Interview #56

Name: Joseph Dollimont

Sex: Male

Age: 65

Place and date of birth: St. Joseph's Cove, February 16, 1934

Education: Grade 9

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: Woodsman

Number of children: 0

Phone: 538-3720

Place of interview: St. Joseph's Cove

Date of interview: March 29, 1999

Interviewers: Carla Collier and Dale Willcott

Joseph Dollimont was born on February 16, 1934. His parents were Mark Dollimont and Sarah Lambert of St. Joseph's Cove. There were nine children in his family, six girls and three boys. They had a five-bedroom house. Joseph recalled one of his grandmothers was Elizabeth, which was his father's mother.

Some games Joseph remembered playing were football and hockey, using woodstocks. He still has his woodstocks today. He and his friends went skating off in the cove and sometimes they left St. Joseph's Cove and skated to St. Alban's. They went ashore at Swanger's Cove but some people went around the tickle.

Some chores Joseph did were bringing in the water from the well and bringing in wood. His family's well was where his house is today. Other chores included looking after the two cows, the two oxen, and the vegetable garden. Joseph said he never did any trapping. He did some hunting and catching rabbits. He had to bottle the meat up to save it because there were no freezers to put the meat in.

Joseph got as far a grade nine in school. He did not like school but his parents made him stay in school. He said, "Only for that, I would have came out." Some of his teachers were Miss O'Leary, Miss Tremblett, Miss Mulloy, Molly Collier and Viola Collier. The school in St. Joseph's Cove was also used as a church. Father Hayes came down about once a month to say Mass. Joseph thought that Father Hayes was a very strict man. Joseph, Stan Organ, and Dave Organ served Mass on the altar with Father Hayes. He said that Father Hayes would get mad at them, then give them money. Joseph liked when he got mad at him. Father Hayes came down from St. Alban's by boat to have Mass.

A doctor that Joseph recalled was Dr. Rodregus. He said if someone got sick, Father Hayes would treat them but if someone needed to go to the hospital, they had to go to Harbour Breton by boat. Some diseases he recalled were TB (Tuberculosis) and the flu. Home remedies used when Joseph was growing up included Buckley's mixture and turpentine, which was used for cuts. Once, Albert, an acquaintance of Joseph, accidentally chopped his ankle. Beatrice Walsh's grandmother did up the ankle with turpentine and it healed up.

Joseph said that people got married in the morning and Father Hayes had breakfast with the wedding couple. In the evening, there was a dance. Joseph recalled when Father Hayes came down for Mass once and the fire went out. Father Hayes got mad and walked home.

Some midwives that Joseph recalled were Aunt Eve and Cecily Collier. He said the role of women, while the men were working, included getting wood, doing the housework, looking after the animals, and milking the cows. Joseph said, "The women worked as hard as the men."

Joseph recalled that the prices of food and clothes were a lot cheaper in the past. His family got their food and clothing from St. Alban's or Milltown. He said, "You would have to go to St. Alban's or Milltown to get groceries anyway." Some stores Joseph recalled were Dick MacDonald's store, S. D. Collier's store, and Leo LeRoux's store. The people of St. Joseph's Cove had a co-op store, which was run by Leo LeRoux, and also Abe Collier's store, which he had before he was married. Joseph said, "You would go up there if you wanted a pack of smokes, piece of bologna, and a pop or bar." The store Abe Collier has today used to be on the other side of the road.

The work that was in Bay d'Espoir was mostly log cutting. Joseph remembered four sawmills in Bay d'Espoir. They were the Roberts' Brothers in Head of Bay d'Espoir, the Lakes and the Strickland Brothers in Milltown, and one in Morrisville. Joseph said, "They wouldn't get much for their logs. You would have to get a nice bit of logs to make fifty cents."

Joseph cut logs with Abe Collier on the weekends when he was still in school. He also worked with Abe on his summer holidays. Joseph worked with Bowaters for a couple of years. The rest of the time he went to Corner Brook and other places. He travelled by coastal boat. He went in the spring of the year and came back in the fall. The first thing that Joseph bought with his wages was a transistor radio. He bought it for sixty dollars in Deer Lake. He said, "You did not get much wages." He recalled only getting five dollars a cord and only got two cords a day if he were lucky.

Joseph celebrated Christmas about the same as he does today except there were no clubs back then. There was a dance at the school. For gifts, he got food, clothes, or something that he needed. For midnight Mass, he walked to St. Alban's. He also walked to St. Alban's on Saturday evenings for confession. On Sundays, he walked to St. Alban's to go to the rails without having breakfast. After he was finished with the rails, he walked back home for dinner.

Joseph recalled that for Easter, he got hens eggs. He said, "Not too often would we get a chocolate egg like they do today." On St. Anne's Day, Joseph went to Conne River for a special celebration. He went to Conne River in George Wells' schooner one year. George picked up people if they wanted to go the St. Anne's Day celebration.

Joseph said that people heated their homes with wood stoves and lit their homes with kerosene lamps. People used a scrub board and a scrub tub to wash their clothes in. They made their own soap out of ashes and fat from an animal to wash the clothes. This soap was called fat/ lye soap.

If someone from St. Joseph's Cove wanted to mail a letter, they went to St. Alban's. They had their own post office in St. Joseph's Cove afterwards. It was run by Dave Collier's mother and located where Edmund Sutton lives today. It was later shifted to where Dave Collier's mother lives today. Joseph said that if someone had to pick up a parcel, they would still have to go to St. Alban's to pick it up.

When Joseph was growing up, his family never had a television. He bought his first one when he got married twenty-seven or twenty-eight years ago. The first telephone he remembered was the one in the post office. Gordon Long had a telephone as well.

Joseph thought that the weather back then was much colder than today. He said, "We would get a scatter good winter but a lot of snow." One disaster that happened in St. Joseph's Cove was when Mick McDonald's schooner drove ashore one year. She was moored off by Albert Willcott's house. He said, "The storm came up and drove her right up to the beach." The boat was really damaged and Mick never put his schooner over board again.

Joseph said that the best things that happened to Bay d'Espoir were when Hydro came here and when he received his first Old Age Pension cheque on March 29, 1999.

As you can see, Joseph Dollimont was a great help in preserving our past.