Page 76 - Mary Sarah MacNeil Remembers Long Island

ISSUE : Issue 39

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1985/6/1

standi ni iMary Sarah's Uncle Phillip NicholsonT Seated, left. Uncle .-.Dan Nicholson, 'in Malcolm Nicholson. money. And she was only getting$12 a month. At that time, of course, ithe wages were small, anyway. But when she worked at Leitches Creek, when she went to work first, she was only getting $8 a month. She went to work at 13. She's buried in Boisdale. That's our cemetery, Boisdale. Well, I stayed with my uncles till my Un? cle Dan died in 1955. So my other uncle, my Uncle Phillip and I built a little place over on the mainland. So we moved o- ver there. He took sick in 1969. And he went to the hospital, and he died. So I sold the little place--I had nothing to do then--I had to sell the little place. And I came to work for a family in Sydney. I was with them for 15 years. I just left there last April, when I was old enough for the old age pension. (Did your uncles sort of act as parents for you?) Oh well, yes, they'd help us. It was them that taught us how to knit and taught us how to sew. And when we were mak? ing the bread, before our arms got strong enough, our uncle used to knead the bread for us, and we'd put it in the pans. We'd Sarah's brother, John, and sister, ret, with visitor, Hilda Hill, between. have to wash the dishes--we couldn't reach the dishes on the table. Have to take the dishes over to the end of the table, and put your basin on the chair, wash your dishes, and put them back on the table. Then my sister Margaret would stand on the chair, and I'd hand her the dishes, she'd put them up in the cupboard. Taking them down, she'd stand on the chair and hand them to me, and I'd put them on the table. And if we were making a meal, we were put? ting pots or something on the stove--you'd have to take the chair over, put it along? side the stove, put your pot on the chair, stand on the chair, pick the pot up and put it on the stove. The only way we could reach it. Scrubbing the floor, the same thing. Mar? garet, my sister, she was a little bit old? er than I was, so she could--her knees on the floor--she could reach the bucket. But with my knees on the floor, I couldn''t reach in the bucket. I'd have to stand up and reach in the bucket, and go back down again. I was wishing that I was big enough so that I could reach inside the bucket Ncrth Sydney Mall 116 King St, North Sydney, Nova Scotia • Climate Controlled Atmosr'here • Plenty of Free Parking • Friendly Courteous Staff • 30 Stores and Services • Many Mall Activities 'Zc'**"" (76)"

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