Interview # 72

Name: Ted Snook

Sex: Male

Age: 67

Place and date of birth: St. Alban's, August 5, 1931

Education: Grade 8

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: Woodsmen and Construction

Number of children: 9

Names of children and where they live:

Jim Margaret

Eric Madonna

Theresa Sylvester

Damian Gerry

Edmund

Phone: 538-3286

Date of interview: April 20, 1999

Place of interview: St. Alban's

Interviewers: Carla Collier and Dale Willcott

Ted Snook was born August 5, 1931 in St. Alban's. His parent's Claire Willcott and James Snook were also born in St.Alban's. Ted's mother died in 1939 when he was just seven years old. After his mother died, Ted went to live with his grandmother. Ted stayed with his grandmother until he moved to Corner Brook to work. He was sixteen at the time and he stayed for six years. Ted met his wife in Corner Brook, his wife was from the Bay of Islands.

"Growing up was all right I suppose, the kids today would never put up with it. We did, but we never had a choice." Ted said. "Back in the earlier days we use to suffer more because we never had clothes like today. We never had a lot of food, but never went hungry. There use to be rabbits and caribou, not many moose around back then." Ted had many chores to do when he was a child. He had to feed the sheep and hens. He also had to plant vegetables such as potatoes, cabbages, and turnips. He would carry kelp from the landwash to put on the garden. Ted had to help his grandmother saw wood and pack it away. He would also help her card wool and pick it. Although Ted had a lot of work to do, he still found time to enjoy himself. In the winter time, he would go sliding or skating on the bay. Ted can recall when the steamer would come in and people would walk out over the ice with their horses to bring in the freight. In the summer time, Ted would go swimming or fishing. Ted and his family would go up to the airport and fish in the small pond. Sunday was the only day they would do this because everybody worked six days a week.

Between chores and playing Ted went to school. Some teachers he can remember were Molly Willcott, Mary Wade and Mr. Perry. "They were all strict, you had to be careful of the strap." Ted said. When Ted was seven, he became an altar boy. "I went on the altar when I was seven years old. Father St. Croix was here then. Then Father Hayes came, he was a strict man. He would chase you home if he seen you out on the roads after a certain hour. He was a cop, doctor and priest all in one. He was a good doctor, he helped a lot or people who were sick." Ted said.

Ted only made it as far as grade eight in school because at fourteen he went to work. His first job was making draw hoops for fish barrels. Ted would cut small birch and alders to make the hoops. He would sell them to S.D. Collier for four or five dollars a barrel. Schooners would then come and pick it up. The first good paying job he ever had was working on the primary school. "I would use a beef barrel with two handles on it. I had to walk down to Gally Brook. I would get some water and bring it up to the school for the cement. I also had to bring rocks and sand up the hill. We worked sixty hours a week, $3.00 per day. We were really doing good then. It was hard work but it had to be done." Ted said. The first thing Ted bought was a pair of skates at Garlands store for fifty cents. S.D. Collier had a grocery store out there where Foodtown is today. Since he was fourteen or fifteen years old he has been buying his groceries there.

The role of women back then was clearly defined. The women had to do all the housework. They had to clean, bring wood and water for the family and raise a family. "They always had big families of nine or ten children, back then. There were more kids around then. When my son Jim, started school there was over fifteen hundred up there." Ted said.

Ted said that St. Patrick's day, St. Anne's Day, the 15th of August, Easter and Christmas were big holidays back then. "Christmas was good fun, lots of mummers going from house to house." Ted said.

Some illnesses' Ted can remember were the chicken pox, measles and T.B.. "T.B. was the worst one, it killed many people. Many young ones over on that hill, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old over in that old graveyard. When it struck a family, three or four would die. Sometimes they would live a long time and sometimes they died pretty fast." Ted said. Ted also said there wasn't a lot of medicine around at the time. The only medicines were home remedies. Cherry bark, Juniper and Spruce bark would be seeped out and would be drunk. When you had the measles, they would seep out sheep manure. "Back in them days there was no such thing as to get an ambulance and go to the hospital. You had to get a steamer and go to Harbour Breton. Sometimes you could be gone a week or maybe even two, if she got storm bound or if she went to Port aux Basques you would be gone two weeks." Ted said.

Ted said the biggest change to happen to Bay d'Espoir was when we went under Confederation. "Well it got better, but when I went to work was the biggest change for me. I worked down Boggy and stated getting more money. Then I worked for $1.10 an hour, $66.00 a week. I done all right then and had a family. Then with the electricity hooked up I had to started buying appliances that cost a nice bit." Ted said.

"The weather sure has changed from the earlier days compared to today. Back then from November to April or May you would never see the bare ground. There would be three or four feet of ice in the bay. Years ago when Augustine Morris use to put out his lobster pots around April the 20th they would have to get the icebreaker in. The summers were warmer than now, since the late 60's the summer have cooled down a bit." Ted said.

Ted had a lot of useful information and was very helpful in helping preserve our past.