I had the pleasure of interviewing my grandmother on my dad's side, to get more information on life "back in the day". Keep in mind my grandfather passed away Feburary 7th, 2005; therefore, I was unable to interview him about his parents and such. I tried to get as much information from my grandmother as I could.

 

How is life different for you from back then to now?

 

They had no electricty, no bathroom, they walked to school in an hour and three quarters. In the winter their dad used to take them in the horse and sleigh and sometimes the horse would get stuck and the kids would have to get it unstuck so they could continue on in the storm. The cuttings of some houses would be huge, and the roads would be okay. Once you got home you had to be prepared to almost climb Mount Everest just to get into your house.

 

What did Grampie used to do (as a job)? Was it hard to raise seven children by yourself?

 

He used to be a carpenter and used to haul grain for horses and cattle from Montague. He mostly did carpentry work as a job. She says it wasn't that hard, because you never thought of looking after the children negatively like that, because once you started that morning you never stopped until it was time for bed. As the kids got older they helped out with the chores and things around the house. Everyone had to help out, and everyone had their own jobs to do, because she couldn't do it all herself. Back then grampie never did any work in the house, he was to do the work outside, and women had to do the work inside.

 

What would your day consist of?

 

You had to get up and get everyone up for school and work. Make breakfast for them all, then once everyone was out the door, you found youself baking/cooking again for the next day because when you had seven children you were nearly baking everyday, you'd never hear tell of going to the store, and bringing home bread, cookies or anything like that - you made everything. Once they were off to school she would do the wash, and in those days she had to do it all by hand herself. She never got an electric washer until Scott was a baby. Every morning you had to clean the lamps, the lamps had kerosene oil in them, and the globes in them would be all smokey, so after breakfast dishes were done, you had to clean the globes so in the evening when you went to light them, when it got dark they would be clean.

 

When grampie had "jam sessions" with his brothers and friends in the basement, how many other people from the community would go?

 

One night both sides of the family were home for a gathering, and she decided to invite everyone over to the house one night, they were between 75-80 people that came. She would already have homemade rolls, and biscuits already in the freezer, then that particular morning she got up and put a turkey in the oven,and a couple roasts of meat, salads, lots of desserts all by herself. Everyone that came, they came for supper, and also to sing a couple of songs, and also play guitar. She says there was so much work to go into it, and even though it would take a lot out of her, she absolutley loved doing it and liked having the people around because there was always music.