Interview #51

Name: Susie Kearley

Sex: Female

Age: 82

Place and date of birth: St. Veronica's, April 17, 1917

Education: N/A

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: N/A

Number of children: 0

Phone: 882-2833

Place of interview: St. Veronica's

Date of interview: March 23, 1999

Interviewers: Carla Collier and Pamela Organ

Susie Kearley was born on April 17, 1917. Her mother's name was Alice Skinner, who was born in Fortune Bay, and her father is Albert Organ. Susie's family consisted of eleven children including herself. There were nine girls and two boys. Their names are Albert Organ, Leo Organ, Agnes Williams, Lila Willcott, Veronica Collier, Magdalene Collier, Flora Collier, Theresa Organ, Pauline Mill, and Marcella MacDonald. Susie is eighty-two years old and has lived in St. Veronica's all her life. Susie's husband was Anthony Kearley, who passed away five years ago.

Susie said while she was growing up, she did mostly hard work and there was not much playtime. Most of the hard work included setting potatoes, tending to her family's vegetable garden, cutting and packing up firewood, cutting hay, and "lugging up" kelp from the beach, which was used as fertilizer for the vegetables. They also had a herd of sheep that they had to tend on. Through her years growing up, she played cards as a pastime and for fun.

Susie did not attend school for very long. She only went for a couple of months. Some teachers she remembered were Miss Wade and Miss Healey.

Susie remembered that the first church was built in the early 1900's. She thought that the church was better back then. Some priests that she recalled were Father Adam, Father Nolan, Father St. Croix, and Father Hayes. Susie recalled going to Father Hayes for medical reasons and he also played the role of a dentist. Some serious illnesses that she remembered were Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough and Yellow Jaundice. Some home remedies that her family used included boiling the spruce tops and drinking the broth to cure the flu and using turpentine from trees to stick open wounds together, which made it heal faster. Susie remembered that Ann Organ was the midwife that delivered her.

While the men worked at their daily chores, the women tended to the chores around the house such as scrubbing, cleaning, cooking, and tending to the kids. For washing clothes, they used an old barrel, which was sawed off and used as a wash tub. Back then, they washed all their clothes by hand. Some other chores that the women had to see to involved working outside the house. These included tending to the vegetable garden, sawing up wood, shearing the sheep, and tending to the cows.

In order to get water for household use such as washing, cooking, cleaning, and scrubbing, Susie had to walk to the well and bring the water back in buckets. She was very careful over how much water they used. She did not try to waste any because it was hard work walking back and forth to the well lugging water. People heated their home and cooked their meals by using a wood stove. They used kerosene lamps to light their homes and sometimes candles but they could not get them often.

Susie said that the prices of food and clothes have changed a great deal from the past. She said, "We use to get barrels and bags of flour that we had to lug up from the land wash which the steamers brought in." The closest store to their home was owned and operated by the Roberts Brothers, who also owned a sawmill. Some other sawmills she remembered were owned by the Strickland's and the Lakes.

Susie stated that her family got a few articles of clothing from the store but not too much. They bought their own materials and made their own clothes. They also used old flour bags for clothing materials. They knitted their own socks, pullovers, mitts, scarves, hats, and even their own underwear.

Susie said, "There was not much going on at Christmas time. You might receive two or three candies for treats around that time of year." During Christmas, everyone went around to each others homes for dances. She recalled that the houses did not have any canvas on the floor. Women hooked their own mats and used them to cover up the floor. Mummering was a big part of the Christmas celebration. She said, "Mummering was very similar to the way the mummer's song video was."

Before roads were constructed in St. Veronica's, everyone traveled by boat and walked through foot paths. They even walked from St. Veronica's to St. Alban's. She said, "This walk took about two hours to complete." Susie thought that everything got better when Foundation put the powerhouse here and built the roads. She said that the best things that happened to Bay d'Espoir were receiving power and getting roads to get around on.

Susie recalled that a post office was located in Head of Bay d'Espoir, where the cemetery is today. She also recalled that someone down by J. J. Sutton's had the first telephone. This area was known as "Leslie's Meadow" while Susie was growing up. Before there were telephones, in order to talk with anyone, people had to go directly to their home. She also remembered that Bill Hartery had the first truck.

Susie's family never had a television while she was growing up. She said nobody knew anything about televisions then. She said, "If you were to pick up a paper and see a T.V. on it, you would wonder what kind of thing is that."

Susie recollected some of the main jobs around when she was growing up. The main job was working in the sawmills. She remembered that S.D. Collier had a store on the beach in St. Alban's.

Susie remembered the tidal wave. On that particular day, a lot of water came up around their house. She recalled there were two weddings that day. They were the weddings of Jim Hoskins and Victor Collier. When it comes to the weather, Susie said it has changed a lot. She said it is a lot warmer, with less snow then when she grew up as a child.

In the last twenty years, Susie has been using electric heat. Since a companion has moved in with her recently, she has put a stove in her home because he prefers wood heat. As you can see, many things have changed over the years but Susie was a great help to us in preserving the past.