Interview # 5

Name: Mike House

Sex: Male

Age: 88

Place and date of birth: Ramea, January 10, 1911

Education: Grade 2

Occupation: Transmission linesman

Number of children: 11

Names of children:

Johnny (Deceased) Jake (Deceased)

Aloysius (Deceased) Pius

Mike Dominic

Rick Lynn

Jennifer Mildred

George

Phone: 538-3652

Place of interview: St. Alban's (Main Street)

Date of interview: January 13, 1999

Interviewers: Colin Pittman and Crystal Hoskins

Mike was born in Ramea on January 10th, 1911. Mike was a love child. Mike and his mother, Briget House, came to Bay d'Espoir when he was 6 months old. They moved in with Mary Crant's and Rosalyn House's mother. This is where he was raised up. He said it was pretty hard to live.

Some of Mike's friends were Ellis Organ and Fred Collier. He still keeps in contact with them. Mike said he drank homebrew with his friends as a pastime.

Mike's oldest son George was born at Voyce Cove. Mike recalled going outdoors on the ice and waiting hours for his son George to be born. There were no doctors or nurses so he was delivered by a midwife.

Mike worked with Hydro in 1964. He said he got better pay back then. He got $1.10 per hour. Before Hydro, Mike and others in St. Alban's lit their homes by two generators that were located at Path End. He said that Peter Farrell, John Farrell, and Victor Marshall worked there. Besides Hydro, Mike worked on transmissions lines on Terrenceville Road. Mike said the main job around then was cutting saw logs in the woods.

Mike celebrated Christmas by mummering and going house to house. Mike said when he was a child, there was poor housing and no roads, only foot trails. He said people were happy in the past because they had nothing to pay for. They just had to "get a bit of food, kerosine oil to fill a lamp, and a slop pail for a toilet. We managed it. "

Mike recalled one time when he and his wife Sue and one of their youngsters were in bed. When they woke up, it was so cold that Sue's hair was frozen to the bed. They only had a small stove. They would put a stick of wood in the stove and go to bed. The wood would burn out during the night. They would have to break their water bucket with a birch junk. Their bread would freeze up in the cupboards.

To get water, Mike had a well in the back of a bank and they brought water to their home by foot. After that, Mike put in an electric pump. Mike dug a well from across the "Big Mesh" and he laid pipes to his house. He worked hard but he could only get a dribble of water. He went to Goose Bay to work. When he came back, they were by his house with the water and Mike said "Thank God".

Mike said he had the first power saw in St. Alban's. Mike said the road around Bay d'Espoir was built in 1964 or 1965. Mike was both christened and married by Father St. Croix. Mike said the first school was where the old doctors house was (where the apartments by Warehouse 2000 Ltd. is located today). Mike's teacher was Richard MacDonald from Harbour Breton. Mike reached grade 1 or 2 in school. He came out of school because he had to go to work. Mike says there was a post office in St. Alban's before he was born and that it was located on Birchy Point.

Mike remembered some of the doctors that worked here. They were Dr. Rodregus, Dr. Rose, and Dr. Tom. They worked here at different times. Mike remembered that some midwives were Joan Collier, Katie Ann Reynolds, and Cecily Collier. A home remedy to relieve indigestion would be to drink cherry bark. Mike said it would settle his stomach.

Mike's son George says some of the best things that happened to St. Alban's were electricity, water and sewer, and employment. Mike recalled that some of the men that worked on projects with him were Jim Sigh and Bob Kirkpatrick - "they were horseman." Mike also said that Augustine Morris and Lawrence Long resettled from Great Jarvis but Lawrence has since moved to Sydney, Nova Scotia. Mike had a great deal of information to offer us and all of his information will be useful in helping us to preserve the past history of Bay d'Espoir.