Everybody used to go berry picking back then. Then you used to have plenty of berries for jams and stuff like that. That's all you had to depend on for bottled jam. Mom used to always cook salt beef, dough boys and partridge berry jam. We used to have that a good many times for our meals. We enjoyed it and we even have it now, once in a while. It brings back some memories from the old times. The big table was pretty full sometimes when everybody sat around for breakfast. We'd all sit together and eat the one time. I can't ever say that I was hungry while I was growin' up. Dad used to spend a lot of time hunting in the winter. There was no limit to what he would bring home for food: porcupine, caribou, partridges and rabbits. You had to freeze it all out in the store. When you would want something to cook you'd have to bring it in, let it thaw and skin it, whatever it was. When the boys got bigger, they used to go along huntin' with dad on the dog team. They'd go for all day then. They used to go up in Chateau Bay in the winter time to cut their wood. They'd be gone for days cuttin wood and huntin' around. They would never come home empty handed. I remember dad comin' home and he always had something, wheter it be partridges, rabbits or porcupine, to put in the pot.

For transportation, mostly we used to get around in motor boat. There was no speed boats. You were almost always too busy to go around visiting but there used to be slack time in the summer that if you did get a chance to go places there would always be a crowd in the boat. You'd go down to the Cape for a night or maybe a Sunday visit. That was a big thing then. We'd go down there probably for a dance, Saturday night or something like that. Or a boat from the Cape used to come up to Henley Harbour and have a dance. When they used to know there was visitors comin' they made sure the dance was planned to get out and see the new boys. For transportation in the winter time there was dog team. All the boys then used to come down to Lodge Bay on dogteam. After I got a boyfriend down here that was an excuse to get down then. A lot of young fellers then had their own teams. And whenever a girl could hitch a ride to get down to the Cape or Lodge in the winter to see your boyfriend, well, you was going to go. I remember the first time I came down here. I came down with Dougal Pye, he bad some team too. We had some time that day, Nellie and Millicent and all my friends. We all hitched up a ride with somebody. I think they had a dance down here at the Lodge that night. That was an excuse to get down, to tell the boys up home they was going to have a dance. So we came down anyway. If you came down one weekend probably you would be expecting the boys up the next weekend. They all had their own dog teams of course. They could travel whenever they wanted when the weather was good and it was fit to travel.

I came to Mary's Harbour to go to school. Actually I had a sister in Mary's Harbour that had been a diabetic for years. She went to the hospital when she was eleven years old, so she practically grew up in the hospital. I guess that's a long story, I know, but that's how I went there in the first place. Dad wanted to know if the nurse would take me in there so I could go to school, and work between hours and be company for my sister, Loretta. At them times Dad used to say he couldn't afford to send me away and pay my board. Because I didn't have a bursary for some reason and anyway I came to Mary's Harbour to go to school. Dad put me aboard the Cabot Strait early one Sunday morning and I came to Battle Harbour. Someone from Mary's Harbour had to come pick me up. At first, 1 didn't think anyone was going to come and take me off the boat. They sent the mail boat ashore and I was there, aboard the Cabot Strait, waiting and waiting and never seen anybody. It was Sunday morning And I thought probably no one got up early. The boat blew a couple of times, and soon I saw a motor boat coming out. It was Lloyd Lunnen. So he took me ashore to his house, up to his mothers. That was where I waited for someone to come and pick me up to go to the hospital at Mary's Harbour. So it seemed like I was there for ever. That's when Jack Howell came out from Mary's Harbour and got me in the motor boat. I never thought I was ever going to get to Mary's Harbour, it seemed so long goin' up that day in motor boat. Now you can whiz up there in a few minutes.