Violet

When we were teenagers we used to work on the beach in the summertime. That's what the girls done. There'd be beaches from the bridge right down along the shore that was all spread out with fish, both sides of the road. And down where the museum is now, that was all beaches and that was spread out with fish. The high part of the summer was what they used to call the caplin scull, and the fish were plentiful in the caplin scull.

You'd have to go about eight in the morning and you'd be there then till dark if the crowd was there. We didn't pile, now, the older people done that - the girls only just carried it in and then pass it to them. We could do the faggots, but not the piles. 'Twas hard on your back 'cause you were bent over most all day at fish.

We used to work all summer and earn about $40 or $50, but that was a lot of money then. When we finished up at the end of August to go back to school, we went over and settled up, and they used to give us money. So I suppose by that time 'twas changed. Oh, we liked it all right when we were youngsters. You'd buy your bit of clothes for school, or your books, whatever you needed like that. You didn't waste it, that's for darn sure. You didn't buy nothing silly.

And I remember mom being on the beach. I wouldn't say I was very big because Mabel was old enough to look after us. She's not that much older than me, only six years, but 'twas enough that it made a lot of difference. Back them times when kids were eight and nine years old, they were quite grown up. The biggest ones looked after the youngest ones and that was the way it was.

They used to have dolls then used to say, "Mama." That was something else, them dolls. Mom said to me, "If you look after Stell while I'm on the beach, come Christmas I'll buy you a mammy doll."

So I said, 'All right, I'll look after Stell."

She was only about a year old and you had to watch so she didn't fall out of the carriage, and push her about. That old carriage went everywhere, and we weren't very big.

Come that Christmas I got me mammy doll all right, 'cause if mom promised, you got it. We used to go out and play in our old store, and I suppose me and my sister got into a little argument and she jumped on my

mammy doll and broke her. Well, I nearly died 'cause I worked all summer for that doll. But mom replaced it anyhow. Funny how little things like that stick in your mind.