Interview #26

Name: Betty Willcott

Sex: Female

Age: 55

Place and date of birth: St. Alban's, December 11, 1944

Education: University

Occupation: Teacher

Religion: Roman Catholic

Number of children: Three

Names of children and where they live:

Randy - St. John's

Gail - St. Alban's

Shannon - St. John's

Phone: 538-3762

Date of interview: February 17, 1999

Place of interview: St. Alban's

Interviewers: Dale Willcott and Kerri Ann Snook

Betty Willcott was born in St. Alban's on December 11, 1944. Her parent's names were Elizabeth and Gerald Macdonald. Her mother was from St. Joseph's Cove and her father was from St. Alban's. Betty's grandparent on her mother's side was Sara and Mark Dollimott and on her father's side they were Mary Jane and Richard Macdonald.

She said life was all work, and no fun when she was growing up because they had to cut wood, plants vegetables, make hay, sheer sheep, and pick wool. She also scrubbed, waxed floors, painted, washed with a scrub-board, cleaned the house, baking, and cooking. She would take her brothers fishing and they would use a safety pin to catch a fish, which was used as a hook. Her family would go to the garden together, and go berry picking. Betty played games such as: tiddley, bat ball, skip rope, and read for spare time.

Church was very important back then. If you didn't go to church, you would not be allowed to go to school. If you didn't go to school, they did not allow you to go out and play. She loved school and she said school was good. She would cry when her mother didn't let her go to school. Betty and the other students would take wood to school. Betty remembered going to the mill to get some hoops. She would roll them to the school. She attended Holy Cross Primary School, and some of her teachers in school were Emily Hoskins, Mrs. Marcarthy, and Mary Collier. Betty finished high school and from there she went on to Memorial University in St. John's, and to Mount Allison. She became a teacher and spent thirty years of her life teaching.

For St. Anne's Day, she would go to Conne River in a boat. They would get a new dress to go to Conne River. She remembered having a candy stripe dress. When everyone returned from Conne River, they would have a dance. She would have to be home by eight o'clock. She and her family would walk down St. Joseph's Cove at Christmas time.

If she made any money, she would have to give it to her parents. The first bit of food she remembered buying was a tin of corn beef and a pack of dates. The first thing she ever bought was a green jersey dress, she paid $4.95 for it in Eatons.

Some people made hoops with a drawing knife, cut wood with a buck saw, chopped wood with an axe and dragged out the slabs. Fishermen would make their own nets. Farmers would have a shovel, pick, and a hoe.

Some home remedies she used when she was young were: for the flu she would use vicks, for phenoume she would use goose fat, for a cut she would use turpentine, for an illness they did not know they would use cherry bark.

Hydro made a different to everyone's life because you could turn on a light bulb. Another difference was the road, you could go to the hospital by a vehicles and not by boat. When toilets came here, along with hot water tanks, they could take a bath in hot water instead of cold. After she got married, they got their toilet, she could not believe that they threw their slops in a brook, because they did not allow her to do that when they were young. They used sail duck instead of canvass, and they would paint some kind of design on it. Also, today the people have better windows in their houses, and houses today are insulated better.

When vehicles came here, it made changes to, people would have to pay to get a ride if they wanted one. If people wanted to go as far as Leonard longs they would pay ten cents, and if they wanted to go to St. Joseph's Cove they would pay twenty-five cents for Bill Hartery to take them. One disaster Betty remembers is when the roof blew off the town hall, people called it a tornado. People found pieces of wood by the grave yard.

Betty taught school for thirty years, she taught at Holy Cross School and stayed there until she retired.