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!
My mother, Ardath Crooks Zwicker, when she lived in Halifax, worked there for awhile to, packing chocolates into boxes. Each person put in a particular kind of chocolate and the box moved along to someone else to add theirs. I don't know if it was as automated as the "I Love Lucy" famous clip where she can't keep up to the speed of the conveyer belt. I suspect not! Mum said the best job was in the candied almond section. The aroma of chocolate was so strong elsewhere that a person would show up for work and have to quit because the strength of the aroma of chocolate would turn their stomach!
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