The Victoria Community Development Corporation

Lillian Vaters

"My mother used to travel from Winterton to Victoria on a dog slide."

I came from a big family with 14 children, my mother was married three times and my father was married twice. My father was Gus Sampson and my mother was Jane Antle. Therefore I had a lot of brothers and sisters. My grandparents were Belle and Lionel Clarke. I moved to Victoria when I was 5 years old. There wasn't much here then. When I moved to Victoria, I met and married George Vaters and had a family of 13 children.

My mother used to come from Winterton to Victoria on a dog slide. She'd leave 10 o'clock in the morning and when she reached Victoria they would be just getting out church. My mother worked at everything, she was mostly a housewife. When Dad was fishing, in Winterton, she would help him. My father died when I was only two.

Well, when I was growing up I didn't know my father. Also I didn't know my grandfather Sampson. I only knew my grandmother, Belle Clarke.

I worked, but not until I was 17 years old. I was a house wife that was all I did. There was no jobs in stores like there is today

Men went away to fish. Also they went to Sydney, Nova Scotia, to work in the mines. I didn't go to the Labrador to fish, but my sister Florence did. And my husband and father-in-law would go to the Labrador and fish, they made seven trips. My mother used to work at Charlie Crane's meat store. She helped make puddings and sausages.

My hose was a two-story four bedroom house. Our main source of heat was wood, no indoor plumbing and no electricity. I never had no radio or TV.

In the summer time we used to burn blassy (or blasty) boughs. Also in the winter time we burned wood.

Some of my chores included: looking after the animals, such as goats, cows, hens, chickens, pigs, making hay, bundling splits and helping plant vegetables like potatoes, carrots, turnip and cabbage. I had a big family so we all helped each other. There was a saying, "You help me and I'll help you." Everyday we had something to do, we were always busy.

We didn't have the things that we got today. We used to have a rabbit for Christmas dinner, there were no talks of turkey back then.

My mother and stepfather would go in the woods and catch 80 rabbis and they would go to Carbonear on horse and cart and sell them.

When we would mix bread, we would put the yeast in a bowl and put it up on the mantle for a day to rise. Then the next they we would make the bread.

We used to make our own ice cream. We used to get big blocks of ice from the brooks and put them at the sawmill to keep them froze. We then get a 22lb. tub and put the ice in that and stir it while we added flavours such as vanilla and chocolate.

There was many things that we used to play to pass the time. Such games as "marbles, horseshoes, tiddle, swings, skip the rope and spin the top or whip the top. Also in my past time I used to pick berries, and go swimming down at the Pug Hole and Goat's Head.

The only musical instrument was the accordion, bit the Orangemen had a band.

The Church, well, it was very popular then. All the kids don't go to Church now, but when I was small you had to go to Church. Your parents made you go. I loved going to Church when I was little. When you went to Church for a year you would get a certificate. My and my brother both received a certificate for our attendance. Everybody had their own seats in Church. There was a lot of people going to Sunday School, but not a lot going today. Church started about 80 years ago. There was no clubs or dances when I was growing up. But we did have concerts. The school would have a concert at Christmas time. When I was attending night school we put of a play at Christmas time. The Orange Lodge would put of plays.

We used to have garden parties and Sunday School picnics and get together. We would all go jannying, going to other people's houses and dancing it up. One time we walked all the way to Flatrock to go jannying.

There would be church concerts and services at Christmas time. People would dress up for the occasion. Also there were no clubs around and there was no talk of beer like today. If someone got married they would travel by horse and slide.

I went to H. Strong where there were outdoor toilets at the back of the school, it was located towards the clinic. We used to have Church services and concerts up stair. We used slates and chalk. There was no scribblers. We used to take turns bringing wood to school for the pot belly stove up stairs. When I finished night school the teacher that I had gave me a dictionary for graduating. There were a lot of kids going to school the ones who could afford it got their grades.

No one in my family had a driver's license. But I remember that Reg Cole had a car. It was the shape of a square. I remember him driving up Antle's Bottom. There wasn't many cars then.

There was a doctor here. He was living in Carbonear at my time. His name was Dr. Standford. There was no hospital then. There was a doctor in Harbour Grace and a doctor in Heart's Content that came to Victoria if you needed them. It was rough times then. If you needed to go to the hospital you would go to Carbonear on horse and slide or horse and cart.

When a woman went in labour, they would call a midwife. They would help deliver the babies. Sophie Clarke was my midwife. She helped deliver my children. My mother's midwife was Alice Gear. Also Betsy Ann was another midwife that was here.

There were many different kinds of home remedies then. For example, if someone had a cold they would give him some molasses candy and ginger wine. You could boil molasses, kerosene, Minard's lineament, and butter to make knobs to cure a cold. You would take raspberry vinegar for a cough. If the children had trouble with constipation you would give them senna leaves. There was buckle's mixture.

When the women used to wash their mats they used to take the mats down to the brook and wash them. They would get down on their knees and scrub them mats. They would then put them on the fences for 2 or 3 days before they were brought home and put them on the floor for another year.

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