Q: What is your full name?

A: Willie Beecher Dakin

Q: And who were your parents, Willie?

A: Kenneth Dakin, and my mother’s name was Harriet.

Q: What was her maiden name?

A: Morehouse.

Q: And who were your grandparents?

A: W.M.B. Dakin (William Dakin), and Eleanor Dakin, his wife. And he was drowned off of Shingle Cove, right where the lobster pound is now.

Q: We’ll maybe ask you some more about that incident a little later on. What year were you born?

A: 1918.

Q: And where were you born?

A: Centreville.

Q: And how large was your family? How many brothers and sisters?

A: I had two other brothers, and two sisters.

Q: And where did you fit in?

A: Baby.

Q: And what did your father do for a living?

A: A farmer and a butcher, and in his younger years, a fisherman.

Q: Was he the only butcher in Centreville?

A: As far as I know, at that time, anyway.

Q: Did he butcher... did he raise the cattle he butchered, or everybody brought their cattle to him...?

A: Well he raised some hisself, and lambs, and went out and bought cattle and butchered ‘em.

Q: What do you remember about a typical day for your mother, raising children in Centreville?

A: Well, I remember that she was a great church worker, and she always had a Christmas concert in the church, and an Easter concert in the church, and all the kids had a little something to say.

Q: So she was pretty active in the community, but how....it must have been very busy just to run a household when you were young.

A: Yeah, she did all the cooking and baking and knittin’ and mittens and socks and sweaters and so on.

Q: Did you have anybody else living in the house besides your parents and the children, any extended family?

A: Well, my grandmother lived there until she died.

Q: Can you remember what a typical school day was like for you?

A: Well, we used to get up in the morning and we had to walk about a half mile to school, and then we had some good teachers, and some we didn’t like and.… I guess that happens all over. Then we’d go home for lunch, back to school, then go home, and then we’d go in the garden and pull weeds ‘til supper time, and then we’d go get supper, and then after supper we’d, a crowd of us would get together and play ball.

Q: Can you remember who some of your best friends were at school?

A: Yep. Harold Morehouse, ‘n Blake Peters ‘n Ava Peters, ‘n Blanche Morehouse, ‘n Flossie Dukeshire, ‘n Garth Dukeshire, Lester Raymond, Victor Raymond, Leroy Robicheau, Arden Robicheau, Eugene Shaw.…

Q: Were they all from Centreville...

A: Mm hmm.

Q: ...or from farther...?

A: No, They were all from Centreville.

Q: Did the school you go to just have students from Centreville,...

A: Ah...

Q: ...or where was the school?

A: Yep. They was all from Centreville.

Q: What’s your fondest memory of school?

A: My fondest memory of school... (Laughter)...was the day I was through, I guess.

Q: Which was when? How far did you go?

A: Nine.

Q: How old were you then?

A: Oh my.

Q: Nine years old ? (jokingly)

A: Mmm, I guess I was around sixteen I guess. I don’t know, fifteen, sixteen.

Q: Did your parents expect you to go farther than that, or was that typical?

A: Ah, I guess that was it in those days, pretty much. When you got so you could do for yourself and.…

Q: So when you left school, where did you go next?

A: I worked on the farm.

Q: You parents’ farm?

A: With my parents. And, ah, like I said a while ago, my father was a butcher and we used to go on the road from door to door peddlin’ beef, and I used to do the runnin’ from door to door. And ah, after that, I went in the Armed Forces for five years.

Q: You enlisted?

A: Mm hmm. I went to….took my basic training in Yarmouth. Went to, ah, Wright’s Brook on the Dartmouth side and took my basic training on the heavy artillery. And then from there we would go out to McNab’s Island to do our shoots.

Q: So during your five years in the Armed Services, where were you sent?

A: Well, after we completed our training in the artillery, I was sent to Number Six Depot. I was category down to C. I went there and I worked in the QM Stores for two years and a half.

And then they put me back in the artillery again, and then they sent me overseas.

Q: And what did you do overseas?

A: Well we were seven days going over. We sailed back for Halifax, so I was told by one of the shipmates, the second day, and then we turned around and went back and we landed in Scotland, England, just coming daylight. And we went from there up into Aldershot, England.

They took us out of the heavy artilleries and put us in the infantry, and put us through the mud and dirt for about three weeks and then they shipped us off into Holland. And then in Holland, we had ah, I don’t know how many German...Germans in a prison camp for a while, and then we went...we were in different places in Holland: Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Apeldoorn ‘n pretty much all over. And ah, then we went up in to Germany, and after the war

was over up in Germany, we came back again to Holland, and we came back to the very same place that we were when we went over and, just a little ways from Appledorn, and we were there, I think, oh, a couple of weeks, resting up, and then we came back to Aldershot, England. And from there we went ah….there was only four of us, went from there on a little trip up into London, ‘cause I figured we’d never be back again, so we went up to London, for a little….just to see what was going on.

Q: So during those five years, that was between the ages of ....about eighteen or nineteen....?

A: No, that was between the ages of....how old was we when we got married? (asking wife Imelda)

(I): Twenty-five)

Q: Twenty-five, yeah.

A: It was before you got married?

A: Yeah.

Q: All this happened before you got married?

A: No. It was during. I was married when I went overseas.

Q: Oh, OK.

A: Yep.

Q: Yes, of course, doing the arithmetic here.

(I): Forty-three, we were married.

Q: So we’ll skip to how you met Imelda.

A: Well we only lived a couple of miles apart at the time.

Q: Yes?

A: Yeah.

Q: Imelda lived in...?

A: Waterford, where you live now.

(I): The same house.

Q: Yep.

A: Yeah. And, uh, I don’t know. I guess I bought her pie at a pie sale one night.

Q: Is this true?

A: Oh yeah.

(I): Yeah, something like that.

A: And we used to go skating down at Lake Midway.

Q: Yes?

A: Played hockey down there, and then we’d get through playing hockey we’d go skatin’ with the girls for a while. Then we’d go home, and Dad had a barn full of cattle. We’d do the cattle and night’s work, and then we’d go back, walk back down to the lake again an’ cut some trees down and make a bonfire and skate ‘til about ten o’clock an’ walk the girls home an’.…

Q: And a certain one caught your eye!

Um, I’m interested more in hearing about what life was like when you were children in Centreville, more of that kind of story...

A: Well, they didn’t have tractors then like they have now. My Dad had a yoke of oxen, and when they did work on the road, they had a gravel pit back on Mrs. Boutilier in Centreville, and uh, there were several ox teams and several horse teams, and they would haul what they called rotten rock. It was very fine gravel, and it would pack like pavement almost, and they would have.…The bottom of the wagon that they hauled it in was two by four plank, twelve or fourteen feet long, and they would take out a plank, and the gravel would fall out through, and then they’d have two or three men on the road shovelin’ it down and rakin’ it over, and that’s the way they built the roads.

Q: That’s what the Digby Neck highway was made of?

A: That’s what the Digby Neck highway was made of, yeah.

Q: When did the Digby Neck highway first get paved?

A: Oh my, I don’t know just when it was, but I do remember ‘em pavin’ it, ‘cause they hauled a lot of the gravel that built the road from Centreville Corner down past Lake Midway, off my father’s property, but I don’t know just when it was.

Q: When you and your father were peddling beef, what were you...what vehicle were you...

A: Model T Ford.

Q: Was that you father’s first car?

A: That was his...my father’s first car. And I learned to drive that when I was sixteen.

Q: Yes?

A: And Sheriff Dunn in Digby took me out, tried me out for my license. Then he traded that Model T Ford and got a V-8 half-ton truck from Free Wilson in Digby, which now has the, oh, Fundy Motors.…

Q: Yes?

A: ....and he paid eight hundred and seventy-five dollars for it. He had it ten years and sold it for six hundred dollars to Lemmie Raymond in Centreville, and he bought another Ford truck.

Q: Uhm, we’re going to go backwards in time a little bit more. You said you were the baby of the family. So, how did that affect the way things were growing up?

A: Well, one of my older….my oldest brother, he went to the States when I was in Grade Five.

Q: Yes?

A: And, uh, he went to Digby with.…you’ve probably heard the name, Reggie Sypher.…

Q: Yes.…

A: Sandy Cove. It’s where the hotel is now, and it was also a hotel at that time. And if I was in Centreville, I could almost stand on the ground then...now, when he went by on his way goin’ to the States. I will never forget that spot. And then my next brother, he.… I kinda thought at the time of it, he was trying to get the upper hand of me, and make me do more of the chores than what he was supposed to do, so sometimes we didn’t hook that good. (Laughter) Yep.

Q: We’ve heard that Centreville was a bustling place in years gone by compared to now….

A: Pardon me?

Q: We’ve heard that Centreville was a really bustling, busy place.

A: Oh yes, yes, yes. I can remember when, when National Sea and Lunenburg Sea Products bought fish there. There was around about thirty-five boats fishing out of there. And, uh, one of the guys I think I mentioned, Winston Raymond and I,

when school was over in the summer time, where Keith Raymond’s house is in Centreville now, Lunenburg Sea Products owned that field, and they had it full of fish flakes, and we got a job there spreading fish and piling ‘em up. And we got eight cents an hour. And before the summer was gone we got a raise of two cents. So we thought we was doing pretty good, because ah, the men working at the plant, cutting fillet and one thing and another got twenty-five cents an hour, and my brother, was one of the bosses there…he got thirty cents an hour.

Q: How old were you when you had this little job?

A: Oh, I suppose I must have been twelve or fourteen, I think.

Q: So there was never any problem for a twelve….

A: No, no.

Q: .…or younger boy, or older child, girls and boys, to find a little job to do?

A: Mm hmm, yep.

Q: That’s different from today.

A: Yeah. Well there was always a couple of ice cream parlours there in Centreville. My aunt, Cassie Morehouse had one. And a girl we went to school…. Etta Titus, Willie Titus’s daughter, had an ice cream parlour, and in the evening, summertime if we were playing ball or something, why, if we had a few cents, why, we’d go get a five cent ice cream, or what have you. And if we went to the store for our parents, why, they always put an extra egg in the basket to get some candy with. Mother used to….we used to churn, ah, we had cows, separated the milk, and we churned. And she made butter, and, ah, they would take the butter and the eggs, and take it to the stores and trade it for groceries. There were two stores in Centreville at that time: Morton’s store, Charlie Morton’s, which later went to his son, Elwyn, and Titus, Willie Titus’s store,

Q: Did people go to both stores, or did they have a favourite?

A: Well, I think, ah, father’s favourite was the Titus store.

Q: Yes?

A: But if you wanted any hardware, why, nails or bolts, or anything like that, you had to go to Morton’s store. Yeah.

Q: Were they fierce competitors, or it wasn’t like that?

A: No, no, no. It was.…prices were about the same, I guess.

Q: Yep. These ice cream parlours, were.…this is something….this would be a women’s only job? They would…. that would be their….

A: Well, the girls, the girls would probably get….ah, the boyfriend would probably drop in and turn the crank to freeze the ice cream, and like that, yeah. But, ah, the majority of them, they did it themselves. They had….in the winter time, ah, they, when ah, the two fish companies would be puttin’ up ice, they didn’t have any ice making machines back then. They had to put up ice, why, they would have a place that they’d put enough ice to freeze ice cream all summer, cover it with sawdust….yeah.

Q: So this ice must have been cut from Lake Midway?

A: Mm hmm. Yep.

Q: Big pieces of ice cut out of the lake, that you had to look out for when you were skating?

A: Well, I remember ice taken out of there, twenty-four by twenty-four. And Henry Cossaboom in Lake Midway, he always had a span of horses, and I don’t know whether you ever seen an ice plow or not….

Q: Nope.

A: But he had what they called an ice plow, and he would have to go about ten….eight or ten trips in the same cut to get it down deep enough. And, all depend of course on the depth of the ice. If it wasn’t very deep, he’d probably go five or six times, but, I remember, when the ice was twenty-four by twenty-four he’d have to go several times in the same cut this way, then he’d mark it off….he had a blade twenty four inches and a marker. So he’d go here, then he’d turn around and that marker would come back in that first cut .…that’d keep him straight. See. Then he’d go that way…. that’s the way he goes.

Q: Was that a local invention….or?

A: Well, I don’t know, ‘cause I was just a kid when he was doing it, but I remember one time we was working down there, and, ah, I was working on pushing the ice in to where the men was pulling it out of the water.…for Lunenburg Sea Products.

And I said, "Ah, Mr. Cossaboom…." which we were brought up then, you didn’t say their first name. It was "Mr." I said, "Mr. Cossaboom, the ice isn’t too thick. Don't you think you’re plowing pretty deep?" And he said, "I’m thinking that," but he says, "I’m going to slack up." He made one more turn and his team went in….broke through. So I know there was just a scramble to get the horses out of the lake, and he turned to me, and he said, "There’s an ice saw behind the door in my porch." And we were cutting the ice right across, right by his house, in front of his house. So I ran, and the fence then was right close to the road. So I run up and I jumped from the road right over top of his fence, went up and got the saw, and they were sawing on one side, and we were taking turns sawing to get the horses…. One horse we got out real quick, and the other one, we had to put a rope around its neck, and it kind of bloated a bit, and we got it up, and got it in to where it could walk on the bottom, and got its front feet out on the ice, and got it out after a bit. Yep.

Q: Good story. So it was the fish plants that owned the ice houses and paid for people to get the ice? Other people could use the ice?

A: Well, they….the fish plants, they got the ice for their own selves.

Q: Yes?

A: They would sell the odd little bit, but that was, see, all the fish then that was shipped to the States, they were put in what they called master containers. They were, they were twenty pound boxes….ah the master container itself wasn’t….the fish first were packed in twenty pound boxes made of wood, and lined with a piece of paper, piece of waxed paper, and then they were put in what they call a master container box. I think there was eight, I’m not certain, but I think there was eight put in one of these master containers, and they were put in on their edge, and ice put between each one, and some in the bottom, some on top. Then they were taken to Digby by truck, then shipped by boat, and then by train to the States.

Q: Fresh fish.

A: But, no trucks a haulin’ to the States then.

Q: Ahm, let me see, Willie. You told me your favourite memory of school, which was getting out of there. Can you remember some bad stories about school, or some antics?

A: Well, maybe I shouldn’t tell you this one. (Laughter) We had…. Harold Morehouse and I, we always seemed to try to sit together. We were both in the

same grade, and Christina Prime and Ava Peters most always sat together. They were in the same grade. And we most always tried to sit behind those two girls. And, ah, we had a teacher, her name was Putnam, and she boarded at Mr. Orwell

Morehouse’s in Centreville. Very nice girl, very nice girl. So, of course, I guess, like all kids like to raise the devil, we used to take a straight pin to school. And we wore sneakers, somewhat then, so we’d take a straight pin, and we’d stick it in through the sole of our sneaker. And the seats then, you see, they had a little crack…the seats turned up, and they had a little crack when they were down like that, so this Christina, we always teased her, ‘cause we always said that she had a rumble seat, so we’d get around, and we’d get the straight pin up in her….and give her a little jab, and she would jump, and….So the teacher would come down, and she’d get after us, and finally she caught up with us. And I’ll never forget the last strapping that she gave me. I had to stand up alongside of the desk, and she was giving me a strapping, and she let go of my hand. She was.…so when she let go of my hand and she brought the strap down the last time, I pulled my hand back, and it hit her on the leg. And she looked at me, and I said to myself, I’m going to get a good one now, but she turned around and walked back up to the desk. That was it, but she got up to the desk, and she said, "If there’s any more from you two boys, we’re going to change your seats." So we behaved ourselves from then on.

And I think if the old school house was still standing there, that you could go on the second seat from the door in the big part, and you would see a duck carved in the top of the seat. I was always carving, drawing, ducks.

Q: When did that school disappear?

A: Oh, when they….I don’t know just when it was, it was when they built the one in Sandy Cove….

Q: Yep.

A: ….Consolidated school down there, that one, and then it was sold to Darrell Morton, and he had it for a cold storage for a while, and then something happened….it burned down. And I have one more memory of the old Centreville School. There was a guy used to go there, Gerald Morehouse, and he only lived just a little ways from her [Imelda]. She was in Waterford district and he was in Centreville district. And we always played, in the morning, we got to school, we always played what we called three-oh catch, with a ball, and, ah, they’d hit the ball, and if you was lucky enough to catch it, why, you could come bat. So the ball they had was quite hard, and, Gerald, he was older than I, and he had a real hearty laugh. So I was standing in the field across the road, and he batted the ball, and I said to myself, "I’m catching this one whether it hurts or not." So I caught the ball, and I went up and I picked up to bat the ball, and the teacher come to the door and rang the bell. I never got a chance to bat the ball. But I never forgot it, and every time he comes home, he always speaks about it.

Q: Very disappointing.

A: Yeah. And he has a sister still living in Centreville.

Q: Who would that be?

A: Yola Morton.

Q: Oh, yes!

A: Yeah, yep.

Q: What was your favourite holiday when you were a kid, Willie?

A: Favourite holiday….I don’t think I had many holidays, ‘cause when there was a holiday, I was…. I was just working on the farm, haying, helpin’ Dad hay, or in the garden pullin’ weeds, and…. until suppertime, and then we went and had supper, and then, ah, we did our barn work, and then we went and played ball after that. Everybody was about the same. Everybody then, had a pile of wood. They had it sawed and ah, Lemmie Raymond and Hiram Holmes had an old gas engine with a saw rigged up, with a long belt about ten, twelve feet long, and they’d go around and saw wood….I don’t know what got an hour for sawing, but…and then you didn’t have wood splitters like they have now. They split it all by hand, with an ax.

Q: So as long as you can remember, in your memory, your father was a farmer, but he did fish….

A: Mm hmm. In his younger days. I don’t know how many years he fished, but he was still fishing….He and Shannie Raymond were fishing together in a row dory, and I don’t know who was fishing with my grandfather. And they were rowing for….into Centreville wharf, and they were coming along there, what they call Shingle Cove. And they got in a little close to shore in the swell….and the dory that my grandfather was in rolled over, and he was drowned….now I don’t know whether his mate that was with him was drowned or not, but all they got from him, of him, was his one rubber boot. And then his wife lived with my parents ‘til she died, and I was in the army when she died.

Q: Can you remember any other, ah, tragic sea stories, any shipwrecks…do you remember the Robert Cann?

A: Well, ah, I wasn’t down to where the Robert Cann came ashore at the time, but I have been there lots of times, and a friend of mine, Carl Dimmock from Lake Midway, he made a big cross and put up down there with the names on it, and I think probably all of the names were on it. And I don’t know whether it was the Captain, or who it was, when they came ashore there, found a road and come out to where they lived, that was Dimmocks lived there at the time, and now Audrey Walker lives there now. And, ah, I guess, ah, I don’t know what time of night it was, but I guess when they went to the door, they were quite frightened, because he was all ice and snow and… where he’d been shipwrecked. And the Mounties came down, and they brought some wine with them, and they give ‘m a little bit of wine to warm their bodies up a bit. And some of them, their feet was frozen.

And then… I guess that’s about all I remember about that. And another time, Ernest Nesbitt, and er, Ronnie Morehouse, he came home, I think he was up in Ontario, or somewhere, and he went out fishing with the Nesbitt boy, and a breeze came up, and rolled the boat upside down, and Ronnie got drowned, and I think Elmer, er, ah, what’s his name was saved, wasn’t he, Ernest? Were they both drowned? (asking Imelda)

(I): Yes.

A: Were they? Yeah, there’s been trouble. Then, one of the Titus boys was on a scallop boat, that’s ah, Lorne Titus’s brother, and Lorne’s dead now. He was in a scallop boat, and he got caught in one of the scallop drags when they dumped ‘em overboard, and before they could get them back up, why, he had drowned.

Q: Hmm.

A: Yeah.

Q: Were there any other large shipwrecks where there was any salvaging going on after….did anything come ashore?

A: Oh, not that I know of, not that I know of.

Q: Did your….do you remember ever lacking for things as a child, or did you, with a farm, did you have everything you….?

A: No, we always seemed to have lots to eat. We, you know, practically everybody then, had half a dozen or a dozen hens and a cucumber bed and a few potatoes, and like that, but we….Father always used to raise a lot of vegetables because, when he was peddling meat, why, he took the vegetables right along on the same trip, and anybody wanted vegetables, why, he sold vegetables as well. Yep. And we had a…. when it came hayin’ time, why, we had the yoke of oxen and the mowing machine and a, he had a horse, and a horse rake. And, we used to rake with the horse, and a fellow that was, he’s dead now, Emerson Hersey, which was in the army, overseas, and ah, fellow by the name of Ronald Titus, he would help Father hay, and ah, we’d…Father would drive the old horse, and either Emerson or I would drive the oxen, and Ronald, he would help us turn out the hay or pitch on the load, and, and Emerson and I would trample and mow it away in the barn.

Q: Did most young men like yourself enlist?

A: Oh yeah. I think there was thirty-seven from Centreville enlisted.

Q: Wow.

A: Yeah. And one thing that I would…. being as you asked that question, there’s one thing that I would like to see, but I don’t think I’ll ever see it, and probably you won’t either…. I’d like to see a cenotaph put in Centreville, where the old Irving Station was, with all the names on it. And it would take somebody to.…with some responsibility, to look after it, and raise the flag, and lower it down, when a veteran….when a veteran passed away. But I don’t think there’s anyone in Centreville now, you know the younger ones, would be interested in that, so, I’ve never mentioned it at the Legion. I’m a member of the Legion, and I’ve worked there for forty-five years on the Poppy Campaign. I put up….helped with putting up the cenotaph in Little River when it’s been torn down. Vaughn Adams and I put it up…. just this last summer, some party ran into it and knocked it down, and so we went down, and with the assistance of Jim Graham, he couldn’t help us at the time. He had just been operated on, and ah, we put the cenotaph back up down in Little River. Allen Walker was good enough that he came up with his forklift and lifted the top part up, which was about seven hundred pounds….we couldn’t lift it. So he came up with the forklift and put that up on, and since then, I guess, it’s been OK.

Q: What were Sundays like in your household when you were growing up, Willie?

A: Pardon?

Q: What were Sundays like?

A: Sundays? Well, we always went to church. There was the two in Centreville, the Baptist Church and the United Church. And we always went to church Sunday morning. And, ah, Mother had a class of girls, and Father had a class of boys, and Deacon Byron Prime, he had the Bible class, and Gordon Morehouse, a deacon, he had a class of boys, the older boys, and my mother had the young girls, and my older sister…no, I’m wrong there. My mother had the older girls, and my older sister had the young girls, and she was organist in the church at the time. And then, if church was, say it was in the Baptist Church in the morning, it was in the United church in the evening. And everybody from the Baptist church went to the United Church, and people from the United church went to the Baptist church. And that’s the way they got along down there.

Q: Can you remember having a favourite hymn?

A: Well, I don’t know whether they were favourite, but.I don’t remember any special one.

Q: Yeah. Has that religion continued to have an influence in your life?

A: Pardon me?

Q: Has religion continued to have an influence in your life?

A: Yes. We always went to church. Ever since we left Centreville, we went to the church here in Digby.

Q: Yep.

A: Yeah.

Q: Did your family get any newspapers when you were growing up? How did you keep up with the outside world?

A: O yeah, we always had the daily paper, and ah, magazines, Reader’s Digest, about every….Mother was a great reader. She….any decent books that came out, why, she always had books and….

Q: Was that true for everybody in Centreville, or did….

A: Well, I guess everybody was about the same, and when you’d get through with one book, you’d lend it to another one, and borrow one from them, and that’s the way the community worked together.

Q: When do you remember getting electricity for the first time?

A: Well, I don’t know what year it was, but I know where I was.

Q: Where were you?

A: There was an ice pond in back of where Lyndon Raymond lives now, which was my Aunt Cassie Morehouse. And there used to be an ice house back there, and they put up ice back there. And we were back there skating one night after school, and when I come out from…. for supper, just about dark, we had hydro. What year, I don’t know.

(I): I believe it was either 1929 or ‘30.

Q: How about running water?

A: Well, ah, we had, ah, we didn’t have running water in the house there at that time, but we did have a good well, and a hand pump in the house. And ah, after, after Father died, I came home out of the army, and I planned on staying in the army, and I came home, and he wanted me to take the old farm, so, of course I was married at the time, and I said, "I’m home on thirty days leave." And I said, "If you want me to take the old farm," I said, "You have thirty days to make it over to me. ‘Cause," I said, "I’m not staying here, and when you die and then the whole family come in, I want this and I want that." I said, "I want a clear deed for the place." So he made the place over to me, and after they died, I took it over and worked it there. And then I worked for Keith Raymond for a couple of years down at the fish plant and tended the farm as well. And I always used to get… I sold the oxen, bought a tractor, and I used to get …I’d do the mowing, and I would get Edson Speichts from Gullivers Cove to come rake it and do the baling. And I would get Lorne Titus’s boys, Russell and Wayne, to help me haul the hay in. And I’ll never forget one night, it was dark, and I said, "Well boys, looks like it’s going to rain. Are we going to let it get wet or are we going to haul it in?"

"Nope, we’ll haul it in!" So we got through about one thirty in the night, and then we went to Lake Midway for a swim, one o’clock in the night. Yep. So, then I went to….I was still working for Keith. He came in one afternoon, and it was in the fall of the year, and he said, "I wish some of you guys could get work somewhere else." So, we used to do quite a lot of shopping….Saturday night was the big night in Digby then. So where the Kaywin is now, used to be Pyne’s Market, meat market. So, every time I would go in there, the boss in there was always at me to come in there to cut meat, ‘cause he knew I knew how to cut meat. So this Saturday night, we went in there and he hollered at me to come up in the office. And I went up in the office. He said, "When are you coming in here to work for me?" I said, "Monday morning." He says, "You really mean it?" I said, "Yeah. Monday morning." So, I went home, and Sunday night we went to church. And, of course, all the guys that worked to the shore in the fish plant, Robbie Morehouse, and Ralph Wagner, and all the guys that worked at the shore, [Laurel] Outhouse…they all went to church. So, I said to Ralph Wagner, I said, "I won’t be down to work in the morning." I said, "I’m going to Digby to work. Got a job in Digby." And Ralph said, "Yeah, some more of your foolishness," and like that. So, when morning come, why, I wasn’t there to go to work. So, I guess it was about half past nine, ten o’clock, in walked Keith in Digby in the store where I was working. He said, "I didn’t mean for you to get a job somewhere else." And he said, "What am I going to do for a truck driver?" and one thing and another. Well, I said, "That’s the way I took it when you said you wished some of you guys would get a job somewhere else." So, I worked for Mr. Pyne for five years and a half, cuttin’ meat. And, ah, I had a petty officer, he used to come in there from Cornwallis. And, ah, his order at that time would be probably anywheres from two hundred to two twenty-five…he would get his monthly meat, and stuff like that, which was quite an order at that time. And he had asked me to save him a nice piece of sirloin steak, so I ordered a hind quarter of western beef. And I was…he was there, and I was cutting this western beef for him, sirloin steak. And another lady came in, an English lady, and she had the hothouse out at Racquette Gardens, they used to call it then, out towards Pines Hotel. And she walked up to the meat counter and she says, I want that piece of meat right there. I said, "I’m sorry, Mrs. Peck. That is sold to Mr. Davis, the petty officer." She says, "I want that piece of meat right there." I said, "I’m sorry, it’s sold to Mr. Davis." So she went up in the office and she got Mr….the boss, right by the shirt collar, and brought him down, and she says, "I want that piece of meat there." I….we always called the boss Al. His name was Allen. I said, "Al, that piece of meat is sold to Mr. Davis." He never let on he heard me. He took about two pound, or three pound, or whatever it was she wanted, and put it on the scale, and he was a short man, and I looked over his shoulder, seen what it come to, and he gave her a ten percent discount on a couple, three pound of meat. She bought, I suppose, a couple of dollars worth of meat, she got ten percent discount. Mr. Davis bought over two hundred dollars worth of meat and groceries and potatoes, and vegetables, canned stuff. He never got five cents discount. So Mr. Pyne, after he did it, he walked out and he went over to….Roy Carpenter had a restaurant there. He went over there for coffee. Edith Hayden was head cashier, and we always called her Edie. I said, "Edie, fix up my bill, please." She looked at me, she says, "Willie, you’re going to leave, aren’t you?" I says, "Just as soon as I tell Al what I think of him." So, when he come back, when his feet was on the top step, mine was on the bottom of the office. And when he sat down, I stuck my finger right up into his face. I said, "Al, that was a dirty, damn trick." He says you have to do them things sometimes. I says, not for me…with me workin’ for you. And I walked out three o’clock in the afternoon. And I was so mad and put out, that I forgot to give him the keys to the store, ‘cause I always opened the store in the morning. So I went back the next day and give him the keys to the store. So, it went on for I guess about a month, and my brother-in-law’s wife came to me, and she said, "I heard that you got fired because you was caught stealing." I said, "That’s a bare faced lie," and I said, "and the first time you go to Digby, I want you to let me know," ‘cause I said, "I’m takin’ you right in to Mr. Pyne." So she came to the house and said she was going to Digby that afternoon. So I went up and I parked right in front of the store. And I waited, and I seen her walking up the street, so I got up, and when, just as she got to the truck, and … get out, we were going to go in, he walked out of the store. And I said, "Mr. Pyne, I’d like to see you in the office a minute." It was pretty near three o’clock, and the bank closed at three. He says, "I have to go to the bank." He said, "I won’t be too long." I said, "OK, we’ll wait." So when he come about, we went in the store, and I took the lady right up to the office. I said, "I have one question for you, and I guess probably you have one answer for

her." I said, "A lady told this lady that I was fired from here because I was caught stealing." Now I said, "I want you to tell this lady the truth. Was I fired from here from stealing or not?"

"No way. Willie wasn’t fired from here from stealing. It was my own fault." That was his own fault. I left. Yep

Q: So, what job did you have after that? Did you return to…?

A: When I came back from there, that was in winter…. fall, late fall. I had five girls traveling with me: One was Elaine Titus. She worked in what was called, ah, Stedmans store. Ah, Patsy Morehouse, Ronald Morehouse’s daughter. She was working in the bank. Edson Speichts’s daughter from Gullivers Cove. I just forget where she was working. Geraldine Pyne from Centreville, she was working in the bank. Marie Ryan from Seabrook, working into Simpsons, at that time was on Front Street. And, I guess that takes in the five. I’m not sure. Yeah.

And when I got back there the next spring, I went, I think, back to Keith’s to work. He wanted me to come back there. And then….no, I’m wrong. I went to work….I told Keith that I would go to work for him that spring. He had asked me. He lived right across the road from me. And Elmer Johnson from Waterford came to me and wanted me to take his share in the weir. And I said, "No, I can’t take your share in the weir, as much as I’d like to." ‘Cause, I said, "I’ve already promised Keith that I would work for him this summer." But I said, "If you want to go to Keith, and if Keith will release me," I said, "then I will go to work in the weir." But I said, "other than that," I said, "I can’t go back on my word." So he waited in the yard. Keith was to Digby, and he waited in the yard I guess, ‘til Keith came home about ten o’clock. So he wanted me to go over to Keith’s with him. I said, "No, I’m not going over to Keith’s with you." I said, "You’re the man that wants to see Keith, not me." So he went to Keith’s, and then they both came home. And Keith said, "Well, if you feel you can better yourself, alright." So I went in the weir in Griffins Cove. I think, ah, I was in the weir there eleven years. And then I….and I also lobster fished with my brother-in-law in the winter time, there, in St. Mary’s Bay. And then we cut our firewood and our weir stuff in between the breaks. Then I had trouble with my back. I had to give up weir fishing and lobster fishing. And Seymour Raymond from Digby, he was in charge of school buses at that time, and he came to me, wanted me to drive the school bus. So, I said, "Well, I don’t know whether I’ll pass the test or not," in a joking way. So he wanted me to come to Digby, and he took me out for a drive hisself, before I went to have the test from an inspector. Of course I was used to driving trucks and one thing and another anyway. So, we drove around town, and we drove down Digby Neck as far as the Upper Crossroad, and turned around. And we went back to Digby and I let him off at the school bus terminal. And he said, "You go down to the inspector’s office." So I went down to the inspector’s office and took the test down there, and then I had to go out and take a driver’s test. And he stopped me a couple of times for…. as if I were picking up kids, and the amber lights, and the red lights. And he stopped me on the hill, and, so to see if the bus run back or not. And I passed the test. And I drove the school bus for twelve years and a half, to Sandy Cove. I had all the small kids from Grade Primer up, including Grade Six. And, ah, it was kind of a mixed up affair when I first took it over, because I had to bring the high school kids out of Centreville to go on the high school bus coming up from Sandy Cove. And the, the high school kids would take the little ones, and say, "You get out of that seat. I’m a gonna sit there." So I tried to straighten it up the best I could without a lot of fuss. So after a bit, I went to Digby, and I got numbers from one to ten, and I numbered the seats on each side. And I had all my Grade Primer girls, or all the girls on one side, Primer and up, including Grade Six, and all the boys on the other side. And I said, "Now, you choose who you want to sit with in your class, and where you’re going to sit, up front. That’s going to be your seat for the year." So they chose who they wanted to sit with, all the Primer class first. Then Grade One, Two, so on. And, so, there was lots of empty seats of course, still, when I came up out of Centreville. And I told the high school children, I said, "Don’t you touch one of those…that’s their seat for the year. You pick a seat where there isn’t anyone sittin’." So I got that straightened away, we got along fine. And then, we had a couple of boys that ah, used to stick their foot out in the seat, in the aisle, and try to trip the girls up. And I tried to talk to them and see if I couldn’t straighten them up, ‘cause the seats then had pipe rails around them. And I said, "You boys are tripping some of the girls, and they’re going to hit their heads and hurt themselves." So I said, "I don’t want to have to change your seats." And they were both in Grade Six, sitting way down….about half way the bus. So it went on pretty good for about a week, and out went the foot. So, I had said to one of the girls in the front seat, which were Primer Class, I said, "I might have to change your seat. Would it be OK?" And oh yes, it was OK with them. But I didn’t tell ‘em why. So ah, when the foot went out, I just pulled….stopped the bus….no I was unloading, I think, or going on at the school, one or the other, when the foot went out. I just pulled the emergency brake on, went back, and I said, "You come with me." So I brought him up, put him right in the front seat right next to the window. I said, "That is your seat from now ‘til the end of the year. And if you don’t grade, and I’m driving next year, when you get on the bus," I said, "That’ll be your seat right there." But he did grade. And one of the other boys, the same thing, I brought him up in the seat on the other side. So, when I did that, his mother called me everything but a white person. Of course that came right back to me within a couple of days. And I never said "boo" about it, didn’t let on that I knew anything about it. So the following year, when he graded and went to Digby school, she arrived up here one night, her and her adopted daughter, with a great big chocolate cake, for…. and tried…. wanted to apologize to me for what she had said to me. Well I said, " I knew all about that two days after you said it," but I said, "I didn’t want to make a fuss about it." So, so, I drove a school bus, like I said, for twelve years and a half, and then they went on strike. So, like I say, she came here, and then he went to school, and she came up here, and she said, "Well," with her chocolate cake, she said, "I wish you was driving the bus going to school in Digby this year." She said the language they’re having there, she says, isn’t good at all. But, then they had the strike on the bus, and I didn’t vote for the strike. Lovett Theriault and I were driving in to Sandy Cove, and, ah, we, we felt, well, we didn’t either one vote for the strike, but we didn’t want to interfere with the rest so, we didn’t….we stopped driving altogether. That was in the middle of the year. So I never bothered with it after that. So then, after that, I think I went back to workin’ for Keith again in Centreville No, I’m wrong again. I went to work in the woodworking place in Digby, for Bernie Bell.

Q: Yes?

A: And I worked there ah, did I have my heart operation before I worked there? (asking Imelda)

(I): No.

A: Anyway, I had….I was working to Bernie Bell’s, and ah, I went to the doctor here in Digby. Yes….I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I was working for Robicheau’s fish plant at Lake Midway. And I had loaded the truck one night with four ton of ice to go to the island. And Debbie Titus and Violet Frost had just finished packing fish at ten o’clock . And when I came out of the ice place, and Debbie said, "Willie, you don’t look good." Well I said, "Maybe because I didn’t stop for any supper." I said, "Will one of you girls make a cup of tea, and I’ll go in and get a donut or something, and then I’ll go to the island." So I said, "I’ll just sit down on a box," and they both went back in, and it wasn’t long, and they come out with a couple of donuts and a cup of tea. So I was sittin’ on a box havin’ a cup of tea and a donut, and the boss came in and he looked at me, and he said, "You don’t look good." He said, "You get for home." I said, "I got to take that load of ice down on the island." He said, "I’ll take that ice on the island." He said, "You get for home." So, I took my coat, and put my heavy coat on, and Debbie, she said, "Willie, let me drive you home with your truck, and Violet will come along behind me with her car, and pick me up and bring me back, and then I’ll get my car and go home. I said, "I can drive home." So, that was all we said, and I went out and I got in my truck and I started up towards home along the lake. I got about half way up the lake, and I seen these lights a comin’. And I didn’t think anything of it. I just figured, well, it’s another car from down below goin’ the same way I was going. So when I got home, I turned in one yard in the driveway, and they turned I the other driveway. It was Debbie and Violet followed me home to see if I got home alright. That was Saturday night. So, I sat there on the chesterfield all night. I couldn’t lay down, I had such pains here. Too contrary, I guess to go to the doctor because it was at that time about half past eleven. So Sunday morning, I…after a while, I got so I could lay down, and Sunday night it snowed. Monday morning I felt great. I went out in the garage and I got my tractor out, had the snow plow on it. And I said, "I’m going to plow out one driveway." So I plowed out one driveway. I come in the house. I said, "You have it some hot in here." And the wife said, "No hotter than we ever keep it." So I said, "I guess it’s time I was going to the hospital." So I jumped in the truck, and she says, "You want me to go with you?" I said, "No, I’ll be back, fifteen, twenty minutes." So, I went up there, and outpatients was in the other end of the hospital then. And, ah, from where I was sitting, when the nurse come out from outpatients, I could look right in and there was another nurse in there. She come out, and she called a lady. This lady got up and went in. And the head nurse in outpatients, she come right back out, and she said, "You come with me." And I said, "All these people were ahead of me." She said, "I know that too." So I got up, and I walked in, and she said, "You strip to the waist." So I did. I said, "It looks like you’re going to give me a cardiogram." She said, "Yes I am." So, I said, " Mrs. Hewitt just gave me a cardiogram just before she retired." She says, "I know that too." So she give me a cardiogram. She says, ah…. went over and she talked to the other nurse and she picked up the mike, and she called for a wheelchair. Well I thought it was for the lady that the other nurse had. So, by the time I got my top shirt…undershirt on, she says, "Never mind puttin’ your top shirt on." They was there with the wheel chair. She says, "You get in the wheelchair." I said, "Get in the wheelchair?" I said, "I’m goin’ home." She said, "Yes, you’re in lovely shape to go home." So they put me up in intensive care, I think it was for ten or twelve or fourteen days. And, ah, the head nurse’s name was Barb Johnson. And she said to me, "When you get out of here, you go see a heart specialist." So I went to Halifax….went to Kentville to Dr. Masters, and he put me on the tread machine. I was about fifteen minutes, I guess, in his office. And, uh, he said, "You come back again Monday morning." I went back Monday morning, and…. I went to his office Monday morning and he put me on the tread machine again. And I took about fifteen or twenty steps, and he told the nurse to shut it off. He give me a nitroglycerine to put under my tongue, and he said, "I’ll make arrangements for you in Halifax, right quick." So, he sent me down there, gave me the dye test, sent me back home. And the doctor in Halifax, Dr. Allie, told me it’d be probably eight weeks before I could get in for a heart operation, but he said we’ll try to get you in sooner if we can. They got me in in six weeks. I had a triple bypass. I come home from there in February, and in the spring of the year, I was makin’ some things in my hobby shop downstairs, some night tables for my daughter, and I went in to Bell’s Woodworking to get a sheet of plywood ripped. And he wanted me to come in and work for him. So I went in there and worked for him, I don’t know, four or five years I guess, or more. And ah, I guess, when I quit working for him, I gave up working altogether. I came home and worked here, making stuff for my daughter, and working for….doin’ stuff for the Legion, and neighbours around, makin’ things for the kids. Yep. But I really enjoyed the twelve years and a half that I drove a school bus for the kids. I really got along fine with the kids.

Q: You’ve had so many different careers.

A: Well, I’ve been all around the bush. (Laughter)

Q: What was the fishing like in St. Mary’s Bay? Let me backtrack a minute. You were married when you were in the armed forces. So, Imelda was living where? Where was your first home when you were married?

A: Ah, we were….my parents were both alive.

Q: Yes.

A: And the big house that’s still standing in Centreville, and the barn, which is going down fast…. It’s been twenty-seven years since anybody lived in it….

Q: Really?

A: Since I built this one.

Q: Yes.

A: And, so, there were only Mother and Dad, and Imelda and I. And Carlyn. We had one child. So we just split the house. We both used the same upstairs. There were five bedrooms, and we both used the same bathroom. And we had… my brother lived across the road, and we had dug a well, and we had gravity fed water then. And, so we got along fine, and she lived there with us.

Q: And your daughter was born before you finished out you career with the armed services?

A: Yep.

Q: Yes.

A: Yep. We were married I guess, about a year and a half, wasn’t we, before she was born. Yep.

Q: And did you just have the one daughter?

A: I have two now.

Q: Two?

A: I have two, yeah. One….Carlyn, she’s in Lunenburg, and her…they, she, ah, when she got through school she went to work here in Digby in the bank, ah, I just forget the manager’s name. And then when she got….she was Apple Blossom Pincess here in Digby….and then when she got married, her husband, they moved to Lunenburg. He was in marine electronics. So they had their own business in Lunenburg. The head office was in Lunenburg, had an office here in Digby, one in Grand Manan, and one in Newfoundland, and one in Cape Breton, and ah…

Q: Was that Eastern Electronics?

A: Eastern Electronics. And the company….National Sea in Lunenburg, had two or three large fish draggers built in Norway. And ah, he went to Norway and put the electronics equipment, I think, on two of them. And one of them I was lucky enough to get aboard when it came back here to Lunenburg. And ah, he told me that there was two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars worth of electronics equipment on it. And he made a radio that he put on that boat, that he could talk….er, no they didn’t put it in the boat, I’m wrong. They put it in the office in National Sea, and they had a radio in the boat, that they could talk from National Sea in Lunenburg to that boat up off of Newfoundland….two or three large boats would go up there and fish….and they could tell the boats what kind of fish to catch. And the day that I was aboard the Cape Beaver, that was the largest one, he had what we call perch. I don’t know how many hundred thousand he had aboard, and there was the odd codfish now and then. But there was equipment in there that could tell just what kind of fish was underneath of the boat. And the equipment up in the captain’s room, when the drags were out, if there was five pounds more strain on this cable than there was on that one, it registered so that you could….yeah. So the company that he was buying all of his equipment from, German company, they came over here and wanted to buy him out. So he said, well, he couldn’t give them a price right at that time. But he talked it over, he and my daughter, his wife, and at that time the bottom was beginning to drop out of the fish business….so he said, I think our best bet would be to sell out. So he put a price on it, so when they came back in I think, it was two months time he told ‘em to come back, he put a price on it, and he sold out his business. And then he went to….he was going to retire. He played around for a year, and he couldn’t do that, so he went to Kentville, and he took a landscaping course, and since then, he’s been doing landscaping in Lunenburg.

Q: His last name wouldn’t be Ernst, would it?

A: No, Balser. Gordon Balser. So here….then she went to a real estate fellow, and wanted to know if she could get a job selling real estate in Bridgewater. So he told her, "Yes, I think I can give you a job, but," he says, "You’ll have to go take a course first." So she went and took a course in real estate, and now she’s selling real estate. So…. they, where they bought their property to build their first…their second house, why, the lady’s husband passed away, and ah, their son, Johnathan

used to go up at night, just a little ways from them, and carry in her wood and do errands for her. So one night, she says, "You tell your Mum and Dad to come up. I want to see them." So they went up, didn’t know what she wanted. And she said, ah, "Would you like to buy the rest of the old farm?" And they said, "Yes we would. What price would you have on it?" And she told them, and they said, "Well, we’d like to have it but we just can’t afford that much." So she said, "Well what do you feel you can afford?" So they told her what they thought they could afford. And she said, "Well, you can have it for that." So they bought the rest of the farm. So, my daughter, she went to work selling real estate, and ah, well they tried to restore the old house on the farm. And when they got into it they just found that there was no way that they could restore it. It was that far gone. So they tore it down, and they decided they would build a new one and sell the one that they’re living in now. So they….she went to work one morning and put up a sign down by the road, just on her own, not through the real estate, and ah, two days afterwards, why, they sold the house. But they have the right to live in it until the last of this month, their house is supposed to be done….up on the hill. And my other daughter, Sandra, she works for the telephone company, and she’s been with the telephone company I think, this is twenty-six years? Twenty six years, and she is with the engineers department, and she’s been, I guess all under the city of Halifax with rubber boots and a hard hat and overalls. And ah, she’s been in Truro. She started out here in Digby. She’s been in Bridgewater, and two or three different offices in Halifax, Middleton, and now she’s in the head office in Kentville, in the [marine? sic] business. I guess that’s pretty near my life story. (Laughter)

Q: I’d be interested in hearing just a little bit more about what the fishing was like in St. Mary’s Bay when you fished that ten or eleven years ….the weir fishing and the lobster fishing.

A: Well, the first year I was on an eighth for Elmer Johnson…

Q: In the weir?

A: In the weir. And then I went to, oh, Clif…. oh, can’t think of his name, was fishin’ with Lee, lobster fishing….

(I): Clifford Robicheau.

A: Clifford Robicheau was fishing with Lee Wescott, and he stuck a nail in his foot and got lock-jaw, and died. So Lee wanted me to go lobsterin’ with him, so I went lobsterin’ with Lee. And the first year in the weir, I made eight hundred dollars, which wasn’t very much money. And Vincent Raymond, he was on an eighth for his father’s share, and of course we both had the same. So, we talked it over, Vincent and I, and we decided we’d give it one more year anyway. So we tried it another year, and ah, I don’t know just how much we made the second year, but we had a pretty good year. So then we continued on, and the price of herring started going up a bit, and the herring fishing kept….seemed to be getting better. And ah, I think, I think the best season I had in the weir was right around eleven thousand….dollars, on an eighth.

Q: Do you remember what year that was?

A: I don’t remember….I don’t remember what year that was, I’m sure. But ah, I think the biggest catch we had while I was weir fishing there was a little over a hundred hogsheads at one tide. Yeah. And we had that several times, right around a hundred, or a hundred and ten. And I’ll never forget one time, there was an American boat came over…. it was on a Saturday. And we hardly ever sold herring on a Saturday. And I was to Digby, and I came down from Digby, and the boat was up to Seawall weir. And there wasn’t anybody around the shore to go out to the weir, and no boats out to the weir. So we had something to do to the weir, so I went right to the shore, went on my way from Digby. And I said, "Let’s go out." I said, "There’s nobody out to the weirs up there and nobody to the shore." So I said, "He’s after herring. We’ll sell a trip of herring." And Sydney [Wescott] said, "It’s no good to go out there, it’s just a waste of gas. The boat is for Seawall, and that’s that." So I said, "I put a lot of work in that weir, and I’m only getting an eighth," and I said, "And if there’s twenty five dollars out there for me, I want it." And I said, "And if it’s a gallon of gas that’s bothering you, I’ll bring over a gallon of gas if the boat don’t come down and get any herring." So I said….so Lee said, "We’re going to the weir." So we went out, and just as we got pretty near to the weir, the boat left up to Seawall, and came down to the weir. And Lee was the feeler. He went in with a little lead weight, about a pound. Vincent Raymond was what we call the dory man. He rode him around the weir three times: once right up close to the weir, next time out a little farther, and the next time was out more or less in the center.

Q: Was this to determine how much was in the weir?

A: That would tell us how much was in there. He had a little nylon thread over his finger, and that would hit the fish, you see….

Q: Yes?

A: …. and he could tell by the tremble [bump] how many herring was in there. So when he came out….the captain of the boat come out on deck, he said, "You got some fish in?" and Lee said "Yes." And he said, "How many d’you figure you got in?" And Lee said, "How many can you carry?" He said, "A hundred hogsheads." He said, "Well there’s more than enough there to load you." So he said, "Would you seine them up for us?" So we seined them up and we sold….loaded him, and dumped the rest back in the weir. And when we got ashore, I, of course, I don’t know whether it was a smart, or just a jo….I said it in a joking way….I said, "Sydney, you want me to bring over a gallon of gas?" (Laughter) That was all that was said. Then we went to working in the lobsters with Lee. The first year I worked with Lee, I said, "Lee, I don’t know the first thing about riggin’ lobster traps." So I said, "I don’t mind being told." So we worked together there, we got the traps ready, and we went lobster fishing. I don’t know how many years I fished with Lee, but we got along fine. And ah, I think it was about the second year that we lobster fished….we always had two fellows ashore loading the dories and rowing off. And the second year, why, when we were rigging the traps, why, I put the buoys and the rope in the trap different than what they usually put it in. So ah, and Sydney….they were settin’ traps, why, I’d just take a hold of the buoy and give it a throw, and Lee was running the boat about half speed. And we had the guys ashore puttin’ the bait bags in so I didn’t have to bother with that. So, we got all through settin’ traps, and Sydney come over the next year, and he said, ah, "How do you get your traps out so fast?" He said, "You’re runnin’ the boat ‘bout three quarter speed," and he says, "And all you could see was buoys a flyin." Well Lee said, "Well Willie put the rope in the traps the way he wanted it, and that’s the way they come out." So the next year he come over to see how I had the buoys and the rope in the traps so he could put his in the same way. So I lobster fished with Lee for I think, I don’t know, eleven or twelve years I guess, until I hurt my back and went driving the school bus.

Q: Where did you fish from? Griffins Cove?

A: Griffins Cove.

Q: Yes?

A: Yeah.

Q: There was no wharf there?

A: No wharf, no. You had to row out to the boat, take your bait down with the tractor, and….when we set traps, I had a tractor, and Lee had one. And I had a larger trailer than Lee did. And I could put, I think it was thirty-four on my trailer, traps, and Lee put twenty-four on his. So I said to….one day we was settin’ traps the first day. It was flood tide. And I said to Lee, "You’re the captain of the boat, and it’s yours." But I said, "Why not put the bow of the boat right on the beach, and just leave her in gear enough to keep her straight on the beach?" I said, "It’s smooth." So I said…he did….and I said ah, to one of the guys driving the tractors, I said, we’ll get ‘em to drive down and back one out on each side of the boat. And the guys would pass me the traps off of one trailer, and he’d take the traps off of the other trailer. And while we were gone with those two loads, they’d go back up and load again. And, ah, we had our traps out shortly after dinner when the rest of them were loading them in dories and taking them out and then loading them in the boats that way. Yep.

Q: This fellow that got lock-jaw….was it necessary for him to die? Was there a cure for tetanus then?

A: Well, I don’t know…. but he died from lock-jaw.

Q: Yep?

A: Yeah. Clifford Robicheau. And he fished with Lee for years….

Q: Yeah?

A: Lobster fished. He never weir fished. He lobster fished.

(CC): Did we get…..last name? (asking for clarification on Lee’s last name)

Q: Lee Wescott.

A: Wescott, yeah. Lee and Sydney, they were both in the weir. They were brothers.

Q: From Waterford.

A: Yep, Waterford

Q: Well this intrigues me, this story of the guy that died of lock-jaw. What… How often would you go to the doctor?

A: Oh, I really….really I don’t know, I’m sure. Whether the doctor….

(I): He stepped on a nail.

A: Yeah, he stepped on a nail, is what he….I remember that part. But whether the doctor came to him, or whether they went to the doctor, I don’t know.

A: They waited too long….

Q: Now I know, when I broke my arm, first year I started school, the doctor came to me from Sandy Cove, Dr. Rice, in a horse and sleigh, and set my arm. And my father went to the barn and got a shingle and made splints to put on my wrist. And he gave me ether and put me to sleep and setting it…..and when I woke up, I was on the couch and we had a little black dog, and the dog was lyin’ down beside me. I think that’s the reason I’m left handed, mostly. I went to school, and worked with my left hand. But when I….throwin’ a ball or battin’ a ball, or playin’ hockey, I always played right handed. But maybe I was left handed, I don’t know.

Q: Was Dr. Rice also the dentist?

A: No.

Q: No.

A: No, we had to go to Digby for dental work, in a horse and sleigh. I remember Father, ah, back then, the lobster fishermen then, when I was a kid, in the Bay of Fundy, and I suppose in the St. Mary’s Bay too, but he always…. what we call jinks or tinkers, they could save ‘em then. And my father and a fellow from Waterford, Wallace Raymond, bought the tinker lobsters. And they had a great big pot made, and I think it’s down cellar right now….it had a hole or two in it and I had it welded. And they used to take the whole four dampers off the stove in our back porch, and they’d boil lobsters, cooked lobsters, and they’d go to Digby with horse and sleighs in the winter time and sell lobsters. Yeah. Then the mail route here on Digby Neck….At that time, Guy Morehouse, from Sandy Cove, he had two spans of horses. And he’d take one span and he’d start from East Ferry and he’d come to Sandy Cove, and then he would take them off, and put….hook up a span from Sandy Cove and go to Digby. Then he’d come back at night with that span, and change in Sandy Cove, and go to East Ferry. Two spans of horses. That’s the way they got the mail back then. Yep.

Q: In your young married life, your children would have been born in a hospital?

A: Ah, yeah. Carlyn was born in Digby Hospital. And two years….when she was two years old, she had….back in the hospital and had appendicitis. And I think it was the second day after she was operated on, Imelda went up to see her, and she said, "Mummy, the train goes right by here." And her mother said, "Well how do you know that?" Well, she said, "I got up and seen it going by." And then Sandra, she was born seven years later in the hospital….

(I): Almost eight.

A: Huh?

(I): Almost eight.

A: Almost eight. And I guess it was….

(I): Nobody knew it.

A: That was military secret. And….her mother didn’t even know it. So, I was working in Digby at the time, in Pyne’s Market. And ah, we came home from there, and she said, "It’s no good to go to bed, because," she says, "I’ve got to go back to Digby, to the hospital." So I went over to the next door neighbour, to Marjorie Tibbetts, and they had just gone to bed just a few minutes, ‘cause I seen the light go out and I hollered four or five times, and I couldn’t get any answer. So I went back home, and I said, "I’ll take the car and go over and get your mother." So I went over, and I knew where she slept, and I went around the house, and I just said, "Gram," and she said, "Yes?" And I says, "Willie." And I said, "I got to take Imelda to the hospital." I said, "Would you come down and stay with Carlyn?" So she says, "Yes, just a minute." So she got up and come to the door, and I went in….And Imelda had, between Carlyn and Sandra, she had had one kidney taken out. So she said, "Her other kidney’s actin’ up, isn’t it?"

Well I says, "She’s got trouble with pains in her back." So, when she got ready and she went down home with me, and ah, she said to Imelda. "What’s your trouble?" "Well," she said, "I got to go to the hospital. I’m going to have a baby, but nobody knows it." (Laughter) So she went up, and we had another girl. I think it was, what a year after that we had to take her to Halifax? Or less?

(I): She wasn’t walking.

A: She wasn’t walking. And ah, she had a growth come on her hip, and we had to take her to Halifax for five radium treatments. And it…

(I): Five minutes. All the way to Halifax for five minutes each time.

A: Five radium treatments. But that all cleared up and was fine, yeah.

I thought of something a while ago that I want to mention….

Q: OK.

A: I would like to mention….go back to when I was in the army….

Q: Yep.

A: ….Just a minute. Ah, I had a pass….I was in Halifax, that was before I went overseas, and I had a pass to come home for a weekend. So, when you got your pass, they say you get on a certain number car. And I never forgot. He said, "You go on number nine car." So I went out and went down through, and went on number nine car, and there was one person on that car. An army girl. And she was from down on the Island, Central Grove. And ah, so I walked down to where she was sitting, and I said, "Do you mind if I sit down here?" She says, "No, sit down." So I sat down, and I introduced myself to her and she introduced herself to me. And her name was ah, Marion Prime. So we chatted there all the way along, and I didn’t say where I was from, and she didn’t say where she was from.

After a while I said, "Well you must be from near Digby to be on this car, because," I said, "They told me when I got my ticket to go on number nine car." She said, "Yes, I’m going right to Digby." Well I said, "There, so am I." She said, "Do you live right in Digby?" I said, "No, I live down Digby Neck, Centreville." I said, "Do you live in Digby?" She said, "No, I live on the Island, Central Grove." Then she said, "Well how do you get down Digby Neck?" Well I said, "I usually call Dad, and I start out walkin’ and he comes and picks me up." So, ah, when we got in Kentville, it was a snowin’ and a blowin’ like mad, and all we had on our feet was a little pair….we didn’t have on our real army boots. We had a pair of army dress shoes. And, well, we got in Digby, I guess it was about five o’clock in the morning, half past five. Telephone lines was down, hydro line was down, couldn’t call anywhere, you couldn’t get a taxi, there was no taxis around. "Well", she said, "What are you going to do now?" "Well," I said, "We’ll hoof it." "Well," she said, "If you’re going to go," she says, "I’ll walk along with you." So we walked down, and we got down here in Rossway. And Mr. Jim Huthchinson just come out of the barn with his milk pail. And I said, "Good morning Mr. Hutchinson." And he turned and looked at… "Oh," he says, "It’s you Billy." He said, "Bring your friend and come in and have some breakfast." So we thanked him, and we went in and we had breakfast with them, and I said, "Well this girl’s from down on the Island." And ah, I said, "And she’d like to get home for some of the weekend." And I said, "I guess we’ll have to walk clear into Centreville anyway, and I’ll get Dad’s truck and take her down." And so, I said, "Let us pay you for our lunch, and we’ll be on the way." And he said, "No, you’re not payin’ us for any lunch." So we thanked him, and we got out to the road, and I seen a truck coming. Well I said to the girl, I said, "Maybe we’re in luck." So I stuck up my thumb, and he stopped. And I knew the guy. It was Ted Woodman, and he worked for the department of hydro, the hydro company. And I said to him, "Ted, How far ya goin?" He said, "I’m goin’ to Westport." Well I said, "That’s pretty nice. This girl is going to Central Grove." So he let me off at the Centreville corner, and I…said, "Well, maybe we’ll meet again." And ah, so, she went to Central Grove, and I never seen her afterwards. So I had sold my place in Centreville and built the place up here. So, I had asked Keith Finnigan….he was from the Island, and he bought a place in Digby. I seen him one day to church. So I said, "Keith, I want to ask you a question about a person that I think probably you know." I said, "Would you know a girl named Marion Prime, who she married, where she lives, or anything about her." I said, "I met her, she was in the armed forces." He said, "That’s right." He says, "She lives on the island, and she lives in Central Grove, and she’s living with her son right now, and her son is building a new house just a little ways from where the son is living that she lives with, in Central Grove." So I said, "Thank you very much." I said, "I met her when I was in the army, and I haven’t seen her since." And I said, "I’d like to see that girl." So I said….we come home from church, and I said to Imelda, "Let’s go down on the Island and see if we can find that girl." So we jumped in the car after lunch and we went to the Island. Now I don’t know whether I should tell you this part or not, but I’m going to tell you anyway. So we went down to the Island, and I stopped to the house where he said. And I went in and I knocked to the door, and this guy come to the door, and I said, "Is there a lady lives here by the name of Marion Prime….her name used to be Marion Prime when she was a younger person and was in the army?" He said, "Yes she lives here, but she’s not here right now. But I’ll show you where she is." So he walked out to the road, and he said, "You see that new house they’re building down the road?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "She’s down there. Her son’s building that house." I said, "Thank you very much." So we jumped in the car and we drove down, and they just had a plank up to the front door, they didn’t have the steps in yet, they was just buildin’ it. So I walked in, and I knew her just as soon as I walked in….there was two, two ladies there. One was quite tall, and she was quite short and stocky. And I said, "That’s Marion right there." But I didn’t let on. So I said, "Would one of you ladies be Marion Prime? Or was Marion Prime?" And she said, "Yes, I was." Well I said, "Do you remember me?" And she looked at me, she says, "No." Well I said, "We spent the night together." "Oh my God," the other woman said, "You don’t remember?" (Laughter) Well I said, "We were good." I said, "We were in the army," and I said, "And we come to Digby," and I said, "and the power was out, the telephone line was down. We walked halfway down Digby Neck." "Oh my God," she said. "I wondered what happened to you." And I said, "We had quite a chat."

Yep. But ah, she’s passed away now.

Q: Yeah.

A: Yeah. We…ah, she was a member of the Legion on the Island, and I was a member of the Legion up here. And, there’s four branches in this zone, what we call a zone: Digby, Bear River, Clare, and down on the Island. And we gather once in Digby a year, and once in Annapolis, once Clare, and down there. So I never used to bother going to the rallies. So…always seemed to have something to do, and the rallies were always in the day, so I never bothered goin’ ‘til late years. So when I started going, I went down, and of course they have a room upstair that….what they have the Legion in used to be the old theatre. And they had a room upstair, with a bar, and pictures of all different members that had passed away. So I went up, and I was looking at the pictures, and one of the guys from down there in Westport….he’s living in Westport now, ah, Danny Glavin…. I said, "Don’t tell me that…. that girl has passed away." He said, "Yes." He said, "Did you know her?" Well I said, "I met her when she was in the army." I said…and I told him the whole story about how I met her and one thing and another. And I said, "She seemed to be an awful nice person." I said, "I only met her the once, from Halifax to….and walked halfway down Digby Neck." He said, "She was a nice person." He said, "She would take her heart out and give it to you."

Q: Hmm.

A: Yeah. She was that type of person. So I guess that’s about the career of my days, I guess.

(CC): I’m just interested in one thing. What did a young fellow from the Neck think of London, England?

A: Pardon me?

(CC): What did a young fellow from the Neck think of London, England, when you went there for your four day….

A: What did we…..ah London? Well, we went to London from Aldershot, Camp Aldershot. And I said to the boys….there was Berrigan, and Charlie Black. Berrigan was from down, ah…..

(I): Don’t ask me.

A: Ah, oh, down near Lunenburg, anyway. And ah, Charlie Black was from up to Spring Hill, and Berrigan….and Cape Breton. So I got ready, and I said, "Anybody want to go to London with me? I’m going up for three days before we go aboard the boat for home." Berrigan spoke up. He said, "You won’t be damn fool enough to go to London." He said you’ll get lost and you won’t come back, and you’ll miss the boat." I said, "I can yak enough here, and I can yak enough there, to find my way back." "Well," he said, "You’re going to be fool enough to go," he said, "I’ll go with you." So he packed his bag, and Bruce Coombs said, "Well, I’ll go too." Then Charlie Black spoke up. He said, "Well," he said, "The four of us’ll go." So we jumped the old train in Aldershot and then we went to Otterloo Station, just a little ways from Westminister, in London. We got off the train, and we went out, and ah, we got a taxi. The taxi driver said….I said to the taxi driver, "I’d like to go to Westminister." He said, "I don’t know how to get there." I said, "You don’t know how to get to Westminister from here?" He says, "No, I don’t." Well I said, "According to this map I got, I can walk there in twenty minutes." "Well," he says, "If you can show me the way, I’ll take you." So I says….the three guys got in the back, which there was a screen between the front seat and the back seat….and I got in the front with him. And I took the map, and I said, "Here’s where we are," and I said, "And here’s where you gotta go." So he took us up to Westminister, two bits, that’s like a quarter. He said, "I’ve been taxiing for so many years." He says, "The first call I ever had to come here." Yeah. So, we got out, and we paid him and thanked him. And I looked up, and here come an English army guy walkin’ down the street. And I said, "We’ll wait a minute ‘til this guy gets here." So he come down, and we stopped to talk with him. I said, ah, "Where can we get a room for the night, the four of us?" He said, "Right there." He said, " They can put up two or three hundred right in there." He said, "You just go in the door, and there’ll be a lady sittin’ right there, and you pay her so much for your bed. She’ll give you a ticket, the number of the bed." He says, "You take your kit bag in, and lay it on the bed, and it won’t be touched." So we thanked him, and we went in, and we got four tickets. And we went in and we put our bed roll in, and it was still daylight. And, it was about, well, right after supper. And we went out and we walked around London, but we didn’t travel around too much, because we….we didn’t know London and we didn’t want to get somewhere, dark comin’ on, and didn’t know how to get back.

So, what we called a restaurant here, they called a naffie [acronym for navy, army, airforce] over there, and it was….this was all street in here, say, a square, and Westminister was all around us, Big Ben, and one thing and another….So ah, Berrigan and I went in to get a little lunch, and Bruce Coombs and Charlie Black went in to where we was going to sleep. So, when you went in, you had to line up to go get something to eat. So, we had….you had to turn the chair up back to the table, so they’d know….knew that chair was taken, you see. So we went up and I got lunch, or a cup of coffee or whatever….a couple of donuts or something. We went over and sat down, and we sat down, and I said, "Somebody might come in that we know." So I turned the other two chairs up. And ah, Berrigan says, "Nobody’s going to come in here we know." He said, "All of our battery’s back in Aldershot." "Well," I said, "You never know." I said, "A lot of other guys over here from down Digby Neck." So anyway, a couple ATS come in, that’s British Army Girls, see. So I reached over with my toe like that, and I tripped one of the chairs. And she….one of the girls seen me, and she laughed. So ah, I went like that, and she come over to the table where we were. I said, "Would you girls like a cup of coffee and a donut or something?" And they said, "Yes." So I said, "Well what would you like?" And she told me, and I jumped up and I went over to the lineup, way up to the wicket, and I give the guy….I didn’t know him from Adam…. I gave him some money, and he got me a couple of coffees and couple of donuts or a sandwich, whatever it was the girls wanted, and they come on over and sat where we were, with us. So we got a talkin’, and I said to ‘em, I said, "Where are you girls stationed, around here handy?" They said, "Oh yes. Just across the street." Well I said, "We’re stayin’ right across the street there in the place where I guess three or for hundred are stayin’." Well she said, "We have to make the beds there in the morning." Well I said, "What do you do after you get the beds made?" She said, "Well we have the day off." Well I said, ah, "What time do you get through makin’ beds?" Well she said, "Usually it’s around ten o’clock or a little after. Well I said ah, "Would you like a job after you get through?" She kinda nodded her head, she grinned, she said, "What kind of a job?" Well I said, "There’s two other guys that’s gone in where we have rooms for the night." And I said, ah, "We have two days." I said, "The third day we have to go back to camp, we’re goin’ on our way home." I said, "We’d like for you to show us around the most important places in London, ‘cause," I said, "I don’t imagine we’ll get back here again." "Sure, we’ll do that!" So, I said, "Well then, we’ll walk around, and we’ll come back here, and we’ll be on the steps around ten thirty tomorrow morning." "OK." So we walked around, and we come back, and were sittin’ on the steps, we seen ‘em come out, so we knew then right where they were stationed. So they come over where we were, and we started off, and the first place they took us into was a wax museum. So I went over, and I bought the tickets for the six of us. And you had to go up six steps and turn, and go up six more. So, we were all chewin’ the rag, so to speak, and they had a wax fellow there, standing at the foot of the steps all dressed up and a hat on and a hand out like this. So we were walkin’ along, talkin’ and I stuck my hand out like that. Of course the girls got a big kick out of it, ‘cause they knew he was wax, see. So the guy over to the wicket [that] sold me the tickets…he went like that (gesturing). So I paused for a minute and I said, "Well what does he want?" So they had started up the steps, so that had left me behind. So he turned his head, and he kind of grinned and he went like that (gesturing) to follow on. And when they stepped on the top step of the first flight….it was a register, like a hot air register. Now he must have pressed a button over there….I never went back to ask him, but their skirts went right up over their head, so we got quite a kick out of that. Anyway, they took us up in the wax museum and they showed us around there, and then they….we come out of there and they took us here, there and everwhere. And we took them in and give ‘em lunch. And the second day was the same thing, so when we….they had to be in at ten o’clock at night, so at supper time, we went to the…. where we always went there, the little naffie or restaurant, which ever you want to call it, had lunch….There was a good show on. So we had talked it over, the four of us, and said, "Let’s take the girls to the show." So we was having supper, we said, " How would you girls like to go to the show? We’d like to do something for you. You’ve been so nice to us." "Well we’d like to go, but there wouldn’t be any use of going, because we’d have to leave when the show was about half over." Well I said, ah, "Can’t you get a pass?" "I doubt it." So we sat there and talked awhile. I said, "Is there any way that you can arrange it that we can see your sergeant or captain?" "Well, I doubt it." "Well," I said, "We’re going to try." So we walked over to where they were stationed, and they said, "You can’t go in here. We’ll go in and asked the sergeant." So it wasn’t long, and they came back out, "Yes, the sergeant said to come in." So we went in, and we just told him that these two girls had been awful good to us, showin’ us around London these last two days, and we’d like to take them to the show tonight to thank them in some way for what they’d done for us. And they said that they’d have to have a pass, or they’d have to leave when the show was half over. So the sergeant, she said, "Just a minute." And she went into the captain’s office, lady captain, and the lady captain come out, and the sergeant says, " Now you explain to her the same as you did to me." So I did. And she says, "I don’t see any problems with that." So they got a….they give the two girls a pass, and we took them to the show that night, which was just, you might say, across…the show was here, they were stationed there, and we were sleeping here. So we took them there, then we took them to lunch after, then we walked over to the gate where they was sleeping, and thanked them for takin’ us around London. And ah, we went over, and went to sleep, and the next day, we went back to Aldershot. So the funny part of it all to me, or the nice part of it all, when I was working in Digby in Pyne’s meat market, this lady came in and I said to the guy that was working on the meat bench with me, I said, "I’ve seen that girl somewhere before." And every time I would turn around to look at her, she was looking at me. Well I said, about the third time, "I’m a goin’ to find out if I haven’t met her somewhere before." So I said…I laid my knife down on the meat bench and I turned around to walk out to talk out to her, and she was standing right outside the counter. And she said, "Haven’t I met you somewhere before?" Well I said, "That’s the very words I told him." And she said, "Was you in the army?" I said. "Yes." She said, "Was you overseas?" I said, "Yes." She said, "I think you showed around London, didn’t I?" Well I said, "How did you get over here? Did you marry a Canadian?" She said, "No, I married an Englishman, and he’s over here in Cornwallis on course." So she said, "What time do you have your noon hour?" Well I said, "I have mine from one ‘til two." I said, "He lives right here in town, and he goes from twelve to one, and I live out of town, and I go from one to two." So she said….the town clock then in Digby was down about, oh where what is now….the Elite Store is now, I would say. She said, "Our car is parked down in front of the town clock." She says, "Come down and we’ll go have a little talk." So I ate my lunch on his noon hour in between, you see. And noon hour, we drove out, the lady that she was with, and myself, the three of us, we drove out by the Pines, and we had quite a little chat there for about three quarters of an hour, and then we come back into town, and I never seen her afterwards.

(CC): Wow, isn’t that a coincidence.

A: A small world.

(CC): No kidding.

A: Small world, small world.

(CC): Those were wonderful stories. Do you have any more questions, Cindy?

Q: No. I think we’ve probably exhausted you, but do you have anything else you want to add……we’ve covered a lot.

A: No….Of course she had…..if you wanted to know anything about her, she ah….we met, you know…..I think it was to a pie sale, and she lived in Waterford, and she had a little canteen….

(CC): Yeah, I think we’re going to have to do an interview with Imelda one of these days.

Q: If she’d invite us back!

Willie never told you, that, when he was talking about Centreville, he never told you that they had the first bathroom in Centreville.

(CC): Oh, you did?

A: And the first electric lights. Well, there were different houses that had ‘m all at the same time, I guess, the lights in Centreville.

(CC): Right.

(I): They had the first bathroom.

A: We had the first bathroom.

(CC): I’ll bet there were lineups.

A: Well, ah, one thing that happened….ah, of course, Mother and Father were great church goers, and the whole family. But, in the summer time, it was student minister, or a.…come down from college, or an ordained minister if they didn’t have a regular minister, why, the minister, they was always sent to Dad’s, because he had the only bathroom. But after Mother and Father died, and then they’d have a student minister, well the parsonage was only three houses from home. And Imelda always done the washing for the minister. And, one of them, he had a bicycle, and he had a church in Centreville, a church in Waterford, and one here in Rossway, three churches. So, when church was in Centreville in the morning, and Waterford in the afternoon, Rossway in the evening, I always…..we had a little truck, half ton truck…..we always came to Rossway church, and he’d put his bicycle in the body, and we’d take him back to Centreville. So he would stop in to the parsonage and get his dirty clothes, and come over home for a midnight feed.

Q: Hmm.

A: Yeah, every Sunday night.

Q: Yeah.

A: But he ate more meals home than just Sunday night. And I’ll never forget, one minister we had, that was before I was married. And ah, he came over home one night, and he said, ah, "Let’s go get a couple of girls tonight." Well I thought, kind of strange, you know, minister, of course he wasn’t married either. So ah, we went to Sandy Cove. So, ah, Chip Saunders in Sandy Cove had a hotel that was on the road that goes over to St. Mary’s Bay, then goes up to TR’s that way, he had a hotel there. So I knew one of the girls that worked there, Myrtle Morehouse. So I said, "Let’s go up to Chip’s, see if the girls are still working." So I went in, and I knocked to the door, and Mrs. Saunders come to the door. Of course I knew Mrs. Saunders and Chips ‘cause I was there every week. Father was….always did the hotels first sellin’ meat. So she come there, and I said, "Is Myrtle working tonight?" And she said, "Yes, she’ll be through in just a few minutes." So I said, "Could I speak to her just a minute?" And she said, "Yes," so she hollered to her and she come to the door. And I said, "Myrt, want to go for a drive after you get through work?" And she said "Yeah, yeah." I said, "I got another fellow out here," and I said, ah, "Suppose we can get somebody else?" Well she said, "Yeah, we’ll go up and we’ll get Belvah Jeffrey." I said, ah, "OK." So ah, I said, "In the meantime, I’ll run over and get Bell." I said, "The other fellow’s got his car here." But I didn’t say he was a minister. So I went over and up to Belvah Jeffrey’s. They lived up right across from where the old schoolhouse was. Went in, and Belvah was to bed. So I knew her father and mother, and I went to the door, and he come to the door, and I said, "Is Bell home?" "Yep, she’s to bed." So her mother says, "Right the head of the stairs, she’s up there." Well I went up and I said, "Come on Bell, let’s go for a drive." She says, "You get downstair!" Well I went downstairs, and it wasn’t long, she come down and we went over to pick Myrtle up. So we went up there, and he drove up in, and I said to him, I said, "You better let me back this car down out of here." ‘Cause I said….up in there it’s quite a ways to back down to where the roads went. I said, "You’ll get in the ditch." "No," he says, "I won’t get in the ditch." And I said, "OK." I guess he got a goin’ down there and got a little too fast, and whango, down in the ditch we went. So, Mr. Gillie Merritt, he had a yoke of oxen. So I knew him, and I went over and he was to bed, and I hollered and woke him up. And I told him who it was. And I said, "A friend’s up here, he’s got his ….he’s backed down from up to Chip’s, and he’s got his car in the ditch. I said, "Could I get you to come with your ox and pull him out?" He said…..

[Ran out of tape]