A. Constance Frederica Connell.

Q. And who were your parents?

A. Ah……Samuel Woodman.

Q. And your mother’s name?

A. Beatrice.

Q. O.K. And what was your mother’s maiden name?

A. Ah……Van…..Van….VanTassell.

Q. O.K. And when were you lborn?

A. 1906.

Q. And where were you born?

A. Ah……let me see now…..ya, I was born home.

Q. At home, O.K. And how large was your family?

Oh, there were ten of us.

Q. And where do you fit in the family?

A. Number two.

Q. Two from the top or two from the bottom?

A. Second from the top.

Q. O.K.

A. I have a brother older that me.

Q. O.K. So what did your father do for a living?

A. Well, he had a big farm. And a……well…..he catered to the public that way. They Came there to get grain thrashed and a….things like that. And potatoes ground and…. Things for winter.

Q. O.K. Connie, why would they……why would they a….grind potatoes?

A. Oh well, I don’t know whether they ground them, but they put them through the Things. I don’t…..perhaps just to peal them, I don’t know.

Q. O.K.

A. "Cause I was so young.

Q. O.K. What do you remember about your mother’s work day?

A. Well, she was a……a seamstress, a tailoress, in her day. And a……she was just a Slight woman. And she was sick, quite a bit.

Q. So, did she work right out of her house?

A. Oh no….no….not when we were kids. This was before she was married.

Q. I see, O.K.

A. Ummmm.

Q. O.K. What was a typical school day like, for you?

A. Hmmmm…..had to walk two miles up and two miles back……each day that we Went to school….up at Acaiville.

Q. Oh ya.

A. That was in my younger days. Then I went to Digby School…..in my senior years.

Q. Right.

A. Umm..Hmm.

Q. O.K. What kinds of things did you have to memorize in school?

A. Oh, we had to memorize lots of things….out of the books.

Q. Right.

A. I don’t remember just what they were.

Q. How were you disciplined in school?

A. Well……the boys sat on the….on the side of me, in the school. And they’d put Their foot up and they’d jiggle the….. seats on me…to get my attention. And then a……one Day the seat fell down, and they hit….hit….hit in the chin, hit the fan…the table…the…

Q. The desk?

A. Ya, the desk in the school room. And a…..’cause I wouldn’t pay attention to them. I Was kinda shy, from those boys, you know, there in Digby. And a….then as they grew Older, they wanted to make friends, and said they were sorry and all this you know, boys Twelve and thirteen.

Q. Right.

A. And a…..so I got through school and I went nursing.

Q. So where did you go to go…..to become a nurse?

A. Well they took me in…..the first doctor that had a place there…..the foot of town…. Of town….of Town Hill. And the doctor came here from the states and a….so they Brought me in….as a nurse’s aid. And I stayed there five years and got my degree. Dr. Roberts and a…….then after that…a… the man I married he clerked in the Dry Goods Store. And a….I married him and had four children.

Q. Do you know the name of the store that he worked in, Connie?

A. Well, turn……..turned out to be Wright’s Store.

Q. O.K. That was NormanWright?

A. Yes. His people came from Newfoundland a…..no…..Prince Edward Island, here. And they….they opened up a store, there. And he clerked in there. As a……oh well…. A patient…….a….ya.

Q. O.K. What were your daily chores at home?

A. Oh my gosh. Anything that come along…….at home. What do you mean? When I

Q. Ya….as a young child?

A. Oh, I had to do everything there, when mom was sick. And a….. I remember one of My brothers. He got in the bathtub, and…..Well it wasn’t a bathtub then, it was a tub, Near the stove. And he burnt his bum. (laughter) And then…..so he had to put a patch On that, and take care of that, ‘til he got better. He was just a year younger than me.

Q. After your chores were done at home, what would you do with your free time?

A. Oh my gosh. Well I took..took music lessons. And I played the piano or the organ. We had both.

Q. Right.

A. And a….

Q. Who was your music teacher, Connie? Do you know?

A. Ah….ya, Nettie Dakin.

Q. So, you would go to her house for lessons?

A. A…..once a week.

Q. Oh ya.

A. Ya.

Q. Do you remember what it cost?

A. Oh my dear, I don’t know what they paid her. But a….

Q. Did you like music……?

A. But I had to walk in there. Perttin’ near two miles…ya….from home into Digby. And One time my cousin had a car, and he’d drive me in….in….rate after he had his meals And he…I’ll take you in back the fire that day. Harley Woodman, ya.

Q. What was your favorite holiday, when you were a child?

A. Oh my goodness. Well we played a lot of base….ball. Bat and ball.

Q. Right.

A. Out in front of the house. "Cause mother put a sign up over the kitchen window, so Nothin’ would get broken. (laughter)

Q. What was your favorite holiday? Was it Christmas or Easter……?

A. Oh…. I think it was my birthday.

Q. Yes, and what was….what did you like about it so much?

A. Well, ‘cause I got what I wanted. (laughter)

Q. O.K. Do….did you have any pets when you were growing up?

A. Oh I….yes…..a…..now what was that. Oh….a lovely cat. A lovely cat.

Q. Do you know what color it was?

A. Yes…it was brownish color and cuddly.

Q. What was his name?

A. (laughter) Cuddles…as far as I can remember.

Q. Right. How much spending money did you have as a child?

A. I didn’t have any, unless someone give me a quarter or somethin’ and saved it.

Q. Right. O.K. What was your religion?

A. Church of England.

Q. O.K. And what were Sundays like, in your house, when you were growing up?

A. Sundays? Well they…..My father and mother would bring a…..someone in from The church, and they’d play the organ and sing for the evening.

Q. Well that was nice.

A. Ya.

Q. O.K. Umm..What was your favorite hymn?

A. Well now, let’s see. I took music lessons and what was that. I always played that Before I left taken music lessons. Oh my land, I can’t remember the name of the hymn.

Q. That’s O.K. O.K. What influence did religion have throughout your life?

Well….it taught me a lot to be….nice and decent to other people.

Q. O.K. How did you keep up with what was going on in the outside world? Outside of Your community?

Well…..we had a…invite them home mostly.

Q. Right.

A. Ya….have them come here mom would say…..and I’ll bake a batch of cookies or

Q. Well, that was nice.

A. Uh….hm.

Q. O.K. What….what kinds of things, vegetables or…or meat, did you people grow and Raise yourselves?

Oh my goodness. Dad grew everything on the farm.

Q. So what kind of animals would he have had?

A. Well, we had sheep and oxen and horses and a pigs (laughter) I don’t know how many But we had ‘em.

Q. O.K. What did you barter for? Did you trade your vegetables for anything?

A. Oh no.

Q. No.

A. No.

Q. So you raised and grew everything that you needed.

A. Needed there on the farm, dad had.

Q. So how did electricity change things for you?

A. Oh yes that electricity. Well that came later in a…my life. Yes I…..

Q. Do you remember when you got electricity?

A. Yes…oh yes I remember when that came in….but I don’t remember the date.

Q. Right. So what was it like in your house with electricity?

Well…..we had to turn the lights off certain things so it wouldn’t be expensive.

Q. Right. Do you remember when you got running water?

Oh….oh…we had a big tank up stairs and a turned the tap on, downstairs. A great Big (?) downstairs place….like a tank.

Q. Oh ya.

A. And then a….the water ran off the roof in it.

Q. Right.

A. And then we’d turn the tap off downstairs for…. Not to drink but that was….the kind Do laundry in that.

Q. Right. O.K. What was bath night like at your house?

Well…the boys did theirs one night and the girls did theirs the other….the next night.

Q. And how often? Like once a week?

A. Oh yes. Sometimes they’d be dirtier than that and then they’d…..have to do them the Next night. (laughter)

Q. So you were all…..and were you all washed in one of those big galvanized tubs?

A. Oh yes. Yes….that’s right. ‘Cause I know one brother, he was washed right there, his Head…..he had to take the bath, by the stove. And he bent over and he got his ass burnt. Excuse me. (laughter) A spot on that.

Q. That would be awful.

A. Ya…and my father was a member of the Parliament then. Ya.

Q. So what did your father do? He was a member of the Parliament.

A. Well….he went to the Government House in town. And whatever come up, he had The saying of it.

Q. Oh ya.

A. I don’t know what it was, then, as a child.

Q. O.K. Who was the doctor when you were growing up as a little girl?

A. Dr. DeVerny.

Q. Doctor…?

A. DeVerny.

Q. DeVerny. O.K. So how far away did he live?

Well he just in town. And….we lived a….mile and a half out….from town.

Q. Right. Who delivered the babies in your community?

Well a…..he, he would come out and then they’d get a maid.

Q. O.K.

A. Ya….to stay with her ‘til the baby was born.

Q. O.K. Connie. What were some home remedies that would have been common when You were growing up? We heard some stories about Mustard patch….poultices?

Oh yes you had Mustard patch if you had a cold on your chest. Yes…oh yes, indeed.

Q. So do you know any other remedies?

A. Oh well….I suppose they had a little drink of somethin’ there…they give ‘em hot.

Q. Right.

A. I don’t know what it was.

Q. So if somebody had cut themselves, what would they have done?

A. Oh…they soaked ‘em in….in water with iodine or somethin’.

Q. Oh ya. O.K. So how did you take care of your teeth?

Oh…I had good teeth. No….I just brushed ‘em.

Q. Right. How often would you see a dentist?

Oh well…if we thought a….one was getting’ a lit….a little discolored, we’d go in. I Would go in.

Q. O.K. When someone died what was the wake like?

A. Oh….now I was quite young that…when that person died. Well we stood and then They sang hymns and that.

Q. In the church or at your house?

A. Oh well….it ….well….the church I guess. Yes, the church.

O.K. So how often did you get to leave Conway?

Oh….every day to go to church and school.

Q. Right. This is when you’re growing up.

A. Ya.

Q. I mean when you are a teenager.

A. Ya. And then I went and took music lessons. So, that was once a week.

Q. O.K. What were the roads like when you were growing up?

A. Oh…(laughter) all dirt roads and they kept plowin’ them out and plowin’ them out. And we’d take short cuts.

Q. So who looked after the roads?

A. Well…they hired guys…men from……The government hired men.

Q. O.K.

A. I suppose from the community.

Q. O.K. So what did you expect to do when you grew up?

A. Well…..the doctor thought I should be a nurse.

Q. Is that what you always wanted to be?

A. Well…I didn’t want to teach school.

Q. Right.

A. No…I had enough in the school. And a…so….when….the doctor came from the States, a…. he came and asked me if I would go…..and do that. He said "You’re just The one we want." And a….so I went in the little Digby Hospital and it only had twelve Beds.

Q. Really.

A. Well….let me see if I’m right on the twelve. A…..Dr. Roberts had it. Ya…he wanted To open an office here. He came here…. At Tupper Warnes. And then…..he said "Get Her." He said. "She’s more used to the children and the families." That’s me.

Q. Right.

A. And a…so I went there and stayed there five years, and looked after ‘em, washed ‘em And bathed ‘em and…….took their trays up to them.

Q. So Connie, where was the first hospital that you worked in?

A. Well the one they torn down, the foot of Town Hill there.

Q. That’s where Brad Amirault’s Store was?

A. Yes.

Q. Right.

A. That was it.

Q. Right.

A. Ya.

Q. Ya.

A. Ya.

Q. So how many…..besides the doctor, how many nurses would have been there?

A. Oh well…..they’d been…..let me see….me, and they’d been a night nurse and another nurse.

Q. So just three of you?

A. Ya….at that time. And….and….and if anybody wanted a special nurse they’d ask ‘em In.

Q. I see.

A. And pay them according.

Q. So do you remember how much you got paid for that first job?

A. What?

Q. Do you remember how much your pay was? How much money you got?

A. Oh I….I….don’t know I’ll remember how much money. Oh my goodness. How much Was that now? ‘Cause they give it to me in a cheque. Oh …maybe ten…ten or fifteen Dollars.

Q. So did you like that job?

A. (laughter) Well…I…kinda liked it, ‘cause when my mother was sick I looked after Her before I went there.

Q. Right.

A. Ya. And they came for me, the doctor did. And said "You just come in," they said. "We got a job fer ya in the hospital."

Q. So do you remember where you took your training to become a nurse?

A. Well right there.

Q. Right at the hospital?

A. Right there.

Q. Boy that was…

A. Whatever they taught me.

Q. So did you like being a nurse?

A. Well..’twasn’t hard. Ya.

Q. Right.

A. Ya.

Q. You must have got to help a lot of people that you knew?

A. Oh my goodness. And….we slept right in the hospital upstairs….I remember. And a… Yes I’ll never forget that.

Q. O.K. So as a teenager, I’m going back a little father now Connie, as a teenager what Kinds of things did you do for fun?

Oh, we played ball with the kids.

Q. Right.

A. UmmHmm.

Q. Now, did you ever go to any movies?

A. Oh…..we were….occassionaly, when there was a price on, fer, you know…a…medium Price on they’d let us go.

Q. O.K. So who were your movie idols?

Well…just long as we went to the movie. But I’ll tell you a movie….my husband and I…..Do you want to go that far?

Q. Sure.

A. A….we went to this movie and just as he got there, we’d been out to supper to our friends, and he had to go to the bathroom. I said "Oh my God. Why’d you go before you Come in." And a….while he was out he…someone else come and sat with me…where He sat.

Q. Right.

A. And I took hold of his hand. I thought it was him that was there. Twasn’t him at tall. And the couple that was behind me was pokin’ me in the back. And it was the ones that We’d had supper with. And a….they kept pokin’ me, and that. He got laughin’. So he Was a traveler, that we dealt with in the store. And a….he said "I never laughed so much. You held on my hand." I said "Well why’d you piddle before you come in like this boy." (laughter) Oh my goodness.

Q. What kind of music did you like?

A. Oh….I had to take music lessons. A….All that was on that…..book…..thing she had There. Some was religion and some was just a….a musical.

Q. Right. O.K. So what do you remember about dating?

Dating?

Q. Ya.

A. Oh I could have had lots of dates, but I didn’t know what they were like or whether They were going to take advantage of me.

Q. Right.

A. And I thought, well this is it. I’ll find out. And I asked the doctor one time. I said "So And he has asked me to go out," when I was in the hospital. And he said "I guess he’d all Right." "Well," I said "if he isn’t," I said "He goin’ get the flip." (laughter)

Q. What’s the flip? You’ll flip him upside down?

A. (laughter) Punch him. (laughter) In those days….in those days….Who else is listening Here?

Q. Just you and I.

A. Oh…..Oh my.

Q. How far did you go in school? What grade did you get?

A. Well now, that was grade eleven or twelve.

Q. O.K.

A. I don’t…….ya, one of them.

Q. Do you know how old you were when you left school?

A. Well a…..’bout eleven or twelve.

Q. O.K.

A. I wasn’t anymore than that.

Q. O.K. How old were you when you got married?

Oh my dear now, he was clerkin’ in that Dry Goods Store. And….and I asked the doctor, I said "Do you suppose I should marry him?" And he said "What do ya think? "Well" I said "I don’t want to have any children, yet." And a…..he worked In a Dry Goods Store then.

Q. Right.

A. And a….so…..well his father and mother wanted me to marry him. She always sat out On the verandah when I went by…and say "Come in Connie." And I’d say I couldn’t ‘cause I was goin’ the hospital.

Q. But you don’t know how old you were when you got married?

A. Yes….now let’s see. Ah…..nineteen…was I?

Q. O.K.

A. Around there.

Q. O.K. So once you got married, where did you live?

A. Well they gave their house up and went in town and wanted get….out of the big place. It’s only a mile out from here the house where they live. And they wanted to get in a Little one that had a bathroom….and they. Out there they didn’t have a bathroom.

Q. Oh yeah.

A. They had a outside place.

Q. So you took their house?

A. Well then they said you and Claude get married. So…Oh my gosh and I said "Daddy Did you like ‘em that much?" I said. "Cause he’d been walkin’ down home with me. "Well" I said "You know what he’s like." And I said "I don’t know whether trust ‘im or not." (laughter)

Q. Do you know how old you were when you first started your job as a nurse?

A. Oh…there in the hospital. Yes, I had to be a certain age. Oh my land Dr. who? Ah…. Roberts. Oh my land. Well I just got out of school.

Q. So you were about nineteen or twenty.

A. Well I wasn’t twenty.

Q. O.K.

A. No. I’d say eighteen or nineteen.

Q. O.K.

Yeah.

Q. So, can you tell me about a……a typical day as a nurse. The things that you would do.

A. Oh well….you had to bathe the patients and….and rub their back and give them Medications and…..and see that they……had the right thing.

Q. Right. O.K. Do you remember what your salary was when you started your first job as a nurse?

Now let me see ‘bout that. That wasn’t very much. Well, well, well. Now Dr. Dickie Was there. I think it was eight dollars.

Q. Imagine. How much tax did you have to pay out of that?

Oh…I don’t know ‘bout the tax. They took it out ‘fore I saw it.

Q. Right. O.K. Connie. Back when we were talking about your school days, you were telling me that for your younger years, you had to travel to Acaciaville to go to school?

Yes I did. That was two miles.

Q. O.K. So was that school white and blacks were at that school?

A. Ah, let me see. I don’t think there was any black ones up there. If there was it was a Rare one.

Q. Right.

A. That….we…..that the boys played ball with.

Q. Right.

A. But I don’t remember ‘em right now.

Q. So when you lived in Conway did you have a lot of blacks in your community then? Black people in your community.

Well no. They lived right in back of us.

Q. O.K.

A. In Jordantown.

Q. Right.

A. Where our home was.

Q. Right.

A. And they’d come down occasionally and play ball with the boys.

Q. So you never had any problems with the blacks and whites growing up as a child?

A. Oh no…no.

Q. You would have had some friends?

A. No…..oh no. I…..I knew them.

Q. Right.

A. Yes…..no trouble ‘tall.

Q. O.K. So what do you remember about the depression?

Oh they….I always remember them talkin’ about it and wonderin’ what a Depression Was.

Q. But it really didn’t have much effect on you?

A. Not on me, because we had plenty to eat and he had a big farm and a….

Q. Right.

A. Yeah.

Q. So what do you remember about wartime?

A. Oh, well war times men were hiding in the bushes out by home.

Q. Why?

A. ‘Cause they didn’t want to get caught and go overseas.

Q. So, did they eventually get caught?

A. Well some of them did. And one…. one didn’t, I remember.

Q. And what happened to him?

A. Well he kept hidin’ and dodgin’ and hidin’ and dodgin’.

Q. And he never went to war?

A. No he….they didn’t catch ‘im. I don’t know really what happened to him, then. I was Takin’ music lessons then.

Q. So how did the war affect your family?

A. Well they never talked about that, that much. ‘Cause they thought the war comes and The war goes.

Q. Right. O.K. What affect did the war have on your community?

Oh….well a lot of ‘im clamed up havin’ little affairs and things like that.

Q. Oh really?

A. Well yeah…they….so they save their money. But dad didn’t think that. He…he gave.. He gave.

Q. Right. So did people help each other out, in days gone by, that’s different from today?

Well they….if they knew them they helped them.

Q. Do you find that’s there’s less of that today?

A. I’m not out to see. I don’t know.

Q. O.K. Do you remember anything about the Poor Farm?

A. Oh yeah…..the Poor Farm. My father had ta…. see about that. Yes….yes.

Q. Where you ever at the Poor Farm?

A. Yes….oh yes. I played music down there.

Q. O.K.

A. When they had a funeral.

Q. Oh…at the Poor Farm.

A. Yeah.

Q. And they would hold it right at the Poor Farm?

A. They….they would hold it that day.

Q. Right.

A. Yeah.

Q. So….you would go down and play music?

A. Yeah….my but my father would take me.

Q. Oh yeah. So what would happen to the body after you did the funeral there?

Well I don’t know what they did with it. (laughter)

Q. O.K…..umm……So how important was politics in your day as a child?

A. Well…..keep my mouth shut.

Q. O.K. Would a person get a job depending on how he voted?

Well…they’d wonder how he voted….and get him to sign a paper.

Q. Saying how he voted?

A. Well a…..where my father was there….he had the doins’ of some of that and…..so…. He would see how….which one……We had a man that ran away, during the war….and Hid in the woods there for a long time. Yeah.

Q. And did they find him?

A. No…he stayed away and hid there and hid there and hid somewhere else. I remember Mom tellin’ me.

Q. Amazing.

A. Yeah.

Q. What do you remember about election campaigns?

A. Oh my dear. That old election. I hated elections.

Q. Why?

A. Well they’d come home and have a meeting and us kids had to get out of the house While they had the meeting.

Q. Right.

A. ‘Cause we didn’t hear anything.

Q. I see.

A. UmHmm.

Q. So where would you go while they had the meeting?

A. Oh…out doors somewhere.

Q. O.K. O.K. So…..how big was Conway when you were a child? Was there a lot of stores and Things like that?

Oh no….no….no…..not stores. There were a lot of houses with families.

Q. And there were a few cars?

A. Just…just around the "Flat Iron". Yes there was a…..they called it the "Flat Iron".

Q. Right.

A. And a…..everybody had a little garden.

Q. Do you why the "Flat Iron" got its name?

A. Now…the "Flat Iron". Well… its shaped like it

Q. Right. O.K. So how was the law enforced in your community?

Well it….what to do.

Q. No…..Was there any policemen?

A. Oh no. No. They sort of left that up to my father.

Q. I see. So…what was your father’s job basically. He was a…?

He was a farmer and he was a man that a… did shopping fer…umm, no not shopping….but a….He had a mill that a…ground grain and a…that sort of thing.

Q. O.K. So did your father employ other people?

A. Well…when he had….had that opened he did.

Q. I see. So how many….?

A. But not all……not all ….the time.

Q. Right. So how long did he….how many years did he have the mill?

Oh no…..all he….he had it all the time I was there. I don’t know.

Q. Right. O.K. So there was no police in your community?

Well no…Each one took their own….way of dealin’ with things.

Q. Right. So who were the "better off" people in your community?

The "better off"?

Q. The rich people.

A. Oh….I don’t know whether I knew or not.

Q. O.K.

A. Each one had their own dealins’.

Q. So what was the large….who was the largest employer in your community? That Would hire the most people.

Well….I think my father was.

Q. O.K. So do you remember the number of employees he would have had?

A. Oh…..maybe five or six.

Q. O. K. And he owned it himself?

A. Yes…yes he did.

Q. O.K. How big was it? Can you describe it?

A. Well….he ground apples, for people, to make the juice for them.

Q. O.K.

A. And then he cracked grain for them.

Q. Umhmm.

A. Yes…..he had a mill like…and each day a….certain days…why that why he do it. Yup. But we weren’t allowed to go down there when he was doin’ it.

Q. O.K. O.K. Do you….did you belong to any organizations….like the Rebeccahs or anything?

Oh well…I wasn’t old enough.

Q. O.K. As you got older, as a teenager, or in your twenties, would you have joined any groups Like that?

Oh…not until I got married.

Q. O.K. And what group would you have belonged to?

A. Oh that….now let’s see. When I met that person……oh my goodness. I was….I was in the hospital nursing then. Yeah….I went in nursing. Dr. DeVerny gave me permission To go in there.

Q. O.K. Connie. When you were first married, or while you were married, when would People get together for a good time?

Oh….once a week….week and that was sing song.

Q. O.K. And where would you get together?

A. At my house.

Q. Oh did you?

A. Yeah. They all liked it ‘cause we had a piano and I took music lessons.

Q. Right.

A. And we had an organ there too. And a….so then we’d have a…. something to eat. Mom would have it all made.

Q. Right.

A. Fer to fed them after it was all….like a….let me see….a Friday night or a Saturday Night. I don’t know which.

Q. So about how many people would come to it?

A. Ohhhh……….let me see. There’d be four of the men out there, four…..oh, sixteen or Seventeen…….maybe more.

Q. Oh that would be fun.

A. Oh yeah, it was. ‘Cause they all liked to come to home. Mom was a good cook.

Q. Right. O.K. So what do you remember about tourism in your day?

Well it just started then…..when I was in school.

Q. O.K. Do you know where the people would come from?

A. Well some come from different places and hid out in the bush. But didn’t want to go Overseas or anything.

Q. Right. O.K. What was relationship like between blacks and whites in your day?

Well we lived right across two fields from them and we knew them all.

Q. UmHmm.

A. My father did… Louise and all them. I didn’t bat an eye about them. No.

Q. O.K. Connie. If a black man and a white man both worked at the same job, would They earn the same wages?

Oh yes.

Q. They would?

A. Yeah…’cause I can see dad feedin’ them at the table when they come to do work for Him. And mom would have the big table set for them. Umhmm.

Q. O.K. How superstitious were people when you were growing up?

A. Well superstitious now….what is that?

Q. Well that would be, like if a black cat ran in front of you or couldn’t walk under a ladder, that kind of thing.

A. Oh no, I didn’t know anything about that.

Q. O.K. What is the worst weather you can remember?

The worst weather?

Q. Umhmm.

A. Humm….I don’t remember that.

Q. O.K. That’s O.K. What do you know about shipwrecks around here?

Shipwreck? Um. Well I don’t think we had many ships wrecked here.

Q. O.K. What colorful characters can you remember?

Well we…..I remember one character didn’t want to go overseas and he hid in our Back bushes there…somewhere.

Q. Right. O.K. What ghost stories can you remember from your younger years?

(laughter) Oh my gosh….ghost stories. Didn’t I hate them.

Q. Did you?

A. Oh yeah…they were scary….when I was a kid.

Q. Can you remember any of them?

A. Oh my land. I guess not. I can’t not right through.

Q. O.K. That’s alright Connie. Do you remember Maud Lewis growing up?

Oh yes. Oh she walked from Yarmouth up.

Q. She walked from Yarmouth up here?

A. Yes. And I don’t know how many days it took her. I was only eleven or twelve then.

Q. So why did she walk up here?

A. Well she didn’t have money and she wanted a job and she was artistic. And a…she Lived just down there by the Alms House and we went down there to see her and a… She was quite artistic. And she had her organ painted all different colors….in her house.

Q. Amazing.

A. Yeah. Yes indeed. Oh yes, I remember her well. Yes she walked up and stayed over- Night, from Yarmouth, until she got up there to the Alms House.

Q. And what’s the Alms House?

A. Well ..its where the….oh, place where they kept the….the people.

Q. The Poor Farm, you mean?

A. Yeah.

Q. O.K.

A. Yeah. That’s the Alms House.

Q. O.K. Umm…..

A. That’s just down there in Marshalltown.

Q. Right.

A. Umhmm.

Q. So when you used to go to the Poor Farm, and play music…..

A. Yeah.

Q. Like…was it…..was it a happy place?

A. Well they…when they offered me to play that why it was musical. Like a hymn or Whatever it was it was music.

Q. Do you remember who was running the Poor Farm at that time?

A. Oh, no, there were many people ran that. There wasn’t only one person.

Q. I mean, at the time when you would go down there and play music, who was running It then?

I don’t know. Dad took me down there to play the music. I don’t know. I don’t know The man’s name, or them.

Q. Right. O.K. One more question, Connie. How would you compare life in general today, to when You were a little girl?

Compared to…what is it?

Q. How would you compare life today, to when you were a little girl?

A. Well we took a…things for granted in those days what mother said. Today they don’t. They go grab it.

Q. Right.

A. Yeah.

Q. So do you think….

A. They demand it.

Q. Right. Back in your day as a child, there was much more respect?

Oh yes. Absolutely. I guess so.

Q. And the old saying, "children should be seen and not heard"…

A. Yeah.

Q. Was very true.

A. Umhmm. And I told you the story about my husband goin’ to the theatre and …and Soon as he got there, we’d been out to supper, someplace…

Q. Yes. That was too funny.

A. And the traveler come and sat down there and I grabbed his hand and I said "Why Didn’t ya piddle before ya come?" And it was the traveler.(laughter) And the ones Behind me that took us to…..poked me in the back. I didn’t know what the hell I was… They laughed like hell about that.

Q. So Connie, do you have any funny nursing stories that you could tell me?

A. Funny nursing ones…oh I suppose.

Q. Can you think of a funny nursing story to tell me?

A. Well I don’t know, now. Oh…there was a patient we had and….he had a… on his rump here….a…he got hit by a….now what did he get hit by, somethin’. And it left it ‘bout big as a fifty-cent piece. And a….it wouldn’t heal. He was playin’ ball with some- body. And someone hit ‘im in the bum. And a…so he came in the hospital. Well then I knew ‘im right away. And I said…. he looked at me and his face turned red and I said "Don’t look at me that way. Turn your rear end up here and I’ll fix it and then you’ll be alright." (laughter) And that was him and he turned out alright. Yeah. Yeah.

Q. So is there anything else that you’d like to say, Connie?

A. Anything else? Well I don’t know anything. I don’t know you got everything out of Me.

Q. Well I enjoyed the interview very much.

A. Umhmm.