Interview #15

Name: George Kearley

Sex: Male

Age: 69

Place and date of birth: Head of Bay d'Espoir October 2, 1929

Education: None

Religion: Anglican

Occupation: Labourer

Number of children: seven

Names of children and where they live:

Marie Snook - St. Alban's

Jerry Kearley - Head Bay d'Espoir

Doris Collier - St.Alban's

Jean Loveless - Head Bay d'Espoir

Claude Kearley - Head of Bay d'Espoir

Claudine Hoskins - Head of Bay d'Espoir

Kevin Kearley - Deceased

Phone: 882-2041

Place of interview: Head of Bay d'Espoir

Date of interview: February 3, 1999

Interviewers: Kerri Ann Snook and Dale Willcott

George Kearley is the son of James and Caroline Kearley. He grew up in a family of six, five girls and himself. His sister's names were Mary, Jenny, Olive, Effie, and Maude. George was born on October 2, 1929, at his parents home in Head of Bay d'Espoir.

George's father, James, came from Partridge Harbour when James was a year old. His mother and father came in a dory. James Kearley lived in Head of Bay d'Espoir the rest of his life. George's mother Caroline was born in Head Bay D'Espoir.

There were many difficulties growing up back in those days. More than once he could remember crying for white bread, because he could only have brown bread. In the fall of the year, they would have to buy all their groceries. They would get about twelve to fifteen sacks of flour and sugar from the schooners. The schooners would not come back until the ice broke up in the Spring. Some foods they ate back then were; moose, caribou, cow, sheep; and a little bit of salt beef. Uncle George Perry would bring them up some white bread. Back then there weren't any roads, trucks, and the only light came from lamps.

Some home remedies he can remember were, if you had a cut you would put turpentine on the cut and do it up. When someone got the flu they would take lassy candy or kerosene.

Everyone, used a Water Lou or pot belly stove to heat their homes. In the winter, his mother would put a junk of wood in the oven to warm it. When it was warm, she would wrap it in some kind of cloth and put it at the foot of the bed to keep him warm. They washed clothes with a scrub-board that was hand made. George's mother would make all their clothes and moccasins. When he was twelve years old, he made his own clothes and still has a picture of it on the wall. He bought his first pair of shoes when he was twelve and working in the mill.

Christmas they would have "times," which was a party or a dance. They would have square dances and some people would sing. They would pay twenty-five cents for a cup of tea and soup. He remembered going to Mrs. Roberts to get some soup, he always had a spoon in his pocket, so he would eat the soup on the way down. In the summer time, they would go to St. Veronica's for a time, they would go by boat. In the winter they would walk across the ice. He would also play hockey on the ice in the winter time. For fun, they would put a rope across a path to trip people up. "Although there were many fish back then to be caught, I never did much hunting and fishing because I never had time." George said.

In 1937 or 1938 he started work at Robert's mill for eight years for fifty cents a day for twenty-six days a month. In 1948 he worked for Bowaters for eight years. For the first year and a half at Bowaters, he was the bull cook (outdoors) and made $1.40 per hour. He spent two and a half years as a cook for the same wage and the other four years he was cutting. In 1960, he worked with Co-op, cutting pulp wood for two years. He would get paid $14.00 a cord. All the wood was hauled out and rind at the time. In 1962, he started work with the Strickland Brothers. When he worked in the saw mills, he would drive dogs, saw, and would take people to different places. He would also clean up the sawdust under the belt. They would saw their wood with a cross cut. In 1964, he worked with the foundation when the Hydro project started. He worked there until 1967. In 1967, he started working with the highways until March of 1989. He earned $1.20 per hour. In June of 1967, the road across country officially open and the Gander River bridge was put in place the same year.

He remembered staying in a till and having a forty-five gallon drum cut in half, it was full of sand and the fire was built on that. Sometimes they would leave Monday and did not come home until Saturday because of the long walk. They would haul out their logs with an ox. On one occasion, he lost his goat on the way home one day. Sam Kearley and Bob found the goat and tied rope to the horns and hung it from the trees. The next morning, he was walking up the path and seen the goat hanging from the trees. The boys were hiding in the woods having a big laugh. He cut the goat down and went on in the woods. "I was eight years old when that goat hauled out 375 logs that winter." George said.

In 1982, the road in Swanger's Cove was washed out for three or four days. The only way to get to St. Alban's was to go up around Boggy Road and Airport Road. That night George was on a shift to watch the road. "I went to John Willie Crant's house, at four o'clock in the morning to tell him his house was going to float away." John said "I'll drown first." That same year there was a flood in Milltown by Franks Brook. In 1987, a flood happened by Clyde Sutton house, by the Greenwood school.

George can remember working with Les Willcott, Ralph Organ, Ed Benoit from St. Alban's, Ralph Organ from St. Joseph's Cove, Allen Kendall from Milltown, Roy Kendall, Edgar Kendall, and Gord Crant was the foreman. George remembered spending eleven years salting roads by hand. They had to get in the box of a truck and do the roads at any hour of the night. Sometimes, when the roads were too bad to go down a hill, they would throw salt out over the cab of the truck just to get down a hill. In the summer of 1972 and 1973, they carried their heavy equipment down to Conne River and worked on the roads for three miles. They would go as far as Berry Hill Brook in the summer time, but sometimes they would go as far as the Trans Canada Highway. They also had to do the Airport road, all of the side roads in St. Joseph's Cove and Voyce Cove Road before it was paved. All the trucks had to be loaded by hand because there was no loader. He remembered once when he and Les Willcott worked one weekend without any sleep. He thinks they loaded forty-eight truck loads of salt by hand. He recalled using a pick and shovel to dig ditches and put in covers.

Jim Kearley was the first wireless operator. The first tool to cut wood was a cross cut. The first truck he ever saw was when Bowaters came in. He was twenty years old. Old man Leslie had the first post office from what he could remember. The first doctor's house was in St. Alban's. When his daughter was born in 1956, he had to get a boat to St. Alban's. The first school and church were built one year before he was born in 1928. He only spent ten days in school. Roberts had the first store, located where the Willcott's take-out is now. It was the 1950's before a chain saw came to the bay. Uncle George Perry had the first radio. He had a wind charger on the side of his house to charge the battery. The first nurse was Ms. Simpson. If someone was really sick, they would take a boat to Hermitage and go across the neck to Harbour Breton. Planes arrived sometimes after a telegram was sent. He recalled once when Don Roberts had a kind of fever. They had to beat up all the ice to get the boat out. The first snowmobiles came with Bowaters. It had two tracks and carried ten to twelve people. The Garlands mill is where Warehouse 2000 is today.

Some best things that happened to Bay d'Espoir were when Bowaters started because it was the first thing to make an impact. Then the roads opened and connected us to the rest of the island. Hydro made a big impact by bringing electricity to the bay.

George married Maude Cribb in June 1949 and had seven children and moved in his own house in 1957 where he now resides.