Hilda Dinn has lived all 90 years in Mt. Carmel, St. Mary's Bay. Her memory is quite good and she shares some interesting thoughts and experiences about her growing- up years.

We were very pleased to have Mrs. Dinn contribute some details of her life and times to this book. She passed away in January, 2002.

I REMEMBER WHEN...

We used to wash our clothes in the river up at Marrie's Hill (not far from the house) and bring water from there. Steve and Winnie Marrie were my parents. My mother came from the Gully (around McCrate's Hill) and my father's father (John Marrie) came from France.

We had animals like cows, horses, hens and sheep. My mother provided milk for the Parish Priest or anyone else who needed it. We used to chew frankum off the trees for gum. If you had a bad tooth you'd go to the regular doctor and he'd tie a line on it and the other end on the doorknob and then he'd shut the door. We'd mix up Mynard's Linamint and molasses and drink it for a sore throat. It was also used to rub on your throat and chest for the flu.

My sisters left home at around age 16 to go to work. My sister, Veronica, was only 8 or 9 when she left to go to St. Joseph's to work. I remember my brother Ron and sister Bess were out sliding one time on the handcat and it came right in through the house. My Mom went to Mass every morning and they were very good neighbors to those around us. My father was a fisherman. They used to call him Longjohn Marrie because he always went around with his longjohns on, even when he was at the hay.

When we were in school, we sat at long tables, not desks. The school was up on the Church Hill in Mt. Carmel then. When we got married we lived with my mother for a few years until our house was ready. I used to be some afraid of the darbies. I had a little place I used to hide – it was called the 'back loft'. They used to wear old clothes and they'd wear a horse's head and they'd blacken you up with shoe polish. We didn't know who they were most of the time. Not many women used to dress up, but Elle Hearn and Marion Kehoe did. There were times if we knew the darbies were coming you'd go ahide 2:00 in the day. If we went to visit at someone else's house, we'd look in the windows first to make sure the darbies weren't there.