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The Victoria Community Development Corporation

Virda Layden

"We had a house goat."

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There were twelve of us all together. Their names were John, Laura, May, Nellie, Elias, and we used to call him Lie. And then there was Murdock whom we called Malc, Allan, myself, and Fanny and Livie. My father's name was Elias and my mother's name was Keris but that was not her given name. I can't pronounce her given name, it was a bible name but that was what we called her and her surname was Cole. My grandparents were John and Fanny Cole.

My father worked in different places such as north Sydney in the coal mines. In the spring of the year down to Labrador and makin' the fish and come back in September. You had to go down to the stage and help the men. They would go out to the trap and haul the trap and then bring the fish back to the stages. That sort of thing, catch all the fish and we'd haul the head off them.

We, we had two houses. The first house had four rooms, but we had not what you would call a setting room then, just a kitchen, a porch, no bathroom, only an outhouse and no electricity.

The women would stay home and do the cooking, washing, and cleaning. In the spring of the year, when the potatoes were being set, we would go into the garden and help and we would make hay. In the fall of the year we would dig up the vegetables. I would also help sweep the floor, help with the washing. The boys would cut and bring in the wood.

We grew vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, turnip, potatoes, green peas, and sometimes beans. We also had a house goat.

I played hopscotch, tiddly winks, and critters. My brother John had a harp. Church was very important. My mother was a very religious woman. She would go to church every Sunday night and we used to go to Sunday school. The Orange Lodge was in the town, along with the Orange Young Britons, Orangemen, and LOBA.

New Year's was always a big day here in Victoria. The Orangemen, the LOBA, and the Young Britons would all have a parade with the band and there would be the same thing on May 24th. And in the night, we would have a concert and they used to call it Sammy Dean's concert because it was named after the man that looked after it. We also had a bonfire night and Halloween, but nothing like it is now. No big deal then. We used to celebrate Christmas and it was better back then ‘cause today it's Christmas day and it's all over. Back then, we would get ready and go jannying but not on Sunday.

I went to H. Strong School. The one that burned down. I used a slate, chalk, and a bottle of water and a piece of rag to wash off my slate. In the lower grades we used a slate and in the higher grades, we used ink in a jar.

For transportation, if you wanted to go anywhere, you walked. John and Gordon Clarke were the only ones I knew with a car. We would watch the train come in and it would go down along the side of Hector Powell's. The last time I went to Labrador, I went from Carbonear to Lewisporte by train. You could leave here 3 o'clock in the morning and wouldn't get there until 12 o'clock in the night.

Dr. Stanford was the doctor here and the only hospital around here was the old General in St. John's. When a woman went into Labour, you'd go to look for the midwife, most of the children were born at home. Some midwives were Aunt Betsy Ann Clarke, Aunt Sophie Clarke, Aunt Lottie Parsons, Aunt Lindsey Gear and Aunt Lilly Cole.

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