Interview #21

Name: Mabel Organ

Sex: Female

Age: 65

Place and date of birth: Harbour Galley, October 7, 1933

Education: N/A

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: Plant Worker

Number of children: 4

Names of children and where they live:

Margaruerite - Toronto

Rosabelle - Port Aux Choix

Maxine - Toronto

Winnie - Toronto

Phone: 538-3675

Date of interview: February 15, 1999

Place of interview: St. Alban's

Interviewers: Dale Willcott and Kerri-Ann Snook

Mabel Organ is the daughter of Thomas and Winnifered. Her mother came from Sagona Island and her father was from Fox Island. Mabel was born in Harbour Galley, October 7, 1933. She only had one brother, and his name is Morgan. Her grandparent's were Harry and Emily Howse and Caroline and Morgan.

Before coming to St.Alban's in 1949, she and her family lived out Harbour Galley. They spent eleven years in Gaultois. She was fourteen when she moved into St.Alban's and was confirmed the same year. She also lived in St. John's for seven years and Ramea for three years.

She worked at the beach drying, packing, and shipping fish to St. Pierre. She started working at the age of eight until thirteen. The pay was $35.00 a month when she worked in Ramea that is if the boss did not know she got a tip. If the boss found out you received a tip, the boss would take it off your check. Mabel can remember telling her boss in Ramea, that she got a tip and when Mabel got her check it was short $20.00.

They would salt their fish in the winter, wash it in the spring, and then sell it in the summer. They would buy their food once a year when the coastal boat would come in and they would have to make it do until March. The kinds of food they would eat were; beans; peas; rice soup; fish; rabbits; turs; and molasses bread.

Some people would have their own vegetable gardens. Some people would have their own goats, pigs, and hens. Tom Green brought pigs to St. Alban's from Nova Scotia. They would feed them from April to November so they were not too skinny. They did not feed them too much because there wasn't a good market for them.

They would wash their clothes on a scrub-board or a gas washer. They would wash twice a week. The soap they would use was made out of animal fat. However, Sammy D. Collier on the coastal boat would bring in sunlight soap to use with the scrub-board. Mabel remembered having a dress and wearing it Saturday and would wash it out Saturday for Sunday to wear to church.

Doctor Parsons was the doctor, and he lived in Harbour Breton. The diseases that were around when she was growing up were; diphtheria, whooping coughs, measles, and quinsy throats.

When Mabel lived out Gaultois she remembered a little boy dying of diphtheria. His mother said "You were closing one grave, but you are going to have to open another grave." The mother died, they buried her one day after they buried her son. They buried them in wooden boxes.

Some home remedies were: molasses candy for flu and cough. Sulfur was used for chicken pox. Ginger wine and kerosene and cod liver oil would be used for some home remedies. The best thing that happen to Bay d'Espoir is when work came here, such as: the foundation for Hydro and Hydro, and the roads.

Mabel recalled there being a beaver in the brook down by Clarence Davis. People would get paid a lot for beaver. She remembered a muskrat being caught and the person carried it out to Gaultois to a store owner. The store owner gave them anything they wanted in the store. She said the young people today don't have too much to look forward to.