Page 37 - Aunt Annie MacLeod, Wreck Cove

ISSUE : Issue 48

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/6/1

Annie at 6. and her parents Kenneth and Annie Morrison MacDermid sheets and tablecloths and pillowcases and put it on the snow. I never did that in my life. To bleach it. Even clothes they had in the trunk. You know, like if they had sheets and pillowcases and tablecloths in a trunk, and they'd take them out in the spring and wash them, and put them on the snow. And leave them there, and then bring them in. And a whole lot of washing to be done then. But that's to, they were saying, to bleach them. And they'd be frozen when you took it in. And think of all that wa? ter. Oh, my Lord, all the jobs they had. Make pots of hot water. Put this clothes that's frozen in the tub, then pour hot wa? ter on it. And then after a few minutes that water'd be cold. You had to fill pots again, put it on the stove, make them hot, and do that. I remember them doing that. I remember myself doing it--what do you call that frost on the trees?--silver thaw. Leaving the clothes out one night, a whole line of sheets and stuff, and in the morn? ing. I didn't leave it out after that. That was a good lesson. I didn't realize what it was going to do to me. The clothes were all stiff and hard as rocks. And then you had to take that in. We didn't have the water in. And you had to make two or three pots hot and pour it on it in the tub. In a little while that water'd be right cold, you had to fill the tub. That made me open my eyes. and that. (What else would you do for spring?) And cleaning the potatoes. You had to take up the potatoes and cut them, ready for seeds to plant. And the wool--oh, heavens. One sheep we had, I don't know how many pounds of wool on that sheep. You had to wash that, and then put it out on the stone piles, is where we used to put it. At our place, to dry. Then in the morning you'd have to go out and turn that over, because what was underneath was wet. Did I work on that! On wool. There's an awful lot of work on wool. You know, then you had to take the wool in, and take it apart. (Pull it, and get the seeds out of it, and hay, and any? thing else that was caught in there.) Had to get all apart. And take the bad parts out. and take the--if there was any--well, sometimes spruce and things the sheep were eating, in the wool. Oh, people had a hard time, I'm telling you. It wasn't easy. (So you would take care of the barn ani- THE FUTURE BEGINS TODAY. "With 425 beds, a staff of 1,200 and a full complement of inpatient, outpatient and ambulatory services, Sydney's new 423,000 sq. ft. Cape Breton Regional Hospital is a further commitment by the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Fitness and the people of Cape Breton to the best in medical services for all. The hospital's 1992 completion date will be a major milestone in the regionalization of sophisticated health services throughout Nova Scotia." ''' Defjartment of Health and Fitness '''

Cape Breton's Magazine