The Victoria Community Development Corporation
James (Jim) Clarke

"The only time we had running water was when we had a leak in the roof."

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There was 15 of us. There were ten boys and three girls along with Mother and Father. My mother was Clara Wareham and she married my father, Alfred. My grandparents were Samuel and Agnes Wareham and John and Emily Clarke.

All of the women stayed home then. All they done back then was housework. They worked out in the garden. There was nothing else for them to do 'cause there was no work on the go for women then. They could do housework or they would go in service. The young girls would go work for other people doing such things as washing and cleaning.

I went away to work. My father was a railroad man. He worked on the railway. He would take us (me and my brothers) on the railroad when we were old enough ‘cause he was the foreman. We would work in the summertime and by and by we would get a bit of service in and finally I stayed on. I retired in 1988 after 37 years of work.

I was down to Churchill Falls twice and Labrador City once before I went to work on the railroad. I worked with the local roads burning berry grounds. I done a lot of berry picking too.

Our first house had a peak roof. Our other house was two-story with wooden shingles on the roof and clapboard on the sides. Inside there was four bedrooms upstairs, no bathroom, and downstairs there was a living room, hall and kitchen. The kitchen was the biggest room in the house ‘cause that's where everyone spent all of their time because that was the only room that had heat. Carpet was very scarce, no insulation in the walls and there was canvas on the floor that would stick up in the morning with the cold.

The only time we had running water was when we had a leak in the roof. We had a well for getting water. We had kerosene lamps on the wall. I can remember when we got electricity but in the winter we never had no lights ‘cause with the first sleet or snowfall every wire was down.

There would be no heat in the house only in the kitchen. Mother would grab a couple of bricks wrapped up in rag, warm them and put them down at the foot of the bed to keep us warm. Sometime in the morning we'd hear a clunk on the floor. This would be where it would fall out of the bed.

My brother, Don, had a radio in 1944 and we would all listen to Superman, Christmas on the Moon, and Jonathon Thomas. We couldn't get no good reception, though.

I would have to feed the goats, bring in the wood, go in the woods, and get the water from the well. Everyone would chip in and help do the chores.

There was no certain day to do the chores. If anything needed to be done, we would do it. Mondays were wash days and Sundays we weren't allowed to do anything. We would have to go to Sunday School and Church. When it was time, the women would help us with the hay.

We planted potatoes, cabbage, and turnip. Potatoes was our main source of food. The only canned food that was on the go back then was milk tins. Food was what you grew yourself.

We had some hens, a horse and some goats that we used to milk.

We had a big, long table and there were two leaves and we used to haul them out. When we were finished with the table, we would put them down again. We all would have our initials carved on the bottom of the leaf where we used to sit. When we would sit down to that table there was no such thing as "I don't like that" or "I don't want that" because that's what you had and if you didn't eat that you had nothing. Unless you were sick you might get a drop of sick soup. We used to keep meats anywhere in the winter because everything was froze up. We never had no meat in the summer because it would spoil.

I can remember when I was a boy there was not much on the go. We used to play cars, trucks, wheel, and spin the top. We were never lonely ‘cause we always had something to do . We would go sliding but we never went skating 'cause we never had any skates. We would slide on a span-cat.

There were no community organizations. If you didn't go to church you had nowhere to go. Sometimes in the school they would have a Christmas party. Church was very important. There weren't many musical instruments. Some people played the Jew's harp and the mouth organ.

Candies, apples and oranges were given at Christmas time. Later we used to be able to buy apples for one sent. I never did see a grape. You couldn't keep them in the store because they would freeze because there was no heat - only what was there in the day time.

I started school around 1937 or 1938 and all we had then was a slate. We had a small slate and a big slate and a little piece of chalk. To erase it we would have a little bottle of water with soap in it and we would shake it up and erase the slate.

There was no furnaces in the schools. We would burn wood or coal in a stove. There would be a big coal bin at the back of the school. Don Penney is living in the old school up on the Neck now, but the first one it torn down.

There was no indoor plumbing. There was an old outhouse with a double toilet. In the mornings we would take turns lighting the fire. Then we all would huddle around the stove till she warmed up. But the feller was in the back of the room was cold all day. Everyone was in the one room then. All ages and grades with one teacher.

There were no paved roads and everything would be muddy in the springtime. Gas was 25 ¢ a gallon. There was no such thing as insurance back then. I can't remember the train going through, but the station used to be located by Parsons' down on the neck.

The nearest hospital was in St. John's but there was a Dr. Stanford in Carbonear. If you got sick and you lived, you lived, but if you died, you died.

If you could afford to get your teeth pulled, he would pull them. But lots of times you would tie a piece of string onto a doorknob and the other end on the loose teeth. Then someone would slam the door and your tooth would come out. We would suffer the pain ‘cause there was no medication on the go then. For remedies we used cod liver oil, kerosene, molasses heated on the stove, and coco malt.

When the snow came it was there until the spring of the year. Everything was level with the snow.

If you got your mitts wet or your stocking wet you would have to come in and put them on the back of the wood stove and wait for them to dry because we couldn't grab another pair ‘cause we never had `em.

We would wear long trap door underwear and bib overhauls.

The women would wear bloomers, long dresses, and lace up boots.

The biggest "crime" was on bonfire Night. People would steal barrels. We would also play pranks on people by switching their gates. The person we would play a prank on would chase us.

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Special Memories

The Victoria Community Development Corporation James (Jim) Clarke

Stories

Special Memories

The Victoria Community Development Corporation
James (Jim) Clarke