Storytelling

Florence Oliver

Florence Oliver was born at Northwest River, Labrador and grew up with many stories about her family. Today she lives in Happy Valley.

I GUESS A LOT OF stories were around. I remember we used to go up to our Aunt Betsy Baikie's house. She was Aunt Jessie Goudie's mother-in-law. There being no radios or televisions or much around, we used to go there and listen to her talking about when they were growing up. The stories that they used to tell us were about the animals and stuff like that. How fierce the animals were.

The men would be gone trapping and there would be only the women and the children home. One particular story this old lady used to tell us was about the wolves that used to come so close to the houses. The homes were all built from logs. They never had very big windows in them because they were warmer without them. This time the wolves came around. The women could shoot a gun just as good as any man. Of course, they survived by that. She shot those wolves through the window. She shot them to protect her family.

My brother was killed during the war. Them times you didn't lock your door. There was no need for it. One night, during the war, we were gone to bed. First of all there was a knock on the door. Then we heard someone open the porch door. Dad heard the door open and thought he heard someone come in. He was wondering what was going on, so he got up. He looked, but there was nobody there.

He said to Mom it was nothing, not to be concerned. They didn't seem to be bothered by it. But a few days after that, they got the message that my brother was killed.

Them days, if they heard things like that, they assumed it was a ghost or token. They said it was my brother coming back to say goodbye and to let them know he was at peace. That was one of the stories I grew up with.