INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

I was born at Red Bay but my parents came from Carbonear, Newfoundland. My father was a Moores and my mother was Bridle. They lived at a little place called Tracey with five other families, all Moores'. After we grew up some stayed at Red Bay and married while others went away. I married W.Y. Pike of Carbonear. He came from a line of business minded people.

On Tracey we had to cross the tickle to go to the mainland for everything we needed; church, Sunday school or whatever. There was a United minister lived there and when he went away one of the Moores' was the layman and superintendent of the Sunday school for forty years. I had two brothers and five sisters, and when we got to be men and women some stayed in Red Bay and some moved away. We went by boat to church and school. There was about eleven of us children; seven in our family and the rest belonged to the other families. When we were ready to go to the mainland, whoever had their boat ready took us all. In the evening, if it was blowing or the ice wasn't strong enough, we'd walk around the bay. That was an hours walk. For our lunch, for dinner, we'd have molasses bread and cow's milk. There were no bars or candies, no apples or oranges in them days. When we went home we ate whatever our mothers had cooked, nobody complained about it.

After we had our supper we'd have to gather around the table and learn our lessons. When lessons were over we'd get a lunch and go upstairs to bed. The last words my mother would say was, "Don't forget to say your prayers." That doesn't seem to matter today.

When we growed up and went out to work, our mothers would tell us not to say anything disrespectful to old people. Respect them. And there's not much of that today either. I'm not saying we were brought up any better than anyone else, but we pulled through life.

I went to Point Amour one year and worked with the lighthouse keepers, housework. I got twelve dollars a month. My mother got sick so I came home and then I shipped with W.Y. Pike. Then we married and I stayed there. And all down through the years I was involved with the business, the Red Bay Co-op.

There was no money around those days. I can remember one year, from December to June, we took in $800 in the store for the winter. People got their money then from the fur they caught, when their fish was all done. There was no Family Allowance, no Old Age Pension. When you reached seventy years old you got $12.50 for three months, which was fifty dollars a year. So there wasn't much money involved in that. That was before we joined Confederation....

EDITH PIKE
1990-91 RED BAY

THEM DAYS VOL. 17.1