Page 13 - A Visit with Nan Morrison, Baddeck

ISSUE : Issue 47

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/1/1

(This is very important, this idea of what young people know, and what value it was to them. I said to one woman--and she seemed angry about it--I said to her, "What did you know about sex, getting married?" She said, "Nothing." She said, "You just learned the ignorant way." She was angry about that.) I don't see why she should. (You're clearly not angry about it.) No. I'm not. (You think with that not being part of life, it kind of left room for oth? er things.) It wasn't talked about, those years, and nobody bothered about it. It's hard to explain, isn't it? (It is, but I think it's really important. It's not a question of just, "ignorance is bliss." You have a more positive sense of that lack of knowledge.) Yeah. I know of a woman got pregnant. And her fa ther locked her up in her room. She wasn't allowed to go out or see anybody till the baby was born. You know, that probably scared a lot of girls. That's a foolish way to do those things. 'Cause a lot of those children are a lot of help to the end of the family, when they grow up. They're a great help. (The new child, you mean.) Yes. God uses them for some? thing good. 'Cause I think he knew that those people were ignorant, and they didn't know the difference, and they just got pregnant. Perhaps it didn't happen very often, and when it did hap? pen, it was--I don't know. But not many got pregnant. And I'll tell you there was less after that, when they'd find out how cruel it was. (How cruel the father, you mean.) Yes. Now, we had a child like that, but it wasn't the same. My oldest sister, when she went to Boston. She was up there quite a long time when she met this man, and he wanted to marry her, and she got married. And she wasn't married too long when she got pregnant. Perhaps a year or two--two years, perhaps. And --oh, she was married longer than that. Because, it ended up that he was a mar? ried man. And he kept it away from her all those years. And his wife wasn't able to have a baby. She was in Eng? land. She'd left him. And she swore she'd never bother him. So he didn't get a divorce. But she had somebody watching out for him. And she never said one word about it until she found out that my sister was pregnant. And then she reported him, being married. So, all (my sister) had to do was go up to the Town Hall and sign a paper that she wasn't legally married. And that was the end of it. So, she never saw him after that. And she was left with the baby. So, she wrote my father--she wrote him because there were no telephones then. And my father wrote her back and told her to come home right away with the baby, and he would look after it. So she came home. And that girl (the baby)--she died last April--she looked after my fa- .-' ther. She stayed with my father and mother, and looked after--you know--worked for them, and took care of them. So she was a great help to them. My father was glad that he took it the way he did--took her home and loved her, and brought her up. That turned out to be a lovely, lovely lady. (When did you learn? Surely you knew when you were little where babies came from.) Oh yes, oh yes. When I was scalded that time, my brother was born the night I came home from my grandmother's. The day they took me home, he was born that day. So I knew where babies came from. (And you knew what cre? ated babies.) Yes. Well, I guess so. I don • t know. When I first went to Boston in 1925, (my sister) had two boys boarding. And (one of OUR CANADIANS ARE CANADIANS TO MORE PUCES M CANADA ANDTHE WORID THANANYOIHERAKUNE. TNESnMTnKBWHK. Canadian • In partnership withAirAtlantic • (13)

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