136

Zita Muise, date of birth: March 22,1935
4 June 2003
Codroy Valley, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

137

Zita Muise

Zita Muise was born on March 22, 1935, in the community of South Branch, Codroy Valley, Newfoundland. Her parents were Elsie and William Brake. Zita had ten brothers and sisters. Her father was a section foreman and later roadmaster on the railway and her mother was a homemaker. He had only grade three education. A section foreman was responsible for the upkeep of a certain area of railway track. Her father worked from eight to five from Monday to Saturday. Her parents lived in the Codroy Valley all their lives. Zita was a lifelong resident of the Codroy Valley except for six years when she lived in Cormack.

When her husband was at work Elsie stayed at home and did the required work around the house. The family attended the local Roman Catholic Church every Sunday. It was the highlight of the week and the family had to wear their best clothes when they went to church. The priest would come on the train on Sunday to have Mass.

Christmas was a fun time when Zita was growing up. She still has good feelings about Christmas when she thinks about it today. She would only get one item and a few candies and other small treats as gifts. She used to like Christmas because she would get a treat like an apple or an orange. Oranges were such a treat at that time that each individual orange was wrapped in tissue paper. Zita remembered getting grapes in her stocking at Christmas." Mother made several cakes, which we ate with Purity syrup. We also had a real Christmas tree. There were no Christmas lights."

She remembered getting ketchup as a treat with her Christmas dinner. Ketchup was not an everyday occurrence with meals. The family usually had roast lamb for their Christmas dinner because their grandfather kept sheep. There were no turkeys for their Christmas dinner. Zita said that she was married for a few years before she had turkeys at Christmas. "Every Christmas Eve candles were lit in each window. That was one of the most important things for Christmas Eve. There were no fancy stockings - just our father's woolen work socks."

When Zita was a teenager she used to go to movies. There was a local man who showed movies at a barn in the summer time. She used to go to square dances at the local dance hall and at the local schools. These dances were all age affairs and had accordion and fiddle music.

She attended St. Theresa's School in South Branch. She attended a one-room school until she finished grade six. Zita got to finish her high school. She had to attend grade eleven in St. George's. She had to go to school in St. George's for a year to get grade eleven. Her parents sent her away to boarding school to increase her chances of finishing grade eleven because she would be supervised by nuns and had to do her very best.

It was a bit difficult going to school with nuns because they were very strict. Zita could not write a letter home to her parents without the nuns reading it before it was mailed. Even if Zita received a letter from home the nuns read it before Zita saw it. Zita had to get up at ten to seven every morning and clean her room. The students all had chores to do before they went off to Mass every morning. The students went to breakfast after Mass. The student had chores to do after breakfast. The students had class at nine o'clock. Zita studied geography, mathematics, science, literature, history, French, art and religion. The students were not allowed to leave school unescorted. The year that Zita went there, was the first time that students were allowed to come home for a long weekend. When her sister went there the year before, she was only allowed home for Christmas and Easter. All the students had to go for a parade style walk every evening and they were accompanied by two nuns.

The nuns would play music in the gymnasium for the girls to dance to. The girls were forced to dance with one another because there were no boys allowed. The students were shown a movie at times and if there was a kissing scene in it the nuns would cover the faces of the people involved.

Students who were at the school for two or three years were called old students and the students who were there for less time were called the new students. The old students had other benefits that the new students did not have. The old students could get out at times. The new students would give the old students their money if they needed any shopping done. All in all, Zita says it was not an enjoyable experience being taught by nuns because they were very cold and showed little emotion.

Zita says that she can remember the Second World War. She can remember her parents talking about the war because they heard about it when it started in October 1939. She remembered that her father and other men talked about how the trains had to be blacked out at night to prevent being spotted by submarines. She can remember rationing items like sugar and tea. She remembered not having a birthday cake because all her family's rations were used up. She can remember her uncle going off to war. She remembered her grandmother hiding cigarettes in a cake that she sent him. At that time it was illegal to send cigarettes to the troops. He wrote back that when he got the cake it was still smoking. That was his way of letting her know that he'd got the cigarettes. She remembered the day the war ended because her teacher flew a flag outside the school.

She got married when she was twenty years old to her husband, Norman Muise, who was a wildlife officer. This was a little old to be getting married in Zita's case because some of her friends were married from between fifteen and seventeen. Zita had a bit of an advantage because she taught school for a few years after she finished school. To get her teaching license Zita had to go to St. John's for six weeks of summer school. She taught school in South Branch for two years and one year in Tompkins. Before she was married Zita taught in South Branch and for another year after she was married.

When she started teaching in South Branch, Zita taught grades one to five. When she started teaching in Tompkins she had to teach all grades from one to eleven for the first month. The school got split up into low grades and high grades and Zita had to teach grades five to eleven. Zita said that it was not all that hard teaching children, they were respectful and easy to handle. She says, "Too little time for so many students was the hardest part."

Norman's job as a wildlife officer meant that he was on patrol most of the time seeing that people were not breaking wildlife regulations. This meant that he worked away from home for the first twenty years of his job. Zita and Norman had twelve children together. Zita stayed at home and looked after her home and children while Norman was at work. It was a big job caring for such a large family. Twelve children was an average family size when Zita got married. She was one of the last women in South Branch that had a large family. Eight of the children were born at home and four in the hospital. Some were born with just a midwife present.

When buying groceries for her family Zita shopped at a Co-Op store in South Branch and in later years in Port aux Basques. The clothing that the family wore was either hand-me-downs from her relatives or Zita made it herself. The material to make clothes was ordered or other clothes were taken apart and made over into something else. Nothing was wasted.

If someone became sick there was a doctor in the Codroy Valley. If someone was seriously ill then they were sent to hospital in Port aux Basques or Stephenville Crossing.

Zita remembered her daily chores starting off in a rush. It was a big chore getting all her children fed, washed and sent off to school in the morning. Then there was washing, cleaning, and cooking to be done in the time they were in school. When it was close for the children to come home Zita had to make sure that there was something cooking for supper and there was something for them to eat when they came home from school. In the evening there was homework to be done and the children had to be readied for bed. There were also volunteer organizations she was involved in which took her away from the home many evenings.

It was hard work for Zita when she started having her family because she did not have modern conveniences. She had no running water for the first four years after she was married and had to bring water in buckets from a barrel, which was filled from a brook. She had to wash clothes by hand on a scrubboard. She was married three years before she got a gasoline washer. It sometimes took half an hour to start it using a crank. The clothes had to be sent through a wringer by hand. She was married for ten years before she got electricity. Then she had an electric washer and dryer. She was married twenty years before she got telephone service. There was a post office in South Branch about a mile from her home where Zita could send and receive mail.

When asked if it was hard raising such a large family Zita said, "I can't say that it was hard. It was busy. I was lucky because I never had anyone sick. I never had to have anyone hospitalized. I never had anyone crippled and I always felt well myself."

The diet that Zita's family had when she was growing up was different from a family's today. They ate a lot of salt and dried fish. The family ate very little canned food except for canned milk. The foods that they ate were things that did not require refrigeration.

Zita recalled that when she was growing up Newfoundlanders were forced to go away to work just like they are today. There were seven of her aunts and uncles that left Newfoundland and went to work in places like Boston and Canada. The youngest children were expected to stay at home to look after the parents. All of her husband's aunts and uncles on his father's side went away to work except for his father.

When asked if it was harder growing up in her times compared to today Zita said, "It was hard at times because people did not have the right clothes to keep warm." She also feels that life was simpler when she was growing up. She used an example of her grandmother going to the mail and not returning with an armful of flyers and bills like there is in the mail today.