14

Audio interview with Lillian Arsenault, talking about the Minudie Hall and dances.
November, 2003
Minudie, Nova Scotia

15

What do you remember about the building that became the Minudie Hall?

They said it was a double house on what they call the back road, the back road that goes down by the cemetery. Some of the Acadians had it.

Do you remember when the hall was moved?

Wel I don't remember the actual moving, but I know when they got it there and got it set up, and when they started having the dances. I remember that, cos I was one of the kids who would sleep on the chairs.

No babysitter, couldn't afford a babysitter. In fact, anyone who could have babysat was old enough to go to the dances.

So how did they arrange the chairs for the children to sleep on?
... the chairs, they turned them with this outside (the chair back) for a railing, so that the kids laid on the seats against the wall so they couldn't fall on to the floor. There was somebody here the other day and thay said to me, I remember sleeping on those chairs.

I suppose I was seven or eight. I had to try to look after my little brother, but he was generally boss.

16

Audio interview with Annie Glen.
October, 2003
Minudie, Nova Scotia

17

Do you remember hearing anything about the Minudie Hall, or did you go to any of the dances?
I never went to the dances. They were quite popular. I mean they were a little rowdy at times! When my mother lived there, you know, they would have socials, meals and things and they had the dances. It was quite a lot of entertainment going on there.

18

An audio interview with Lillian Arsenault.
December, 2003
Minudie, Nova Scotia

19

What livestock did your family keep and what kind of work?
We had a cow that we looked after of our own, and my father worked out on the farm for a neighbour. We were poor people, $20 a month, a month for a family.
How many in the family?
A mother and father and two kids.
Who did your father work for?
He worked for a Mr. Baron Baker, that owned the house that we lived in. The house is not there now.
So you where tenants of Baron Baker then?
Yes.

20

Audio interview with Annie Glen about her mothers memories.
October, 2003
Minudie, Nova Scotia

21

What grades did you take at Lower Cove school?
First I went from primary to grade 8 down here, then I went to Joggins for 9 and 10, and the rural high was coming in and I took 11 and 12 out there (River Hebert). I went on the bus.

What do you remember about Minudie, when you were growing up in Lower Cove?
I can remember what my mother said about Minudie. She worked there as a young girl. A lot of people had farms, and they always had someone, a girl, would be in the kitchen, and thats what my mother did, she worked there for a while. There were a lot of farms.

Do you remember which family she worked for?
Yes its down now, Morris's. They lived right, do you know where Ruth Symes lives, well if you are coming from River Hebert, it was right on the corner. Ruth Symes's and then there was a big, huge house right on the corner. And she went to the Catholic Church, my mother did in Minudie. And then she worked for, after she worked for the Morris's, she went up and worked for, I believe it was the Vernon's, and she worked there for a short time.

22

Audio interview with Annie Glen describing her mothers life.
October, 2003
Minudie, Nova Scotia

23

What do you remember about the big marsh in Minudie?
His father (her husband's) used to make hay on the marshes up there.

What do you remember hearing about the Minudie wharf?
But my mother remembers the boats coming into the wharf in Minudie and going back and forth to Amherst.

Did you mother go to school in Lower Cove?
She went to school here. She went and worked up there.

How old was she when she went ot Minudie to work?
She was 13 when she went there. She worked mostly in the house, and then she worked out somewhat and they had a farm, that was I guess, and it had everything. It had everything.

Did she have friends in Minudie?
She used to be friends with some of the young people up there, mostly the Symes's and what they would do. You wouldn't be going out every evening up there. She would go to church on Sunday, she was allowed to go to church and on Sunday afternoon, they would, the young people would go for walks. They would go for walks around the community.

What was her rate of pay?
She made the sum of $7.00 a month. She used to buy her clothes throught he Eaton's catalogue and she had a sister and she used to help clother her. Her sister lived here in Lower Cove.

Did she come home on the weekends?
Very seldom she came home on the weekends. Cos she, you were practically owned by that family and you had to work every day. You would have, lets say, part of Sunday and the women that she worked for, there were a couple like, bit remember her speaking more about this women. She was almost like a mother figure and you could only go to certain places if she said so. See kept an eye on you! She was I think, this was this women Mrs Morris, she was more in charge than her husband. More in charge of the farm. She had been a Seaman and I don't know if, she had married him, he was Morris. There used to be Morris's tea, he was that family, I believe from Prince Edward Island that he came.

24

Audio interview with Ruth Symes recalling her memories of the dykes and big marsh.
November, 2003
Minudie, Nova Scotia

25

Well yes, I remember they all had to get out and fix the dykes. Once in a while they broke. I don't remember that dyke breaking anytime down there. They just built it up most times.
I think he (her father George Symes) mostly made hay up there on the big marsh. I used to go out there then when he made hay. A few times I went there. Most of the time they just kept it for the livestock.

26

Audio interview with Jude Terrio, talking about the old creamery in Minudie.
1985
Minudie, Nova Scotia

27

The fellow owned that creamery was Jerome LeBlanc and he was living in a house along where the community hall is there now. There were three houses right close together and the old place got pretty bad, so he moved over to the creamery and made a place there to live.
We used to have dances upstairs. It was quite large up there and we used to have dances up there.
Up over head the creamery?
Yes, but the creamery hadn't been operating for sometime but some of the old vats were still there. And it was sold to Frank... down Mill Creek. He ran a fox ranch and he came up and brought it.
That creamery, I think made more cheese than butter. I think it was more of a cheese factory, but I think they did probably make some butter. Well then whatever happened to it, whoever was running it at that time, I don't know. It closed down, but it was big.
Then the farmers down there all got together and got this creamery going in River Hebert, but there was a creamery there.