Q: What is your full name?

A: Geraldine Leneika Ensor. Eldridge Ensor. I was an Eldridge.

Q: So Eldridge was your maiden name, and Ensor was your married name.

A: And I was born in this house.

Q: And who were your parents?

A: Bertha and William Eldridge.

Q: And what was your mother’s maiden name?

A: Bertha Denton.

Q: Bertha Denton.

A: She was from Little River.

Q: And what year were you born? I know you have a birthday coming up in a week.

A October 20, 1916.

Q: Which will make you 84 on this birthday.

A: Uh hmm.

Q: [Hmm, Trudy and I will have to plan a party.] Where were you born? Right in this house?

A: Right here. In that room. (pointing to room off of kitchen)

Q: In this house, in this room! Do you remember any stories about your birth?

A: Only that I was, uh, I was a twin. My twin sister was a half an hour or so older, and I was very small. So I was brought up in a shoebox lined with, lined with, ha, sheep's wool, on the oven door for a few months.

Q: Ha. Um...

A: And I made it! Usually, you know...

Q: Was having twins considered a complicated delivery at the time? Did twins, both twins usually survive?

A: Ha, usually, I guess. Ha, we were in a twin family. My father had sisters that were twins. And

my mother had a brother and a sister that were twins.

Q: You’re lucky! So, how large was your family? Were you the first born, you and Leaner?

A No, we had an older sister Sarah, and then another set of twins. They’re...(inaudible) My father and mother were married , ah, in nineteen and thirteen. Sarah was born in nineteen and fifteen. And Lenore and I in nineteen and sixteen. And Harper and Bertha nineteen seventeen.

So in two years and a half, they had five children.

Q: Unbelievable. Um, what did you father do for a living?

A: What did my father do for a living? He was a fisherman and a farmer.

Q: Um, did your mother work outside of the home?

A: Oh no. She had plenty... She said there was a year in which she was never anywheres except from the house to the clothesline.

Q: I can believe it. Um, what do you remember about school? What was a typical school day like? We’ve seen your picture of your first year of school...

A: Yes, um, you must know first that I hated school. (laughter) So, ah, back of course, we, we had to go. We knew that. And Lenore and I were the first ones, were the only ones in

Grade One that year. So, ah, as we would...you’d get called up to the front to do your lesson, you know, I’d hurry up and get up first. So I was always to the head to begin with, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t spell, so the first word got me down. (laughter) She was more of a student than I was. I was a tomboy, and liked to do sports outside, and couldn’t bear, didn’t like studyin’ a course.

Q: What were some of the sports you did outside? What did they have for games?

A: Oh, running and jumping. I could jump anything that was up to my chin. And ah, oh, you know, baseball and...

Q: Some ball sports...

A: More sports, yes. Not that much ‘cause the school yard, you know, was just a side hill that’s where the Inksters live now.

Q: That was the school for...

A: That was the school where I went to school.

Q: For just people from Sandy Cove, or from any further away?

A: No, Sandy Cove. Mink Cove had its own school, and so did Lake Midway.

Q: Lake Midway, yeah? So, the school room was a one room ...?

A: One room school

Q: And one teacher...?

A: And one teacher, all grades

Q: All the way, did children go all the way up to twelve?

A: Some of them did.

Q: Yeah?

A: Yes.

Q: This is where you would stay, though, in the Sandy Cove School?

A: In the Sandy Cove School. I only went to ten.

Q: Um, what types of things did you like to do with your friends?

A: Oh, play. And I loved to swim. And, uh, well of course we didn’t have too much time for playing in the summer because uh, from the time school let out was the time to pick strawberries. So we had to go strawberrying every day .

Q: Strawberry...wild strawberrying? Or just....

A: Wild strawberries, and uh, in the fields, you know.

Q: Yeah.

A: So we had to pick strawberries. And we had to do work at home. My father had a farm.

You had to take the cows to pasture, and, we never learned to milk, but uh, gather the eggs, and feed the hens, and...

Q: Where did all the strawberries end up? Did they turn into jam, or...

A: In jam, and uh, I don’t know what else my mother... yeah, jam mostly. And of course we ate a lot of them.

Q: Yep. Was Lenore your best friend growing up, or...

A: No.

Q: ...did you have other best friends?

A: Other best friends.

Q: Yeah?

A: Ah, Belvah. Uh, she’s in this picture too. Belvah Jeffrey, right there [pointing to photo] from Sandy Cove School 1920-1921].

Q: Um, now even though you didn’t like school so much, what was your best memory that you have of school?

A: Oh, I could, uh, I was good at drawing, and it was my job to decorate the boards at Christmas, draw the border. We drew a border, like a holly wreaths all around it.

Q: Yep.

A: And I used to do that.

Q: All drawn?

A: All drawing.

Q: Yeah?

A: And uh, wasn’t much else that I really liked about school. Um, I had a very good memory, and uh, so uh, I could read over things and remember it quite goodly.

Q: Yep?

A: And so history was very good for me.

Q: Yep...

A: And geography.

Q: Yep.

A: Couldn’t spell. Hadn’t learned. Wasn’t very good at spelling.

Q: You are now!

A: Yes. (Laughing)

Q: Um, what’s your least favorite memory of school?

A: Well, having to go! (Laughing)

Q: So the subjects you had...

A: Having to be, having to be kept in when I...

Q: Would like to be out.

A: Would like to be out, yeah. We had one teacher that uh, well there was the two of us, Belvah and I were at the same grade. And uh, he had, he had a girlfriend from the village. So we knew this Friday night that they wanted to go to Digby to movies or something, and we knew he wanted to get out, so we had a lesson, and he wouldn’t let us go until we...or thought he wasn’t going to let us go until we said it, you know...

Q: Yeah?

A: ...and did it, so he kept us there, and he’d, we’d have to uh, he kept asking us the questions

and, after a while that it got so late he had to, he had to go. So we kept him there ‘til he had to go, and we didn’t, didn’t uh, answer the questions.

Q: Was memorization a big part of what your school work was all about? Did you have to memorize...

A: Memorize a lot, yes.

Q: Yeah?

A: And uh, well of course they were very strict on Arithmetic. And uh, well...

Q: Did you have to do... recite poems?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you...can you remember any of the ones you were, you had to memorize?

A: Oh, I can remember little foolish ones, but they....

Q: OK, what’s one...do you know one little foolish one?

A: Yes:

He criticized her pudding and he didn’t like her cake,

He wished she’d make the biscuits like his mother used to make.

She didn’t wash the dishes, she didn’t make a stew,

She didn’t mend his stockings like his mother used to do.

Oh well, she wasn’t perfect, though she tried to do her best,

Until one day she thought her time had come to take a rest.

And when one day he went the same old rigamarole all through,

She turned and boxed his ears, just like his mother used to do.

(Laughter)

Q: What a memory! (more laughter) Do you remember how you were, how the children were disciplined in school? Not you, of course.

A: Oh yes. Uh, well we were made to stand in the corner.

Q: Yes.

A: And we got the strap when we didn’t, didn’t behave.

Q: Did you ever get the strap?

A: Yep. And stood in... and stood in the corner...

Q: Do you remember why?

A: Oh I don’t remember why, exactly. Stood in the corner too!

Q: Um, how about at home, with your own parents...

A: Yes...

Q: ...if you needed discipline?

A: ...My father was very strict. So if we got punished at school, and somebody told on us, we got punished at home. And my youngest sister, Bea, we were... she was... we was always bribing her not to tell, but she’d wait ‘til she got us to the dining room table, right where Dad could reach us, and she’d tell on us. (Laughter)

Q: What were your daily chores at home? You told us a little bit already, but, what were your daily chores?

A: Well as I said, we had to help with the... so uh...as we got older, my mother... we were left with the chamber work upstairs. She never went up, so we had to look after keeping it clean, and of course she did the washing...

Q: Yeah....

A: ...but we changed our own beds.

Q: Yeah.

A: And ah, we uh ,we didn’t help with the cooking too much. She uh, we were in the way. She was busy and couldn’t be bothered.

Q: Yeah.

A: And uh, so, when we were all small at one time, the kitchen was different. We’ve had it made over, but there was a porch, the door went this...no the door went out there. Um, there was a porch, and in the porch was a sideboard [hutch?] and she used to mix and do her baking in the pantry that’s beyond the porch. And ah, so ah, we were all small. Sarah was, must have been about maybe three years old...two or three. And ah, Mother had made a cake, and ah,Sarah had been wanting to have the bowl, you know, and she had told her, no. And ah, so while she was looking after some of us, ah, she heard it smash on the floor. Sarah had, Sarah had got the bowl and smashed it. Well, she had just said, you wait ‘til I get done, you just wait‘til I get done here! And when she came to look for the child, she couldn’t find her. Well!

She couldn’t leave the house, because the babies were all here. And there was a well, not very far down there, that didn’t have a cover on it. So, and she couldn’t run, for anybody who didn’t have a telephone in those days. And Mother couldn’t holler real loud, I could of hollered...so, she had to wait ‘til Dad came home. He had been fishing at the Bay of Fundy, and he went to look for this kid. And she had gone to the outside toilet, and sat down against the door and went to sleep. (Laughter) Can you,can you imagine, waiting...

Q: No.

A: ...waiting for her, and wondering what’s happened to her.

Q: Yeah, especially thinking she could have fallen down the well.

A: Yeah, right.

Q: So, after your chores were done, what kind of things did you do in your free time as a child?

A: Oh, we used to play, specially when it’d be hay time when Dad used to stack the hay in the field before he, they used to...they didn’t have binders in those days and things like....

Q: No bales?

A: No bales.

Q: No?

A: So he would uh, stack, you know they let it dry well, so uh, it would be uh...The first day it was mowed down. Well that night it was raked up. He had a raker that...

Q: Yeah...

A: ... Raked up and put in stacks. And ah, then opened up the next day to dry again. And we used to love to play hide and seek and hide behind those stacks.

Q: What was your favourite holiday, Leneika, when you were a child?

A: The twenty-fourth of May, was the first day I got to go swimming.(Laughter)

Q: Why did you have to wait until the twenty-fourth?

A: Well that was ah, well you know, the holiday...

Q: Yeah, OK...

A: ...and that was the day my father always planted potatoes for the first time. And I remember

one year that he had the top of the field from road, from right across, you know, from the road to the fence...

Q: Yeah...

A: ...for potatoes. And of course we each had so many rows to drop the potatoes. And I was dropping and watching the tide come in at the same time. And that was the year that Lenore, uh... I don’t know why the potatoes that he had to cut, cut the seeds you know...

Q: Yes....

A: He would put them in lime, drop them in lime, for what...

Q: Always? He always did that?

A: Always.

Q: Yeah?

A: So he had a bottle, a barrel, of lime, partly, not full of lime, but some, and Lenore got her eyes, got it in her eyes. So she didn’t... I don’t know how she did it, but she got it in her eyes. So of course, she had to be sent to the house, and didn’t get to... And I don’t know who finished up her...I suppose we all had to. There were the four of us, with my brother, five of us. All had to chip in and finish it, so we didn’t get to leave the place until it was finished. That was one thing about my father being strict. You didn’t... when you were told to do something you did it and you had to finish it, so...

Q: You wouldn’t consider doing otherwise...

A: No...

Q: ...or trying...

A: Oh, no

Q: Trying to...,

A: Trying to get out of it

Q: ... get out of it, no.

Q: Um, what other holidays or special events do you remember from your childhood?

A: Oh, Christmas, of course.

Q: Yes.

A: And, ah, the Christmas, ah, was always the tree....we always had a tree.

Q: Yes.

A: And it was always in the living room. And of course the doors...since we’ve had a furnace put in, we’ve taken off the downstair doors to circulate, you know.

Q: Yes.

A: But the doors were all on then, so, when you got up in the morning, you ah, didn’t get to see that ‘til after you, the tree, ‘til after you had eaten your breakfast. So the doors were always closed, and ah, we didn’t get that much for Christmas, but, our most important thing was our stocking.

Q: Which had what in it?

A: Harper and I had been, I don’t know what we’d been doing that year, but we had a lump of coal in the toe of ours instead of an orange. We always had an orange. And a switch in the top. (Laughter) We always had, it would be an orange, and then some grapes, and some candy. And ah...

Q: Did you get any toys?

A: No we didn’t get toys, and ah, they didn’t make, give us toys, because they’d have to give five of them. You know how children quarrel.

Q: Yes.

A: So we didn’t, we had to make our own toys. We didn’t have toys. I remember that ah, my youngest sister was ill one year and her uh, Dad’s niece took her to the States with her for the summer, and of course they gave her a doll. And, ah, the rest of us didn’t have any dolls. It was quite a big doll, when she came home with it. And I think Mum, Mother just took it and put it in the trunk.

Q: She did, and so she wasn’t put in a position to have to share it with anyone.

A: To share it, no, to quarrel over, yep.

Q: What were the toys that you made? You said you made toys other times of the year.

A: Oh, rag doll, or uh, dolls, out of a sock, you know, and...

Q: Yeah...

A: Um, not too much more than that.

Q: Did you have sleds in the winter time?

A: Oh you had sleds, yes. We had sleds. And ah...we never had....

Q: They came from the store? Did they come from a store? Or did you make them?

A: No, they were made. Um, we uh, we used to ride down the church hill. We had what...they were low running.

Q: Yeah?

A: And we would put two together with a big board between them, you know...

Q: Yeah.

A: And a whole crowd would get on it, and come down the church hill, and ah, if it was really good going, we would come right up the other hill, almost. Yes, and ah, the old gentleman that lived at the corner where the Ladds live now, he, would uh, it would get so slippery. He’d come out and spread ashes on the road, and we’d get a shovel and come in behind him and keep on going.

Q: Did anyone ever get hurt flying down this hill? Can you remember anybody ever breaking a leg or anything?

A: No, no, we got, ah, upset several times, but nobody ever got really hurt.

Q: Did you skate on the lake over here also?

A: We skated, yes, we skated. And we used to walk to Lake Midway and skate...

Q: Yeah?

A: When this...it blew so hard that this was always rough...

Q: Yes?

A: ...so we’d walk to Lake Midway and skate.

Q: For the good ice.

A: Yes. And I still have my skates that I’ve had since I was eighteen years old.

Q: Yes. Um, did your family have any pets?

A: We had cats. I don’t know why we never had a dog. But we had cats. Now my mother didn’t like animals. She didn’t like cats. We used to say that she, ah, she would... she was good to them and fed them and let them come in. We had many cats in the barn, but generally we had a couple of pets that were in the house, but when she wanted them to go out, she used the broom.

Q: Yep. Do you remember what it was like at your house when the catalogue arrived? The Eatons catalogue?

A: Oh yes! We’d all pick out our, pick out our new outfit for Easter.

Q: And you would be able to get it? You weren’t just dreaming of it? You would get a new outfit?

A: Oh, no, we’d get it. You’d get an outfit, yes.

Q: Can you remember what the styles were like?

A: Well that one year, Lenore and I, if I remember, we had, ah, like little sailor suits, navy blue, a ah, navy blue top with white, big white collar and pleated skirts. And, ah, they were save... that was our first, our Sunday outfit, well to go to church on Sunday. And little straw hats.

Q: Yep.

A: Yes. And so once, ah we, were, they were going to have a concert here in the hall. And my father, not very often would he let us go to things, but we were to go to that. And, ah, it was in the summer, so ah, we had to go get the cows. And I don’t know why mother let us dress up that early in the day. But we were.. I suppose to get rid of us, get us ready, ready. And we went up to the pasture to get the cows, and while we were there, come up a sudden, sudden thunderstorm. And we got soaking wet. And when we got home, Lenore was sitting down behind the stove there, and of course it was a different stove then, and she began to cough.

And the whooping cough was going around, and so, she had the whooping cough.

Q: Ooh.

A: And that summer, ah, my, ah, father’s sister came to visit from the States. And she had a...well we would be upstairs in bed, and we’d, we’d cover our heads with pillows so she wouldn’t hear us coughing. She had a, a remedy. She.. it was castor oil. What did she put in it? Don’t remember exactly what she put in it.

Q: But you didn’t want it.

A: But we didn’t want it. That’s right. And when she’d hear you cough, she’d run with a spoonful of that to take.

Q: Um, so you would order some special things out of the catalogue, but where else would you get things you needed?

A: Well at the general store.

Q: Which was? Right here in Sandy Cove?

A: Down in the village. There was two of them, one, one on one side of the road, and one on the other. The old, ah, the ah, one store building is still standing. Of course that one... and then the other one, do you remember when it was burned?

Q: No, but I’ve seen pictures of it.

A: Yes. Well between the two of them you could get quite a lot of....and we use to get some clothing, and, and the freight, we didn’t ah, the freight came from Weymouth, came from Yarmouth up on the railroad and came across in a boat from Weymouth, a steamer that used to...

Q: From Weymouth straight over to here?

A: Yes. Well that used to ply the Islands and everything.

Q: Yep?

A: Yep.

Q: Do you remember when the last time that boat...

A: The Grace Hankinson. Ah...

Q: Do you remember when it stopped running?

A: Well, not exactly, but, my father used to, ah, haul the freight from the boat to the stores...

Q: Yep.

A: ...in the ox team.

Q: Yeah. So there must have been a barn on this property.

A: Oh yes, there was. It was quite a big barn. It blew down. Do you remember that hurricane we had that blew things down? Um, Edna, was that the name of it it?

Q: About what year?

A: Ah...

Q: Way before the Groundhog storm?

A: Way before the Groundhog, yes, uh it was ‘bout 1950 or so.

Q: Um, did you have any spending money when you were a child, of your own?

A: We got to take an egg now to the..., and get a penny for an egg. So when we...they would give us an egg now and then for penny candy.

Q: Yes, and then you would...where would you turn in the egg? At the store?

A: Down at the store, yes

Q: They would take single eggs?

A: Yes, yes. But as I say,I worked from the time I was twelve. When I was twelve I went to work at the summer hotels. McKay.

Q: Here in Sandy Cove?

A: Yes. It was called Bonnie Brae Croft.

Q: Where was that?

A: Ah, where the Durlings now live.

Q: Yes? That very house?

A: Well, part of it.

Q: Yeah.

A And, uh, the big main part of the house, when they...when they ah, they bought that property for taxes on it, ah, he tore, tore down the wrong part. He tore down, he tore down the ah main house and just left the ell that had been built for summer tourists, bedrooms and things...

Q: I see.

A: ... and wasn’t as... It was beaverboard in those days, instead of wall board, you know.

Q: Plaster...

A: Yeah.

Q: Yeah.

A: So I presume that they have made that over since then.

Q: And I always thought that was a big house to begin with.. It was even bigger.

A: It was bigger, yes.

Q: So who were the owners of that house?

A: McKay

Q: McKays.

A: Yes.

Q: So when you were twelve, you went to work...

A: For Janet McKay.

Q: Janet McKay.

A: Yes.

Q: Was that typical to work at twel..., at age twelve?

A: Um, I was a little early, but, yeah, no, my sisters did too, you know.

Q: Yes.

A: There were several places around here that were summer boarders, and uh, the hotel now, of course. That did too. And, uh, Brookside House over at ah, Chip Saunders.

Q: Yep.

Q: And, um, Johnson’s place, ah, Poplar House.

Q: Yep.

A: Uh, and Scott’s Villa.

Q: Where was that?

A: Scott Sypher’s.

Q: Oh, OK. Yep.

A: And, um, Bay of Fundy was Hillcote Farm. That’s where Paul Gidney lives now.

Q: Now, yes.

A: Yes.

Q: So the tourists would be the same people come back year after year?

A: Come back year after year, yes.

Q: And stay all summer?

A: Stay all summer. They’d come with their trunks. From Boston, Philadelphia, and some from

Upper Canada.

Q: Did they arrive at the end, by water, or, did they co..., did they come , if they were coming from Boston, for example, did they come all the way here by water or by land?

A: Well no, no, by that time, they was, ah, the ah, the place from Sandy... the bus thing, from ah, with Guy Morehouse.

Q: Yes. We keep hearing about Guy Morehouse.

A: That was his bus. He had the mail service for Sandy Cove. He also carried his passengers.

[Leneika showing a photo of Guy Morehouse and his bus, circa 1920]

Q: The Digby Neck bus service, circa 1920. So you would be happy to see the same people coming back year after year?

A: Yes, yes.

Q: You got to know them very well?

A: Mm hmm. Very well.

Q: Did that give anybody connections to the United States that they would follow up on...

A: Oh it may have.

Q: ...later on?

A: But, ah, we had connections there were long before, my ah, Father had two sisters that lived in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Q: Yes.

A: And we used to visit a lot between Boston and here.

Q: Yeah. So you worked starting when you were twelve.

A: Yes.

Q: And you continued to work there every summer until...

A: Every summer for ten years.

Q: For ten years.

A: Yeah.

Q: And what did you do when you get off, when you got off work? Would it be day time work, or did you have to work in...

A: It was day... no we didn’t work at night.

Q: All in the day.

A: All in the day, yes. We had the time off in the afternoon, from the time that would...They had their dinner in, at noon. From the time the dinner dishes were done until it was time to start supper, we had it to ourselves.

Q: So if the tide was right, would you head for the beach?

A: I would go swimming. So I would run home and get rigged, go down to the beach, swim to the wharf. If the tide was out, and, and didn’t have time to swim back, and run home from there, and ah, get dressed again, and go down to go back to work.

Q: What was your family’s religion?

A: Ah, Methodist and Baptist. My mother was a Baptist, and my mother and father was a Methodest, but of course we, we all went to, mostly to the , well when we children we went to all three churches and all three Sunday schools.

Q: Yes?

A: And, ah, but mostly to the Methodist church...

Q: Yep.

A: ...which is now the United.

Q: Yep. What were Sundays like in your household when you were growing up? How were they

different from the other days?

A: From..different...You didn’t work on Sunday. Things were prepared on Saturday, so that my

mother didn’t have to especially cook a meal for Sunday.

Q: What about the farm chores? They...

A: Well they had to be done. You had to milk the cows and take them to pasture, but no work other than, you know, what really had to be done on Sunday. So one day, so Sunday, ah, one time after well when we were teenagers then almost, ahm, my father had said something about, ah, to one of us, "Where are you going," or "What have you done," or "What are you going to do?" He said, "I’m tired of you going no where and doing nothing. You stay home after this."

Q: Sounds familiar.

A: Yes.

Q: Do you remember Sundays as a day that you liked as children, or was it too...did it limit your

activities too much?

A: No, I suppose we grew up with it. We were used to it.

Q: Yep.

A: And in the winter, my mother always read us a book. Every winter she read us a book, and, ah, so many chapters each night, you know.

Q: Yep. Um, did religion continue to have an influence throughout your life?

A: Oh yes, yes.

Q: How did you keep up with the news in the outside world?

A: My father always got a newspaper.

Q: Yes.

A: Ah, first it was the ah, from Saint John, New Brunswick. The Telegraph Journal. And then, when the Herald...we’ve always...and ah, what was that other paper that used to be...? Hmm.

We always had plenty of reading material.. My mother took several magazines. Can’t remember what that paper was, but, uh...

Q: In your household it was just your parents and the children? Did you have any other grandparents or other relatives living with you?

A: Our, our grandparents lived in Little River. When we were older we used to walk, always walked down to Little River to visit with our grandmother and grandfather.

Q: That’s about three miles or so or more.

A: Yeah. We always went down the old way, you know. Their house was down at the ah, down at the shore.

Q: Yep

A: In the River.

Q: Um, OK, we’re going to move on to your teenage years, which you’ve told us a little bit about already. You worked. That was just in the summer time.

A: Yes.

Q And you were still going to school?

A: To school, yes.

Q: Up until Grade Ten...

A: Ten

Q: ...which was about age...

A: Sixteen.

Q: Sixteen. How often did you leave Sandy Cove, and go...

A: We didn’t.

Q: You didn’t.

A: I think, the first time I went away, to go away to stay much, ah, we had a minister and his wife and family that lived here, United Church, that lived here in the village. The parsonage was where uh, the uh, over that road where Myrtle lives...

Q: Yes.

A: ...just across the road from her.

Q: Yes.

A: And ah, so they were transferred, they were take.., had a new calling, to go to, ah, Upper Port LaTour.

A: Yes.

A: Shelburne County

Q: Yep.

A So I went with them. And that was the first time I had been around, away from home that much, and ah, so ah...

Q: Did you get homesick?

A: No, not, no, and ah, oh there was plenty to do. And I went to help with them, you know. And ah, they had two chil..., three children. And, ah, then Port LaTour...that church joined with Clyde River.

Q: Yes.

A: And, ah, we moved, we moved to the Clyde River Parsonage. And that was where I met my husband, in Clyde River.

Q: Aahh. Tell me...tell us more about that. You were, at that point, you were how old?

A: Ah, about, maybe twenty.

Q: So you, you’d left the Neck not just for a short little visit. You’d kind of grown up already.

A: Yes, yes.

Q: And you met him...and your husband’s name was...

A: Clifford Ensor.

Q: Clifford Ensor. And you met him in Clyde River.

A: Clyde River.

Q: Was he older than you by much?

A: He was ten years older.

Q: Ten years older. And what was he doing for a living?

A: He was, well he was the fish...he was a licensed guide...

Q: Yep.

A: ...for fishing and hunting.

Q: Yep.

A: Used to take American, uh, they had a camp, a house, in ah, Middle Clyde.

Q: Yep.

A: And he used to take parties. Well then it, then the war broke out.

Q: Yes.

A: And ah, he joined up

Q: He enlisted.

A: He enlisted. And, ah, my father was ill at the time. And my brother enlisted. So when Clifford went...he never did go overseas. He went as far as Halifax. Ah, but anyway, I came home to help with my father.

Q: Yep. Did you have a family of your own?

A: I had Edgar, one child.

Q: You had Edgar, yep.

Q: And uh, they didn’t call it Alzheimer’s then, but that was I think what he had. And, ah, he didn’t, ah, we was, I helped take care of him for ah eight or nine years, in which he didn’t know who...

He thought I was his sister. I was the only one of the family that could do anything with him.

Q: And he, but your mother outlived your father?

A: Yes.

Q: Yeah.

A: Ah, they both died when they were seventy seven. And he was, she lived, he was thirteen years older, so she lived thirteen years longer. So ah, that was in fifty-nine that she died, and in nineteen and sixty, my husband and I went to the United States to work, and my daughter and her family lived in this house.

Q: How long did you stay in the United States?

A: Twelve years.

Q: Aah. This I did not know. So where did you move to?

A: We moved to, ah, Newtonville, Massachusetts.

Q: Massachusetts? What was drawing people to Massachusetts? More, more work?

A: Well, what, how we came to go was, my husband worked as a stoker at the, ah, Cornwallis Base, up here, and they put in a different...that was coal, and they put a different ah, source of heat, so he was out a, without a job. And ah, Lenore and Colin were already working in New Hampshire. And the people that they worked for wanted a woman to work for them. And, ah, so, the woman that I worked with, Mrs. Perkins, her husband had a ah, oh, Caterpillar outfit with heavy machines, so he had work for Clifford,

Q: Yes.

A: So we went up there to work. We, we used to work the week, and Friday night we’d go to New Hampshire, up to Colin and Lenore’s, when the weather...

Q: And you didn’t get homesick then?

A: I did, a bit, yes. But you were so busy...

Q: Yes.

A: ... that you didn’t have time.

Q: Then you decided to come back to Nova Scotia.

A: Yeah, well my husband had a heart attack.

Q: Yes.

A: And, ah, so I stayed on, went back a couple years more to help them, but then I came home in seventy-two.

Q: So Gwen was living in this house, still, at the time.

A: Yes.

Q: But you came back to this house

A: Yes. And her husband had died, before we came back, um, to stay. Died of cancer. So she lived here a couple, two or three more years until she got a place in Digby.

Q: OK. When you left school in Grade Ten, was that, was that because you wanted to, you’d gone as far as you were required to....did you have any other expectations, or you just enjoyed going to work

A: No, just going to work.

Q: Yeah.

A: Yes.

Q: Um, back to when you met Clifford, in Clyde River and stuff, what do you remember about your wedding? Did you make big plans?

A: We didn’t have a big wedding. We just had a, ah, in the parsonage, you know.

Q: Yeah.

A: And, ah, just a couple, two or three people. No, we didn’t have a big wedding.

Q: Did you know him for quite a while before you decided to get married?

A: Well, no, just all that winter.

Q: Yeah. Did you have a honeymoon?

A: Well, no. We didn’t do such things. (Laughter)

Q: How long was it before Edgar was born?

A: A couple years.

Q: A couple of years, yeah. Um, can you remember what it was like when a girl got pregnant before she was married?

A: Oh, it was not very good.

Q: Not a good thing?

A: Not a good thing, no. She was classed as an outcast.

Q: Would they try to remove her from , from the setting, or send her some where, or...

A: Some of them they’d sent somewheres. Others would be, their parents would be more lenient. They’d be at home. But they were still, their name was ruined, you know.

Q: Um, when you were a young married couple, what did you do for fun in your spare time? When you lived in Massachusetts, you’d go to New Hampshire on weekends.

A: Yes.

Q: What else did people do?

A: Oh, went to the movies and things like that.

Q: There were movies in...

A: In New Hampshire.

Q: Yeah? Can you remember any of the famous movie stars, or...

A: Not particularly, no. We didn’t go that often.

Q: Didn’t go that often.

Q: So you were, how old were you when you moved to Massachusetts?

A: Ahm, see I was born in sixteen, and it was nineteen sixty when I moved there.

Q: OK. So you moved from a rural area to a different, quite a different...

A: Yes.

Q: ...kind of...

A: Yes.

Q: ...place. You weren’t dealing with, you know, having to, to have trouble getting water, and...

A: Oh no.

Q: All of that was...

A: Yes.

Q: Um, when your children were born, were they born at home? Or in a hospital?

A: Uh, in a hospital. Yarmouth. Edgar was born in the Yarmouth hospital, and Gwen was born in the Digby Hospital.

Q: Did you guys go to the dentist regularly? How did everybody take care of their teeth?

A: They didn’t. At least we didn’t.

Q: So most people ended up not getting to keep all of their teeth.

A: Yes.

Q: So you wouldn’t see a dentist regularly.

A: No.

Q: Do you remember anything about having to go to a dentist if the need arose? And who the dentist was, and what that was like?

A: Lots of times when we were younger, we, somebody had a toothache, and they had, think they had to have a tooth pulled, they’d go down to the doctor, Dr. Rice...

Q: Yes.

A: ... and he’d pull your tooth for you.

Q: Um, can you remember some of the remedies that were common when you were growing up?

There’s the whooping cough remedy, to be avoided at all costs.

A: Yes!

Q; Can you remember any others?

A: Well my father always had lots of herbs in the house, you know, like, oh, you know, what is that thing you make yeast with? Hops.

Q: Hops, yes.

A: Yes, they were used for certain things, and lots of things that he knew about. Yellow...a certain um, Gold Thread. It was the root of a certain thing in the woods.

Q: Yes.

A: That was used to ah, for a sore mouth.

Q: Yes. Probably effective, too.

A: Mm hmm.

Q: Can you remember how funerals differed from today?

A: Well we didn’t, yes. You didn’t go to funeral homes.

Q: No.

A: And, ah, the, ah, well there wasn’t an undertaker in a way, you know. They ah, they had a hearse here in the village.

Q: Yes.

A: Mink Cove.

Q: Yes.

A: The Gidneys.

Q: Con Gidney.

A: Con Gidney, yes. And ah, well, you, ah, somebody died like, you didn’t have him embalmed or anything.

Q: No?

A: You just laid them out like I helped to lay out my father in that room. [room off of Leneika’s kitchen]

Q: In this room?

A: Mm hmm. And, ah, Con Gidney... but it was a different hearse, though. It came from Weymouth. He was, he met, then, he worked with a man in Weymouth, and he had the hearse.

Q: Yep.

A: Yep.

Q: So the undertaker then really, his purpose was to just take the body to the graveside.

A: To the graveside, yes.

Q: Nothing else.

A: Nothing else. No.

Q: Was it still, was it about three days between when they died and the funeral, or less?

A: Well, two to three. Not more than three. Just...

Q: And people would come to the house and do and visit?

A: Yes.

Q: And, would there be a meal after the burial like there is today? Or...

A: Well no. They would usually come back to the house, and you’d have tea and coffee and ah, sandwiches and squares, and things like that.

Q: What happened in the winter, if the ground was frozen, for burial?

A: They dug the grave just the same.

Q: They dug it just the same?

A: They would build a fire over the spot to thaw.

Q: Yes? Interesting.

A: Usually with rubber tires.

Q: What do you remember Leneika, about war time? So Clifford enlisted, but he didn’t go overseas, but what can you remember about the hardships during wartime?

A: And my brother did go overseas, and was killed and buried in Italy. Ah, the rationing.

Q: Yes.

A: And, ah, there was, you couldn’t get any, there was not many men, any able bodied men left in the village, and you couldn’t get any help.

Q: So the women had to hold down the fort.

A: The fort, yes. I ah, used to do all kinds of work. I remember one time, the ah, the grass had got so high between the barn and the house that I mowed it.

Q: Yes.

A: And the neighbour, over the road, ah, Gillie Merritt, that would be ah, Nelson’s father.

Q: Yes.

A: There was no trees between. You could look right over. He met me at the Cove later, and he said that was the first time he had ever seen anybody mow and stir at the same time. (Laughter) But any way, I got the grass mowed down, with a scythe.

Q: With a scythe? Yes.

A: Mm. I could sharpen too. There was one woman who said she could mow, but she couldn’t whiff-whaff.

Q: She couldn’t what?

A: Whiff-whaff.

Q: What’s whiff-whaff? That’s sharpening?

A: Sharpening. Sharpen the scythe.

Q: That’s key.

Uhm, what was the rationing like? How did that work?

A: Well, you know, butter, and, well of course we, on the farm you had your own butter, but, sugar...

Q: Yes.

A: ...and tea and coffee.

Q: Why was sugar such a big deal...

A: I don’t know.

Q: Was there not honey or molasses also, or...?

A: Yeah, well honey and molasses isn’t the same as sugar.

Q: You can’t, you can’t substitute it?

A: Well you can in some things, yes. Ahm, of course if you had a big family, of course if you had big family, you had more to use it too, but it seemed that you got a bigger amount, and ah, what, I think, ah, the rationing amounted to a half a cup a person for a week. So that wasn’t much.

Q: No.

A: And to bake with, you know.

Q: So while you were here, and you had a brother that was off to war, was it a really anxious time?

A: Oh yes.

Q: It must have been.

A: Yes. And, uh, my father at that time, he didn’t, his mind was enough that he didn’t know, he didn’t know, when my brother first came home from... when he first joined up and then you come home for a short while, he didn’t know who he was.

Q: Yeah.

A: And, ah, he started...the first thing that they noticed about Father was that he started to do things differently. Like he was a farmer all his life. And he would make up...instead of putting the manure in the bottom of the row, he would make the row up and put the manure on the top.

And my fa...my, ah, brother had said to my mother, "He doesn’t know how to work," and ah,

"I can’t do anything with him." But when Harp went away, and mother went to help him, she found out what he was doing.

Q: Yeah. OK, Leneika, I’m just jumping back and forth. Back now to the Depression. What do you remember about the Depression? Anything?

A: Oh, yes. Of course, you couldn’t get anything. Times were hard, and there was no work.

And, ah, my father, we were, people that lived on a farm, of course, were better off than a lot, and, everybody played...that summer everybody played baseball.

Q: Yes. That was, ah, a thing to lift everybody’s spirits.

A: Spirits, yes. And I remember we had a game, everybody, we went to Tiverton. And, ah, the pitcher broke his arm. He couldn’t have been in very good shape. Pitching, you heard it when it snapped. And ah...

Q: Everybody played baseball? Girls and guys?

A: Well, everybody, not, guys...girls didn’t play, except my sister Sarah was the one that kept the ah, tally.

Q: Score? Yeah?

A: Yeah.

Q: You must have been dying to play yourself.

A: Yes. (Laughing)

Q: Ahm, can you talk about how you, how did you plan for hard times or retirement. Or did you live day by day?

A: We didn’t plan. Just day by day. We didn’t plan for retirement. Everybody looked after themselves.

Q: Yeah?

A: And you were expected, well everybody expected that they’d look after their parents.

Um, I, ah, looked after both of my parents, though not too much financially, but as much as we could. But I stayed... I was here with my mother when my father died. And then I lived with

her, she lived...you know, we lived here. And, ah, so, that was that. But now they don’t...people don’t ah, don’t do that much anymore.

Q: No.

A: They just think of putting you in a retirement home. When my father had the Alzheimer’s, ah, well they didn’t call it Alzheimer’s. They called it softening of the brain.

Q: Mm hmm.

A: And, ah, we had a doctor from New York, Dr. Bancroft.

Q: Yes.

A: And he came to see him, and explained to me, that, as the portions of the brain dry up, you forget what to do. And that was what happened with him. And he had said that if he ever got a bad cold or pneumonia, that he didn’t have mind enough to cough anything up, and that he wouldn’t last. And that was what happened to him.

Q: They called that pneumonia, sometimes, "old man’s friend" back then.

A: Yes. Mm hmm. Well he didn’t get pneumonia, but he got the flu.

Q: Yeah.

A: It might have been, might have turned into pneumonia. We didn’t... Dr. Rice used to come up,

But he, I don’t know, he didn’t pay much attention. Just figured that you were old, but he wasn’t that old then, he was seventy-seven. But that was considered old.

Q: So families always took care of their own. There was no Tideview Terrace.

A: Oh no. There was a poor house.

Q: Yes? We’re very interested in the poor house. What do you remember about that?

A: Over the...we used to sing the song, "over the hill to the poor house."

Q: How did that go?

A: I don’t remember except that one line,

Q" Yes.

A: "over the hill to the poor house." But in the..my father was a, ah, Justice of the Peace.

Q: Yes.

A: And they used to look after families that were, that needed help. And ah, they would have a meeting at the church, and say that this family, well their... they need wood for the winter. And ah, so, ah, the men would, say, ah, each man would give a cord from their..., and my father, would, he had the oxen. And others had...but he did a lot of the ah, hauling of the wood to a person’s place, and all of the, all the men would go, and saw it up, and get it ready for burning. Then they would, ah, well have a ah...allow so much money at the store for, for groceries. They wouldn’t give them the money.

Q: Yeah?

A: They would go there and get food. They...some of these people in need were, were

alcoholics

Q: Mm hmm.

A: And if they give them the money, it didn’t go for food.

Q: Mm. But this group that met at the church would put the money there in the store for them?

A: Yes...

Q: Or was it the store owners...

A: No, oh no, it was the village.

Q: It was the village.

A: Yeah. So that was how they looked after their poor, ‘til later when they had the uh, poor house, was built in Marshalltown, and the county looked after.

Q: Do you think that was better, or worse, when they had the Poor Farm?

A: It was worse in a way.

Q: Yeah?

A: Because older people were moved away from their friends and communities to a place they didn’t know, which must have been kind of hard. And I don’t know how they were used at the, at the Poor Farm.

Q: Did you ever visit anybody there?

A: Ah, no.

Q: Never been, never set foot on it?

A: Well I had been in it. Yeah.

Q: What do you remember about elections?

A: Oh, elections were fun! Ahm, of couse, they, a lot more than it is now you know. Each, each um, party would have their friends and all.

Q: Yeah?

A: And ah, I remember one year that ah, um, my father was always Liberal.

Q: Yes?

A: And his best friend was Conservative. Ahm, Mr. McKay, Eddie McKay. Ah, they were, ah,

her, Mrs. McKay used to call them, ahm, oh, pals or buddies. They would talk together for hours, but they never, never talked politics. And one year when they had a, I remember that, they had an election, and the Conservatives...the Liberals stoled the Conservatives’ liquor. (Laughter) Which was ah, at the hotel, ah, Fred Sypher’s.

Q: Yep.

A: And, ah, somebody...he was visiting at some house, and something said, ahm, something about their liquor, and he said he had to go home. But he was too late. They had already taken it.

Q: Was election day almost like a holiday?

A: Like a holiday.

Q: Yeah?

A: Yeah. And if you got up in the morning and put your...by mistake put your dress on wrong side out, you didn’t dare to change it.

Q: Now, why was that?

A: Well, ‘cause you wouldn’t change your luck.

Q: Oh. (Laughter)

A: They used to tell of a lady, an old lady that, that had been, that wore her dress wrong side out

because it was election day. She had put it on that way in the morning.

Q: Yep.

A: And you didn’t change your luck.

Q: What other, ah, little superstitions and ideas like that can you remember? Even sayings....

A: Oh, superstitions...

Q: ...sayings about the weather, or...

A: You didn’t walk under a ladder.

Q: Yeah...

A: Ah, you didn’t cross...it was bad luck if a black cat crossed your path. If you spilled salt on the table, you threw some over your shoulder.

Q: To prevent what from happening? Or...

A: Oh, I don’t, I don’t know what it was. Just one of the things you did.

Q: Yes. Can you remember any little sayings your mother would tell you to sort of teach you little lessons, or little moral...

A: No. No, I don’t remember. She probably did, but...

Q: Ahm, you said May 24th was when you planted...

A: Planted, and went swimming.

Q: Yes? You didn’t plant everything on May 24th, did you?

A: Oh no, just the potatoes.

Q: Just the potatoes.

A: And then ah, he had the vegetable garden closer to the house...

Q: Yep?

A: ... and my mother planted a lot of the smaller seed. I remember she planted carrot seed out of the, out of ah...salt shaker.

Q: Yep. How ‘bout harvest time. Was that just done throughout the summer, or was it a big...

A: Well, the potato, the potato digging time...

Q: Yep.

A: ... that was busy for all of us, ‘cause we had to... We didn’t dig the...My father did the digging, but we had to do the picking up.

Q: Did you miss school for any of that?

A: No, no.

Q: What can you tell us about shipwrecks in your area? Can you remember the sinking of the Robert Cann, or any other shipwrecks?

A: I remember ha, the one on the Bay of Fundy there, where the, the ah...was that the Robert Cann?

Q: I think so.

A: Where they all went ashore, at, ha, they landed, show up at, ha, back of Lake Midway.

Q: Yep. I think that’s the Robert Cann.

A: That’s the Robert Cann.

Q: Do you remember when that happened?

A: Well I remember hearing it, but... And I remember Colin Crowell, some, I remember the men going up there.

Q: Yes?

A: And, ah, there was one, they got one man alive, he was, and he was just about froze, and Colin Crowell, ahm, took him...they were taking him to Digby. He took his, he took his long underwear off and put it on this man, to try...but the ah, policeman of the day gave him...Colin has always said that that was the reason the man died.

Q: Yes.

A: He gave him a drink of rum, or whiskey.

Q: I’ve heard that.

How did your community, how did Sandy Cove police itself? It took care of people before the Poor Farm. Did it also sort of enforce, do some law enforcement?

A: Well yes.

Q: Can you remember how that worked?

A: Well, as I said, my father was in that a lot.

Q: Yep.

A: Ah, Justice of the Peace. And, ah, Chip Saunders. There was ah, one of these in this picturethere (referring to 1920-1921 Sandy Cove School photograph). There’s Roscoe Foster...Roscoe Harris.

Q: Yes?

A: He’s right up there.

Q: Here?

A: Mm hmm.

Q: Yep.

A: Roscoe Collins, Collins. And ah, he was a teenager then, and his mother, he lived alone with his mother up at ah, where the ah, Perce Harris house, do you know...?

Q: Yeah.

A: Yeah. Janie, ah, Collins. And of course, the uh, he was always, uh, gettin’ into trouble, and she would send for the..for my father or Chip to keep him in hand. So he, when he left here and went to the States, he said he never would come back to Sandy Cove as long as Billy Eldridge and Chip Saunders lived. And he never did.

Q: He never did. Was his mother a single...

A: Well she was widowed.

Q: She was widowed. What would that be like if somebody was widowed?

A: Well, she had kind of a hard time.

Q: Yeah, it sounds like it.

A: Yeah. She didn’t... And ah...

Q: Was she treated kindly by the community?

A: Oh yes. Oh yes, yes. But ah, she just had trouble with her own.

Q: Where did the...were you aware of some people being better off in the community than others?

A: Oh yes. The, the hotel owners and, ah, were considered to be better off than the rest, but generally, everybody was about the same, in the same boat.

Q: Yep. So the largest employer in the community was probably the tourist homes?

A: The tourist homes, but then the fish...

Q: Fishing.

A: Yes. There was a canning, ah, place, at, at, ah, St. Mary’s side.

Q: Here in Sandy Cove?

A: At... long years ago.

Q: Yeah?

A: And, ah, there was one in Little River too.

Q: Yeah?

A: And ah, on the Bay of Fundy there was another fish plant that just bought fish.

Q: Yes?

A: Mm hmm. And those buildings are gone now.

Q: What can you remember about the fishing? Nowadays it’s in the news so much and licenses are so high...

A: Yeah, that was none of that then, no.

Q: What was it...what can you remember about it?

A: Well, that...

Q: What were the boats like?

A: They were smaller boats, just small. And ah, when my father lived, it was a row boat,

Q: Yeah?

A: And ah, well then we did get a, a motor, what they called a one-lunger.

Q: Yes? And what did he fish for? Lobsters?

A: He fished for lobsters. Yes.

Q: Was the season about the same?

A: About the same, yes, yes. And ah, so he didn’t fish in the summer. He farmed. But he lobster fished.

Q: Never fished for ground fish in the summer time? Never had any...

A: Not too much. No.

Q: Was fish a big part of your diet though? Salt fish? Or mostly beef?

A: Oh yes. Well we always had, ah, in the basement, he always had a barrel of salted meat, pork and beef, and then they would have a ah, they’d kill a beef in the late fall and hang it in the barn, that you ah, kept frozen. You’d just, ahm, cut off a piece with the axe.

Q: It was cold enough all the time to keep...?

A: Just about, yes, yep.

Q: Did you belong to any organizations other than your church, maybe? Or...

A: No.

Q: Any, ah, did your father or husband belong to Knights of...or any of those...

A: Oh yes. My father belonged to the Orangemen.

Q: What are the Orangemen?

A: Ah, I really don’t know. It was a religious thing.

Q: Yes?

A: Something...was it the Irish? I really don’t know what it was, but I know that, that he belonged to it.

Q: Do you know what he did when he went to the meetings?

A: I don’t know what he did. They had...I know, ah, they had a secret password, I knew...

Q: Did you ever find out what it was?

A: No.

Q: Were all the men in your community members of these organizations?

A: Just about, yes.

Q: Ahm, you can’t remember any black people living in this community?

A: No, no.

Q: And can you remember any Mi’kmaw coming for the summer time?

A: Yes, in the summer they did.

Q: Did they come to Sandy Cove?

A: They came to Sandy Cove and, and ah, camped at the Bay of Fundy.

Q: Yeah?

A: And ah, made baskets.

Q: Yeah?

A: And we were very interested in them. They had ah, had dug a ah... in the side of the bank, and ah, what would you call that... it was like an oven.

Q: Yeah?

A: Ahm, they baked bread.

Q: Yes?

A: Yeah.

Q: Would you ever wander back...

A: Oh yes.

Q: ...to see what they were doing?

A: To see what they were doing. Her name was Evangeline, but I don’t remember what his name was.
Q: Yeah? Was it just a one, a single family?

A: A single family, yeah. They came year after year.

Q: On the Bay of Fundy just over here?

A: On the Bay...yes.

Q: Ahm, who were some of the colourful characters that stood out in your community?

A: Oh, ah, there was an old hermit at the Bay of Fundy, that, he said, that house is gone now.

George Coll.

Q: George Coll?

A: Coll Albright. Colin Albright.

Q: Yeah?

A: And ah, we used to do some things, we used to get him to recite, and ah, and he was the one that first saw Jerome on the rock.

Q: That would make sense.

A: Yes. Of course there was no trees between his...it was clear bank...you could see from his place right down to the beach. He thought it was a seal sitting on the rock. When it stayed there so long, he went to investigate.

Q: And then what happened after that?...

A: Well Jerome...then...

Q: ...Do you remember any more details?

A: Then he ah, course, came and told, I suppose he told ah, the Eldridges, Amasa Eldridge, that lived close by.

Q: Yep.

A: And then they went and got him and brought him out to the village. Er, ah, he was down at Mink Cove, at ah, Ed Gidney’s, that would be Con’s father.

Q: Yeah?

A: And then they took him to the French Shore.

Q: And you can remember...what year was Jerome? What year was he discovered? I can’t remember the...

A: I don’t remember the date, but it’s in that book.

Q: But you can remember....

A: Remember about it, yes.

Q: Did you ever see Jerome?

A: No, I never saw him, no. Now years ago, at, ah, before that, they used to ah, occasionally find somebody that was drowned, that had drifted from somewhere...

Q: Yes?

A: And there was one...there was a man that had come, and they buried him there, and the ahm, the Village had made up a verse, like,

"Give up my money and my watch,

And let me out of this halibut box.

For in this box I get no ease,

For I cannot stretch out my knees." (Laughter)

Q: And the village made that verse up?

A: Yes, from somebody that they had found and buried in a halibut box. Now what a halibut box was like, I don’t know.

Q: I can kind of picture maybe. Ahm, besides the hermit on the Bay of Fundy, can you remember any other colourful characters?

A: Well then, there was John Morehouse on this side that we used to snoop, and he was called John Doc, not because that was his name...his father’s name was Murdoch...

Q: Yep?

A: Morehouse.

Q: Yep? John Doc.

A: Yep. And we used to tease him.

Q: How come?

A: Why I don’t know, just did. There’s, ah, there’s always somebody that you can tease.

Q: Yep.

A: Pull his hat down over his eyes, and such things as that.

Q: Do you remember anything about Maud Lewis?

A: No, not too much, ‘cause that was Digby.

Q: Different area...

A: Yes. Remember hearing about it, but not...you know.

Q: How does Sandy Cove look now, compared to the way it used to look? How..can you think some ways it’s changed?

A: Well, there were some houses that are gone, that was here before. And of course the road has changed to what it was, and ah, the trees are growing taller....

Q: Yeah...

A: And we have a summer and a winter one. In the winter one we can see the village quite well, because the trees are...the leaves are all gone.

Q: Yep. Ahm, I meant to ask you about what the roads were like..the road’s obviously changed.

A: Yes.

Q: When did it get paved?

A: Hm, I can’t remember but it, um ...you get that book, that history of Sandy Cove, it’ll tell you.

Q: Yes, OK.

A: But it was mud road, you know.

Q: Yeah.

A: And going to Digby in the spring of the year was a real chore.

Q: Yep.

A: They had to chop down trees and throw in the, in the ah, muck holes to get over it.

Q: To fill them up, yeah?

Ahm, how would you compare family values today with those of days gone by?

A: Oh, I don't know...family...they’re more lax than they used to be.

Q: Yeah, when you tell us how your father was strict, and there was no questioning...

A: Yes, yep.

Q: Ahm, that’s about the end of my list of questions, Leneika, but do you have any other stories? When you knew we were coming, did you have any stories you were eager to tell us?

A: No, not particularly. Ahm, no.

Q: No?

A: No.

Q: Do you have any questions, Chris? [Chris Callaghan]

Chris: Just a couple of notes I made, Leneika. You mentioned that your mother would read you books in the winter time.

A: Yes.

Chris: Do you remember your favourite books?

A: I don’t remember...there was one called The Shepherd of the Hills that we liked very much. Have you ever seen it?

Chris: No.

A: Ahm...

Chris: Would one book last the whole winter?

A: No.

Chris: No.

A: No.

Chris: And where would she get these books?

A: I really don’t know.

Chris: No?

A: Well they had a, they had what they called a Progressive Club.

Q: A Progressive Club?

A: A Progressive Club. And ah, they read books, so I presume that she borrowed them, a lot of them.

Chris: And what were some of the magazines that she would subscribe to that you mentioned?

A: Ah, the Redbook, and ah, oh ah, McLeans, and that paper that I...Family Herald...that I couldn’t think of.

Q: Yes. I’ve heard of that.

A: Yep.

Chris: Very interesting. One, one other thing. How exactly would your father deal with Roscoe Harris when he was misbehaving?

A: I really, really don’t know.

Chris: No? They wouldn’t confine him or anything?

A: Oh, no, just give him a talking to, I suppose.

Chris: A lecture, yes.

A: Yes. My father was quite a big man, you know. He was just under six feet, and quite big, so I suppose he was ah...

Q: Commanding.

A: Commanding, yes. And he was commanding.

Chris: Well that was a very good interview. Very interesting. My goodness.

Q: That was a great interview, Leneika.