Welcome!

Bethany Keddy and her grandmother, Beryl Fanning Langley
at Beryl's home in Seal Harbour, August 2004

In August, 2004 my new-found cousin Bethany Keddy and I sat down with her grandmother (my 2^nd cousin) Beryl Langley at her home in Seal Harbour and asked her questions about the old days growing up in the Drum Head and Seal Harbour area.  What an interesting and fun conversation it was.

Both of these dear ladies have gone now.  To help preserve the memories Beryl shared with us that afternoon I’ve transcribed the discussion and put it into this blog, arranged by topic. The topics are listed at the right; you can click on any to go directly to that post.

Words in blue italics are Bethany speaking; those in green italics are mine.  All the rest are from Beryl.  Enjoy!

Human Snowplows

Do you remember much about the weather when you were growing up?  What were the winters like?

In the winters, we had a lot of snow.  But then, the men had to shovel the snow by hand--there was no snowplows, that was never heard tell of.  They had to shovel.  They'd go...the Drum Head men went so far, up toward Goldboro, and the Goldboro crowd would meet them.  And the, the Seal Harbour ones...I don't know just how far.  They would go so far towards Coddles' Harbour.  And from there the men would meet them there, you see.  They'd shovel their way up to where they'd meet the Seal Harbour.  

And the doctor, if anyone needed the doctor, he came down what we called the swamp.  He left the road in Drum Head and come down, there's a... you know where Claire Fanning's house is?  Do you remember seeing a little building there like a store, in Drum Head?  Claire's house, and Lorne's, was the one above that.  Well, this swamp was below their place, over that way.  And the doctor would travel down that way.  And there was a road coming up from that, and you'd get on the main--they didn't shovel all the road down to the village--but he would go that way.  Lots of time it was horseback, if you'd go to call.

Where did the doctor live?

Goldboro.  And he went as far as New Harbour; he had patients in New Harbour.

That would be a long way to go.

Yeah.  Well, and then, after another doctor came, there'd always be a bad spot in the road over there, a place they called the green woods.  It just was a stretch of woods on either side of the road.  And the frost would be coming out, and that...you just couldn't get over that.  A car couldn't think to get through it.  But he would go as far as that, and walk across, and somebody else met him, and took him.

Typhoid Fever

Do you ever recall yourself, when you were young, did you get sick and need a doctor?

I had typhoid fever.  And the doctor, that was in Goldboro then, he had to go in the service, as a doctor.  And he had a woman doctor come in his place.  And she was the one that tended me.

How old would you have been?

I don't think I'd be over five or six years, but I can remember.  I can remember lying in bed.  I didn't even open my eyes, but they would come in and look at me, and then they'd go out again.  They'd see I was still breathing, anyway.  But I can remember that part of it.  And I don't know...there was nothing they could do for it.  No, you know, there was no drugs then. And I don't think there's any drugs for typhoid fever anyway...I don't know what they would do for it.

There was a maiden lady, that lived down over the hill from where I lived, she had it at the same time.  

Who was that?

Rosie Burke [Helena Rosamund Burke], you've heard us talk of her.  She'd be...Lester Burke's aunt.

Did she have a store?

Yes, she did, in later years, she had a little store.

She lived, from the typhoid...?

Oh yes, yeah.  Yep, we both struggled through it.  

And I used to go down there and visit.  One day I went down, and they...had duck stew for dinner then, boy, you'd need a stomach!  And then, after a while, this lady looked out the window, and she saw my father looking down my grandmother's well.  And she said--she always called him Willie; his name was William--"Willie must have dropped something...lost a bucket in the well."  And she went to the door and she hollered out--it wasn't too far--she said, "Willie!  Have you lost something?"  He said, "Yes, we lost Beryl, and we can't find her anywhere!"  He thought I had fallen in the well!  She said, "Well, she's here, having dinner with us!"  He said, "Tell her to get home as quick as she can!"  I was enjoying the duck stew.  Oh, dear.

Ancestors and relatives

You said you remember my grandmother [Clarice Edna Crooks] before she went away?

That’s right.

What do you remember about her most, when you think about her?

Well, she was a very friendly lady, and was full of fun.  I can hear her laughing yet.  Yes, she was a great person to be with!

Did she live near you?

Well, about a mile away.  And she used to be around my two sisters a lot.  My sisters, who were around her age. Ethel and Kathleen Fanning, they were then.  Of course, they were married after that.  Ethel became, when she married…. She was a Pinkham.  And the other one was married to a Worth.

And I remember Aunt Nita—Shirley’s mother.  I can remember when she was married.  If I remember correctly, I thought they were married at the church in New Harbour, but I can’t be sure of that.

But it was around here; it was local?

Oh yes.  And then they went to Timmons.

She married….

Coleman Latham.  I can see him as plain as anything.  I remember them.  They always wore…in the summertime he always wore high boots and a brown suit.  The things you remember, don’t you?

He was a tall man, from the pictures I’ve seen…

He was, yes.  And he…he got to be quite fat, too.  In his younger days, he was tall and slender.  Nita was such a good cook, I guess!

Do you remember any of Clarice’s brothers or sisters or parents?

Oh yes.  Graham, and Oswald, and John and Bayfield.  I think that’s all of them.

What do you remember about Graham?

Oh, such a beautiful singer.  Oh, could he ever sing!  I never hear that one piece [unclear] but what he stands before me.  I can still hear that.  Oh, could he ever sing!

So, there was Graham, and…

George.

Now, George was Don’s father?

Right.  And could he ever tell silly stories!  Could he ever. For stories, if Uncle George was living, Uncle George Crooks... my dear man, you'd split your sides laughing!  And he'd say, "It's the gospel truth!"  And he'd add a lot to it, you know.

He and his brother John came here one evening, and John was sitting over there (pointing) and George over there.  And George got to work telling a story.  And I looked after a while and John was sitting with a hanky up to his eye.  He said—he couldn’t talk, he was laughing so hard, and crying with it— “Don’t tell any more, George!”

Oh, yes. He was a great storyteller.  He and my husband used to go deer hunting and moose hunting a lot.

There used to be moose around here?

Oh, yes, there were lots of moose.  Yes, they headed back, in back of the house where you’re staying [George Manthorne’s house] and go back in the woods that away.

Do you remember the parents of that family?

Oh, yes.  I remember.  Well, I was a very little girl when Uncle John, as we called him—the father—passed away.  But he gave the place where the cemetery is…the lot of ground where the [Hillside] cemetery is. And he was the first one to be buried there.  I can remember being to his funeral.

Where was that?

At the church up here [Seal Harbour Baptist].  And I think my mother was the next one that was buried in that cemetery.

Who were her parents?

James and Jane Sponagle.

Did Esther have any brothers or sisters?

They adopted a boy, Vernon…when he was just a little boy.  And she had a sister, Lois, and Geneva, and Laura, and Ethel.  But Ethel died very young.

....

What do you remember about Aunt Bess?

Well, she seemed to be a person that was miserable.  She had—her husband’s sister lived with them, and she was a maiden lady.  Her name was Lydia.

Lydia Crooks…she’s buried there with them.

Yes. “Aunt Liv,” we always called her.  I can remember her.  And she did most of the work.  She mended the men’s clothing, and knit the socks and the mitts, and did most of the work.  And Aunt Bess was going to dress up and sit in the back.  She just wasn’t able to work.  And Nita did a lot of work when she got older, until she went away.  And then Nita took her to live with her, in Timmons.

Your father was…

William Fanning.

He married Esther Sponagle…

Yes.  Then, after she passed away, he married her sister.  She was my stepmother.

Did they have children themselves?

Just one boy.

Do you know any farther back, who the parents of William were?

Edward Fanning…and Levinia, she was his wife.  She was a Langley.  She was a sister to Aunt Bess Crooks.

Thinking again of my grandmother, you said you knew her before she went away.  Where did she go, and why did she go?

Well, I think she went to, as we call it, the States, and she took nursing courses.  That’s what she went for, yes.  And she had an aunt, her Aunt Bertha Colburn, which was a very strict and stern lady…

She was?  Do you remember her?

Do I ever remember!  She was always dressing just so. 

My older daughter has a set of doll dishes that her brother, which would be my daughter’s great-grandfather, gave Aunt Bertha.

I never remember seeing Clarice's mother, Bertha.  She went away.  That's right.  And they [John & Elizabeth Crooks] brought her up. 

[Clarice] and Nita were very close.  Also, she seemed to be very close to one of her brothers, I guess, the youngest one...Graham.  George thought an awful lot of Clarice, too.

....

So, William lived here, and so his father, Edward, did he live here before him?

No; Uncle Ed's...

Where?  Aunt Bernice's?

Yes...but they moved from Goldboro down here.  They did live in Goldboro.  Uncle Ned, they called him.  And I had a grandfather, Edward Fanning, and they called him Uncle Ned.  Two Neds, yes.

Barney's father was married three times.  He had three families.  Married the Penny woman, and then Barney's mother.  The first family, there was a boy and a girl.  The second family was three boys.  And then the next one was one, two, three girls and one boy...two boys!  Barney and Luman.

Ghost Story

Let's see...this house must be nearly two hundred years old.

Maybe not quite.  Kirby was trying to figure it out.

No, I know it's not quite.  But, see, Barney's father was married three times...

'Cause the first two wives died...

Yes, yeah.

Barney's father, William Langley, is that right?  I seem to remember that.

He was married to Jane Crooks.  Then he married Rebecca Penny, yes.  I can tell you a ghost story about his first wife.  

They were living here in this house, and the upstairs wasn't finished.  But he had lumber up there; there was the beams that went across, and he had this lumber up there kind of drying out, you see...it was kind of damp.  And she was here, mixing bread, and she heard this lumber fall....So, when he came home, she said, "Will, some of that lumber fell up there."  "Oh," he said, "It could never fall."  Well, she said, "You go up and look.  I heard an awful noise, and I know it must have been that, because there was nobody up there."  So he went up, and he said, "No, there's no lumber fell."  

And it was two or three days after, some person died in the community, and of course, in those times, they had to make the caskets.  And somebody came to this house and asked him, could he have some of that lumber to build this casket.  And they went up to get this lumber.  "There's the noise I heard!" she said.  When they took the lumber down, it was the same kind of a noise.  So, that was a ghost, wasn't it?

Old photos

That's what this looked like at one time...look at all the rocks.  All taken away...

That's Uncle Matt... Matt Scanlon.  He married Barney's sister.

Now here, there's the fox pens....

That was the old barn, yes...the doors is on the other side, and that was where I used to go to milk the cow.

How bleak looking!  There's all those trees out here now, that make it cozy, but...my goodness!

Yes...a different look.

Crokinole

You didn't meet Don Crooks, did you? 

Yes, I did get the chance...

Don and I are great pals.

He mentioned that.

He did?

He said "You absolutely must not leave without getting a chance to talk with Beryl, because she knows everything."

Well, dear, I always liked Don.  He used to come here a lot.  They played "croak in the hole."  Did you ever hear tell of the game Crokinole?

No, I never did

Didn't you?!

What's Crokinole?

It's got a big board, and there's little round disks, and you sink them, you know.  Yes, my husband made a couple of boards.  He had the pattern, one that was bought from the store.

We would gather at different houses, play games in the winter evenings.

I figure that you must be a Scrabble player, because...oh, here's Crokinole...

Yes...

Did Barney make this board?

Let me see it.  Yep, that's the one he made.

So, two people could play--you and I could play--or four people could play.

...That looks like a fun game!

Yes.  And Don was really interested in that.

Well, I said I knew you must play Scrabble because the other night we were playing, and in the box was a piece of paper that had been used as a score sheet, and one of the names was Beryl.

Yes, oh yes.  Well, the lady from down the road, she was here this afternoon, and I beat her.  Just so happened I got some good letters.

I can remember as a boy, when we visited here, we stayed at the home of Claire Fanning...

Oh, yes...

And I remember playing Scrabble with her.

Is that right?  I love to play Scrabble.

My mother and I...we play a lot...

I live with my daughter over in Sherbrooke in the winter and...oh, she don't like for me to beat her.  She always wants to win!

Goose Island Tragedy

Another time, [Barney] was going over to something around Goose Island.  Of course, his mother wanted me to go--she didn't want him to go alone.  But if he had fell overboard, I couldn't have got him in!  Oh, dear!

There was a man from here drowned over there at the island.  They were duck shooting.

Russell Burke?

Well, that was...they were after geese.  Now, one of them boys went with Aunt Nita.

Yes, Shirley told me.

Did she?  I wondered if she knew.  Yes.  He was drowned, and his brother was drowned, and another...

Named Jarvis?

Yes.  And that man used to drive me in a wheelbarrow.

Well, in the fall of the year there'd be a vessel come from Prince Edward Island with turnips, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and all kinds of vegetables.  And that's how they got their vegetables, see, in the fall of the year for the winter.  And there would be an ox-cart, or a horse-cart, going to the breakwater in Drum Head, and the people would get their groceries in bags--there was all burlap bags then.  And they would get this team, hire the team, to bring them to their yard, and carry them.  But Hal had to drive his around in the wheelbarrow, because his cellarway, where he kept it, was around the back of the house.  

And I partly lived at their place--they had no children.  But Grace--that's Cole's sister--was married to this Jarvis fellow.  And they had no children, and they kind of thought I was theirs, I guess.  He was so good-natured!  And he would take me in the wheelbarrow, and wheel me back to the gate where the vegetables were bought.  Ah, dear.  Anything now I should remember, I don't.  But...them's the things that come back to you.

Yes, I can remember that man so well.  Yes, there was two brothers, and him.  They found two of the bodies...I think the third one they didn't.  Whatever happened, I don't know.

Men at Work

What did your father do?

He was a fisherman…[like] most of the men—and that would be a good deal of them.

And he worked in what we call the “Lumber Woods.”  They cut down trees, and sawed them up, in the wintertime.  And they sometimes had to go away from home two or three months.

Then they would come home for lobster fishing, then cod fishing in the summertime.  And “hand line” fishing, we called it. 

And some of them, in later years, had what they called trawl fishing…they had a barrel sawed in two, and their lines were full of hooks, and they coiled them this way around (demonstrating).  And they’d have to bait all that, put them back in the tubs, and take them in the boats.  And they’d run the boat along, and pick this up, and twirl it back into the tub.  It wasn’t easy.

Where was the Lumber Woods?

Up in Hants County, I think that was one place.

And he also worked in mines.  There was a place up in [unclear] Harbour, there was a mine, and he worked in the mill.  And he said he could sleep while that engine was going, and the minute it stopped he woke up—he knew there was something wrong.  He’d get up and see what was wrong, and get the engine going again.

So, it sounds like he did a lot of different things.

Yes, that’s what they had to do for a living in those times.

....

And my husband had foxes, too.  He raised foxes, and sold fox pelts...that was a little extra.

What was that like?  Was it easy to raise foxes?

No; we had to have a big fox pen out here.  It was built with wood up so far, and then wire all across the top.  He had a very pretty red fox.  I used to say, "I want that for a fox fur!'  But he never gave it to me.  But he bought me a mink coat after that, so that made up for it.  I used to feed those foxes when he would go fishing. 

They had to leave early in the morning, to get to the fishing grounds.  They'd get up about four o'clock in the morning.  I always got up and got his breakfast, and then packed a lunch--they'd take their lunch pail with them--and they wouldn't come home til, sometimes, three o'clock in the afternoon...according to the weather.  You know, if there'd come a breeze, blew very hard, you know, they'd have to come in, because their boats were only so big.  Motorboats, they were.  The older fishermen just had sailboats; it was a long time before they got engines.  You have no idea!

Oh, I hated the sailboats.  My father would take us down to my grandmother's, in Coddle's Harbour, and that's the only way we had to go, was in the boat.  There was no cars then.  And he would turn his engine off, and raise his sails.

To save fuel?

Yes, I guess that must have been it.  And fuel was only, maybe, ten cents a gallon in those times.  I didn't like the sailboat.

What was it about the sailboat that you didn't like?

Well, she tried to go on her side.  I was scared!

It felt like it was tipping over?

Yes.

So--they would come in about three o'clock in the afternoon...

Yes.  And they would have to--they called it dressing the fish--they'd have to open them up and take the innards out.  And sell them to a plant here, or over in Drum Head.

And they would do that all in the same day?

Oh, yes.  Then they'd come home, get cleaned up a bit, have a rest, and if there was anything to go to in the evening, they'd go.  Yes, it was a rugged life, but they lived to be quite old.  My husband was almost ninety-seven.

I get so seasick that my ancestor fishermen would be ashamed of me...

So do I!  Oh, my, yes.  I used to...I went out with him a couple times to gather up some traps.  Just "Oh, come on for a sail" he'd say.  And I went "Oh!" and I got so sick, he had to leave some of the traps, and come in, and bring me...so I wasn't much help to him.

Old times in Drum Head

What kinds of chores did you have to do as a young girl?

One of my jobs was dishwashing, at home, and of course, I had to make my own bed--after I got old enough to do those things.  And on Fridays, after I got home from school, I had to mop and sweep the floors upstairs...things like that.  Run the errands that had to be done...anything needed from the grocery store.

Now, at the time, there was a store in Seal Harbour, I imagine?

Well, I lived in Drum Head.  And there was two grocery stores in Drum Head--and a post office!  And one of the stores...did you ever see an ice cream parlor?  Well, the one fellow who kept the store had ice cream brought down from Halifax, and he had a little freezer, and he kept it in that.  And who was it...Aunt Judy, would always go.  And when she'd hear the steamer blow, "Oh, the ice cream's here!"  Oh, dear.  It's amusing...amusing, if not confusing!

When you think about how things have changed from back then to now around here, what do you see as the biggest changes?

Hard to say.  People are more independent today.  You know what I mean...things like getting groceries, and all that.  They didn't have the money, now, like lots of times; the men, with their fish, they would trade them for groceries in the fall of the year.  They'd dry their own fish on flakes, and they'd take them up to the store, and go over, and they'd trade them, and get their groceries.  And of course, what little money they got for their fish in the summertime, they'd have to save up, to get through the winter.

The Social Scene

There was a Sons of Temperance Hall…the Sons of Temperance and Orangeman’s Hall.  The Sons of Temperance had the downstairs part, and the Orangemen had the upstairs.  Of course, they met at different times.

Did you belong to either of those groups?

The Sons of Temperance, oh yes.

What was the group about?  What was it like?

Well, it was to get people in—the young people—and to keep them from drinking, see.  Total abstinence.  And of course, if they broke their pledge, they’d have to take it over again.  But not many of them did—when they started going, they kept it up.  And we would have entertainment, have concerts to raise money.  And I went to the Temperance people, you know.  Aunt Nita was secretary there for quite a while, and I was secretary for a little while.  Of course, she was somewhat older than me.

Who else belonged to the Sons of Temperance lodge?

A lot of folk belonged.  Have you heard of Harry Latham?  He used to go.  And Mr. Flick from Drum Head, he was the Worthy Patriarch.  And there was the secretary and the treasurer.  And then, we’d have a supper to raise funds, and the concerts.  It wouldn’t be big money in those times, but it was amazing to see what they could do.

And the Orangemen, they had a picnic every year, and somebody had to ride the white horse.

The white horse?

Oh, yeah.  This horse was…King William’s, was it?  King William?  Yes.

As you were growing up, besides having fun and going to school, what kinds of activities and chores were you involved in?

Well, we had a little club.  Geraldine Johnson—she lives up in the seniors’ apartment in Isaac’s Harbour, she’s there yet, she’s three years older than me—but she got this club up, and it was called the Pollyanna Girl’s Club.  And we’d have a meeting—I think it was every month—at the girls’ houses, you know.  But what that comprised, I don’t know now.  But we took up an offering—it wouldn’t be very much—sometimes ten cents we’d take, or a quarter.  Yes, quite a few of us belonged to that.

Then as we got older, at the church we had the YPU, the Young People’s Union.  Sunday School, of course.  I always went to Sunday School.  And we had a women’s group to raise money for missions at our church here.  So, there was always something to do, even though it is a one-horse town!

Were you ever involved in any musical things yourself?

No.  I could follow a tune, and I used to go in the choir.  I could sing along with the rest, but I wouldn’t sing a solo.  My daughters, both of them, play the piano, and her mother—I guess you met Meg—well, she plays the organ in one of the churches up around her home.  They both took piano lessons.  And my other daughter, she lives over in Sonora, near Sherbrooke, she plays in the church over there.  She plays the piano.  Right now, she’s on a trip to Alaska.

School

You mentioned going to school.  Did you go to school here?

Yeah…do you remember seeing a trailer between here and Drum Head?  A mobile home, I’d call it.  Well, the school was on the hill, just below that.  There’s a house there.  A Manthorne family lives there.  And the school was there.  Right before that, the old school where I started was down below that, over by the water.  There’s nothing there now that the school’s been gone…I wonder why.

Was it called the Drum Head School?

No, that was Seal Harbour School.  And then the new, the other school, is up to Drum Head.  And I didn’t go there; I ended my career there in the one year, while they was building the new school.

....

What grade did you go to?

Me?

What grade did we have here?

Grade ten.

That was the highest?

Yes.

Working at the Lobster Factory and at Moir's

And you were telling me, you worked in the lobster factory?

Yes.

Where was the factory?

Up in Drum Head.

What did you do there?

You've had lobster?

Yes.

Well, you know there's two big claws,  And then there's that, what we called an arm, where it's fastened on to the body of the lobster...I'd pick the meat out of the arms.  You had a special kind of a...it looks like a mat-hook, only it was made different, with a wooden handle...and I'd pick the meat out.  

And I used to go away in the fall, up at Moir's candy factory.

Where was that?

Halifax.  I worked up there for three years...three falls.

What did you do there?

They packed candies in a wax-coated bag...it was just so high...and there would be a packer for that.  And they would put so many in a carton, about this long.  And they'd pack them in two rows, and I had to put a gold...

[cut off, portion missing]

I had heard about the lobster factory, that it was there, and it closed down...

Yes. 

They didn't fly them on ice, like they do now, and get there hours later.  Here, the lobsters were steamed, and the shells removed, and the meat packed into half-pound and pound cans...they had a special process for steaming it and putting the lids through.  And that was down...were you at Don Crooks' house?

Yes.

Well, the lobster factory was right at the foot of his driveway, there, along the water, and there was a fish plant there...it's just a pile of rocks there now.  Just this side of the breakwater, 'cause the breakwater's the last, just before the breakwater.

Well, the factory wharf was off of the breakwater.  Yeah, the breakwater goes out here, and it had a turn in it, too, the breakwater had.  And where that turn was, the lobster factory was built out this way from it.  It had its own wharf built out, see, and the factory was on that other wharf.  And they would can their lobsters there.  Oh, they were so good, those canned lobsters.  Delicious!

Victuals

What kinds of food did you usually eat, growing up?  What would be a typical meal for supper?

Well, they would raise their own beef, mostly...cattle.  And there was no way of freezing it.  And they would also have pigs.  And they smoked the hams, and they made their own bacon...

So, your family had your own cattle and pigs?

Oh, yes.  Oh my, I milked the cow, yes, I did so.  I don't mind telling it, either--I'm not ashamed of it.

Good--you shouldn't be.

It was good, clean work.  Yes, we had our own cow for a long time.

What would the cattle eat around here?

Well, they'd let them run.  It was what they called open pasture.  And they would go around the road here, and back in the woods.  Lots of times we had to go and get them at night and bring them home...they wouldn't come home!  Sometimes, one we had, would come as far as the church up here and then lay down.  We'd have to go up there and get her.

Everybody raised a pig, and made their own...they would have to salt the pork, of course, 'cause there was no freezers for a long time.  Then they got a freezer over here at the fish plant, and they had the ice, and we could get some ice there.  Keep it a little while, but not very long.  But in the freezer part, you could take things over.  It was kept clean, you know, with it all clean ice.

What was your favorite food growing up...your favorite thing to eat?

Well, to be truthful, I liked chicken.  Yes, chicken.  Once, I liked corned beef and cabbage, but I don't care for it now.  Your taste changes when you get older, yes.  And we used to make...have you heard tell of sauerkraut?

Yes, in fact, I like sauerkraut.

Oh, I do, too.  I love sauerkraut.  But I'm scared to eat it now.  I have a hiatus hernia, and I have to be very careful.  But I love it.  We made our own sauerkraut.

How do you make sauerkraut?

Well, they had a new little...half a barrel, maybe a quarter.  Just a small, little round barrel.  And so much salt would go in it, and you had to cut the cabbage in the fine strips.  And they'd put a layer of that, and just a sprinkling of salt.  Because they had to have a pickle, to keep it.  And it would make its own pickle.  But they would mash that...they had a masher made specially, it had a long handle, and just so big around, and then this big wooden clump on the end, for to mash it.  That's how they made it.  It was good!

And picked berries, in the fall.  Go on the berryings, and pick a little quarter barrel of berrys, and keep them in water, and they'd keep all winter long.

The berries I've seen around here...raspberries and blueberries?

Yes; these were what we called foxberries.  Little red berries.

I remember once a foxberry pie that Claire Fanning made.

Oh...tartish...

Very tartish.

Yes, yes, yeah...

Wartime Memories

You were born in...

Nineteen-twelve.  I can remember the first World War.  I remember when it ended, and I can remember some of the men that were enlisted, that came back home with their khaki outfit....and in fact my brother...an uncle of mine was working in New Glasgow, and he came home on a trip, and he brought him a whole outfit--a cap, and the puttees, and all the outfit.

I'll bet he was pleased with that...

Oh, was he ever!  He thought he was somebody.

So, some of the local men here went off to the war...

Oh, yes.  Some went to Aldershot, up here in the valley, for training, but they didn't get called overseas...they were fortunate.  And some more of them did get overseas, but they got back.

Now, the last war, the second World War, my two brothers were in it.  One was in the air force, and one was in the navy.  But they both got through, too.  One fellow got to Holland--the air force fellow--and the other fellow...he was on the boats, and they moved around that way, I guess, looking for submarines.  And I lost a cousin.  He was, the boat was, nearly into Halifax, and he was on his way home to get married.  And they were torpedoed.  He was lost.

Who was that?

Huntley Fanning.  And he had bought a pearl necklace at Burkes' for his bride.  She came down to Halifax and got that necklace.

Like it was at the store, lay-away?

It was at the store.  Yes, that was hard on his parents.  That was Laurie...you knew Laurie, didn't you? …Laurie's brother.