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01:Sandy Reid - Full Interview:Part1
02: On Why Move to Reidville
03: More On Why we Came
04: On Clearing Land
05: On The First Cabin
06: On Working
07: On Guiding
08: On Furring
09: On Meeting Wife - Florence
10: On Woods Camps
11: On His Father - William Thomas Reid
Sandy Reid: Interview by Louise Janes, March 4, 1988
Louise: This is Louise Janes and its March 4, 1988 and I’m speaking with Mr. Sandy Reid in Reidville. Now Mr. Reid I’d like to have your permission to use this tape whenever we need to use it.
Sandy: Yea-up. Gooden’ nuff maid.
Louise: Thank you sir. Now Mr. Reid where were you born?
Sandy: I was born in Bonne Bay.
Louise: And when?
Sandy: 1919, 19th of December.
Louise: And how long did you live there?
Sandy: I lived there about twelve and half years.
Louise: And ah, did you go to school there?
Sandy: Yea, I went to school about two years, two and half years, something. (Is that all?) At that time goin’ to school then, Lar’, we had to walk a mile and half to get to school, went about two or two and half years, that’s all.
Louise: So what grade did you get?
Sandy: Ahh only grade three, two; (big chuckle) only grade two when we came over here.
(On Why The Family Moved to Reidville)
Louise: So why did you come over here?
Sandy: Well our brother Stead, he come over here about ten years before that and he worked with Uncle Norm Nichols on the line in Nicholsville. And then he got married and he got a contract with the Bow’.. with the company up here on the river cutting wood and he shifted up here. Shifted up there over there where the airport is at now, the point over there, (Yeah) and then we come over that summer in ’32. That summer (19)32 we come over here. Me an’ father an’ me sister, come through the country. (In ’32?) Yup, that was in August we come over and (muffled we …) that following September we shifted over. (Oh yes!) Took our stuff. He never sold his house in Bonne Bay then but he had his house over there. And we shifted over and shifted up on the river and that winter we lived with him. (Yeah.) Well before I gets ahead of me story, we come over and Uncle Jack Nick - Uncle Jack Neary rowed us up the river up to where he lived over there on the point. That’s about four miles. (Is that right?) Yeah.
Louise: You rowed over from Bonne Bay?
Sandy: No no, No from Nicholsville (Oh, from Nicholsville?) We come up from Nicholsville.
Louise: How did you come over there now?
Sandy: Oh we come over, walked over, (Walked over from Bonne Bay?), from Lomond. We used to come up in boat to Lomond and then we walked through the country. Two days or part of two days coming through.
Louise: And where would you stay nighttime?
Sandy: Ohh, they had camps, old camps along the road. St Lawrence people had camps over there at that time. (Oh, I see.) And we stayed in the camps over there to Big Bonne Pond and then we walked through the next day through the country. (Big Chuckle)
Louise: And what time of the year was that now?
Sandy: That was in August
Louise: So it wasn’t too ..ah!!
Sandy: No, no it was warm weather then you know, (Yeah), few flies (Big Chuckle)
Louise: Yes I guess. So it was just you and your father came, was it?
Sandy: And sister. (And your sister?) Charlotte.
Louise: And where was your mother?
Sandy: Oh, over in Bonne Bay. (Oh, I see.) Yes she was still in Bonne Bay. (Yeah.) So in September we went back then and September we went a, we shifted over. Stead and ‘de came over with two horses – over to Lomond and took our stuff. (All your furniture?) All our furniture and we had four or five sheep and I drove a cow through. (You brought sheep too!!) Yelp, brought four sheep and a cow, (Yeah.) I drove the cow through the country. (Yeah.) Yes sir, come over and then we got the boats down there and come up, come up the river.
Louise: Now you were on the other side or on the Reidville side?
Sandy: No we were on the other side. (Your father and ..) We lived that winter with Stead and ‘de over on that side, they had their house built over on that hill, over there. (Oh did they?) Yelp, And then the next year we shifted over here, built a log cabin down there in-under the hill.
(On Why We Came)
Louise: Now why did you come over here?
Sandy: (Cat meows) The cats speaking. (Chuckles) (Aaa?) I don’t know. Well why we come over here because in Bonne Bay at that time there was only fishing. There was no work there only fishing and the “old man” and thee’ used to fish but Stead had a contract from Bowaters, er it wans’t Bowaters then, ‘twas eh (NP&P co). (Now this was your Uncle?) No, me brother. (Oh! Your brother?) Stead was our brother see by’
Louise: Yeah. So he was over here before you?
Sandy: Oh he was over here ten years before, he is the feller that come over with and worked with Uncle Norm Nichols down here in Nicholsville on the line, he was on the line that time, running telephone lines through the country.
Louise: Now how much older is he than you?
Transcribers NOTE: Took a little time to figure this one out so I’ll translate just the conclusion. Enjoy the interaction if you wish by listening to the interview.
Sandy: Oh yeah, yeah 16 is right maid.
Louise: So he was over here settled down before you?
Sandy: Oh he was over here settled down, oh yes.
Louise: And he had his house across the river.
Sandy: Right across the river.
Louise: That’s where he settled.
Sandy: See boy, he and Uncle Harry Janes shifted up here handy about the same time , up here on the river. Uncle Harry was over on that side; down below that and Stead was up here and Uncle Sam Feltham was in Junction. That’s the three families, you know, were up here at that time.(Yeah) So then he had a contract with Bowaters, er with the company, and we come over here and went cutting wood, or father and ‘de did, went cutting wood with him.
Louise: So now when you decided to move over here to build your house you were the first ones here?
Sandy: First ones. Built a log cabin down there over the hill. (Is that right?) Yelp, well we took in eh, well they come over here and they took in fifty acre block of land. At that time the land was blocked up here. (Who by?) The government had it blocked up. (Yeah.) The English Government I believe it was the ones that blocks it- first part. And they got a block of land over here, it was good land and he (William Thomas) said we are going farming.
Louise: Yeah. So now how did you manage to get your land?
Sandy: Oh now we got our land from the Government.
Louise: Did you have to pay for it?
Sandy: Oh yeah, five dollars I believe ‘twas fer the block of land, fifty acre block. (Five Dollaor??) Five dollars and we had to get it surveyed, Uncle Verge from Corner Brook or down to Curling, old man Verge surveyed it for us. (Is that right?) Yelp. So before we got it surveyed now, we took in the land first and got it come in from St. John’s, cause you had to get come on from St. John’s and we got it come in from St. John’s and at that time you had a five year lease on it. If you cleared a quarter of in five years you would get a grant. (Oh I see.) So now before, now that’s about three or four years after that I took in a fifty acre block , I took in a fifty acre block, and at that time Herb and ‘de was over here and they took in a fifty acre block and Doug took in a fifty acre block and Uncle Verge came up and surveyed it all fer us, from Curling.
Louise: Oh Yeah. And did you have to pay for that?
Sandy: Yeah, five dollars. (Five dollars to get it surveyed?) Yeah
Louise: So now your father (William Thomas Reid) got the grant then?
Sandy: Yeah.
Louise: There was nothing cleared?
Sandy: Nothing whatever, nothing whatever. (All woods?) Yelp. We all got a grant for our own land then. Father got a grant for he’s. We got a grant for mine. We all got our grant
(On Clearing Land)
Louise: So now you had to clear the land?
Sandy: Yelp, we all started clearing the land. Well ‘twas eh, I had a brother then, there was eh Henry, Henry was me brother, and Willie and meself and the “old man” (William Thomas). There was four of us. We started and we cleared the land up over the hill and the way we went in we started setting vegetables and gardens then for the first couple of years.
Louise: How did you clear the land now?
Sandy: Cleared the land with a horse. With a horse hauled out the stumps, piled it up in piles and burn it.
Louise: Was the soil good?
Sandy: Oh Yes, ‘tis very good soil here.
Louise: So you set your gardens up here on top of the hill?
Sandy: Yea, up on top of the hill. Set our gardens up here on top of the hill. Yup.
Louise: So did you get many vegetables that year now? The first year?
Sandy: Oh, the first year I believe we had, well at time ‘twas a, you got you had to have 80 pound sacks of potatoes and I believe it ‘twas 250 sacks of potatoes we growed that year. But then at that time ‘twas a job to sell potatoes. (Is that right?) Most everybody was growing a few vegetables and one thing or another then. So we went to work and next year we didn’t set in so many. Only a few next year.
Louise: Did you have a cellar or anything?
Sandy: Oh yes, outside cellar down in the ground. Done in. (Yeah)
(On First Cabin)
Louise: What was your first cabin like that you built?
Sandy: Oh the first cabin, was a log cabin the first one. And then we shifted, we shifted further up on the hill, in-under the hill there and we built another log cabin. Then we give the first one for a school house.
Louise: Now were the walls finished in that first one?
Sandy: Yes, Oh yes. It was all finished. We lived in over a year.
Louise: Yeah. And what did you have on the walls?
Sandy: Oh, we just had this brown paper, that’s all was on the walls. Done up with lumber and that inside.
Louise: Did you have the paper painted?
Sandy: Oh yes, you had it painted.
Louise: And what were the ceilings like?
Sandy: Oh, the ceilings was the same thing, ‘twas done over with paper, right on the logs but it was done over with paper. And the ceilings were cross framed up, at that time we used to get a bit of lumber here and there, fellers sawing around Deer Lake.
Louise: So you weren’t married then?
Sandy: No, wouldn’t married then no, no. No, we build another house upon the hill before I was married. Up in-under the hill there. The next one, you know.
Louise: And eh, you gave this first one for a school?
Sandy: Yeah
Louise: Now there were no more people living here on this side, in Reidville?
Sandy: At that time it ‘twas. The second year we come here Herb shifted over (Oh yes, From across?) No, from Bonne Bay. (Oh he shifted over from Bonne Bay?) He shifted over from Bonne Bay, come over here, and then Doug shifted over. (Yeah.) Yeah.
Louise: So there were three families?
Sandy: Three families over here then.
Louise: So did they have young children?
Sandy: Herb had one, but they wouldn’t very old. And Doug had one. (Florence in background: Eugene) Yes Doug had Eugene. (Transcribers Note: Doug actually had Willis at that time, 8 or 9 years old).
Louise: Why did you bother school with only two children?
Sandy: Well, on the other side of the river they all had a few children. Mr. Janes had a few, Stead and de had a few and over in Junction Uncle Sam Feltham had a few and they used to all come over to school.
Louise: Now this was in the (19)30’s?
Sandy: This was in the, what, I say the 38’s. (38’s) Yeah,
Louise: So the Depression was practically over then, was it?
Sandy: Yeah, well it was just about over but “Compression” was on then for a nice little while. T’wouldn over then, you couldn’t go down and buy lots of grub then, you never had lots of money.(Chuckling) First when I ..(hesitating) (Yeah, come on?) First when I got married (Yeah) we used to go into the woods and the company had a store down there that we used to get coupon books. We’d go in and get a five dollar coupon book to do the family a week in grub. That’s what we used to get – a five dollar coupon book.
Louise: Then you had your own Vegetables?
Sandy: We had our own vegetables, and meat and stuff like that. (You kept cows, did ya?) We kept sheep and cows.
Louise: Now did you have fresh milk or was the cow.. ?
Sandy: Oh Yes, we had fresh milk for years, we keep cows for years.
Louise: Is that right? Now did you sell it or did you just have it?
Sandy: No, no there was nowhere to sell it. ‘cause we used to have to paddle down from here, down to Nicholsville, and walk over to Deer Lake to get our groceries. (Yeah) Ha, Ha or get Uncle John Neary er someone to bring it over on horse for us, over to the river, and then they paddle up.
Louise: So the second house that you built now was that still a log cabin or was it a..?
Sandy: Yeah that was a log cabin, the second one. But it was done better.
(On Working)
Louise: Yeah, would you go away to work in the woods or a..?
Sandy: Oh yes I used to go away.
Louise Before you were married, now I’m talking about?
Sandy: Before I was married, I started work when I was I suppose about sixteen.(Yeah) Started in with the “old man” in the woods.
Louise: And you’d be gone all week?
Sandy : Well we, first when we started we’d be home every night, because we cut there on Trout Brook. (Oh yes) Ahh, Tommy Cooper come up there then, he had a contract (Yeah) from the company and we started come home every night. We used to go in and come in the night time. ‘Twas only about a mile and half in there.
Louise: Yeah, and a, so you were more or less clearing the land here in Reidville.
Sandy: That’s right, yelp, (Yeah) still clearing land.
Louise : Now, how long were you down there with your father before you got married?
Sandy: I was over here about four years, just about four years when I got married. Then I built a house, me own log cabin.
Louise: Did ya? Yeah, Down there too?
Sandy: Down there too. Down there over the hill. (Down below the hill?) He was over there and I was down here.
Louise: Did you have to dig a well or anything?
Sandy: Oh Yes, oh yes. (You dug a well?) Dug a well for water (By hand?) Oh yes, by hand, everything was done by hand then. (Chukles)
Louise: How far down did you have to go to get water?
Sandy: Oh, ‘bout eight feet.
Louise: ‘Bout eight feet? That wasn’t very far, was it?
Sandy: No no, that’s not very far. Only ‘bout eight feet down there.
Louise: But then you didn’t have the water goin’ through the house, did you?
Sandy : No, never had no water goin’ thro’ the house ‘til we shifted up here on the river. Up here.
Louise : How long was that?
Sandy : Ohh, I lived down there - we lived down there ‘bout what? ‘bout fifteen years , I guess. Down there over the hill. (Yeah). Then at the time, we lived down there after I got married and that I went and bought a tractor. (Oh yeah) TD14 tractor, and I went to work. Then I went to work. The second year I had my tractor, I worked in Corner Brook the first year I had me tractor, with Lundrigan, and the next year I shifted down the shore, went down the shore with ‘em working. And then I come back and Deer Lake Base started. (Oh Yes) Then I went over there to work and that year that Deer Lake Base started I hauled this house and the one Lorne built. Now father and ‘de had a log cabin down there but Lorne built a wooden house down there, a board house. And I hauled the two of them up over the hill. Travelled the tractor right around (Is that right?) and drove her up here and hauled it over the hill.
Louise: Now a, you were here four years before you got married? (Yeah) Yeah, So you lived with your mother all the time?
Sandy: Oh Yes.
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(On Guiding)
Louise : Now a, would you go away very much then, would you go hunting?
Sandy: Oh a, will I used to go up with sports, up around Big Falls and stuff like that, up with sports. I’d be gone for a week, two weeks to a time, in the summer time.
Louise: What do you mean, up with sports?
Sandy: Up with sports, where you gets sports fishing, salmon fishing and that. (Yeah) Up the Big Falls (Oh Yeah) Oh yes. We used ‘da.
Louise: What do you mean, you were guiding?
Sandy: Guiding ya. Oh yes, it’s guidement ya. We used to leave down here and pole right on up. We’ve poled as high as, poled as fer as Eddy’s Lakes. (Aides Lake)
Louise: What do you mean – poled up, with the canoe?
Sandy: With a canoe, yeah, where you’d have a man or a woman aboard and their three or two weeks grub and you’d pole right on up to Eddy’s Lakes. There was no way to get there then, first when we started (Yeah). Pole up there and be gone perhaps for two weeks, perhaps seventeen, eighteen days.
Louise: Were there lots of salmon?
Sandy: Oh thousands of salmon,(Yeah) thousands then, ah yes.(Chuckling)
Louise: What would you stay in up there now?
Sandy: O no, tents, we’d take tents with us, yeah. (I see.) Stay in tents maid, all on the river, fish all along. Yeah.
Louise: So how long did you do that, guide?
Sandy: Ohhh I was guiding for years. (Were ya?) Yes I used to work winter time in the woods and stuff like that and then summer time I’d go guiding for awhile.
Louise: Now how much would you get for that, for guiding?
Sandy: Ump, the first- ha, the first time I went up I got a dollar a day. (Is that right?) That’s what we got a dollar a day, that’s what guide wages was then (Yeah) – a dollar a day.
Louise: I suppose there were lots of animals around then, too, were there?
Sandy: Well first when we come there was hardly any moose here. (Is that right?) Oh no, was hardly any moose a t’all – there was lots of caribou. But there was hardly any moose, no, you might walk in the fall of the year all day long and not hardly see a moose track. (Is that right?) First when we come here. Yeah.( But lots of Caribou?) Thousands of Caribou. (Now were they down around the river?) No, up, up back in the country here, they was. Was lots of ‘em around there. (Yeah)
Louise: You didn’t have to have any license then did ya?
Sandy: No, no wouldn’t have no license then, ha ha ha. We killed ‘em then still you wouldn’t ‘loud to kill ‘em. (But you did it?) You killed it.
Louise: And a, what about rabbits now, and eh?
Sandy: Was thousands of rabbits. (Yeah). Was always lots of rabbits. Every since I ..
Louise: Could you set snares now.. Now did you clear your land right, your trees right away down by your house down under the hill?
(On Furs)
Sandy: Yeah, we cleared it down there but we didn’t clear it up here but I had, when Effie and Hazel got I suppose they was six or seven years old I had a barn up here on the hill (Yeah) and they used to come up and I had then little small muskrat traps and they used to set ‘em here and catch rabbits in ‘em. (Is that right?) Yes, they used to set ‘em here and catch rabbit in ‘em. (Yeah?) Ha, yes sir. (They’d get lots of rabbits, would they?) Thousands of rabbits here (Yeah) yes.
Louise: Now what about fox and lynx?
Sandy: No, ‘Twas nice few fox and lynx but at that time lynx and fox was a big price and was a lot of people catching them then (Oh yes). Furriers used to be out trapping them all the time. (Would they?) Oh yea, (Up around here?) Oh yes, oh yes. See they used to come, they used to come, I got a uncle Jake Major, he is me uncle, and they used to come from Bonne Bay and go in for three months and come right over to Eddy’s Lakes for anybody I mean the people I suppose knowed for it, but I mean no and no roads or nothing in the world and they had camps up there by Eddy’s Lakes furring. They used to leave home for three months in the Fall of the year, be gone three months furren’. (Yeah?) Yeah, I can bemember one fox he brought home, a firm in St. John’s want ‘en, and they was trying to get and they got this fox, they got twenty-one hundred dollars for ‘en. They got ‘en alive fer ‘en fer his ranch. (That right?) Yeah, they got ‘en alive. Twenty-one hundred dollars they gor fer ‘en. Big price then, see by’. (Yes, I guess it was!) Yeah, and we getting’ a dollar ha ha, a dollar a day ha, ha ha.
(On Meeting Wife)
Louise: (Chuckling) We’ll come back now to when you lived down here, under the river, now how did you meet your wife?
Sandy: Well, she come in from, she come in from Gambo a year after I come in here. I come over here in the Fall of the year, we shifted over here and ‘de come in the Spring of the year, in May. (Oh Yes?) And with Uncle Sam Feltham there, and that’s where I meet her. I mighten’ meet her then but I meet her a little while after that.
Louise: You weren’t to a movie or anything, were ya?
Sandy: No not then. Not then wasn’t no movie, I guarantee you, we used to walk from here to Deer Lake, fer God’s sake. (Is that right?) Yeah. The old trail over there, we used to go across the river and walk down and walk down and go up to the track and walk out the track. (Yeah) Yelp.
Louise: No lights, when did the lights come here?
Sandy: Hei God, how long the lights been here? Ges, that was a long while after we was here. First, see by’ when I shifted up here on the hill I bought a lighten’ plant
Louise: Oh Yeah, and how long have you had your house here?
Sandy: Ahh, listen, I had me house here thirty years, I guess. Florence, how long the house been shifted up here? ‘Bout 30 years?
Florence: Ahh, Don is thirty-seven, hidden’ you Don? (Don: Yelp) Don was a baby when we shifted up here.
Sandy: Two years old was he?
Florence: Well somewhere around there.
Sandy: Well that’s thirty-four years.
Louise: You’ve been up here?
Sandy: Up here.
Louise: And you never had the light here then?
Sandy: No, no, no, never had the lights here for long after that.
Don: When did you have your own generator?
Sandy: Eh?
Don: When did you have your own generator?
Sandy: I had my own generator then, just after I shifted up here. I bought me own generator and I used to run an’ I bought a television and we used to pick up the station from Grand Falls. That’s what we .. couldn’t pick nar station from around here no where. We used to pick it up from Grand Falls.
Florence: Was no station in Corner Brook then.
Louise: So you’ve had television a long time?
Sandy: Oh, pick it up and you’d come here and sometimes the television be almost bright and bum by’ be two days you wouldn’t see it for snow. (That right?) Yeah, but I was running it of the lighten’ plant.
Florence in Background: We had a generator running the lights and that. But electricity come here ah, what, you was up goin, you was up courten’ with Cora wasn’t ya?
Sandy: I suppose about twenty-seven years. (No) Hold on now, hold on now, ’twas here ‘bout thirty years.
Louise: So how long would you think now?
Sandy: I’d say about twenty-eight years the lights been here. (Is that right?) Umm.
(On Wood Camps)
Louise: Now a, I want you to talk more now about earlier, you know like a, you were guiding, you’d guide in the summer and work in the winter. (Yeah, cut wood in the woods in the winter. Yeah.) Now, say first when you were married, did you have to go away then to a camp anywhere and stay for.?
Sandy: No, not very, not very often I had to go away to a camp first when we was married because the work was here along side, used to come most every night first when we got married. But then after that after a couple years we used to go a week, then two weeks to a time. (And where would your camp be then?) Oh, in on the Tramway, the old company had the Tramway in there and we used to work in there.
Louise: Did anybody live in there?
Sandy: No, no just the company camps, ‘das all in there.
Louise: And what was the Tramway there for?
Sandy: Well for carrying supplies back and forth to the company camps.
Louise: Oh, I see. So you’d be gone a couple weeks?
Sandy: Oh. A week, two weeks sometimes. (Is that right?) sometimes longer. Yeah (Yeah).
Louise: Now, what were the camps like?
Sandy: Oh, they had pretty good camps, all log camps. (All log camps?) that time ‘twas all log camps. All log camps then they started, few years after that they started building those camps in sections and putting in, wall with ply board and like.
Louise: Now these log camps, what were the beds like?
Sandy: Ohh, the beds? Go out doors and pick the boughs and put down fer your mattress. Ha ha ha (Is that right?) That’s what you get fer a bed. Yeah. Ha, ha. That’s what you get fer a bed.
Louise: And what about a pillow. Would you have a pillow with you?
Sandy: No, ya take a pillar (from) home with ya er you never had nar one. One-a-two things.Ha, ha. That’s all ya had.
Louise: And what would you do for clothes?
Sandy: You had to take your bed clothes with ya. (Take your bed clothes with you?) Oh yes, take your bed clothes with ya. Wherever you went to a camp you had to take your bed clothes.
Louise: And how was it heated now?
Sandy: Ah, it was heated with big big oil drums, (Yeah) oil drums made for stoves. (Yeah) All wood. That’s how it was heated. All wood.
Louise: Were the bunks for one person or?
Sandy: No, no there was a bunk house then about thirty feet long and bunks right there together on top and then some top ones.(Oh, I see) They were build out of board and sticks. (So you had one common bed did you?) Oh, yes, everybody sleeped in their own bed but it was one field bunk on both sided of the bunk house. And then ‘twas two stoves in the bunk house and big wash room there, a place to hang up your clothes all along be the stove, ha ha.
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Louise: Was the food good?
Sandy: Not bad, the food t’wudn’t that bad, you know we had some very good cooks, you know, some was no good. Lot of ‘em was very good cooks. At that time, at that time the food was good carden’ (according) to what you could buy yourself. You know.
Louise: Did you have to pay board in these camps? (Oh yes, Yeah-up). How was that?
Sandy: I believe it was fifteen dollars a month first when we started. Board was.
Louise: And how much would your wages be?
Sandy: Well we, first when we started, first when we started we got sixty cents a hour. First when we started in the woods. (Yeah) Lard dyin’ and then a year.. naw sixty cents a day ($0.60) ‘twas and then the union come in and they got it up to two dollars and fifty cents a day ($2.50) (Yeah) Yeah… Yes sir. (Now a..) We worked from daylight til dark then. (Did ya?) Yeah.
Louise: And what did you do after dark? Once you were back in the camp?
Sandy: Oh aa. Played cards, er tell lies ha ha ha. something (Chulkling) We always knew..
Louise: Did you have any sing songs? Or did any..
Sandy: Oh some sing songs, someone had some violin, according, according then and..
Louise: Now where were all the men from who worked in the woods?
Sandy: Ah everywhere maid, (Yeah) aaalll over the country everywhere. From Sin John’s, (Is that right?) all over, people from everywhere, worked in the camps, yeah.
Louise: And they would ahh, like when you would come home every two weeks or whatever, now what would these men do? They’d stay up there would they?
Sandy: Oh, they’d stay up there. They’d come two and three month to a time. If they were form outside two and three months from down the shore one place ‘nother like that.
Louise: Now how long did you spend working in the woods?
Sandy: I spend, well I tell ya now I spend about what? Six or seven years in around the camps and then after I bought a tractor I used to go work with Lundrigan’s. (Oh yeah) I worked with Lundrigan for awhile, then I worked on the Deer Lake Base over there, ‘das ‘bout three years. (Oh did you? Yeah). Then I went down went in with engineers when they built that power house in back of Corner Brook, I worked down there for jus’ ‘bout three years, summers, you know. (Yeah. Power House just in back of Corner Brook?) Yeah, they built one just in back where the swimming pool is at. (Oh Yeah) They got one built just up from that. (Oh Yeah, I see.) And I worked down there with them for long time.
Louise: I suppose you did a lot of hunting, did you?
Sandy: Oh, hunting all the time. Yeah did a lot of hunting. Then after that I went da work and went on me own, contracting. I bought a Timber Jack, had a truck , tractor and went on me own. On me own for years then, til I give up and went with Bowaters.(Oh yeah) on tractor.
Louise: So now, you’ve seen quite a change from the time you came here first?
Sandy: Yes, you can say that again. You can say that again, it’s quite a change. Yes sir (Yeah) Yeah, when we came here first you couldn’t throw away much grub, just got enough to bide with ‘das all. (Yeah) Yeah.
Louise: You’d go down Deer Lake often, would ya?
Sandy: Oh, we’d go down Deer Lake perhaps once a week. Something like that. ‘Twas no roads or nuthin’ like that here then see by’ when we was here first. Yahad to go down in canoe, we had a canoe, motor boat go down so far as Nicholsville and go across. Get out of boat and come over there……(not clear)... month and you might have a dollar left or you mighten’ have nar one. (Yeah)
Louise: Did you go out on any teers? (Drunks)
Sandy: Not too many, scatter one. (chuckles). (Scatter on, did ya?) Scatter one out around maid.
(On Christmas)
Louise: And Christmas now, what about Christmas, what did you think about Christmas?
Sandy: Oh we used to have good Christmas. We used to have the best kind of Christmas because all hands get together, we’d janny, (And dance?) and dance, songs (What kind of music would you have?) here and there. This one’s house and that one’s house an’ someone else. (Yeah) We had very good Christmas maid, we did. (Better than now?) Yeees, well, I don’t know ‘bout the same I dar say.(Yeah) Yeah, everybody enjoyed ‘derselves. ‘Twas no money then but everybody enjoyed derselves. (Yeah). I mean now ders lot of money and people still enjoy derselves, I suppose. (Yelp, Yelp. Not the same.) No, no not the same now no, not the same, yes sir.
Louise: Now, how long is.. do you still grow gardens?
Sandy: Grows a few fer meself, ‘das all, yelp. Yeah, not many now, jest the same. See by’ farmin’ I mean at that time twas, twas, you didn’t get no help, like now one thing about it you get help from government now, and subsidy and all this stuff, at that time ‘twas nothing.
Louise: You weren’t on a resettlement program, were you? (No.) You just came here on your own?
Sandy: Oh, das all, on our own. (Yeah) Das all.
Louise: But now, farming wasn’t the main?
Sandy: No, no, no wasn’t the main, farming was only a sideline.
Louise: Did you plan to do that at the beginning?
Sandy: Well first we did, we planned to go farmin’ but when gardens, I mean gardens here was hard to get stuff out of and that. You had to take it all in boat and take it to Deer Lake, and truck it over to Deer Lake. There was no trucks or nothing, then ‘twas all horses stuff like that (No machinery er?) so ‘twas too much expense too, you know. (Nothing to help you like?) to go into it. No ‘twas nuthin’ then nuthin’. (No, so you sort of gave up that idea?) Gave it up altogether, and then went in the woods, and work one place then another
(On His Father – William Thomas Reid)
Louise: Now, did your father live here until he died?
Sandy: Yeah, oh yes. (Now what did he.?) He was living down over the hill when he died. (Oh was he?) I had never shifted up over the hill when he died. I worked, when he died I worked in there , Arch Bridger’s when he died, in over the White Hills (Yeah) and I had me own horse in there hauling wood. And I come out of the woods five o’clock in the evening and I had a message he died. And I put on the snowshoes there ‘round……..(The remainder of this story did not get recorded, but Sandy walked nearly all that night to make it home to Reidville, to be with his family on this tragic day.)
