I was born at Bolster's Rock. My parents was Samuel and Nellie Clark. My mother's parents
were George and Jessie (Clark) Parr. Mom was born at Indian Tickle. We used to live at
Bolster's Rock in the summer and move up to Caplin Bay in the winter. My father looked out to
the herring factory in Rocky Bay, just in from Comfort's Bight, one time. I had three sisters and
two brothers. My second oldest sister died when she was only two or three days old. The next
one to me was Hazel, and I got a sister Ursie. My brothers are Winston and Gilbert Clark.
There was no school in Bolster's Rock or Caplin Bay so when I was eight year old I went to
Cartwright to the boarding school. I felt terrible about going all the way to Cartwright to school
because we had to leave home in September and we never got back until in the summer. I had
some people in Cartwright, Aunt Joannie Martin, my father's sister, and Uncle Jim, but the one I
thought the most about was Uncle Garl Clark, like of my aunts and uncles. Sometimes Uncle
Garl would come down to visit Aunt Joan, as we used to call her, and he'd come to the boarding
school to see us. That was in 1942 that I first went to school in Lockwood.
We went to Cartwright in the fall of the year on the Kyle. I can't remember if there was
anyone looking out to us on the Kyle or not. There was a few of us went from up
around. I can remember the teachers were Miss Layman (Grace Layman), Lil Learning and, I
believe, Bill Pardy. He was going to school but I think he used to teach the lower grades. There
were kids from all over the place, Paradise River, Rigolet, North West River and from
everywhere. There was about 12 or 14 of us little girls in a room together, about 8 and 9 years
old. Every morning we had to get up and we had our work to do. We had to do our own beds
and then we had a bathroom or a hall to sweep, or something like that. We all had our jobs
every morning. And they had what they calls now 'big sisters' and mine was Phoebe Clark,
Phoebe Pardy she is now. Sundays we used to have to get up and go around the bottom of
Cartwright Harbour and go to school. Some Sundays we used to go in to a cabin by a pond. The
teacher used to take us in there and we'd have a cup of tea and they'd try to teach us how to skate
before the snow came. We had to work for Mrs. Keddie, too, like do work for her handicraft
shop. She used to give us pockets or belts from the parkas and embroider on them, and she used
to pay us for that. We used to get in around the table in the dining room and a teacher and some
of the older girls would be helping us. They were trying to teach us everything not only just
school work. Some was learning embroidery, some how to crochet, some how to knit and
different things, whatever you wanted to try. You had so many hours to go to school, so many
hours to play, so many hours to try and learn handicraft work - the hours were all sorted out.
I enjoyed living in the dormitory, but it was bad when anybody came from home because then I
got homesick. I never seen my father or mother while I was down there in the winter, but Uncle
Garl used to come and Aunt Joan and Henry Williams. You'd never forget Henry Williams he
was such fun.
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