75
As well as the fish camps beside the dyke, many residents built their own fish weirs along streams and out on the mud flats at Mill Creek.One former resident of Mill Creek describes his memories of his own family's experience fishing in the early 1920's.
Great weirs of chicken wire were constructed far out on the mudflats at low tide, the main catch being cod, though many other species were caught there.
These were days when fish became the main source of food - tommy cods, pollock, haddock, mackerel and the ubiquitous codfish which might appear on the table roasted whole only as mother could roast them or with mashed potatoes or fish cakes, or if fresh cod were not available there was salted cod which had been filleted and allowed to dry in the sun. And there was herring, always good with blue potatoes.
When fishing turned into a kind of small home industry, the ice house was built near the creek under the lone fire tree. Also a gutting table was constructed to jut out from the side of the ice shed. Great blocks of ice were stored in layers of insulating sawdust brought in from the sawmill down the road.
When the ice house was completed and stored with ice, all was ready for the fish processing. When the cod were brought in from the weir they were immediately gutted and packed in ice, so as to be fresh when they were peddled from door-to-door in the villages of Joggins and River Hebert. The slimy gobs of fish entrails and heads were left to rot in the sun and were alsmos immediately swarming with great bottle flies, the stench being something almost indescribable. The fact that this made excellent fertilizer for the fields barely compensated for the awful stench.
76
There above the mist on rising knoll,Clearly seen from Baron's winding road,
Rise the schoolhouse and churches two
Above the hush of Minudie.
Like a whisper out of Fundy's Bay
At the close of day, the gauze-like fog
Creeps acorss the Elysian Fields,
Above which, haystacks float eerily.
Over quiet Minudie it creeps,
The village with its rolling hills lies
Dreaming its old Acadian dreams,
Dreams of long vanished prosperity
Francis Dawson
Past resident & student of Minudie School 1923-5
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