Interview #70

Name: Janet Organ

Sex: Female

Age: 70

Place and date of birth: Inverness, Scotland August 7, 1928

Education: Grade 9

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: Homemaker

Number of children: 8

Names of children and where they live:

Brian - Head of Bay d'Espoir Jerome - Halifax

Gerard - St. Alban's Rodney - Halifax

Jean - Halifax Fiona - Halifax

Sheila - St. Alban's Betty - St. Alban's

Phone: 538-3337

Place of interview: St. Alban's

Date of interview: April 13, 1999

Interviewers: Carla Collier and Pam Organ

Janet Organ was born August 7, 1928. Janet's parents are Donald and Elizabeth McKinnon from Inverness, Scotland. Janet started when she was four years old in infant school. Janet went to school in Scotland and she went as far as grade nine in school. When she was thirteen, Janet worked for a Ms. Saunders in Scotland for four years. Janet married George Organ on March 26, 1946. They left Inverness April 16, 1946 to go to St. Alban's. They crossed from North Sydney to Port aux Basque on the S.S. Kyle. They arrived in St. Alban's May 3, 1946. Janet has been living here for fifty-three years this April. When they got to St. Alban's, Janet and George stayed with George's parents, they called them Uncle George and Aunt Dina. Janet said when she came to Newfoundland, it was the first time she saw salt fish, salt beef, molasses, salt pork, and moose. She said there were no roads only pathways and the only way you could travel were by boat or walk.

As a child, Janet would play hopscotch, skipping, and ball games. In her home, she had a wood stove for heat and kerosene lamps for light. She later had Aladin lamps that gave better light. She also had a well for water. There was a church here when Janet came to St. Alban's and Father Hayes was the priest. Janet also mentioned that her grandparents had mass in their home too, she remembered her mother-in-law mentioning it to her.

Janet said there were no doctors in St. Alban's, but Father Hayes did a lot of medical work. He even pulled teeth for Janet. She said if there was an emergency you would go to Harbor Breton by boat. Some illnesses that were around were much the same as today such as the flu and chicken pox. Some home remedies mentioned were using a poultice on a rising finger or if you drove a nail in your foot. They also used iodine for cuts.

Most of the work that existed when Janet came to St. Alban's was wood work. Janet's husband George and his father would cut small birch, split them with a drawing knife and make a pack of hoop poles that they would sell to the schooners. George worked at camp ten with Bowaters and in Salmon River with McNamara Construction. He also worked on construction in Churchill Falls.

Janet's husband George died in 1972 from a heart attack. She was left to raise eight children. Midwife Joanie Collier helped borne six of them. Eve Collier delivered one of them and the other was born in Harbour Breton. Some other midwives that she could remember were Ms. Angela Cox and Ms. Cecily Collier.

The role of the women while the men worked was looking after the children, washing clothes, sawing, cleaving and packing up wood. She also cooked, baked bread and cleaned the house. She washed her clothes in an old molasses container and boiled her whites in an iron pot using lye and then she would rinse her clothes in 'blue'. To iron clothes she would heat up an old fashion iron on the stove. She later used a Galvanized tub for washing and then an electric washer with a 'ringer'. When she first got electricity the first thing she bought was an electric kettle. But she always had a battery operated radio.

Janet said when Christmas came around they always had a bottle of syrup, peppermint or Ginger wine that you could have cold or hot. She would have a lunch on Christmas Eve and then she would attend Christmas Eve mass. For Christmas treats she got apples and oranges in her stocking. She said a lot of friends would go house to house visiting, telling stories, singing songs, step dancing and mummering. There would be a lot of buns, cakes, and homebrew would be served for Christmas cheer. For Easter she said she did the same as Christmas. She went visiting friends and ate a lot of cakes, cookies and pies for treats. She would save up fresh eggs, boil them and decorate them for Easter.

For St. Anne's Day, Janet said she would try to have something new to wear. If she could not buy it she would make it herself. She would go to mass at Conne River. The first time she went to mass for St. Anne's Day she went in Uncle Leonard Long's schooner. After that she went in George's motor boat. When they would return to St. Alban's, they would have a "time" in the hall.

Janet mentioned a telegraph operator name Vera Willcott and a post office out on Birchy Point. She remembered Father St. Croix having the first radio. George's parents said they would stand outside his house and listen to it.

Janet said the weather back when she was growing up was very harsh. The bay would be full of ice and steamers could not get pass. People would have to go by horse and sleigh to get freight. The first chesterfield that Janet and George bought came in by steamer, Basil Willcott brought it ashore. They bought it in Eaton's in 1954. Janet said the best thing that happened to Newfoundland was Confederation. Janet had a lot of useful information to offer us and was a great help in preserving the past.