Page 98 - With George Prosser of Whitney Pier

ISSUE : Issue 74

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1999/6/1

church. There was no minister there. A schoolteacher used to do the preaching, and he knew as much as I did. But you still had to go to church. You couldn't say no. They didn't whip you or beat you. You just had to go. They told you what to do, you had to do it. But they never whip you or something like that. Might give you a slap sometimes, but you was never beat? en. Whatever you was told to do, you had to go and do it. For six days a week we worked, and Sunday --we'd keep it holy. If you went outdoors, and the wood chopping block was there, the axe was drove in. If you took that axe out Of that chopping block you'd be barred for the rest of the year. Take everything away. They never beat you, but there was punishment for doing that. Couldn't go no? where. Sunday was a religious day. You weren't allowed to do anything on Sunday. We had a bunch of nets out there, what we catch the her? ring with, and Monday mornings you had to go out with an anchor and drag them off the bottom 'cause there was so much fish into it that it'd sink the nets. Anybody went out Sundays, well, he was a real gangs ter. Anybody that went out Sun? day and hauled the nets or anything like that. But all that died out. Christmas time, in them days, we'd keep twelve days Stories Vve Been Told The Maritime Storytellers of CBC's Weekend Mornings collected & edited by Brian Sutcllffe "Some of the most interesting people you ever want to meet" • colourful tales from kitchens, backyards, streets and wharves! 196 pages • $17.95 • Pottersfleld Press All New Honda 1999 ACCORD Line of Christmas. And that twelve days of Christmas, we never done nothing else, on? ly drink liquor and go dance from house to house. We were on the island. There was only three houses. (But) we'd go on the mainland and we'd visit every house. Dad would sing a song. We had these old fellas with us, like my father and another old fella, an Ingraham fella. And they could sing songs. They'd tell songs on the George's Banks. And he never had no learn? ing. Ingraham was like my father. Couldn't write, didn't know A from B. Still, he would sing the songs. St. Pierre and Miquelon, that's where we got all the liquor, and we'd hop over in November. We used to jig squids euid the Frenchmen used to buy the squids off of us, and we'd trade them for liquor. And that was the Christmas liquor. You'd go get your share. You took yours, I took mine, and you'd keep it hidden away until Christmas. And Christmas Eve, that was the last day you worked for twelve days. Everything was put away for twelve days, from Christmas Eve till the sixth of January. And if I ran out of liquor, you always had a bottle. You always went around to see who had liquor left. This was what you done. (When you went from house to house during the twelve days of Christmas, did you put on a mask, or disguise yourself, or play any games like that?) That's what they called a mummer. We did that in the night? time. After supper, you'd make up the mum? mer, put on a mask, or rig up with oil? skins, all kinds of dirty stuff on you. You'd go up to a fella's house and eveiry- body had a bottle on him. You'd have a hell of a time. There was no fiddles or banjos or anything. The accordion. I had a cousin, his name was Waters, he could play the ac? cordion, play the organ in church, and he never went to school in his life. -A/C - Power Windows - Power Locks - Power Mirrors Selling and Servicing R'D'T'Ctf''J'C HONDA Automobiles ?? • ? • ? I • ?Pl' W' M HONDA Automobiles for 18 Years Rhonda. M HONDA. BUILT WITHOUT COMPROMISE 229 King's Rd., Sydney • 539-0112 (Did you dress up as a muimner?) Oh, yeah. Me and the wife, we used to dress up. Put a pair of rubber boots on, set of oilskins. I'd put on her clothes. (You would dress up like a woman.) Yeah, and she'd be like a man. Dressed up like a man. (How did you meet your wife?) I met her in Newfoundland. That's a long story. Well, I was rumrunning, and down in Glen Bank Cove we got caught. Only had one keg of nun left, coming from Rocky Royal Bank Financial Group, Canada's leading financial services provider, has th' breadth and depth to ensure you have all the options you need to manage your financial world- from convenient day-to-day banking solutions to financial advice and investment management. For information call: 1 -800 ROYAL 1-5. Let us connect you v''ith one of our professionals. Royal Bank - 'avkm' SohWwi Royal Trust - lrk% and hvtstment Management Royal Bank Action Direct - Discount Brokerage RBC Insurance - Financial Security RBC Dominion Securities - Investment Advice royal bank fiinaincial group 98

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