Interview #30

Name: Primus Snook

Sex: Male

Age: 75

Place and date of birth: St. Alban's, September 2, 1924

Education: Grade 2

Religion: Roman Catholic

Number of children: 0

Phone: 583-3449

Place of interview: St. Alban's

Date of interview: February 23, 1999

Interviewers: Leah Marshall and Dale Willcott

Primus' parents were both born in St. Alban's. His father was a Snook and his mother was a Willcott. The only time he lived outside St. Albans was when he went overseas for five years. He said it was all right growing up as a child but he never had much to eat or many clothes to wear. Primus began to work when he was eleven years old. He grew up in a large family of nine brothers and four sisters.

While growing up, Primus played baseball, football and rolling hay. He said, "We made that a sport too." They would roll hay at each other to see who could get it to roll the farthest. When Primus was young, his did some evil things to people. Bill Walsh, who lived up Long Path, was coming down the road drunk so Primus and his friends put rope across the road. The ranger and Mike Organ came along and they were drunk. The rope hit them right around the knees and they went down. Primus and his friends also stole apples. They got caught sometimes. There was a ranger here at one time and they would "hauly" at him. Another crowd of children from out Long Shore would also "hauly" so the ranger was running back and forth all night. Primus took a keg of beer from Hoppy George one night and drank half of it. When he got half way up the road, the ranger took it from him. Primus was twenty-six years old then. Primus used to play many cards such as 120's in the past but now he just plays about two or three games of cribbage a day.

Primus never did many chores because their house was not boarded in. The wind blew right through it. He recalled making hay in the summer around the twentieth of June. The adults would cut the grass and the children would get a stick and turn it over twice a day. Also, in the summer, Primus would go in the woods and cut rinds. He would sell them to the Grand Bank boats. He received two dollars and fifty cents for a hundred rinds. Sometimes it took him two days to cut one hundred rinds. The rinds were used to salt fish that were taken to Barbados. Primus also dried the rinds, brought them out on his back, rolled them up into a big circle, and then unrolled them to dry. It usually took four days to dry. Uncle George Wells and Leonard Long would take them to sell. When the trees were rinded, Primus went back to cut the wood after it had dried.

Primus sawed logs for money since he was eleven years old. He had an ox at first to haul out his logs. He did this until Foundation came here.

When Primus was growing up, his family's house was nineteen by twenty-four feet with four bedrooms. Some of them had to sleep in the hallway because there wasn't enough room for everybody. The house Primus lives in now was built just after he came back from overseas.

Primus said that there were a lot of measles, chicken pox, and mumps. He said, "I had all that." Sulphur and sheep manure were used as home remedies. His mother seeped some sheep manure because he had the fever. Primus said, "It was gone the next morning." There were a lot of lice but people got stuff from the doctor last going off. Cherry bark was given to someone if they lost their appetite and it was also used to strengthen the blood.

Primus said that church was not very important in his everyday life. He had to go to Mass because if he didn't, he couldn't go outdoors. Father Hayes was like a mountie. He gave Primus a "smack up side the head" one night. He and Dan Hoskins were drunk. Primus was about to hit Father Hayes when Dan grabbed him. He said, "I couldn't see or anything."

The first job Primus got paid for was making fish barrels when he was fourteen years old. He got two dollars and fifty cents a day. He said he never saw his first pay check because he gave it to his parents. The check was seventy-five dollars. Primus said, "I never got any money until I was twenty-one years old."

Primus said that school was good but it used to be cold. The fire was lit every morning. He said that the teachers were rough and had leather straps and wooden sticks. Primus would always get in trouble for picking on the girls. He liked school but never had much chance to go because he had to get out on his own and work. He said, "In them days, you had to get out and make a living for yourself."

In the summer, Primus went to Mashquash and Blue Rock swimming. The boys were not allowed to swim with the girls because they were not allowed up with the men.

Primus said that Christmas was good though he never had anything. He said, "Sometimes you would get an apple or half of one." Mummering was the most fun because the boys and girls were allowed together then. Other celebrations included St. Anne's Day, August 15th (St. Virgin's Day), and the forty hours. People had to spend forty hours in the church. All the people from Conne came across and put up tents on Birchy Point. Primus went to listen to the people from Conne tell stories about trapping and stuff like that.

Primus said that the biggest change to Bay d'Espoir happened during the war. When the men went away, there wasn't much food around but when they got back, there was a lot of food. Primus did not like Joey Smallwood. He said, "He had big plans for Bay d'Espoir but didn't do anything. Was all lies. I can't even look at him on the television. Got to look away."

When Primus left to go overseas, he first had to go to Sydney. He said, "Nobody ever seen a car or truck." When the men went to shore, Billy Joe Hoskins saw two lights coming down the road. He thought it was someone with two flashlights. It was a car driving down the road. Primus said there were a few cars around when he came back.

Primus went overseas in 1941 at the age of seventeen. The men had to be eighteen but he lied about his age because everyone else was going so he wanted to go too. He said that there was work home but no money. He only got twenty-five cents an hour at home. Sixty percent of the bay went and they were mostly young ones. He said, "There were ten of us that were seventeen years old: Finton Organ, Gordon Long, Tom Organ. We didn't know the difference. We didn't know where we were going. Just knew we were going overseas to make some money." Primus went from Bay d'Espoir to Sydney, then to Montreal by train. He spent nine days in Montreal. Then, he got on a ship for thirty-three days to Liverpool. He said, "I got seasick from here to Halifax."

The Caribou was the name of the boat Primus went on. All of the food and supplies were there for him and the other men. The men got one ounce of butter a day but no sugar. Every eight days, they got a half pound of butter but they had beef to eat. Primus had a bunk on the way overseas but many people did not. There were a lot of submarines in the water but they had no problems. Primus and the other men had two jobs that were working in the woods and training for the war, just in case they were needed. Primus used a bucksaw to cut logs for the England government. He worked on a sawmill for one year because wherever the men were placed, they had to go. The men never knew what the logs were used for. It was all junipers and planted timber. Primus was allowed to leave camp but had to tell where he was going. To conclude, he said, "I really liked it over there. I wouldn't go back now because I'm too old."