Name: Mary RobinsonInterviewer: Emily Maxner, Grade 9Interview:Question: What's your full name?Answer: Mary Kathleen Tidd (Robinson now)Question: Was there very many people in your area with the last name Tidd?Answer: There was some but not a lot. Most were over the mountain - Culloden.Question: How many was in your family?Answer: I had three brothers and 3 sisters, not including me.Question: Where were you born?Answer: Born at home in 1924.Question: How old are you?Answer: Born in March 30th 1924, makes me 80 in March.Question: How long have you lived in Digby?Answer: I was 22 years old when I moved out of Digby.Question: Why?Answer: When I got married I moved, but I always went back.Question: Where did you go?Answer: Came to Conway.Question: Does most of your family still live in the area?Answer: I only have one sister older than me. She's 83, living in Digby still. The rest are all passed on.Question: What historical memories do you have of Digby?Answer: I can remember when they made the first big theatre on Front Street, called Capital. The Manager was Mr. Wing (ha, ha). I can still remember his name. Also, I remember the red school in Digby. That was the first Digby ever had until they made their new school. All the people that went through Digby became doctors, nurses, lawyers and anything in order. It went from grade primary to grade 12. Most classes were quite large. You didn't start having different teachers until grade 8.Question: How long did you stay in school for?Answer: At 16 I left school to work. My first job was babysitting then restaurant work than clam factories till I was married.Question: What was the jobs of your parents?Answer: Dad was a fisherman all his life until he got older then he traveled. And Mom worked out. Sometimes as a nurse for when women had kids. She would be there to help.Question: What memories do you have of your family?Answer: Well, I lost a brother at 4 years old. I was 6 at that time. He died with a summer flu. Many died with it in Digby at that time. It swept families right out. We didn't have a lot of necessities. In summers to make money we picked berries, babysat, ran errands. You would only make a dollar or so a week and we used that money to buy clothes for winter and school books. We did any job that we could.Question: What was your community like?Answer: Digby was only a small community when I was a girl, but as I grew up, more restaurants popped up as well as different stores.Question: What was your house like?Answer: Our house?Question: Yep.Answer: Our home was not a rich home but it was rich in love. Our parents did things that didn't cost; like going fishing…Papa always took us fishing. Many nights Papa would play the mouth harp and we would sing.Question: What area of Digby did you live in?Answer: We lived on St. Mary's; the longest and also Mount Street.Question: What was the health care like?Answer: Doctors came to your house in those days. If you caught any disease that spread, your house was quarantined by putting a black card on it. No other kids or people could come in your house. The health care in my day was better than now, I think.Question: Why?Answer: Because we got needles for anything that was going. The VON nurse always came to your house to check up on everyone. But there's more diseases now than there ever was before here. We never heard of AIDS. There was a lot of doctors.Question: What happened when you got sick?Answer: Mom would take goose grease and cook onions in it…it broke the colds. If you sprained your ankle or whatever, we rubbed old horse liniment on the area. There were pills for kidneys. They always made sure there was a laxative in the house if you got sick or got a fever…(ha, ha)Question: (Ha, ha) oh my…So did you go to church on Sundays?Answer: Yep! Went to Salvation Army when I was a kid. Then, when I got older I went to Baptist. 40 years ago I joined the Baptist Church in Smith's Cove.Question: What was your religion?Answer: My mother was a Methodist and Dad was a Baptist. I am Baptist.Question: Do you remember going to Sunday School as a kid.Answer: Yep!Question: What did you do back then?Answer: You didn't group up. We were taught right from the Bible. We were all in a classroom together to be taught.Question: Did a lot of people go to church?Answer: A lot more people went to churches back then. Drugs, liquor is all out there. Children are not made to go to church nowadays.Question: What was Digby like?Answer: You could walk anywheres and never had to worry. There were no gangs. There was always a town cop. He went through town all night.Question: Was Digby different when the war started?Answer: Cornwallis was set up as the navy place. Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers. There was an airforce on Cannon Banks, trained them for flights. The streets; at any time you could see sailors, soldiers and airforce. At midnight the train would come in and 50 or so would come in the restaurant at once. We would have to have soft drinks and sandwiches ready at that time.Question: What kind of sports was there?Answer: At the winter time we skated and bob sledded against each other. We really enjoyed winter in them days!Question: Was there any sports in school?Answer: No. We never heard of them. It was just tag and little games like that.Question: Was the teachers strict?Answer: Yes! Especially the principals.Question: What was your punishments?Answer: If anyone got caught with gum in their mouth, they had to sit at front of the class with gum on their nose. That was a big laugh. If you got in trouble you would have to stay after school right up till the teacher was ready to go home, then you were. The strap was also used. If the teacher couldn't handle you then they would get the principal.Question: Did you ever get strapped?Answer: Yes I did. Quite a few times.Question: Why?Answer: Everyone cheated, got caught passing notes, chewing gum, or not having homework done.Question: Did you have a lot of homework?Answer: Oh yeah, every night, but I never did it…(ha, ha). I only got to grade 10. When I was 16 I said goodbye school. At night we didn't have time to do homework because you had to do dishes, cook, take care of younger siblings and get your clothes ready for the next day.Question: What was the rules of your house?Answer: There was no swearing at all! Papa never allowed us to touch playing cards, any games, nothing like that on Sundays. They were quiet days. We always had sing songs Sunday nights. Mom was a wonderful singer. We had manners! We were never allowed to call someone by their first name. It was Mr. or Mrs. You were not allowed to talk at the table. Papa always served our meals when he was home.Question: Did you have a vehicle?Answer: Nope; never had a car. You either went with someone, went by train/buses or walked.Question: Was there usually other people in your house besides family?Answer: Yes. Our house always had kids, they looked for home-made cooking. We had swings and lots of climbing trees (apple).Question: Did your family ever see anyone famous?Answer: King and the Queen. I took a group of girl guides up one time. They was just an arm's length away. We seen them in Halifax.Question: What did you do for fun?Answer: Went to the theatre a lot for ten cents. We had dance halls, Big Apple…it was like Tim Hortons where lots of people went to talk and you could watch other (older) people dance. But mostly we made our own fun.Question: Did you have any animals?Answer: Always had our dogs and cats. We had pigs. The dog was the main thing…they used it as a guard.Question: So what was life like back then?Answer: Work, work, work! No drugs or liquor and you could walk around without any worry of someone killing you. You didn't see many people smoking. You never had to worry when you went out somewheres about getting beat or raped. You never heard much of rape.Question: Did you have outside toilets?Answer: (Ha, ha) Yep. Usually there was the Simpson's or Eaton's catalogues that was always hung up for toilet paper. Once a week one of us used to clean it. It was clean most of the time, it just smelled.