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The Victoria Community Development Corporation

Annie Whyte

"One time we grew a pumpkin as big as a water bucket."

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There were eight children in our family. One died. There were Sharon, Dennis, Linda, Evelyn, Joy, Cyril Jr. and Allan. My mother was Pamela (doll) Clarke. She used to work at the fish. My father was Jacob Curnew. My grandmother was Mary Clarke and my Grandfather was Nicholas Clarke. He was a coal miner in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

I was a house wife. I went to Bauline for a short while to fish. We'd go to work somewhere else and then there was no work in the mines up in Nova Scotia.

I had a two-story house with a well for water. We used candles and kerosene lamps for lights. There was an outhouse for the men and a pot for the women in the house.

For chores, we had to wash dishes, bring water in, make the beds and make bread. Mom showed us how to make the bread. We used to fight over who was going to make it.

We planted our own vegetables. One time we grew a pumpkin so big - well, it was as big as a water bucket. We would keep our vegetables in the cellar. There were potatoes, turnip, carrot. We grew everything.

We used to play hopscotch, hide and go seek and we played marbles. We never had any music. We also went to church and Sunday school. One time when we went to church, we used to have a card and every time we would attend, they would stamp it.

We never had any holidays. Christmas we used to go jannying. We used to like jannying.

I went to school and our school was nice. We were all in one classroom. We used to have to carry two junks of wood to put in the stove to keep the school warm. Those who didn't bring a junk, froze. We used to have coco malt recess time. Sometimes we used to bring a couple of sweet biscuits or a slice of bread to eat with it. We used a slate and chalk and water to wash the slate off.

The train used to go down between Al Powell's and Tom Powell's store was to. For transportation we used a horse and cart. There were no paved roads and mom used to travel by train down the shore and out to Carbonear.

The doctor was located in Carbonear. If you needed any medicine, you went to Carbonear to get it. We took lass and kerosene oil for a sore throat. If someone got chicken poxes, you would call the doctor. Then the doctor had to give the patient a needle.

When some women went into labour, they would call a mid wife. After the baby was born, the women would be in bed for a full week with hardly a bite to eat. My mother had some of her babies at home. She went to the hospital to have Joy and when the nurses brought her big meals to eat, she was afraid to eat them. The doctor told her to not be so foolish ‘cause there was nothing wrong with her, she only had a baby.

The weather years ago were twice as bad as it is now. There was snow everywhere. Up to the roofs of houses.

Click here for a PDF version of Victoria: Recalling Our Heritage.

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Power Plant | Victoria's Birth | Prison Camp | Midwifery

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