in 1947, he paid eleven hundred dollars for a tractor that
time and that was a lot of money. You could buy a new pick-up then I s'pose maybe for
seventeen or sixteen hundred, see? Yeah. So as time went on, the custom of
pasteurization came in and we had to leave the hospital because it had to be all
pasteurized. So we had to fire it into Sunshine Dairy and we got those milk tanks,
stainless steel tanks to fill and the milk trucks came down every second day to truck the
milk out, the St. John's truck, see, to take it out to St. John 's. We didn 't have to lug
around these big milk cans anymore then.
JENNA: Mm hmm
CHARLIE: Yeah ...
JENNA: Umm, so how was the fanning different for different seasons like in the
summertime versus the wintertime, like what did you do in the wintertime?
CHARLIE: Wintertime, well you had to uh go to town that was a big thing at that time,
on horse and sleigh, see?
JENNA: Ok ...
CHARLIE: So you had to go every day, even in a stonn, you'd be gone for quite a while.
JENNA: You could still do your milking and fanning and make your money and stuff?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, same thing yeah but you wouldn 't make money as easily 'cause you
had to feed your cattle and brush your feed, they weren' t eating grass outside.
JENNA: Oh ok ....
CHARLIE: And then you had to cut your hay in the summer, that's something else you
had to do in the summertime on a farm, you had to cut the hay and dry it and sack it away
for the winter, have it ready for the winter.
JENNA: Oh, so was it just cows, was there any other animals?
CHARLIE: Oh no, we had sheep on the farm too.
JENNA: Sheep?
CHARLIE: Oh yeah and pigs
JENNA: Any chickens?
CHARLIE: Hens, yeah, a flock of hens in the yard.
JENNA: Did you sell like any eggs?
CHARLIE: Oh yeah, we used to sell the eggs. My older brother, he is-he was a fireman
and when he was young, he used to shear the sheep, when he was young, you know? And
my mother used to carve the wool and make mitts and socks for us that way you know?
JENNA: Yeah ...
CHARLIE: Yeah, and he was in Greenland for a while gone and I used to take his set of
keys and that time you'd be so happy to have the car, you'd say you'd be broken up.
JENNA: So, uh, in the town farming was a big thing for. .. ?
CHARLIE: Yes, yeah it was. Most didn't stay in school at that time. I left school at
fourteen. I was thought as a man then. [could drive a King Horse or a tractor. You'd
consider yourself a man. A lot of my buddies did, they left school in fishing boats with
their fathers.
JENNA: So did you do any fishing?
CHARLIE: No not really fishing all farming. They all gave up fishing and went to
Greenland, Goose Bay, Pepperell base. Yup ... We would, uh, we would, uh you would
say in the wintertime we had to get the wood to keep the house warm and chillatny. And
you'd cut your stakes and your line ups for fencing and you cut them in the woods in the
winter and you'd haul em' on horse and sled home and cut the tops on your stakes and
make fence posts you know?
JENNA: Yeah, what did you do in like your spare time, like what'd you do for fun?
CHARLIE: Well, kicked a little ball and played piddly, you hear about piddly the other
day on the radio? They started playing out in uh, they started playing piddly back in
Carbonear. That was a big game here, piddly.
JENNA: How'd you play that?
CHARLIE: Two sticks, two rocks, two sticks. Had no money to buy ... you know? Then
Sean Kennedy's grandfather, Jack Griffin, he used to play piddly with me for the plainest
time. - Laughs - Yeah, he was an 01 ' buddy of mine. He worked on Pines Farm, he was a
farmer too, worked on Pines Farm. And Jack Griffin, John's grandfather, worked there.
Uh, he was old enough to go to Greenland and Goose Bay, yeah.
JENNA: Now I'm gonna ask you some more like keep on the, move away a little bit from
farming, and talk more about like lifestyle and stuff? Urn, what was like a typical, like on
the weekends? Did you work all. .. ?
CHARLIE: Well, Sunday and Monday. Well, you couldn't tum off the cows, you had to
milk Sunday and Monday.
JENNA: Okay, so did you have to go to church and stuff too?
CHARLIE: Church, oh yeah, church.
JENNA: How often was church then?
CHARLIE: Every Sunday we'd go to church
JENNA: Every Sunday?
CHARLIE: Every first Friday of the month we'd go to church.
JENNA: When you were young then, when you'd go to school, was there church before
school?
CHARLIE: Yes, there'd be church 8:30 in the morning, we'd go to church, go to school
nine o'clock.
JENNA: Did you guys have any like, urn dances or anything?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, there was dances yeah, J can assure you yeah. There was dances
yeah. Over in the little red school house, yeah.
JENNA: Yeah?
CHARLIE: Yeah dance and a scattered fight - Laughs -
JENNA: So you guys usually stayed in Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove?
CHARLIE: No, used to go to Torbay for a dance.
JENNA: Torbay?
CHARLIE: Some Sunday nights in Outer Cove, and Sundays you'd rest, and the next
Sunday there 'd be a dance in Torbay. Back and forth, you know?
JENNA: Did you ever go out in town, out in St. John's for anything?
CHARLIE: Well, we delivered milk on Saturday and a movie in the night time.
JENNA: Okay. When did they get movies in here?
CHARLIE: Movies?
JENNA: Like a movie theatre.
CHARLIE: In St. John' s, weill wouldn't know. It was there when I went there.
JENNA: So it was there for a long time.
CHARLIE: Yeah, yeah.
JENNA: Was it a drive-thru? Or was it a theatre?
CHARLIE: Oh no, it was a theatre, no drive-thru.
JENNA: Oh okay.
CHARLIE: There were what, one, two, three, four theatres. There was Nickel Theatre,
and there was Cabot Theatre, the Majestic, and the York, and uh there was, wait a
minute ... the Star. The Star Theatre, yeah.
JENNA: I didn 't know they had them.
CHARLIE: Yeah, five theatres.
JENNA: Okay. What about meals and stuff'? Would you guys have like, Sunday dinner
and stuff like now?
CHARLIE: Well Sunday dinner would be pork and cabbage, you know?
JENNA: So did the men help the women work, and the women help the men? Or was
it. ..
CHARLIE: The women used to help the men in the winter - summertime, weeding the
gardens, they always helped weedin', weedin' the potatoes and turnips and carrots, you
know.
JENNA: Did they help with the cows or anything?
CHARLIE: Sometimes they would, yeah.
JENNA: Yeah.
CHARLIE: Yeah, well my wife often she helped me around with the calves when there
was a problem. We had trouble birthing a calf, she'd have to help the cow, you know?
Someone to help you, with no one around you'd have a woman to give you a hand.
JENNA: Okay.
CHARLIE: Sometimes the calves were big or something, you know?
JENNA: So what about like holidays and stuff? What'd you guys do on like Christmas or
like what was the ... ?
CHARLIE: Christmas, well you were picking your mummers.
JENNA: You guys had mummering and stuff?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, they'd go around, uh Boxing Day you start mummerin' ...
JENNA: So you still had to work during Christmas too J'd guess?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, yeah, yeah, in the night time you'd do mummering.
JENNA: Yeah ... What about for urn, if you guys were sick or anything? Were there any
doctors around or anything?
CHARLIE: Oh ... doctors yeah. - Laughs - Your mother was your doctor at that time, you
know.
JENNA: Yeah.
CHARLIE: Gave you stuff you'd take for colds and that. Rurn and molasses was the
thing at that time.
JENNA: Yeah? You guys had a lot of like home remedies?
CHARLIE: Yes it was, maybe your dad would give you a shot of rum and molasses and
when you'd get to the top ofthe stairs you was half drunk.
GREEN TEAM: - Laughs -
CHARLIE: Wake up with a hangover.
SKYE: - Laughs -
CHARLIE: You got the hangover, it was worse than the flu . - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: - Laughs -
JENNA: Urn. besides for the urn. cows and stuff and the animals on the farm, did you
guys have any other pets, did you have any dogs or cats?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, we had dogs. we had dogs that used to round the cattle up, upwards
you know. The collie dogs, they'd go out in the field, and turn the cows in. Then wake
up in the morning and the cows'd be in. They were the kind of dogs used to stop them in
the bam door and then a big old cow- they 'd run into it, she wanted to be in then, then
she'd go out in the field and round em up, then, she'd catch em by the heel, a little nip
and that. She was like those collie dogs on TV, on the sheep shows, ever see that? In the
morning some days, bringing the sheep into the coral, those were the kind of dogs we
had- coli ie dogs.
JENNA: Mhm.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
JENNA: Urn, what about your home? Did you live in, like, the same home you live in
now?
CHARLIE: No, I lived in the old homestead, there were ten of us in the family, ten
children- five boys and five girls.
JENNA: In one house?
CHARLIE: In one house.
JENNA: How many bedrooms was there?
CHARLIE: Four bedrooms.
JENNA: Four bedrooms, wow.
CHARLIE: And four rooms downstairs. Dining room, living room ... dining room, living
room, kitchen, and a ... backhouse, we used to call it in the house.
JENNA: So, transportation, you said you guys were on, like, horses and stuff?
CHARLIE: Yes, yeah.
JENNA: So, urn, was it- is it your father that drove the first car. .. ?
CHARLIE: Yes, yeah, he had the first car in St. John's East in 1927, two years before I
was born, he had a car, yeah, we used to go down to the regatta in that, then, yeah.
JENNA: So, there wasn't very many people around?
CHARLIE: No, there was four- no, three- two. My father and Martin Kelly.
JENNA: So where did they get em from ... where did the cars come from?
CHARLIE: He bought it out in St. John 's, at that time, you know. They brought it in
from the mainland somewhere, yeah.
JENNA: Oh, okay.
CHARLIE: Yup. They brought em in by train at that time, cars and trucks. Well, cars
were scarce that time, yeah.
JENNA: Okay.
CHARLIE: My father used to drive women into hospital when they were havin their
babies.
JENNA: I guess gas was a lot cheaper then ...
CHARLIE: Gas, oh yeah, very cheap ... at that time. But that time, a dollar was just as
scarce, as ten dollars is today, yup.
JENNA: Do you have any, like, stories that come to mind, some funny stories, or
something that, something that might have happened when you were, like, younger, even,
like, farming, or at a dance, or, any old funny story?
CHARLIE: Dance, yeah I got something for everything, there's some that I wouldn't be
able to tell you. - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: But uh, the story that I'll tell you I was chewing tobacco and uh we used uh
at that time uh if someone gave you a poke you'd give you a poke back. So, I was
chewing some chewing tobacco, myself and my three cousins, we were up there by where
Stick Pond Road is now. There was a guy there from St. John's, he was fishing so he had
a case with him, one had a with him and I had never saw a before so
buddy grabbed my by the scruff of my face, so I gave him a smack - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: The old man made a bawl at me "Hey get out of that!" So I look around and
my two buds had run away. So I ran too and swallowed my chewing. - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: And was I ever sick. - Laughs- Yeah.
JENNA: That was a good story.
CHARLIE: Yup ...
JENNA: Anyone else want to ask him something?
CHARLIE: Good story, good stories.
EMILY: How many forges were around here?
CHARLIE: Forges, there you go. Your grandfather, your great-grandfather was a
blacksmith, Jim Roche. He'd shoe all the horses at that time. My father used to come and
get his horse shod there. He also had a blacksmith out at King's Bridge. His son had a
blacksmith out there; his name was Jim as well, he died. Mr. Roche used to say to him
"Go to the blacksmith's forge out there and then come back to Outer Cove", see. And uh,
he was a ... he was a fishennan and a fann ... a eastman, yeah. And your father. .. your
grandfather, Jim he was a blacksmith as well. He used to shoe horses, yeah. He used to
shoe our horses when they were ... you know. And they were ... well they were the sleigh
beds you'd get the sleigh bed and bring it in and they'd put the irons on it But,
the ... the ... irons would keep the sleigh together so it wouldn't come abroad when you put
stuff on it, you know. That was ... that was a trade in itself, you know. Yeah ...
JENNA: You don't hear much talk about forging now though?
CHARLIE: No, no, no, no none of it now.
JENNA: Even the history of it all, people have kind of forgotten about it
CHARLIE: That's right, yeah. Yeah, they were good blacksmiths, they were. A
blacksmith then is like a garage today. Everyone had horses at that time you knOw.
JENNA: So people from town used to get their horses took out here kinda thing?
CHARLIE: Well no, the people down here would keep them going, they' red be another
blacksmith out in St. John 's as well then.
JENNA: Okay ...
CHARLIE: And they'd uh, just about everybody here had a horse and Mr. Roche used to
make shoes out of them. And after every month the horses shoes would have to be
changed, ' cause the horse's feet would grow and make the horse stumble. So they'd shoe
off another pair and put them back on again. Yeah. That was involved that time.
JENNA: So they made a living from that?
CHARLIE: Living from that, yeah. Getting a horse shod was maybe gonna cost you a
dollar. But then again, a dollar back then is like forty or fifty today. The times have
changed ... the times have changed so much, you know.
JENNA: So how long did it take to put shoes on a horse?
CHARLIE: Oh, not too long, wouldn 't take a good blacksmith too long, 'bout a half­hour.
Maybe less than that, you know. Yeah
EMIL Y: Did you take your horses there?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, yeah. We always shod our horses there and a blacksmith that time
would have to make the shoe. Just had a bit of steel, making the shoe for the horse, you
know, enamel to make it the right size. They used to bum it into the horse's hoof.
EMIL Y: Mm hmm
CHARLIE: Yeah, did you ever see a horse getting shod?
GREEN TEAM: No ...
CHARLIE: You didn ' t. It's something nice, you know. Yeah ... 'twas the good old days,
but they were bad old days as well.
JENNA: Yeah.
CHARLIE: Yeah, a lot of sick people at that time.
JENNA: What did they do if they were sick just... what if they were really sick, would
they just stay home?
CHARLIE: Well, some people would get sent to town. TB was a big ...
JENNA: Yeah ...
CHARLIE: Big killer at the time, yeah. My sister died ofTB, she was 24. Yeah, and, uh,
that's it. That time when she got TB, TB was something like cancer is today, you know,
you were just about doomed, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you had hard days and you had good
days. When you were young, you didn't mind that stuff - Smiles- Yeah.
lENNA: What about weddings, when people got married and stuff, was that a big event?
CHARLIE: Oh big event, yeah. Say at that time if you were getting married, well okay,
your, your father and your brothers would be shootin' guns off. Other guys, who'd be
married, miles away, would be shootin' off guns as well.
JENNA: So they'd get married like in the chuch?
CHARLIE: In the church
lENNA: And then have like a supper?
CHARLIE: Yeah, in the church, they'd have supper at home then, that'd be it, at
someone's house. Someone would play accordion or violin and dance all night, sing all
night, you know, yeah, yeah. You went to clubs at that time, you went to clubs down after
weddings, by that time everyone was gone home. Now, they're getting married down at
the beaches, in the woods and everything ain 't it? Yeah, yeah, weddings were a big thing
that time, yeah.
lENNA: So where did the ladies get their gown, like their dresses?
CHARLIE: They went to St. John's for that.
lENNA: Okay
CHARLIE: Oh yeah, yeah St. John's for their gown and the men would get their tuxedos,
their tuxedo fitted and all that stuff. It was nice yeah. Yeah, yeah, my father and all them
had hard hats that time, you know. They used to call them "Corky" hats, a big black hat.
Yeah ...
SENNA: What about your friends, did you have a group offriends or friends with
everybody or did you have a best friend.
CHARLIE: Everybody was friends that time. Me and Jack Griffin, that's John Kennedy's
father-grandfather, we were buddies because we both worked on a farm. He worked on
his uncle's farm and J worked with my father.
lENNA: So did you have much time for like to ... ?
CHARLIE: Get done work around 7 o'clock in the evening and you'd be all finished,
you' re done, you 're done everything at 7 o'clock in the evening. Then you 'd get a wash,
and a shave, if you were old enough to shave, get your buddies in, walk to Torbay and
dance all night and walk home again.
JENNA: And then you get up at five o'clock in the morning again.
CHARLIE: And then get up at five o'clock in the morning again. Yeah, that's how the
time went. When you had hangovers it wasn' t very good - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: You'd be out with the cows in the morning, washing out their bags and you'd
be half-sick in them. - Laughs-
JENNA: Yeah-Laughs-
CHARLIE: We didn ' t drink too often, had a few little drinks but you didn't get drunk
you know, couldn' t get drunk, too hard on the head.
JENNA: Was there like uh, uh, stores out here to buy, like, if you wanted to go buy some
beer or ... ?
CHARLIE: No, had to go to St. John's then.
JENNA: Had to go to St. John 's ...
CHARLIE: There were only a couple of clubs in St. John' s, there were the Bella Vista,
there was a club there, we used to go there when we were old enough to get in and uh, the
"Costkey East", the ... "Mrs. Penney' s", they were part of St. John' s, we used to go there
when we were young fellers you know. "Mrs. Liddy' s" in Torbay, you know.
JENNA: So how would you get back in after, like, you went to St. John's for a night and
went to a club, how would you get back to home?
CHARLIE: Walk home.
JENNA: Walk home?
CHARLIE: Yeah, walk home, walk out and walk home. We used to call it Shanks and
Beer - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: Yeah, walk home, always. Yes, yeah, they were good times; we enjoyed 'em,
yeah, we didn't mind then, walked at that time. Those were the days. Yeah .. .
JENNA: Anything else? Wanna add? Didn't want to add anything else, we didn 't forget
to ask you anything?
CHARLIE: Let me see now ...
JENNA: I think we asked you a lot.
CHARLIE: That's about it I think. Yeah, yeah
JENNA: No more stories or anything?
CHARLIE: No, a few stories but I wouldn't be able to say any of them .. -Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: We went, we went skinny-dipping one day, but we won ' t, we won't get into
that... right? - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
JENNA: At least you still had fun then when you were working ...
CHARLIE: Yeah, that's right. We used to swim; we used to swim in the rivers at that
time. This guy was, I'm going to tell you this story, this guy was fishing and all his
brothers were out there down in Savage's River. He was walking up from Outer Cove
Beach, and he heard all the guys down swimming, they were all boys see, they were
skinny-dipping as well. At that time, you had no clothes on. He took all their clothes, put
them under his arm and walked home. - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: Thank God J wasn' t with them, but some of the b'y's were out in the woods
all day. One fella had to run all up through the woods and get to his mother's clothesline,
wrapped himself up in his clothes and went in the house.-Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: ... watch him explain that, you know. Yeah, yup. That was one of the big
ones. Anyway ...
JENNA: Was there any girls, did you hang out with any girls too?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, but you couldn 't go skinny-dipping with girls with ya?
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: Oh yes, we used to hang with the girls, a lot of nice, tine girls around.
They' re all married now; all have families, like myself They' re all in their twilight hours,
you know.
JENNA: So did a lot of people stay here in the community?
CHARLIE: They all stayed here yeah. Just about all the boys and girls I went to school
stayed around.
JENNA: And got married?
CHARLIE: And got married. My wife, now, her friends, three of them married
Americans, one went as far away as down to ... where's she to ... Hawaii, you know. But
she comes home now and then. Yeah, a lot of girls married Americans at that time. Yeah,
anyway I hooked a girl from Logy Bay and kept her home - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: I was, I was one of the lucky ones - Laughs- Yeah, yeah, Colleen's
grandmother came from Flatrock.
EMILY: Hmm?
CHARLIE: Your grandmother came from Flatrock.
EMIL Y: Mm hmmm
CHARLIE: Nell Houlihan, she was yeah
EMIL Y: Mm hmmm
CHARLIE: Yup, that's right.
JENNA: Did you guys ever go, like, anywhere outside of just, like, in St. John's, down
Newfoundland further or on any trips or anything?
CHARLIE: No, I didn 't do that until I retired, I went to the Northern Peninsula then.
Myself and Gerry Fewer, a friend of mine, my wife and his wife and went for a whole
week, stayed in bed and breakfast places, you know. Drived it, yeah, looked around and
everything.
JENNA: Was it, like, normal to leave and go what, and down ... ?
CHARLIE: Not too much, no, no, no
JENNA: No
CHARLIE: Not too many went on holidays at that time, no. Too busy, didn 't have time
to go on holidays. Yeah, a big holiday was Regatta, on Regatta Day, you know, everyone
went to the Regatta, you know, just the Regatta. Yeah, Christmas was a big time, you
know, 12 days a year. Each one was merry for 12 days.
JENNA: Yeah
CHARLIE: After that you went ...
EMIL Y: Is the Regatta a lot different now than it was?
CHARLIE: Pardon?
EMIL Y: Is the Regatta different now than it used to be?
CHARLIE: Yes, a bit different now, yeah, yeah, bit different now. The rowing seems to
be not as good then as it is was ... you know, there were more men at that time and less
women.
JENNA: Yeah ...
CHARLIE: Not saying anything about women because women are out there to win
too ... yeah, for a while there women gave up rowing all together, all men's crews were
out there, yeah ... so that's that - Laughs-
JENNA: You never rowed before did you?
CHARLIE: No, I never rowed in my life, no ... my son and daughter row, my son James
and his child ...
JENNA: So rowing is a big thing for the community down here, right?
CHA:RLIE: Big thing for Outer Cove, yeah. My great-uncle, Watt Power, he steered the
9: 13, you know?
JENNA: No, I didn ' t. Did you?
EMlL Y/SEAN: No ...
CHA:RLIE: Yeah, my uncle rowed, Uncle Nix, that old guy who lived down by the dam,
people were all afraid of him. He used to, he rowed the 9:42 and got the Governor's Cup,
himself and three of his cousins, you know, Mike Hickey? Rich Martin? Billy Roche?
yeah, so that's .....
SEAN: So why were people afraid of your uncle, you said Nix?
CHARLIE: Well, he was, uh, I tell you now, Nix worked in St. John's, he 'd haul coal, in
summer and winter, that'd be his way of making it by. He used to cut his fields with a
saw, you know cut the hay, people used to run through his fields and beat it down, so it
was harder for him to cut the hay. I see an article there in the paper one day, it said this
old guy fired a shot gun at him at the dam, now it wasn't him; it was a really scary line, a
really scary line. Now he was crooked I must say, in a lot of ways. r used to come down
and help him on the farm ; his farm was at the end of ours. He had a farm just. .. he had a
horse and a cow and things like that. I was there for him, to help him out 'cause his kids
were only small you know. Me and him got along I must say, but he was a touchy old
guy. He wouldn 't do any damage to anybody, no ...
JENNA: We heard a story about the plane was it, a plane crash?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, I can tell you about that plane crash too. My son James was born the
day the plane hit the house down in Outer Cove, Stack's house, see? So that was, that
was, that was 55 I think, 55/56. But anyway, the day that happened, my wife was in
hospital, see, the kid was being born, my son, it was my second son, and uh she had had
the baby. Actually, they went right over our house on the way to Torbay. She heard that a
plane struck a house in Outer Cove, a two-storey house in Outer Cove, she was sure it
was our house. The house we lived in, my mother lived with us, and we had Sylvester, he
was the oldest at the time, he was only a year old then. She was sure- at that time we had
no poles down here then, the only poles here then were Willie Power had it in there for
the priest, so I couldn' t phone the hospital to tell her that time. I didn't know she heard it
on the radio, she heard on that a house, a plane struck a house in Outer Cove and uh, took
the roof off you know and she thought for sure it was our house. She didn 't know I went
in the night time, and that it wasn't me you know what I'm saying, but anyway I always
remember that the pilot's name was Colonel Payne in the paper, and the plane struck
Stack's house, and knocked it down. And, there was a couple of guys went out in boats
and got his body and brought him in. And, uh, he was going to Torbay to the airport to go
to Gander.
JENNA: Oh .. .
CHARLIE: And the plane struck the house, a real foggy day, she couldn't come up the
fog was so low, yup ... scared everybody that day. Old Mr. Stack, he lIsed to go out to
what's a fellow out in Buckmaster's Field, it was an army place at that time, a watchmen
there. He came home and went to bed, he was there for a while, he was house-taken,
came down to take the cow's milk and someone called him and his wife said, "Where are
you going now?" and he said "I'm going down to the beach". He just left down to the
beach when the plane struck the house.
JENNA: Hmmph!
CHARLIE: They never found the bed he was in.
JENNA: Whoa!
CHARLIE: Lucky isn 't he?
JENNA: Lucky!
CHARLIE: Yeah, just came up out of bed he said .. Yeah, so them are lucky stories, ain 't
they, you know?
JENNA: Yeah!
CHARLIE: Not for everybody, not for Colonel Payne, the pilot of the plane he was killed
you know. He was only by himself, he was alone, you know, yeah ...
JENNA: Strange
CHARLIE: So I was wondering who called him up, often wondered who called him up ...
JENNA: What?
CHARLIE: I often wondered who called him up?
EMJL Y/JENNA: Yeah ...
CHARLIE: Someone called him he said, yeah
EMJL Y: Mm hmm
CHARLIE: Yeah ... So that 's the unexplained I guess ... Yeah ... You' re not from dovin
here are you?
JENNA: Me? I'm from Labrador.
CHARLIE: From Labrador are ya?
JENNA: Yeah
CHARLIE: That's where all the money is in Labrador
JENNA: Yeab
CHARLIE: See lots of Northem Lights down there don't you?
JENNA: Yeah
CHARLIE: The Northern Lights, we used to see them here one time you know?
JENNA: Yeah?
CHARLIE: When 1 was Sean Kennedy's age it was frightening, they were so bright here,
yup, but now you don 't see them here anymore. 1 often wondered what happened, is it too
much technologically in the air. ..
JENNA: Global warming ...
CHARLIE: Global warming, think so? Now do you have people say in Labrador that the
winter is different down there?
JENNA: Yeah
CHARLIE: The weather, the weather has changed here sometimes. The winters are not as
bad as they used to be.
JENNA: It's getting warmer, more snow, but warmer.
CHARLlE: More rain ... When I was around Sean Kennedy's age there ... the atomic
bomb was something new then. The Russians said they were going to blow up the ice cap
on Greenland and give them a warmer summer, but the scientists said if you did that,
we'd have more heavy rain and way more hurricanes. Apparently now, that's happening
on its own now, isn ' t it? The hurricanes and yeah ...
SEAN: So you were around during World War II, during like the black-out times and
stuff, where you had to put the ... ?
CHARLIE: Oh, yup, yeah. All the cars had to have a thing over the light, there's one out
there in the museum, used to go over the headlights of the cars that time.
SEAN: Okay ...
CHARLIE: All the windows had to be darkened, oh yeah, in the war times. Wars were all
around us and we didn 't know. They blew up Bell Island over there you know? The
Russians and the Germans used to come to Bell Island years ago to get the iron ore. There
was an , the best of the war was Belle Isle. All the Germans used to
come here to get ore and bring it back to Germany. One guy said they'd but it from Belle
Isle and shoot it back at us. - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: Yup, that's right. When I was a young fella like seven or eight, you'd see big
boats go across Outer Cove Harbour there, they 're ore boats going over to Bell Isle. Great
big dark boats you know. Bell Isle was the only place that had money here at that time.
You'd get eighty or ninety cents an hour for digging out, you'd make money.
JENNA: Must have been scary though?
CHARLIE: Scary, yeah and uh, sure uh, the war broke out in 1939; I was nine year old
then. And the day the war broke out, a Gennan ship in here in St. John's Harbour. They
kept the Gennans here, the war was on so they captured the Gennans and kept them here,
captured them here, sent them back to Nova Scotia, sent them to Halifax, yup, yeah. The
Americans came in 1941 , I think it was, mid 1940, they came on the Alexandria and they
started on Pepperell base down there, 1940 they started. All the people, they'd leave
fishing and go work on the base at that time, there was more money. Yeah ... A couple of
boys from here went to war. Greg Cahill, buddy , Johnny Burke, Walter
Dyer, and uh Rich Kinsella, Dave Kinsella, Jim Kinsella, they all. ..
JENNA: Did they have to go?
CHARLIE: No, they signed up ...
JENNA: They wanted to?
CHARLIE: Yeah, they volunteered to go, yup. Yeah, volunteered to go to war. Walter
Dyer, lived right where, uh, John, uh, Brian Kavanagh lives now, Walter Dyer lived there
and he was uhh, he went to war, John went to war and his aunt sent us, she used to work
in the kitchen or someth.ing, she hadn't heard from him this nine months, never heard
from him . And, John walked into town the next morning, he met Walter walking down
the road, th.in as a rake, he had been a prisoner of war in Italy.
JENNA: Oh!
CHARLIE: Yes, yeah. Nine months as a prisoner of war in Italy.
JENNA: So how'd he get back?
CHARLIE: Oh, the, the Allied Forces captured him, freed, fTeed him and then sent him
home to recuperate.
JENNA: Oh ...
CHARLIE: And work and stufflike that. Yeah, there were good stories and sad stories,
there ' s a blackout ban that time before they won. Cars and everybody had to ...
everything was blacked out, all your windows covered, yeah, no flashlights allowed.
JENNA: Must have been quiet down here then ...
CHARLIE: Quiet yeah, going around in the dark.
JENNA: Yeah
CHARLIE: Yeah, we used to think you know that it was foolish, but the Gennans
weren't off hand, they were pretty close and they blew up Bell Isle.
JENNA: Right...
CHARL[E: They stopped a, a , they were moored outside St. John's
Harbour and torpedoed a ship with its nose just out through the Narrows. The Captain
backed up again, ifnot there'd have been a sinking in the Narrows, you know.
JENNA: Mm hmmm
CHARLIE: Yeah, yeah, they were, uh, war was bad stuff, you know. Just about all the
boys came back though, none were lost, you know, yeah, yeah.
JENNA: Seems everything was more hectic, more stories than it is really hectic, years
ago. Now it seems like it's uh different.
CHARLIE: Oh yeah, just like it...
JENNA: There was a lot on the go.
CHARLIE: That's right, yeah .. But there's more hectic stuff on the go today, in a way.
JENNA: Yes, I know it.
CHARLfE: You know it, yeah ...
JENNA: Happening all the time ...
CHARLIE: Yeah, when you, uh, if you did anything bad at that time, you were picked up
for doing it and punished. You were punished to the end, that's what went wrong with
things. You know, people does stuff today and they don't punish 'em.
JENNA: Mm hmm
CHARLIE: You got to be punished for what you do, or you're not going to learn not to
do it. I remember that from school. - Laughs-
GREEN TEAM: -Laughs-
CHARLIE: Yeah, oh yes ...
JENNA: Okay Sean, push the button.
CHARLIE: Okay Sean, you got my ugly ...
(
Mary Roche
2008
(
Interviewee: Mary Roche
Interviewer: Sean Kennedy
Interview Report
Date of Interview: August 13th
, 2008
Time of Interview: I :00 pm - I :50 pm
Place oflnterview: Manager's Office, Town Hall
Recording Device: Sony HDD HandyCam
Transcription: Yes
Consent Form Signed: Yes
Notes:
- Lifestyle
- Typical Day in Household
- Past-times
- Comparison of past and modem day
- Community Togetherness
- Diphtheria
- Halloween and Christmas
- Swimming at the Dam
- Childhood Memories
- Concerts in the School
- Food
- Pre-electricity and arrival of electricity
- Responsibilities
- Dances
- School on Saturday with Ms. Morrissey
- Weddings
- Ghost Stories
- Regatta
- Comrnunjcation and Transportation
- Technology Advancement
- Plane Crash
Newfound land & Lab radol" ,
Interview Consent Form
I, Mar ~ fixM. , agree to allow the
Conservat'<:n Corps Green Team for Logy Bay-Middle Cove­Outer
Cove to record my interview on video for the town museum.
I understand that the museum will keep this video interview on
file, and I give permission for the museum to present a
transcription or a digital video file of the interview as part of an
exhibit on the history of the town.
:SIgnature
{ 2008 Green Team Interviews Transcription- Mary Roche
SEAN: This is Sean Kennedy with the rest of the Green Team and today I am here to
interview Mary Roche.
SEAN: So, can you describe an average day in a household?
MARY: Not too much now, but when I had ten kids, believe you me, it was hectic. and
years ago when I got married in 1951 we had no running water, no bathroom, no
electricity because there was none down where I lived down on the Point sort of. No
electricity for 10 or 15 years before uh ... No telephone, no TV, a battery radio, well even
before [got married I had one and that'd only be turned for the Gerald S. Doyle News in
the evening at quarter to eight and usually my grandmother, as soon as the news would
come on, my grandmother she was up in her seventies, she'd decide she wanted to say the
Rosary and everybody'd have to kneel. She'd say, "Oh you can hear that anytime". But
you couldn't, you would only hear it once a day at a quarter to eight in the night. But,
then when I got married, it was the same, we had no running water, no electricity, no
bathroom, no telephone, no TV, but you know, uh, and when I got the kids, I had ten
kids, the oldest is 56 and the youngest is 42, so they were all pretty close and believe you
me there was times that was hectic. Breakfast time in the morning 4 or 5 would be going
to school and the rest, there 'd be a couple more home and then they'd walk to school in
the morning, you'd have to go to church first. Walk to church first, then go to school and
then walk home lunch, no staying in to your lunch, and go back in the afternoon. So
really it was four trips a day, four trips a day to school. Then they'd come home in the
evening. Summertime, they'd be out playing ball and playing piddly, you remember that?
SEAN: Yeah.
MAR Y: With the rocks and the piddly stick and everything, and the girls would be
playing hopscotch or something. And you know, but there was no one ever bored,
everybody was, you know ... like my grandkids now, they're not doing something, oh my
god Nan I'm bored to death. You know, I never knew what the word meant, bored to
death, because there was so much on the go. Like, you'd get up in the morning and you
had no heat, you had to light your woodstove- my husband would do that. Get up and
light the woodstove in the morning, and everybody, the one's who were going to school
had to get up and huddle around the stove and get warm, and then they'd have breakfast,
and leave for school, leave for church first. And then you'd have laundry to do when
you' re washing up, and carry the water from the well, two buckets at a time, and heat it
on the stove, and then get your laundry started, hopefully you'd have a fine day- you'd
hang it out. If not, you'd have a clothesline in the kitchen- there's a book that, she died
there a couple of months ago, that Edwina was on, she put out the book, I have it now­Clotheslines
in the Kitchen, and she came from a big family too, there was twelve or
fourteen of them. No, and it was no trouble to be busy then, by the time you'd get that
done it'd be time they 'd be home for lunch. Then you get em lunch and they'd be gone
again, and by four o'clock they 'd be home, and by that time you were getting supper
ready. And they'd be out playing, and they 'd be up in the meadow, probably wintertime
you'd have to sing out to em' to get them in from out sliding, and playing up in Kelly's
Bog up on the back- your dad would know where it's to- up on the back of the meadow,
Roches, Emily's grandparents, owned the land up there and there was, they used to call it
Kelly's Bog, and that would be as clear as any, it's all grown over now, My son was
home from Edmonton last week and he went up to have a look, he couldn' t even find it.
So they had plenty fun, all outdoor fun, there was no, you know, indoors, well Christmas
time would come and you'd have a puzzle or something, you wouldn' t too get much,
believe you me! One gift, that'd be it. But, you know, at the hour at when they come
home now in the summer or they're all comin' home different times and they all
reminisce about the great times they had, you know, all friends sure like Robert, and -
your father-, and Paul Griffin, all my whole family they were all great friends, Jimmy
Roche was the same and Kevin, you know, they were all great friends their whole
lifetime all with the boys you know, And urn oh I'm telling you it was busy, for a women
it was busy, and then the b'ys would come from school in the evening, and my husband
he used to go to the ice fields in the winter and then he'd fish in the summer, and when
he 'd be gone they'd take care of choppin' wood because we had a woodstove, We had
plenty wood home and Steve, my oldest son, and Martin would saw the wood and chop
the wood, and bring it in, And like the younger ones, like Robert and them, now they
wouldn't have to do it because by the time they grew up we had an oil range and uh it
was different. We had electricity as they got older, you know, But twas' uh, believe you
me, twas' busy, I can tell you, A busy day in the household years ago is so different now,
I get up now and say "Oh my God almighty", especially with the fog there's nothing to
do, you know? It was busy the past week because I had family home and that from
Edmonton, they saw the sun and now the little one, she's two, she came to me last Friday
morning and said "Nan the sun is shining" and I said "Yes," Poor child, was the only
time she saw it, and they went yesterday and they called last night, went back to
Edmonton yesterday, and when they got off the plane yesterday and it was pouring
raining, So they said "We've brought the rain with us," And I said "So long as you send
us down some sun, you can have the rain," - Laughs- Yeah, so yeah, they were busy days,
but you had good neighbors then and if somebody was sick they'd always come and
bring a pot of chicken soup, the "Soup of the soul" they used to say, And if anybody was
sick their neighbors would surely come to help out and you know, twas' great. [
remember, before I was married, we had diphtheria, My two sisters died and we were
quarantined, we had a big sign up on the house, and uh the three, me and my two
brothers, ended up in the fever hospital but me and Paddy weren't, you remember Paddy,
he wasn't bad, but my older brother Jimmy he was really bad so he was there for six
weeks. But the neighbors would come and they wouldn' t come in, they'd just call out and
leave something, bring something that they had cooked and [eave it up by the fence
because people were scared to death of diphtheria in that there times, you know, Now
you'd get needles for it even when I was goin' to school, after then we all started to get
needles, and it was a lot better then, than what it is, you know, than it was in them times,
But uh yeah, and the kids were never board, They played ball in the summer, Logy Bay
and Outer Cove, and they'd be out in the meadow and they, you never had to lower the
grass, because it'd be always beat down with everybody runnin' on it and everything, you
know, No, they uh, sure enjoyed life, I'll tell you that.
(
SEAN: So what about like holidays, like Christmas and Halloween and all that?
MARY: Oh my God, it was only last summer when I was away, we'd visited Matt
Klas, you remember Matt and Mike Klas, they used to live down where the Bentleys live
now, uh down by Stacks there.
SEAN: Okay.
MARY: Klas, The Klas ' lived there. An uh, I was away last year, up to B.C, up to
Vancouver, and uh we went to Matt's for supper, Matt lives on the way to Whistler, and
he was sayin ' about life is so different and I said "You know, why is it different?" and he
said "My children will never be, have the happy life that 1 had." And J said "And Matt,
how'd you figure that out?" "Now Mary" he said, "Money-wise it's great" Cuse he's
makin' good money, he' s a doctor. But he said "For them to play out in their backyard,
they have to pay a babysitter to stay with em', all day." They can' t leave em' out, you
don't know who your next door neighbor is, or anything like that. And Matthew said,
Matt said, "I remember when we used to go Halloween" Matt, they be Paul Stack, Matt
and Mike, and Paul and Joe. And they 'd go with a pillowcase and come home with it full!
You never had to worry about checkin' an apple to see if there was something in it or a
candy, cuse every door they went to you knew who they were. And at Christmas they
went out mummering Christmas, and God they used to have great times. And Christmas
now you don't see very few of your family, but you know people don't visit near, you
know, like they used to years ago. Your house would be full Christmas, Boxing Night
years ago. There'd always be parties and music and singing and everything, but it's not
like that anymore, you know. Even with the Regatta now they're talkin ' about havin ' the
Regatta on a Friday or a Monday, but they said yesterday now that the Regatta is even
dyin' out. With this year sure, they only had five men's crews, the rest were women.
They had a dinner break, where before they wouldn't have no dinner break, no supper
break. No supper break because there was too many, you know. Oh no, they had great
Christmas' That's what Matt said, we used to have great fun Christmas'. They never had
to worry about goin' out, they can't leave young children to go anywhere now, you know
by there selves, they've got to drive em' or somebody go with em' cuse it's so dangerous
cuse you know who's, the world has changed quite a lot you know, who's goin' around
you know.
SEAN: So, what are your best childhood memories?
MARY: Oh my God. Childhood memories, there's lots of em', believe you me. Playin'
with your friends, and your friends coming to visit you, and you goin' to visit them at
their house, and you know summertime when there'd be four or five of us all get together
and go swimming out where Betty Power , you know the dam? But it wasn' t a dam then,
it was a swimming pool. Some parents would go and they'd put rocks in to bar it off. We
had no swimming, no swimming suits, we'd have a dress and underwear. - Laughs -
That's what you'd swim in! But we'd have to do our chores before we go, because if you
didn' t do your chores, you weren 't goin' swimming that day. There was weeding, turnip
and potatoes and carrot, and that had to be done. And everybody would be growling and
(
complaining "Oh my God, [ don't, [ went yesterday! How come I have to do it today?"
But that was it, you had to do it, and then you'd go swimming for a couple of hours. After
supper, everybody would be down round' the beach, specially' when the capelin would
be in, you know? You'd come home, and your mother would have to put your shoes in
soak, make the smell from the beach and the capelin, but we didn't have any capelin this
year for there to be a smell, there was none. Oh yeah great times goin' to school, it was
great. They'd have their concerts, uh you don't remember Mary Kelly, she's a Power
now, you know Nix Kelly and them 's sister, she was a school teacher, and when they 'd
have a concert she'd put all the stage, it was all the desks were put together, and that's
what you'd be up on. [remember one year we did the Lancers, up on the stage, up on the
and that was the stage and all the desks put together and then some of the men would
come and they'd put , you know, a board around or four boards and nail em' on, so it
wouldn' t move. And uh it'd be on concerts, you'd have a concert in June, like they do
now and another concert before Christmas. And oh my God you'd be tickled to death but
lots of people didn't want to go, you know. But no, they'd be great, great times then.
Everybody knew another, Logy Bay, Middle Cove, and Outer Cove, everybody knew
another, you know. Now you don't know half the people, you know that ' s, they move in
and you don't see em' only you know. Now who would ever say that she [Skye) lives
over on the Rocky Hills? Where, where about do you live over there?
SKYE: Right by Doron's Lane.
MARY: Oh, over by Doron's Lane! Lots, a lot of new houses going up there now.
SKYE: Oh yeah.
MARY: Right up further, you know, yeah.
SEAN: So, urn, what kind of food did you eat for like a meal?
MARY: Well, like for breakfast you'd have rolled oats, you'd boil porridge, they used to
call it. And you'd have toast and you'd have, oh sorry about that you'd have no toast
because you didn't have any electricity. So you'd have a rack that you'd lay across the
hot stove, put your homemade bread on that and oh my God, it'd be something golden.
And a cup of tea, and very little juice on the go, and uh then sup- dinner time, uh come
home and that's probably tinned beans or different stuff like that, or whole boiled beans
you had for lunch. Supper time you'd always have good supper, like uh, you'd have your
big dinner Sunday, your jigs dinner. And then Monday's would be leftovers that you'd
had and make hash, com beef hash, and uh Tuesday it was always uh, you'd have the
same thing, jigs dinner, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday for jigs dinner. Wednesday and
Friday was fish, Saturday was pea soup. So you know, lots of people still do it, you
know, yeah. But the younger kids though, do you like com beef and cabbage? No? I
have Paul, who is comin' home from Toronto on Saturday, and Paul don't like it either,
and he was, he grew up with it. All the rest of em' do, they couldn't wait for last Sunday
to have it. They wouldn 't have a turkey Christmas, you had your own hens. So they'd
have a couple of chickens killed for Christmas and they'd have to put em' in a big wash
tub on the floor with boiling water for to cool their feathers to pluck the feathers off, take
out their insides and everything. And it was the same way, well we'd always had plenty
of fish, now you can't get a fish. Salt fish, fresh fish, and in the summertime they'd have
fresh fish, and Salmon because we always had lots of salmon too you know. My husband
used to go to the ice fields in the winter and then you'd have flippers, do you like
flippers? Oh yeah, they' re good. Lots ofpeopJe don't like them, but you have to try em',
they are really good though! And uh, we had them and we had uh lots of homemade
bread, ginger bread. My mother would make me come home in the evening from school
and have it. And what I say to Chad and Lucas now "Lucas, have a slice of bread and
molasses" and he said "Nanny, cold bread and molasses? How could you eat that?" I said
'That's what we had when came from school if we didn 't have milk" And I said, actually
we had a cow, yeah we had a cow, we'd have a pig to be killed at Christmas by my father
would always do that when I lived home. And uh, come from the school in the evening
and have a slice of bread and molasses and a glass of milk or a cup of tea, oh my God it
was really good. After walking from school with snow up to here [gestures to her hips 1
comin ' down the Barnes Road, they'd have to keep in the meadow, I'd be tell in' em' to
keep away from the electricity cuse it was over there but it wasn' t our way, and I'd be
tellin' em' to keep in and not to touch the wires comin' down across Kelly's Meadow and
everything, you know. And Emily's grandparents just lived over from us and uh, her dad,
well he was right over in Logy Bay, that's the way it was. And uh you'd have the wires,
you'd be afraid because the snow would be almost up to the poles, you know, you don 't
have snow like that anymore now. Yeah, oh my God yes, great meals.
SEAN: So urn like, every family member had their own responsibilities, sort of?
MARY: Yes, yeah. Uh same way with the kids. They all had their responsibilities, you
know, boys had to do things. Clean out the, if you had a ca, ca, cow or anything like that
they'd have to go and say "God have I got to do that?" But that would sort of be between
five or six boys. But Paul and Joe never had to do it, because by the time they got old
enough, Robert or Donnie went so it was mostly the oldest two, you know. We had a pig
and hens and back then they're your own hens. But everybody had their responsibilities,
same way with the fathers and mothers. The fathers did outside, there was no dads inside
changin' diapers or anything like the men do today, or did laundry or anything. All the
men do this today. Men didn't do anything like that then, they did outside work. Cut hay
in the summer and fish if they were fishin ', if not they had ajob, you know, a steady job
or something. And uh yeah, everybody had their responsibilities, I'll tell ya'.
SEAN: Oh yeah, did you guys have any dances?
MARY: Pardon?
SEAN: Did you have any dances? Like, Charlie said there was dances in Torbay.
MARY: Oh yes. We'd go to Torbay in the back ofa truck, Jimmy Ca-, twenty five cents.
And twenty five cents to get into the dance. And sometimes if the truck was too full and
you end up, you'd walk to Torbay, and dance all night doing the Lancers and everything.
(
Then you'd walk home. And, urn, oh yeah, that was every Sunday night it was then,
every Sunday night there 'd be a dance at Torbay, and usually you'd get down to Flatrock
once a year because Jimmy Tapper had two trucks and Alec Martin, and the same way
when they started to go to the school in town they had the buses, Ron Tapper and that
you got too, like, they never went to school years ago, like, uh, well we didn' t, I went to
!,'fade ten but I did it Outer Cove, and on Saturday I went to school up in the priest's
house, what we'd be for grade nine and ten examinations, Ms. Morrisey, have to have
heard tell of her, she was the high school teacher and urn, you'd be up in her bedroom on
Saturday. Myself and Patty Hickey, he's dead now, and Mary Carl, she's Mary Moore,
and she's up uh- live up in the Goulds, and urn, we'd have to go for extra math, or
something like that, and we'd go in her bedroom, half the day, go up a nine and we
finished at one. And urn, oh yes they were great- same way Christmas, you'd be asked
out to a party Christmas, it'd be all accordion music, and mouth organ, uh, guitar and
everything, you'd have a great time. But there's nothing like that now.
SEAN: So, like, what about weddings? Were weddings a big deal?
MARY: Weddings were a big deal, yeah, they had weddings in houses then, not like now
you got to, like, the Bell or the Justina, or any like those, you had a wedding in a house
then, and then clear out your living room and take your chesterfield, usually you didn't
have a chesterfield then you had a couch, you know the old-fashioned couches, they' re so
expensive now they' re- you can get em they 're eight or nine hundred dollars for to buy
them, and you'd have to take everything out there'd be some fella there- you'd have
supper first, they'd have a couple of tables together and they'd have supper first, usually
there 'd be a big crowd, well you wouldn' t be able to move in the house, the bedrooms
would be full and the kitchen would be full- even out in the porch. And, uh, yeah, oh they
were great times, weddings then. And they didn't cost too much either, like a wedding
cake then probably was fifty dollars, for now then maybe they're a couple of hundred,
you know, oh no ...
SEAN: So what about, like, transportation? Did you walk everywhere?
MARY: Walk everywhere. Everywhere was walking- walk to church, no matter how bad
it was, you had to go to church. If you didn't go, they was no good in getting up Sunday
morning and saying "Oh, my God, I have a headache", and my mother would say "Well,
that's fine, you're in for the day, if you have a headache, you miss church, you don't go
anywhere today." And, believe you me, it's not like now, you wouldn't get over her time,
then, you know, your grandmother can relate to thal. .. Yup, you'd, uh- and the same
way, you know if- if you didn't do your chores you weren' t going out anywhere, that was
it, yeah, they had to be done and then you were free to go, usually Middle Cove Beach- I
remember there was Roches in Middle Cove, they were no relation of ours, or Emily's,
and, urn, they had a lot of cattle, and Misses was- Mrs. Roche was from out around the
Bay somewhere, they made homemade ice cream, and it'd be five cents, you know in
little syr- little fruit dish, small little fruit dish, you'd go over Sunday with your five
cents, you'd get a dish of homemade ice cream, my God, it was heavenly I'm telling you.
I was telling Chad and Halley one day last week, and Chad said "Five cents, Nanny, for a
(
dish of ice cream", I said "Yeah", and now they' re telling me when they come down, I'll
have usually a couple of kinds, Chad likes hoofprints, and I said, yeah, "There was no
hoofprints then, there was just plain vanilla ice cream". There was no hoofprints, and no
this-kind, that-kind, and the other kind, that was the one kind, you know, but that was the
thrill of a Sunday. Then we'd walk up, we'd leave Middle Cove, we'd walk down
through- we might go down to the Beach, then we'd walk up the Rocky Hills, right up
through Logy Bay and go back home again. By that time it 'd be five o'clock, we were
probably twelve and thirteen then, you know, that was your enjoyment.
SEAN: So, like, how'd you get- what about going to town, did you go to town a lot, or
not very much?
MARY: Pardon?
SEAN: To, like, St. John's.
MARY: Once a week, that was Saturday, yeah, and then you'd go in a horse and a
carriage, and in the winter you'd go on a horse and a slide. So, uh, er, uh, you'd have to,
urn, years ago when you'd have to- my chore would be to wash the kitchen floor when
mother would go to town, that was Saturday, she had laundry from doctors, and lawyers
and that in town, and she'd have to wash that in the wash tub, hang it out, and bring it in
and dry it, and then it had to be ironed. And you had a great big bag of clothes- five
dollars a month, she'd get for washing, five dollars for a month. And you'd have to heat
all that water, and even pillow cases, I used to have to iron the pillow cases, and they'd
have to be, oh, some nice too, the top of the pillow case'd have to be done- ironed out
some nice, and I'd have to fold the towels and, but she ironed the shirts- even the
bedsheets, they had to be- myself and her, she'd go over on one end of the kitchen and
catch it and [' d catch in the other end, cause [ was the only girl for seven years, [ had
three brother older than me, but they were my chores. Saturday, I had to wash the floor, it
wasn't cushion floor, it was wood, a wood floor. And then, it was so nice and warm in the
winter, it was all covered with big mats that my mother had hooked, and my
grandmother. I'd have to- I'd have the chore of tearing up the cloth strings, and she'd
have to hook them, beautiful patterns they had on them and everything, oh my God, they
were some nice. She used to make quilts and all that, I still believe I've got one down that
I've had for years, I don't use it now but I still have it as a- as a keepsake. Yup, my dear,
and then when she'd come from town on a Saturday evening after a week you wouldn't
have very much left, bread and stuff like that, you'd have your toast and porridge. She's
come from town on a Saturday evening and she'd have fresh meat and liver, and she'd
put on a big frying pan and fry it, and sit down with homemade bread, and your pan of
liver and onions or fresh meat, my God, it'd be some nice, believe you me. Now, it's
steak now on the barbeque, quite a difference now in life, I tell you. Ye don't have
nothing like that to remember, you know because you grew up in the good times, you
know, everything was different, but your dad now and mom, all them can relate to it, I
say, your granddad was reared in Mobile, your granddad ...
SEAN: Yup.
( MARY: He was reared up in Mobile on the Southern Shore. Yup, my dear, I tell you ...
they were wonderful times, I tell you ... Like, Lucas and them had a thing at school last
year, and they had the washing tub, and the washing board and all that, Mrs. Kelly, she
got it for em and they were surprised because Lucas came down and I had to tell him all
about it and he- he brought it up, and terry bought him a- a galvanized wash tub, a small
one, and, urn, my daughter had a small washboard about that size and she loaned him
that, and everything, but they had to be able to explain it and everything too I think, that
was for- science fair, I think, was it?
SEAN: Heritage Fair?
MARY: What?
SEAN: Heritage Fair?
MARY: Heritage Fair, yes, yup, last year when they had it. But it's like Ms. Kelly said,
nobody, none of the younger generation, knows anything about all this, you know, how
their parents worked hard, and everything, you know.
SEAN: Mhm. So, urn ... when was bedtime?
MARY: Bedtime was, when they were going to school, usually, you know, nine o' clock
wintertime. Summertime it was different weather, you wouldn' t be able to get em in in
the summertime because we had fantastic weather, summers then. Oh, my God, it was
beautiful, beautiful weather then. And, but wintertime there was usually eight-thirty, nine
o'clock because you had to be up by seven in order to be able to get ready and walk to
church before you go to school, school was eight-thirty, or there around, and mass was
eight o'clock, and, uh, yeah ... You remember the little red school house?
SEAN: Yeah.
MARY: Never went to school there, though, did you?
SEAN: No.
MARY: Yup, yeah ... oh, you went there did ya'? Now it was, it was only when you got
to grade ten I think then when you left there and went to Gonzaga and Holy Heart at them
times, you know. But by then the bus was there, you know, to take them to school and
that, it was great. It used to go up around the high road, then on, up Kelly's Hill and up
through Middle Cove. But then it got dangerous after uh, Mr. Klas got stuck going up
around the high road, which was true you know, with freezing rain and things like that, it
was so dangerous, you know. But they still come down the Rocky Hills and go up the
road and that, but they don't go Kelly's Hill anymore or they, I think they uh, when they
come down I think they come down the Pine Line, that way. Yes, uh Pine River Road or
Pine Line, anyone on Pine River Road walks up then, up topsoil, you know.
(
SEAN: So, urn, how ... you said there was like no telephones or anything, so how did
news get around?
MARY: Well, you know, sort of the men meet, mouth to mouth, sort of. I mean, the men
would meet down daytime, they'd be down fishin' down to the beach and they'd always
here something and that's how it word got out about anything. There was very few, very
few too, there was probably, you know way out towards Logy Bay, you know, out
towards Kennas Hill that way, they were fine. They'd have telephones but it was years
before anybody had em' down, I think Joe was in grade four when we got the telephone.
SEAN: Was it party line?
MARY: Hmm?
SEAN: Was it a party line?
MARY: Party line, you'd pick it up and you know, it might be two or three - Laughs - on
the other line. You couldn't tell very much on the, on the phone then because there'd be
always somebody there to listen in sort of, you know. But only, that only lasted a couple
of years, when they got rid of that was great. And now, I look at Chad and Hayley now
and they have a TV, they have a VCR, they have a VHS, they have their own telephone,
they have a computer, anything in the Gods creation world. And Hayley's come down
some days and she'd say "It's so boring Nan." I said "Yeah, why's it boring?" "Cuse' I
have nothing to do." She's ready for the dance tonight up in the park, that's what shes
looking for. She was out last night to see uh, that uh what's her name? That was at Mile
One last night?
SEAN / JENNA: Avril Lavigne.
MARY: She was out with Cathy last night and Kelly Rumsey and her daughter, they
were out last night. I asked her today and she said "Oh yeah Nan, she was really good."
So now, she's up since seven o' clock this morning preparing, getting ready, picking out
what she's gonna wear tonight for the dance. My dear.
SEAN: Urn so, doctors weren't around back then?
MARY: No doctors. There was a doctor in Torbay then, Dr. Donovan, and if you wanted
to get over to him, you had to drive over in the horse and express or you had to drive
wintertime in horse and slide. And very few drugstores too. Kennedy's drugstore on
Duckworth Street, you'd go there if-he was really good. He was almost like a doctor, the
man who owned it. And uh, that's where you'd go for - very few prescriptions or
anything then, yeah, all homemade remedies. You'd have urn, you'd have to take uh,Cod
liver oil during the winter, and that was unmerciful. The smell of it, oh my God, I tell ya',
I could never take it. I'd always, no, I'd said "Make me sick, I can't take it." And uh, but
my husband always took it for a cold, never took anything else for a cold, even, he died
when he was 74, and even up to when he had a cold before he died, no, cod liver oil was
(
all he'd ever take. I could never stomach it, the smell was terrible. And urn, if you cut
yourself or something, uh, you'd have iodine and that would sting like the devil. I still
have a bottle down I bought a couple of years ago, but it's not as bad now, the sort they
used in hospitals, it's they say watered down, they call it briodine now its watered down,
you know, and it don't sting like it used to them times. - Laughs - Oh it was terrible.
And all the old flu remedies you'd have then, oh my God almighty, I'm tell in' you.
Molasses and liniment, and oh, boiled molasses and put a little drop of [brand name]
liniment in it and you'd only have a cold a day or so. There was no such a thing of
Tylenol, and Advil, or anything like that them times, you know. But and if ever seldom
you heard of anyone being sick they 'd have the cold, measles, mumps, chicken pox, that
was it. j remember when Joe went away, he 'd had the chicken pox and he caught em'
when they were goin' to urn, well he went to Vancouver. They were going to Mexico on
holiday and he said "Mom I have the chicken pox." And I said "No you haven' t, you had
em'" "Mom j have them again." j said "No, you have the shingles." You ever hear tell of
the shingles?
SEAN: Yeah.
MARY: Your grandmother had them a few year -when she was workin ', she was off
work for a couple of months, she had em' really bad. And uh, he said "Mom, I never
heard tell of them. Only old people gets them!" I said "Yeah, but young people get it too.
Because it's a virus that lays in your system, and the least little thing, sometimes you get
a cold or something, you know, and it brings it out." So he said "I'll have to go back to
the doctor." So he went back to doctor cuse' he only had a week before he went, and he
couldn 't go down with em', you know, they' re on your back and around your waistline,
and they' re just like chicken pox, and really itchy. And he went to uh, the doctor and she
said "I never heard tell of them." And she said ''I'll have to get out my book." So he told
her what I'd said, and she said "My God, that's unbelievable! Every word you said your
mother said is here in the book. How come I never looked at it before?" So she gave him
some kind of uh, a vaccine, it was a couple of hundred dollars anyway, and he took it, he
had to take it for a week, but after three days it was gone completely. Robert had em' a
couple of years ago too.
SEAN: Oh.
MARY: Yeah.
SEAN: So there was a plane crash wasn't there, in Outer Cove?
MARY: Oh yeah, that's just down from us, down at Stack 's house. Oh I'll never forget
that day. Urn, it was right foggy out, just like it was the past week or so, but it was in
January, a night in January, but urn, uh I-Janet was born the 20th of January, James Power
now, Charlie's son, was born that very day. Meena was in hospital up at St. Claire's, and
the nurses came in tellin' her there was a plane crash in Outer Cove, and she couldn' t
figure out where it was to, and she couldn 't call home because they didn 't have a
telephone for to find out where it was to, so she had to wait for a couple of days till '
(
somebody come out to see her to find out. Well it was in the newspaper and the nurses
showed her, then she knew where it was to. Yeah, Stephen Martin was out in the yard
playing, uh havin' fun, and my father in law, my husband's father, had a big black horse.
And I heard this big bang, and I was crossin' over the floor and I tripped over a chair.
Now I was nine months pregnant and I said "Oh my God" I didn 't fall down, but I
tripped with the vibration, and I said "Oh my God." And I goes out and I said "Oh
Stephen Martin." I thought they were after makin' the horse run, and the horse came up
against the house. And they said "No mom, there' s a plane after crashin '" I said "Oh
yeah." And my husband was over to his fathers, and he came out, but we couldn't see
anything in the fog. And yeah, but the pilot got killed, and he landed right out by sort of
the point out in Outer Cove Beach. And my brother Jack, and Mike Stack, and Jack
Hickey, they took a dory off of the beach and rode out. And hmm he had his Ii fe jacket
on, and they hooked him on and they couldn't lift him in to the boat cuse' they were
afraid they'd tum it over and they sort of tied him on with a rope and towed him in. So at
least they got his body, Payne, Payne was his name. A couple of years ago there was uh
somebody called Shelly Stack, and did a call up on the internet one night, she was tellin'
me, and they wanted to find out, and this was his grandson. And she told him to go to the
university, they had a, there was a lot out in the university that he'd got information and
was given all the details and the paper was there and everything. And he wrote her back a
letter for thankin ' her that uh, that was the only thing they knew, that his grandfather got
killed in a plane crash and that his body was saved, and they sent it home then. They were
so delighted to get all the information, you know, to find out and everything that people
had got his body and everything, you know. Oh yeah, that was hectic. And Mr. Stack
used to work on Buckmaster Circle. And he used to walk back and forth Buckmaster
Circle to go to work, he was a watchmen up there. And he just came home that morning
and he laid down upstairs, two-story house they had, that's where you know Robert Stack
lives now?
SEAN: Yeah.
MARY: Well that's where the house was to. And he couldn't go to sleep anyway, and he
just come down over the stairs, five minutes before when the plane crashed. So ifhe had
of stayed there, cuse it took apart his roof, he probably would'a been killed. But then they
got money and that, and they built a bungalow then after, you know. Oh yeah, it was
fiightening, I'm tellin' you. But they got the plane then and they towed it, towed it in, and
towed it in, I think they towed it in to Outer Cove, and a big crane lifted it up and they
brought it in to check and see what happened. But I guess in the fog, you know, and that
tool, I guess his time had come to die, maybe that's the way it usually is.
SEAN: Urn, do you have any more interesting stories to tell us?
MARY: Oh gosh, no, not that I can think of You know uh, Charlie had lots I bet'cha.
Charlie was a great farmer and uh, he's, he's got some memory, Charlie. Often times, urn
Martin Boland called me, uh Martin, Martin Boland yeah, a couple of weeks ago wantin'
to know about my great, my great grandfather that rowed in the Regatta. I said "No, I
never knew him." Cause he died when he was forty-nine, and died weedin' over in the
(
garden, just fell down, died with a massive heart attack. r said "No, r never knew him."
He said "Yes, he rowed" and he told me what time they made, and what year it was and
everything and I said "The only way you' re going to find out now is to call Charlie
Power" he said "Yes, I was talking to Charlie a couple of days ago and God he gave me
good- but I didn 't ask him that." So, I called Meena that night and Meena said "Oh yeah,
Charlie could tell him all about it" he 's got a- he 's my age, seventy-eight, but he 's got a
fantastic memory, I'm telling you. Everything, everything happened in the Parish then
and he was always there, where he was farming and everything because Charlie quit
school, I think, when he was fourteen. Big fellas, went- when they got older, they stayed
in school and went to Greenland, and all those places ... like Jack Griffin, and that's
where your granddad was to too, I think, how they were great buddies, him and Jack.
And, urn, that's where they were to, in Greenland. Regatta day, years ago, it was
fabulous. My husband, he'd be up in the moming- six o'clock. He always rowed he'd be
up out of bed in the morning six o'clock cause they'd come on the radio, to see if there it
was goin ahead. Even, for years, when we'd got a battery radio, and he'd be ready at
seven o'clock to leave and the two or three'd walk to Regatta, row maybe two races, then
walk home again in the evening. And that 'd be the night the parties'd be on the go- the
night of the regatta, you know, now there's nothing to the Regatta now, hardly, you
know. Chad went out this year with Robert but he wasn't one bit interested, there 's
nothing down there. We used to drive, when I was young, my mother would take the
horse and express, we'd take Jack and Joseph and Jimmy and me. Dad- I'd sit down in
the seat and Dad'd sit in the seat in the back of the express and drive out to Raft Duties
where, uh, the Royal Bank used to be, down around Logy Bay Road- now it is real estate,
or something, down there now- and drive out there, and the horse- tether the horse and
put a bag of oats on his head, and we'd walk down across and go down and sit down on
the grass on Ross's Meadow and, urn, there was no such a thing as buying a hot dog or
something then because hot dogs weren' t out. And we'd sit there and watch the Regatta
and you'd have candy, or an ice cream, or something, and then you'd leave about three or
four o'clock- that'd be a two hour drive home again, the horse and express drive home
again. And even when Robert and them were young, they'd always walk out to the
Regatta, a whole crowd of em, Regatta morning leave ten o'clock and walk out, and walk
home again in the evening- it was nothing, you know. When I went to work in 1969 at the
Janeway I used to walk back and forth- walk to the Janeway in the evening, walk home
again, get off work eleven thirty in the night, myself and Mrs. Kinsella in Logy Bay, and
I'd leave her at Logy Bay, where Felix and Jenny Hogan live now, they live down that
lane- Kinsella's Lane and I'd walk ... the only night I was ever scared to death was the
night Isabelle Caroll got killed, she got killed over by where the Justina 's to now, Kelly
Park, and a couple of drunken drivers and she got killed, and then I was down in
emergency, workin down in emergency when they brought her in, but I didn 't see her,
one of the girls said to me after, she said uh- now, you didn 't have a telephone so you
couldn't call home, and she said "That was a girl from Outer Cove, got killed" and I said
"Oh, my God" you know I had Dianne, Patsy and Janet and I said "Oh, my God, this
night" well what a night I put in workin, and probably by ten o' clock somebody had
found out who it was, and I was still sad, but that night when I walked home, cause I
wouldn't go down the Lower Road, there was one or two houses- Nixie Power's and
McDonald's on the road then and you had to go to Cork' s, it was too scary, all the trees,
(
and I used to walk up, that night I was so scared going along by the cemetery and going
along by the Kelly Park where she got killed, I knew she wasn 't going to touch me, that
wasn' t the point, just the fear of somebody dead. Oh my God, when you were young, a
couple older people, usually maybe Friday night or Saturday night or older men they'd
come to the house and they'd be telling ghost stories. You'd be frightened to death, you'd
go to bed and cover your head, just have a little bit out so you could breathe through it
under the quilts and blankets. You'd be so scared, and they'd be tellin about goin over to
Motion, now that's over in Middle Cove, that was the lonesome-est place on the road,
wouldn' t be too many walk home there by their self in the night because they used to say
there was a woman, used to walk over there in the night and she was all dressed in white,
you know, they' re just that they made up, you know, them times you believed em, you
had nothing else to ... you couldn't sit down and look at the Young and the Restless, like I
do in the day. [laughs] And, urn, oh no they were great times then, my dear, I tell you.
Wonderfu1. ..
N icholcas Roche
2008
(
Interview Report
interviewee: Nicholas Roche
Interviewers: Emily Roche and lenna Barney
uate of Interview: August 11 L\ 2008
Time of Interview: 10:00 am - 10:20 (lm
Place of Interview: Council Chambers, Town Hall
Recording Device: Sony I--wD HandyCam
Tra'1scription: Yes
Consent Form Signed: Yes
Notes:
- Fishing in Middle Cove (description, general info)
Plane Story
- Winter Activities
- Bird Hunting
Evening Activities
Comparing Working Age- Past vs_ Present
School
- Church Before School
- Cast-nets
*Hard of hearing
(
Interview Consent Form
, agree to allow the
Conservation Corps Green Team for Logy Bay-Middle Cove­Outer
Cove to record my interview on video for the town museum.
I understand that the museum will keep this video interview on
file, and I give permission for the museum to present a
transcription or a digital video file of the interview as part of an
exhibit on the history of the town.
Signature
Date
( Interview with Nicholas Roche
Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Green Team 2008
EMILY: My name is Emily Roche and today I'm here interviewing Nicholas Roche. I
will be interviewing him about the fishing industry and what it was like in Logy Bay­Middle
Cove-Outer Cove in the past. Let's get started.
EMIL Y: So Nicholas, what was a typical day for a fishermen back then?
NICHOLAS: A typical day would be gettin' up about four o'clock in the morning and
they worked til ' twelve in the night.
EMIL Y: So what kind of things did you do throughout the day?
NICHOLAS: Well I used to help my father at the fish, I was too young to be a fishermen
myself. When I was sixteen years old I left and went to Greenland, I was stayed up there
for four years. Then I came home and [ was just beaten around here and there, workin'
here and there, whatever was on the go.
EMIL Y: So did you go over to Greenland for fishing?
NICHOLAS: No no, I went to work with the American air forces.
EMIL Y: Oh okay. So when did you really start getting into fishing?
NICHOLAS: Hmm?
EMIL Y: When you were here? How old were you when you started getting into fishing?
NICHOLAS: Oh, about eighteen.
EMIL Y: Did you go out on your dad's boat or. .. ?
NICHOLAS: Oh I fished with my father, I never had a boat of my own, I wasn't that big
into it, I never really liked fishing to begin with, but it was something to do.
EMIL Y: Mmm hmmm. So what was the main type offish people caught back then and
what kind did you catch?
NICHOLAS: Usually catch salmon, codfish that's about it.
EMIL Y: Did you have to go far out to get them or were you more inshore?
NICHOLAS: No, we used to have a half hour or three quarters of an hour run in a boat.
( EM1L Y: So where you out there all day?
NICHOLAS: No, we'd go out in the morning at about 3, 4 or 5 o' clock we'd get back
around 7 and then if you had fish you'd put that away. Then, you'd be at the stage
workin' at the fish at 12 and I o'clock in the day and then you'd do a bit of work on the
ground and then you'd go out fishin again 4 or 5 o'clock in the evening.
EMILY: So, when was the fishing season? Like the best time?
NICHOLAS: That's a good question, whenever you could catch fish .
EMIL Y: So all year round or. .. ?
NICHOLAS: Uh, the trap season would start around the last week of June, lay down after
the 25th of June ' til the first or second week of August and then that was it for the
trapping. And then they 'd go at what they called "fall fishing", handlining and you'd be
gone all day at that.
EMIL Y: Mm hmm. So, where did all the fish go after like they were prepared and you
caught them, did you guys have them for your family or sell it?
NlCHOLAS: Well, we had our own stage. We used to split the fish and salt it and dry it
on the flakes and then we'd sell it.
EMIL Y: So, when you caught the fish and you had to come back you had to flake it. ..
how did you do that, like flake the fish and who helped out with that?
NlCHOLAS: How did we ... what did we do with the fish?
EMIL Y: Yeah.
NlCHOLAS: Well fishing, we'd get back around four or five o'clock and you'd put your
fish away, split it and salt it and that. was it for the day. You'd be finished around six or
seven o'clock. And the next morning, get up and tackle the same thing all over again.
EMIL Y: Hmm ... So did the women and children help out too, with the fishing?
NlCHOLAS: No, they had more sense.
EMILY: Ok, hmm ....
NlCHOLAS: There wasn't too many dollars on the go down here then ...
JENNA: No? Do you have any more stories or anything we could video? A funny story
or something bad that happened, and something happened while you were out fishing?
Any old stories you can remember?
(
NICHOLAS: Uh ... not that I can remember. ..
JENNA: No?
NICHOLAS: The first time we left, r remember the first time we left to go to Greenland,
we left Torbay and were twenty minutes out, fl ying, and the plane caught fire. And we
tripled back to Torbay Airport, two and half hours to get back, there was thirty-two or
thirty-three of us, and they said we'd get our quick stop in to Toronto tomorrow. Next
day, there was eight of us turned up, the rest weren' t. Another time, we were on another
plane, about halfway between Greenland and Torbay, and she caught fire filling up the
cabin with smoke, oh I had a few experiences up there ...
JENNA: It must have been scary.
NlCHOLAS: Hm?
.1ENNA: It must have been scary.
NICHOLAS: Ah, didn 't care much about it, if you're going you' re going and that's all
you can do about it.
JENNA: So, what else did you do? What did you do in the winter?
NICHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA: In the wintertime.
NICHOLAS: In the wintertime, I mean mostly go in the woods, cut wood, get ready for
the summer, and I'd be going in the woods in the summer.
JENNA: Yeah.
NlCHOLAS: Fine weather.
JENNA: Did you do any hunting?
NlCHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA: Did you do any hunting?
NlCHOLAS: Oh, I done a lot of hunting.
JENNA: Yeah?
( NICHOLAS: Usually after rabbits, ducks, mostly rabbits. Used to find a lot of rabbits
around then.
JENNA: Yeah. So, did you set snares, for that?
NICHOLAS: Uh, we'd have so many snares and then we're shootin too, you know, we
had a dog, and we were shootin. Some days you'd get four or five, a good day you'd
probably get ten or eleven, something like that, you know?
JENNA: Oh yeah, what about ice fishing?
NICHOLAS: I never gave wing for that
JENNA: No?
NICHOLAS: No.
JENNA: Any, like, bird hunting, or anything?
NICHOLAS: llikes bird hunting.
JENNA: Yeah?
NICHOLAS: Ducks, water ducks and that, you know?
JENNA: Yeah.
NICHOLAS: We used to do a good bit of that.
JENNA: So, did you have to go out in the boat to do that, did ya?
NICHOLAS: No, we'd do it from the ...
JENNA: The shore.
NICHOLAS: The land, you know?
JENNA: Yeah.
NICHOLAS: Once in a while, we'd go out in the boat, not too often.
JENNA: Yeah?
NICHOLAS: In the very calm weather, you know and in the winter you don't get too, too
many calm days.
(
JENNA: Yeah. Was there, like, a group of you? Or, like, did you just go you, and one
friend, or. .. ?
NICHOLAS: Oh there was usually two or three of us, goin together.
JENNA: Yeah.
NlCHOLAS: You'd never go by yourself.
JENNA: No? So, what did you do in the eveningtime, like, in the nighttime, like, after
supper when you were ...
NlCHOLAS: Well, we usually played cards, a few hands would get together, we'd have a
game of cards and ...
JENNA: So, what time was bedtime?
NICHOLAS: There was no television, no nothing then.
JENNA: No?
NICHOLAS: Just the radio.
JENNA: Did you, did you have like a ... go to ... what time did you go to bed?
NlCHOLAS: Nine, ten o'clock.
JENNA: And then, up again ... what time?
NlCHOLAS: About seven in the morning.
JENNA: It was long days.
NICHOLAS: Mhm.
JENNA: So what about women? What were they doing?
NlCHOLAS: By, they were usually round the same as we went to; I think they went to
bed round the same time.
JENNA: Were they, like, workin in the house, all day?
NICHOLAS: Oh yeah.
JENNA: Mhm.
{
NICHOLAS: Well they didn 't have much to do outside.
JENNA: Yeah. So, you said you did farming, a little bit?
NICHOLAS: Oh we'd play around with it. ..
JENNA: Yeah.
NICHOLAS: We were never much .. [coughs] I suppose you couldn't call us farmers,
cause we were fishermen, farmers, whatever way one made the dollar.
JENNA: Yeah. So, you didn ' t- you didn 't have a farm? You were working on someone
else's farm?
NICHOLAS: No, we had our O\vn.
JENNA: You had your mvn?
NICHOLAS: Yeah.
JENNA: So, was this- this was when you were how old? Were you young then, or were
you, like, a young man? Or were you like ...
NICHOLAS: Oh, that's- that's a good question.
JENNA: When did you start working? Like, actually doing, like, work?
NICHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA: How old were you when you actually started, like, working?
NICHOLAS: Oh, hah, that high [gestures]
JENNA: Yeah.
NICHOLAS: Them days you had to get out and work as soon as you were able to do
anything, you know?
JENNA: Yeah. Any more questions, Emily?
EMIL Y: You said you were working when you were uh, this tall [gestures], like, did you
still go to school and everything?
NICHOLAS: Hm?
EMIL Y: Did you still go to school?
(
NICHOLAS: Oh yesh, I went to schooL
EMJL Y: Until when?
NlCHOLAS: I believe [ went to grade eight, or something like that. And then I gave it up
and went to work.
JENNA: Yeah, is that what most people did?
NlCHOLAS: Yeah.
JENNA: Yeah? Was there very many day where, like, you had to, like, skip school?
NlCHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA: Is there any- very many days where you had to, like, miss school, because you
had to go to work?
NICHOLAS: No. We never missed any- in the winter, when it would be really stormy, no
matter how stormy it was we had to walk to school. We had to walk from Middle Cove,
over to where the little red schoolhouse used to be, that's where we went to school.
JENNA: Did you have to go to church?
NlCHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA: Did you guys have to go to church, too?
NICHOLAS: Oh yes, go to church, go to mass before you had to go to school. In the
winter, the priest would have mass in the school, where everyone' II start, you know?
JENNA: Mhm.
NlCHOLAS: Well yes- yes, I believe only seven o'clock in the morning, walk over. ..
JENNA: And you go to church, and then go to school, and after school do more work,
and ...
NlCHOLAS: Oh Yeah.
JENNA: Yeah ...
NlCHOLAS: Yup.
JENNA: Oh yeah, you said you used to make nets?
( NICHOLAS: Make cast nets.
JENNA: Yeah?
NICHOLAS: Yeah.
JENNA: And so, how do you do that, like, who taught you?
NICHOLAS: Oh, it's a hobby I picked up on the way along, from my father, you know?
JENNA: Oh, so your father used to make nets?
NICHOLAS: I make about, oh anywhere from twenty to thirty every year.
JENNA: Did you sell them or did you ... ?
NICHOLAS: Oh I sell them, yeah.
JENNA: Yeah?
EMIL Y: How did you make them?
NICHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA and EMIL Y: How did you make them?
NICHOLAS: Weill, I, uh, I don't knit em. The knit ones, they take the winter, you might
do about two a year, if you' re lucky. A lot of work.
JENNA: So, how big are they?
NICHOLAS: I cut about a panel, for about that high [gestures]
EMIL Y: Mm, that 's high.
NICHOLAS: I cut em out a panel, out of twine, you know? Get four panels, sew em
togther, put lead weights on them.
EMIL Y: So who were your, like, best fTiends back then and did they fish?
NICHOLAS: Hm?
EMILY: Your best friends, do they fish?
NICHOLAS: Who's my best friend?
{
EMlLY: Yeah.
NICHOLAS: My wife.
JENNA: Your wife?
NICHOLAS: I suppose she is.
JENNA: So, she used to help out with-
NICHOLAS: Hm?
JENNA: Did she used to help out with the work, and- and were you fishing then? When
you got married? When did you get married?
NICHOLAS: I don't know ...
JENNA: You don' t know when you got married?
NICHOLAS: No, I got married in ... what year was it? Fifty ... fifty-five.
JENNA: Long time. Do you have any more stories about.. . fishing or any fanning or
nothing like that?
NICHOLAS: I have a son and daughter, that's-
JENNA: What?
NICHOLAS: That's it, a son and a daughter. Son's a pilot.
EMlL Y: Really? What does your daughter do?
NICHOLAS: He flies back and forth to Hibernia all the time now.
EMlLY: Mm.
JENNA: So, he's not fishing?
NICHOLAS: I had a couple of trips with him in the plane.
EMILY: Mm.
JENNA: Kay, well- is that good?
EMIL Y: That's it. Thank-you very much.
( JENNA: Thanks for coming.
NlCHOLAS: Okay, my dear.
JENNA: Really appreciate it.
EMILY: Mhm.
JENNA: Kay, good. Thanks a lot.
r
Interview Quest-ions
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~,fy name is _________ and I am here today to interview MrlMrs. _____ _
.,. Could you please state your full name for our records?
) How long have you lived in this town?
Were your parents or other ancestors from here?
Would you mind giving us their names?
Where was your home located when you were young?
Is it still there today?
Could you describe the house?
-> Where did you attend school?
t Do you remember your teachers?
How many grade~ \lr classes were there?
Are there peopltttbom you went to school that you remember well?
Do you have any stories about school you'd like to tell us?
~ Did you attend church here?
-l How often did you go to services?
Who was the priest you most remember? ""II'll.
How many other priests do you remember in this area?
Is religion much different today than it was when you were young?
How is it different?
Do you have any special stories about church you'd like to share?
Was anyone in your family involved in the fishery?.Did they own their own boat?. Where did
they sell their fish?.Was it salt fish? .. Did they have a stage?.Where?
->Was anyone in your family a farmer?.What kind of farm?. Where was it located? How big was
it?.ls there still farming going on there? The sam~ kind?
.~ Did you have a phone when you were growing up? Was it a party line or private?
-'Dn you remember the first time you saw TV? .. Do you remember the first time you saw color
TV?
What did you do for indoor entertainment when you were young?
What did you do for outdoor activities?
Did you go to dances?
Where were dances held?
Did you have to have chaperones when you went out?
.;J Did you go to the regattas?
AIe there any special memories about the regattas ... or one regatta in particular?
Did you have family that rowed in any regattas?
~ Have any of your family served in the military?. When? . What branch?
'> Do you have memories of how things were during wartimes?
Was there a store in Logy Bay, Middle Cove or Outer Cove that you used to go to?.Where was it
and who owned it?
What were prices like when you were young?
Did you have a post office near your home?. Where?.Who ran it? ..
Do you remember what your postal address would have been?
Do you miss getting letters now that people are using the phone and internet to get in touch?
)Would you mind telling us about wedding traditions? .. Was there a party for the bride and groom
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before a wedding?". Were honeymoons common?. Where would someone go for a
honeymoon?.Did the couple usually have a home of their own right away or live with a relative
for a while?. Were most weddings big or small affairs?
What was your usual mode of transportation?
.> Do you remember the Logy Bay Spa was? Do you know where it was?
When the Red Cliff Station was there did you ever go there? Do you know people who worked
there? .
j Do you remember when Garden Parties were common here? Would you like to see them again?
Have you (or any family or friends) ever encountered fairies, mickaleens, or ghosts?
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us? Old traditions, stories about special events in
your own life or any things you feel we may be interested in ...
Have you been to our museum?
Do you think it is important to the community?
?-Thank you for sharing your stories and time.
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• What professions were there other than fishing and farming?
• What professions were the most sought after? •
• How did the roles and responsibilities of men and women differ? Did this change?
Fishery
• Approximately how many people fished in the area?
• How was this lifestyle different than that of other professions? What were the
advantages and disadvantages?
• What types offish did most people catch?
• What was fishing season? During this time, what days and hours did people fish?
• Can you briefly describe the process?
• Where did the fish go after they were prepared?
• Were women or children involved in fishing?
• Can you describe how the preparation of fish changed?
• How do you think the fishing industry has changed from what it was to what it is
today?
Farming
• Approximately how many farms wef'~ in the area?
• How was this lifestyle different than that of other professions? What were the
advantages and disadvantages?
• What are different products of the farms in the area?
• How was the product delivered to the consumer?
• Can you describe a typical day working on the farm?
• What kind of technology was used for farm machinery?
• Were farms typically passed through generations of the same family?
• How was farm life different throughout different seasons?
• What types of animals were found on the farm?
• What role did farming play overall in the town?
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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Lifestyle
• Can you describe an average day in a common household?
• What was the typical size of a family? ,
• Can you describe the main responsibilities of each family member?
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What kinds of food did you eat for each meal? On Sunday?
What types of desserts were there? Favorite?
Where did the food come from? Were there grocery stores?
What are your best childhood memories?
What were your favorite pastimes?
Can you describe some major social events?
Can you describe the ceremonies for weddings and deaths?
When did you get married? How was it different from modem day weddings?
Did you have a bachelor / bachelorette party? What kinds ,of gifts did you get?
What means were used to spread news in the town? Can you describe them?
How did you spend your birthday? Did you have any special traditions?
What about other holidays like Christmas and Halloween?
What kind of Halloween costumes did you wear?
What were the most popular types of music and entertainment?
What clothing was popular?'Where did people get their clothes?
Where there clothing trends or styles that people followed?
Did many people have pets? How were they taken care of?
Were there many doctors available to help people?
What kinds of illnesses were most common? How did illness affect family life?
What kinds of services were offered by the town? Can you describe the
police/firefighting/emergency services?
• Can you describe the style of a typical home? What did a typical home cost?
• What was the main method of transportation for people and goods? How did
transportation change?
• What types of technology did people use? What kind of effect did the introduction
of new technology have?
• Can you describe the role of the church in people's lives?
• How many grades were in the school? What was the teacher-student ratio?
• What subjects were taught in school? Favorite?
• Did you like going to school? What did you at lunch? How about after school?
• How often did you go to church? Was it mandatory, or did you get to choose?
• Has mass changed since you were young? If so, how?