The Victoria Community Development Corporation

Sarah J. (Sadie) Snow

"We weren't allowed to go into the front room unless someone died. "

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I was the seventh child from a family of eleven. There were six boys and five girls. My father William, was the youngest of his family and he lived with his parents. My mother, Elizabeth, was born and raised in Victoria.

My mother was married in 1916 and she had eleven children. She died of a stroke when she was 54 and my father died when he was in his seventies.

I was born and raised here in Victoria and my husband is from down on the Neck Road. We have been married for almost fifty years. We have lived up here on top of the Bottom Path for forty years now.

My Husband worked in Buchans and at that time no married Woman worked in Victoria. But I worked with Mr. Harold Clarke in his store down on the Neck. From 1959 to 1986, I worked in the Post Office and I was Kept quite busy. I was involved with church and everything connected with hospital tray room and in an orthopedic hospital as a Nurse's Aid for a couple of years.

The first Post Office was located between Mr. Al Powell's house and were the post office is located now. Mr. John Edger Vaters has a post office after World War I . I worked in this one and we moved into the new Post Office in August of 1964. Mrs. Rena Cole used to assist me and there was no government funding to pay her wages so I used to pay her on my own. Mary Burke became post mistress in 1974. Rita Clarke also worked there.

The inside of the post office got broke in. The burglars broke in through a window and they didn't even take the safe. All they took was a few C.O.D. parcels.

Everyone would go to the mail in bunches to wait for the mail to be sorted. It wasn't a government rule but I didn't allow smoking. I never had any problems. If the mail truck was late we would lock the doors until the mail arrived.

The mail used to come on train in 1930. Then it would come from Carbonear on a horse and slide. Mr. Bill Clarke, who was the mail man, he would go to Carbonear to get the mail and then he would go across the barrens to deliver the mail. He would go to Carbonear to get the mail that would come from St. John's. Whereas, today the mail truck leaves Old Perlican and picks up all points in between.

At that time everyone had to go the wicket to get their mail and we didn't have mail every day. There were no flyers like we get now. All we would get were catalogue and C.O.D.s from Simpsons and Eaton's. Barrels of clothing would come to Carbonear and have to go through customs. At that time you could buy a money order up to $15.00.

John Edger Vaters, Mark Clarke, Lloyd Clarke, Vivian Hiscock, Mrs. Slade, Fred Baldwin, and Muriel Baldwin were all post office workers between `48 and `59. I went there and there and was a number of people who went in and out.

Sarah Powell, Tom Powell's mother, was the first post mistress and another Mr. Vaters was also the post master.

When I retired, I missed working there at first but I didn't long to go back. I really enjoyed worked with Mr. Clarke down where the Carpet Shoppe is to now.

When I was going to school there, were no school buses.

We used to go swimming down in the brook and we had to change in the woods. When we would go back to get our clothes sometimes, they would be gone so one crowd would go swimming and the other crowd would look after the clothes. Then they would take turns.

We weren't allowed to go on the brooks on Sundays skating. We never saw any vegetables peeled on Saturday night.

There were eleven of us but we weren't all at the house at one time.

My father had a horse and we would have to pile the hay and we would go berry picking in the fall and we always had a cow. There was no such thing as getting up and doing dainty work. You were working all day, I had to milk the cow, set and dig potatoes. I also had to help pick up the potatoes after school, bring in the wood and the water, put in the hay and get vegetables from the cellar. I had to lug enough water to fill up the water barrel in the winter I had to pack the kindling.

Every Saturthey for dinner we would have pea soup and on Sunday we had cabbage, gravy and a little piece of salt meat. We always had cabbage. We would have a pie with filling covered with icing sugar for dessert for Sunday supper. Bread would be baked everyday except Monday, Saturday and Sunday.

We had a big kitchen with painted canvas strips with hooked mats. To clean the mats we would go to the brook during the summer and clean them in the brook. Sometimes the boys would light a fire in an iron boiler to scald the clothes.

In our kitchen we had a wood stove and we wouldn't have to clean the canvas everyday. We only skimmed it over but we would have to clean the floor around the wood stove ‘cause it would be dirty.

We weren't allowed to wear our shoes that we had for Sunday during the week but we used to sneak them so we could wear them. Kids today don't have it as bad as we did and I hope they don't.

We kept animals. We had sheep, cows, and a horse. We used to make butter out of the cream, from the cow but we didn't like that too much. When the cow would give milk in the morning the milk would be scalded and the night milk would be scalded in the morning.

One day I had to go looking for the cow which was suppose to be up on the Ridge and it wasn't there so I had to go look for her and I found her. She was down around Beaver Pond.

There was a bunch of us hanging out and we saw a horse. The same boy picked up a rock and said, "Watch now. I'm going to break the horse's leg." And he threw a rock and broke the horse's leg. He always threw rocks and whatever he aimed for he would hit it.

We played marbles and at the Sunday School picnic they would have swings set up for us to use for fun. At the garden party to ride on the swing you had to pay 5¢. Everyone back then were referred to as Aunt and Uncle and if we got into a fight we would be afraid to go home because when you went home you'd get another hit.

During Christmas there would be a Christmas convert and the boys would go and cut a tree down in the grove. There were no decorations on the tree like there is today. Only a few bows and some decorations made only of crepe paper. The teachers would cut out some decorations such as stars and bells to hang on the walls.

Everyone would get something as a present such as a scribbler, a pencil or even a hair bow. It wouldn't be wrapped. It just had a ribbon tied around it.

We would get a new dress for the concert and we would also get a new dress for Mother's Day.

When I worked at Clarke's Store we had to weigh everything and there was no such thing as grocery bags. Everything was wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine.

We would put hooked mats over our feet, keep our feet warm.

We weren't allowed to go in the front room unless someone died.

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