Interview #44

Name: Gordon Collier

Sex: Male

Age: 68

Place and date of birth: December 1, 1930

Education: Grade seven

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: Various

Number of children: 11

Names of children and where they live:

Linda - Clarenville

Regina - Bridgewater

Marilyn - Ontario

Karen - Nova Scotia

Margaret - St.Alban's

Helen - Ontario

Gordon - Nova Scotia

Camilla - Nova Scotia

Debbie - Ontario

Darren - Ontario

Craig - Ontario

Phone: 538-3465

Date of interview: March 11, 1999

Place of interview: St.Alban's

Interviewers: Leah Marshall and Dale Willcott

Gordon Collier was born in St. Alban's, on December 1,1930. His mother's name was Elizabeth LeRoux and his father's name was George Collier.

"Growing up wasn't that bad. Always had clothes and food to eat. I was the only boy so I was spoiled." Gordon said. As a child Gordon would play football, hopscotch, tiddley, and boxing. Some of his friends were George Collier, Burt, and Ches MacDonald. When Gordon was seven, he served mass on the altar for nine years. "Father Hayes wanted me to become a priest. Here I was with only grade seven. I said no Father I don't think I want to do that." Gordon said. "Poor old Father Hayes use to buy accordions and I would tear into them. I still got one but I don't use it. I used to play for dances."

To Gordon it seemed like non of the kids liked going to school. You did not have a choice in the matter. Some teacher's Gordon had were Nora Walsh and Gordon Perry. "More than once I came home with swollen hands, maybe just for talking, they were that strict." Gordon said.

Gordon never received much for Christmas, he would usually only get apples, oranges, or a pack of raisons. "If I got a pack of raisons, we would probably cook them for dinner. We went mummering once or twice with the women." There would be twelve days of dances and house parties. There wouldn't be another dance until St.Patrick's Day.

The first job Gordon ever had was on the mill in Swanger's Cove. "I might have been thirteen or fourteen years old. I was packing shingles, I got paid ten cents an hour." Gordon said.

The only time he lived outside St.Alban's was when he was working. He would go back and forth to Glenwood to work in the woods. He would get on a steamer here and go to Port au Basque, then on a train. It would take almost a week to get there. "It was hard stuff, wouldn't want to go through it again. I don't know what I got payed but when I worked for Shawmont in 1964, I only got payed $1.10 an hour." Gordon said. "I would come home with my check for $132.00, I use to wonder what I was going to do with all that money. Back then you could get $35.00 worth of groceries for two weeks."

Gordon and George Willcott use to work together a lot once. "We put in the water and sewer line. From 1970 to 1975, five summers I worked there. George was the engineer, Bill Wall, and Ralph Henry were the guys that I worked with." George said.

When George was young he would go in the woods with his mother. She would haul out wood on a slay. "I tell you the women worked some hard in them days. Had to bring water from way up there ." Gordon said.

Gordon lives in the house his father built. "This house must be getting up to ninety years old. There were three bedrooms and where the living room is now was a junk room. The house was cold back then but the money we spent on it we could have had a new house. We redid the house inside and out." Gordon said.

"T.B. was rampant in them days. There was only one nurse here and she was in Morrisville. I think Bowaters had her here. In the spring of the year they would give you cherry bark to build up your blood. If you had a boil they would scrape up some sunlight soap and molasses and mix it together. Which would draw it out. If someone was bleeding bad they would put flour on the cut. Blood flowed into the flour and harden, that stoped the blood flow." Gordon said.

"Hydro was the biggest, thing I don't no if it was the best thing that ever happened in Bay d'Espoir." Gordon said. Gordon worked there for seven or eight years. "If things had to stay like that, things would have been good. If the fisheries out there closed, there won't be anything left." Gordon said. Gordon worked at the Salmon Hatchery for four years, after that he retired.

Some storms Gordon remembered was when a lightening bolt hit Ches Collier house up on the hill. The lighting hit hard. The lightening bolt hit the tank and came in on the copper pipes. They had a tin plate behind the sink, which was full of holes where the bolts came out. The cross beam that was in the basement, where the copper wiring went around the beam, was destroyed. Mag came out and seen cartridges on the floor, she thought someone was shooting at them. It busted the big picture window out. Another time, lightening struck Mr. Perry's house up Long Path. They were in St.John's, blew there house right apart. "There were some bad storms in them days. We don't get any storms like we did once. Years ago you couldn't see the top of the fences for snow." Gordon said.

Gordon and his wife Eva are both retired now and are living happily in St. Alban's.