Interview # 11

Name: Cecil Kelly

Date: January 26, 1999

Interviewer: Sheri Peters, Pam Organ

Phone: 882-2157

Place: Milltown

Sex: Male

Age: 85

Education: Grade 3

Place and date of birth: September 27, 1913. Milltown

Occupation: Cook

Religion Anglican

No. of children: 5

Names of children and where they live:

(1) Rosevelt - Milltown

(2) Gladys - Halifax

(3) Eileen - Toronto

(4) Eric - Milltown

(5) Keith - Toronto

He was 9-10 when he started working in a sawmill. His first job was under the belts, that would take away the sawdust, that was in April. The sawdust had to be taken out in buckets because it was froze. About the age of 12-14 he was driving dogs, with old skipper Fred Bobbed. He in Head of Bay D'Espoir and was a hard "o" fellow. He made you work like a dog. After 2 or 3 years Cecil took over sawing and he was a night sawman.

He worked in the mail. When there was a message, Mag Long was there then, there was a flag pole with a white flag. When ever Bert seen the white flag, Skipper Johnny King and Cecil would have to go to Head The Bay to pick up a message. They got in a dory, there usually wasn't much wind on the way down. Once they were down there, they would have a cup of tea and fool around a bit before they came back. It was always harder to row back because of the wind. Johnny would make me sit in the ass of the boat and he would do the rowing because he was big. He had ( alsphet orrs) the heavy ones. He broke two ores coming up because of the wind. They got up last going off. Charlie said" had it rough coming up there", Johnny said "had a little pass of wind". Cecil was in the back of the boat frighten to death.

They sawed the logs 14-20 feet long and some were even 30 feet long and they had to saw of most of them. First when he went there he was using a cross-cut. After a couple of years the mill got a buck saw. Buck saw was lighter and a lot better. Bill Joe building one of them ships right behind the mill, "Frank Brooks" they called it. Someone told them there was a buck saw down in the mill. Bill Joe came up and asked them what they were using a cross-cut or a buck saw. Cecil said" he was using a buck saw now". Bill Joe said " you got to give up the buck saw", because we want it on the boat. Cecil said "no way", if I got to give up the buck saw I am going home. Bill grabbed the buck saw and he said I am going to walk through the end of the.mill. Cecil said " you can't do that". Bill said" none of your business if I does that or not". Bert going and said" what's the trouble". Cecil " he came to take the buck saw and gave me the cross-cut, so I'm going home. Bert said " you have no right to do that". Bill said to Bert it is easier for us. Bert said "what about that poor boy who got to saw logs". The buck saw is going to stay where it's to. You take that cross-cut and go on back to work.

Cecil was station in Burt Montrap in England. A mine dump was an old plane that was bombing Germany. They had trains going in and out which was carrying bombs. They were loaded on planes and dropped down on Germany. On one Monday morning at 11 0 clock his work was finished. I was sleep then and thrown out of bed and landed on a second bed, hurt his back and never broke nothing. I went to open back door, someone was crying. Then everything lit up and there were horses, one cow, and 6 houses on the farm and they all blew up. There were 12 children going to school and that was all that lived out of that family. All theses people that was in the houses were killed. Their were two men working in the mines not one man came out alive. After it was over we knew something was wrong. We had to put on our gas mask and 3 or 4 of us went to go in the mine but they won't let us go in. The gas masks was no good, we had to use oxygen bottles. There was 12 of them come up and down Buringham somewhere along there. There were 12 and 1 never got back because his oxygen bottle didn't work or something. They wanted to go in to the mine but wasn't allowed because they knew they would die. There was a train that would load bombs and when they exploded, the train was almost out except the last car and that when they stopped it, "every man was killed after a few seconds", the doctor said everyone was poison. Cecil said they went in after everything was over and you think you were going to talk to someone, but they were all dead. If I was working in the mine I would not be telling you this today.

They were going on another draft . They did not know where they were going this time. You never knew where you were going too. First they took away our clothes and gave us caddy clothes. I knew we were going to a warm country, we had that for a couple of weeks. Then the whole draft had to report to Ben's office, and now they took their caddy clothes and gave them their 'original clothes" It was another week, then they started to sail, not knowing where they were going. They were off from Cape Race. One sailor said to another sailor we are getting close to Nfld. So I made it my business, ' did I hear you say something about Cape Race'. Buddy said "ya" Cecil said " did you know my home is Nfld." Buddy said oh, oh, that's where we are. Another 4 or 5 after that I could not talk to everyone because I was sick. Then they left Benny. After 14 days we sailed up through New York. I was sick 12 days out of 14 that was a hard going on ( sea sick). They lost one boat coming across in a convey which sank because they ran into a soil tanker. When they landed in New York after 14 days in rough seas I couldn't stand up, can't eat, and couldn't do anything. After a few hours they jumped on a train for Canada. Went from New York to Saskathwan on the train. It took 4 days and 3 nights, eat and sleep was all we could do. His wife, Irene was born there. They would stop for half an hour to stretch their legs. The train could only go 20 miles per hour. I went over in 1940 and returned in 1947, I was about 28 or 29 years old.

He was a cook in Bowaters. The whole time Bowaters was here, worked in camp 5 to 8. When Bowaters left here the crowds went to Deer Lake to get the wood that was left. I.G.A. was here then and everybody was on strike. He was a cook for 35 years, he cooked for 60 to 80 people. He cooked salt beef, carrots, potatoes, turnip, cabbage, buns, cakes and fish cakes. I was the only one who made fish cakes for the Bay d'Espoir crowd. I started at 11 0 clock until 4 0 clock in the evening. Some of the men could eat 15 to 20 especially from Seal Cove. Every morning you would get beans, no eggs or bacon in them days. Last 6 or 7 years I was cooking for Hydro. When working for Hydro I got whatever I wanted and if I didn't get it, I forgot to order it.

He lived in Cormack after the war for 3 years, then he came home. He lived in Milltown every since. There was no roads when he was growing up, there was only foot paths. He had to walk to Head Bay D'Espoir. He could not walk to St. Alban's because couldn't get across Nor West Brook. You had to go by boat or dory. St. Joseph's Cove was as far as he went. He and Ben Buffett rowed across in a dory every Sunday. When the company came up to dig holes, Shamrock was the name of the company and he was cook. I went home one Saturday and came back the next day. When I was on my way back I was walking down a foot path. I met Abe King. "Good job down there" Abe said if you didn't come when you did, you see that big Witch Hazel, I would been up in him all night. I said" what for", Abe said "there's been a bear down around the camp all night, he carried half the pork away last night. Cecil said that's alright I'll get him. I had a bacon pan and put it up on top of the barrel. I stayed awake until after 12, but he never came back. So the next morning coming on 5 0 clock the pan came of the barrel. We were in a cotton tent. Cecil was sleep there, and Abe was sleep there. So I grabbed a bridge loader and a # 1 shell. The bridge loader belonged to Johnny Sutton being from Head of Bay. I got up in our shorts, crawled out through the door and rested the gun across the camp. I heard the bear going over the leaves it was in the fall. Then I seen him coming across the camp ground. He was from here to where you are. I let drift and pulled the trigger, and saw the light right through the under side of his gun. Right were the shoot went through in a ball and killed him right dead. Bill Joe and a crowd from Conne were there and after work clean the bear. Bill wanted to know what I was going to do with the bear. I said " burn it or throw it away". They said Jesus no we will eat the meat in the woods. They were one week eating the bear. I never ever tasted it, but it looked good when it was cooked. Bill said "wish another one would come around". They did not want any fresh meat that week. Only the bear which they ate for breakfast, dinner, and supper.

SOME STORIES

South East bridge had a wire bridge when he grew up. They were down there one Sunday. Gert Brushett married later to Elis King. She was off on the bridge and Matt Kendall who was a "devil" started shaking the bridge and she fell over the side, but lucky caught the wire under the bridge. If it wouldn't for them wires she would have been killed from all the rocks below. He said we use to have some good times when we were young.

When I was young we would go berry picking. I would wear my moccasins on my feet, couldn't afford shoes in them days. Myself, Matt and Alex Brushett and 2 or 3 girls, one of which was Josephine Rideout from Harbour Breton who married a fellow from Conne named Lukey Marshall. They were picking bake apples getting one here and there, picking a cup full. We were sitting down having a lunch and I took off my moccasins. Josephine was laughing and when she opened her mouth. I shoved my moccasins in her mouth. She said "you son of a bitch" I will kill you when I catch you. She never caught me anyway.

For partridge berry picking they would have to go out the bay in a dory. Liz Marshall and Anna Roberts, aunt Sar and Sue. I and Mary went out with them, four women. I was only 12 or 13, Mary was only 8 or 9. I had the croup cough. Sue said "I will cure or kill you." She gave me a funnel of Kerosene. I took it down , burned a little bit going down. S he got some flannel and wrapped it around my throat. That night he woke up 2 or 3 0 clock in the night, and his throat was burning. Aunt Sar was next to me and I said I got to take this off. Aunt Sar said" no don't take that off," she said it's only burning a little bit, it will be better in the morning. Next morning I woke up crying , my throat was burning. Sue took of the flannel of his throat. When she took it off the skin and all came off. Dot let him come in and that's all that I got, and that wouldn't very many . When skipper Arch was the only doctor. He was in charge of the mill (Lumber Company) in Milltown. Doctor said Sue what are you trying to do, kill the man. Sue said trying to cure his throat from the croup cough. I was in the house for three weeks like that. Little bit more would have burn right through. After that he never got the croup cough again.

Old man worked down Morrisville on the ship they were building. I was bringing up some junks of wood. I got a birch junk and I bored a hole through it. The hole never went down all the way, just 4 to 5 inches. I was putting hot lead in the hole. Hazel was heating the lead, pasted it to Cecil. She said don't spell it. He was pouring it in, and he said " it is all in now." He was pouring when it exploded in his face. My face was coated. The old lady got Arch come down, alright he got the scab on his face, if he got it in his eyes, he would never see again. Dot better after a month or so, must of had my eyes close, never got in there anymore.

Now he is retired from cooking and he only spends time in the woods. When I and Eric go rabbit catching. In camp 8 we got 1000 rabbits and sold 600 rabbits for &2.00 each. Some of the 1000 rabbits were partly eaten. I have been working all over the place and now I am caught here talking to you. I worked at Bowaters, Strickland's Brother, Hydro and in the war. He took a three week course in England. Could not get ahead because he never had no learning only Grade 3 is the highest education he swore on himself when I was in the armforces. It was no good for me to get a promotion because I had no learning. I got up to ( L.A.C.). I got papers and all that in there now. I got a ticket in there where I joined the Legion in Deer Lake 1949, same year Nfld. joined confederation. It wasn't called the Legion, then it was called GWDA first war. I and Sid Lake is the only two war veterans that was in the service. Bill was in the forestry and got laid - off afterwards.

His old man was 11 when he came here and died when he was 85. Spent most of his life in Bay D'Espoir. He worked in sawmills, on schooners and in the woods in the winter time. When his father was 11, there were no roads, they had to wait until the tide was out so they could walk along the shore, the trees was right down by the salt water. Cecil said Hydro came here in 1944 or 1943 and he was overseas, when the first crowd came here to cut wood and build camps. When I came back from overseas he went to work with the mail / mill and mostly remembers cooking for Bowaters. He was a cook for Harold Skinner and Jerry Dollimont. There were 3 hands in the cook house in the winter because there were 80 or more men to cook for. When one go home, two would do it and wouldn't cut their pay. They got paid when they were home same as when you were working. But when I came back my time was short, so when I went back to camp I said to Harold my time is short don't know what happen. Harold said" if you think you got paid when you're home, we don't pay anyone when they are home. Cecil said " I thought you said you were going to pay us when we were home. Harold said I changed my mine on that. Cecil said " if you changed your mine, I changed my mine with helping you. You can go---- yourself. I picked up all my duds what I had there and went back. Billy he asked was there any chance to get out. Billy said "you just came up". I am quitting and getting out. Billy said " if you are quitting what is wrong." I fell out with that blood of a bitch." and I am not planning to come back anymore. I'll stay home and rest part of the winter. I got nothing else to do right now. So I came down the next day, went to the office. Buddy said " well that Harold Skinner is a private contractor. Well I know there is nothing we can do about it, but I know the other forman is doing it. Harold should do it, but he is trying to save money for himself. Cecil said " I wouldn't go back there anymore" so I stayed home for another week. Then Saturday evening Eric came up the road and said ' Mr. Billy wanted to see you down the office." So I went down and Billy said " how are you getting on, you still mad. No Bye I'm not mad now after a week home. Billy said got a job for you if you want it. George Kendall is quitting, George was the foreman for cooking up camp 6 and Ben Benoit was a cook and also quit. Billy said they got a foreman but they need a cook and you're the man if you want it. So I took it and Sam Snook went with me for 5 years in camp 3 and 6. We both went in together and came out together 5 years later. Old man I am was a fine man, one of the best men he worked with. And the last bit of food was better , they got eggs and bacon in the mornings. That when I.G.A. was on strike, but after the strike was over it started fix'n up. That same year he went to Goose Arm in Deer Lake. They also had eggs and bacon up there. When the wood was all gone that Spring I went as care takers. He asked if I could stay all summer, same pay doing nothing, just look after the camp. He used to come up every Saturday evening and bring him eggs, bacon, fresh meat, it was all alone and I still like my food.

Bay D'Espoir highway was open in 1965 or 1966, just a muddy road. They never had a bridge. When they crossed one of the brooks up on the highway they would have a flotation raft, if they wanted a car, they would put it on a raft and float it across.

Cecil thinks Minnie Strickland had the first telegraph and she had the first Post Office in Milltown. If someone got sick they would either go to Hermitage to see the doctor, or the doctor would come in.

The boat that came here before was " Lady Anderson." The boat would come every so often when someone got sick or something. A lot of TB was going on then Captain Coke was the captain.

Andy Buffett was a real old doctor. Cecil said I cut my leg one time and Shirley's grandmother done it up . Some times they would use turpentine of trees to stop the blood. There was a few medicines around , but I don't know what they were now. The Mills had some kind of sale back then. Could get blown up it was a laxative. Tea leaves was another home remedie when you get bound up they would take it out and give it to you. There were no real medicines to get then. Before the war Lady Anderson had Cod Liver oil in blue bottles and had it in schools last going off. I suppose it was alright back then not so many people dying then as there is now.

TIDAL WAVE

You can remember it today as it was back then. It was in November, Cecil and his old man was in the garden digging up potatoes when he heard the rumbling, Cecil said" what's that rumbling." His old man did not know, there was no cars back then, and said" look at the tide coming in through the cove." Tide rushed in and 10 minutes after the tide was low as it could go, three times it went in and out. Old George Wells had a schooner up there along side of the wharf, tide got so high she floated up on the wharf. When the tide dropped she was up on the wharf. And when it came back in again the old schooner was off the wharf. There was a lot of destruction outside of the community. For example: Lamoline and Sandyville that was flooded out. There was houses off there before the Tidal Wave but after that they never built there. There were lots of houses lost out to sea out Lamoline. No damage was done in Milltown, the tide just came up and went out again. The tide was as high it ever was, right up tight to the houses down in the cove. They claim now that there was a earthquake out in the ocean. Cecil said "it was a bad evening."

He recalls the Lake store being around when he grew up, owned by John Lake belonged to Fortune. After Johnny Lake gave it up, his son took it over. He and his cousin John D, they worked up there for years until Bowaters came here. Bowaters came here and bought the land and everything. That was the end of that. There wasn't much money then. When I first worked on the mill I only made 50 cents a day, digging out sawdust. Before he left to go over seas he only got 1 dollar a night. He was the one getting the most pay at that time, some were getting 75 cents a night. Cecil was the head man which was the sawman.

They washed their clothes on scrub- boards, they made their own soap because there were no javex to buy when I was young. They made it out of lives as they called it. ( ashes). Put the ashes in water and let it soak and drain it off afterwards. I suppose that's what they use to do. Same as putting up bread. First they had hops (yeast). After leaving the hops over night, it turns just like yeast. Poor old women get up next morning. Cecil said "what have you got there." She said " don't upset that, that's my hops to put in my bread. They used to make good bread back then. Make the bread at night, cover up with blankets. I say some times the bread was warmer than I was.

Kerosene lamps were used for lights. When you wanted to light your fire, kerosene was put on your wood.

They played a lot of football back then. I think its called soccer today. They would go to Blange Point cross from Morrisville. They came from St. Alban's and all around. They had some good players down Conne.

Christmas time they would walk to Morrisville for a time. There was always a fight over there, Conne people came up and started fights at dances every night. Never went to St. Alban's for a time because there were no roads, they had to go by boat and Cecil didn't like going in a boat. Everything is improved but it is going back the other way. Plenty of work back then, now there is no work. Everyone worked back then except the people that was to lazy to work. If anyone wanted a job, they would go to a sawmill and cut logs in the summer time and pull them out. But now no one wants to do that.

Never no fish only a few caught and eaten. And now they got the fish plant in St. Alban's. I don't know if that's going to work or not. They lost a lot of money up there, to much expenses. They got someone to run it right, and that's a big concern, over 200 people working up there.

They had accordions and people sang, that's all the music they had. Never had much to drink, someone might have a flask in their pocket. Last going of they had homebrew. Before I went overseas in 1940 I suppose I had a few drinks, not to many. When I got over there I guess I had to many.

If they done something bad in school, they would have to wear a dunch cap. Seven people were all the students. I was 9 or 10 when I gave up going to school. You could get a good learning if you stayed, I wish I had stayed he recalls. I remembers Ally Spencer (Kendall) got grade 9.

His father helped build the church and the school. That was the first ever built here

(Art Kelly). HE had 1 smoke a day, get up in the morning and put the pipe in his mouth. He wouldn't take it out before he go to bed. He was a awful man for smoking.