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.