Mrs. John Walker October 3, 1979Question: "Your Mrs. John Walker?"Answer: "That's Right."Question: "And when were you born?"Answer: "September 4, 1899."Question: "Were you born here in Digby?"Answer: "I was born in Rossway."Question: "When did you first come to Digby?"Answer: "Well, I didn't come to stay permanently, but my two Aunts lived here in this house, and I use to come and visit them when I was just a child."Question: "And what were their names?"Answer: "Miss Ella Robbins and Miss Janet Robbins. I use to spend all my summer vacation with them. Nearly every year. After I started school I did. I really remember more of them probably from the age of 10. But I do remember being here before that. After Christmas was over, my sister and I would spend Christmas together, and after it was over I would come up and stay over New Year's with these Aunts. My mother said they spoiled me so, that she'd have hard time when I go home.Question: "I Was told this house was called Acacia Cottage."Answer: "Yes, Acacia Cottage was the name of it. My Aunts ran it as a boarding house."Question: "Oh, I see. And why was it called Acacia Cottage?"Answer: "Because there are two Acacia trees out front. And at one time, there was a hedge around front, Acacia trees."Question: "I never heard of Acacia trees?"Answer: "Well, it's the same as Locust, Honey-Locusts."Question: "Oh, I see. Yes."Answer: "Well, you know, Acacia Valley out here, well that's where that came from. It was just loaded with these Locusts trees."Question: "So, about how many boarders would they take in?"Answer: "Well, there were four bedrooms. And possibly in the summer my Aunt would have at least three of the rooms and possibly a couple with a child with parents in one room because they were big enough for a double bed and small bed. And she also at that time owned a house next door and that, she had just for bedrooms, and they all ate their meals here."Question: "So did they provide the meals?"Answer: "Oh, yes. That was one of the main things. We were quite famous for our meals. And at that time certain people came and stayed for several weeks at a time. You see there was no motor traffic, as there is today and people came for at least two weeks and possibly more."Question: "Where did they come from?"Answer: "They came mainly from the New English area, New York, and I would say after world War 1, I would say the majority would have come from Montreal and Toronto areas."Question: "Oh, that's quite far away?"Answer: "Yes, it is. She said at one time she use to have the whole CPR office force, they'd come from Montreal for their vacations. And they'd come back year after year. So they really got to be friends. And I grew up every summer with a lot of those people. And I do remember some very lovely people who came from New York and other areas of the United States." Question: "Do you remember any French people?"Answer: "Once or twice, but the majority of them were British and Scotish people."Question: "When you would come up and visit, how would you come?"Answer: "Oh, my father would drive me with the horse & carriage. And he also drove me back & forth to high school on weekends."Question: "So did you board here than?"Answer: "Yes, I stayed here those three or four years, I went to high school."Question: "So what grade did you start high school, Grade 7?"Answer: No, nine. Grade 9, 10, 11, 12Question: "So was that at the red school?"Answer: "Yes."Question: "So where was Grades primary to nine. Was that also there too?"Answer: "That was there too, at that time. It wasn't that large. It was just for the town at that time. It wasn't a rural high school like it is now."Question: "So it wasn't as big?"Answer: "Oh, no."Question: "What was it like inside?"Answer: "Well, there were two floors and the high school rooms were in the upstairs rooms. Now Grade 7 and 8, would be Junior high now, they were in one room. And 9, 10 & 11, were in another room. I said four years, but when I went to high school they didn't have Grade 12. You had to go somewhere else for that."Question: "Do you remember any of your teachers' names?"Answer: "Oh, Yes. Mr. Powell, was the principal and he taught English and Mathematics, Grade 9, 10 & 11. Possibly other subjects but I mainly remember English and Mathematics and he was a marvelous teacher. And the, Miss__________, who was the Vice- Principal, when I in high school. She taught us English-History, as I recall. Ancient History in Grade 11, we had in our own room. And after Mr. Powell left, we had a substitute teacher, I think he became ill, and we had a substitute teacher for part of the year, and I don't remember his name. But than Mrs. Elizabeth McWhinnie came as Principal, and she was there when I was finished and she was also very good.Question: "Everyone seemed to respect her?"Answer: "Oh, Yes."Question: "I was wondering if there were any conflicts, changing from a male principal to female."Answer: "No, not that I remember. She was also very efficient and a very good teacher. And by the way, as far as I know, she is still alive and lives in her own home in Port Wade. At least she there when I came back from Florida 9 years age. Now, possibly, of course I did inquire for her. Someone told me she was still there."Question: "Do you remember any special rules, anything special you did in the morning? Like now some school have O'Canada?" Answer: "I don't remember that we did in high school. If we did I don't remember."Question: "So you went to Elementary school in Rossway? Where was the school?"Answer: "It was at the corner of the Digby Neck Road and the Gulliver's Cove Road. And it is the building that is now the Community Hall in Rossway. That was the old school house. And it was a one room school."Question: "And how many grades would be there."Answer: "Sometimes nine. With one teacher. But I don't remember just how many pupils there would have been."Question: "Was it pretty well filled?"Answer: "Yes. It would have been. The smaller ones up front and the larger one in the back. And I don't know why the little ones didn't freeze in the winter time because it was heated by a wood stove, and that was all the heat there was. But I don't ever remember being really uncomfortably cold there."Question: "What were your desks like? Were they just benches?"Answer: "No, They weren't. They were regular desks."Question "Did they have one for each one?"Answer: "No, some of them were two and some of them were one, as I remember."Question: "What date was it that you first came to high school here in Digby? Do you remember the date?"Answer: "1914."Question: "I', going to change the subject here. I was told that you were related to Robert Tempany?"Answer: "Yes. Mr. Robert Tempany. The first loyalist to settle here." Question: "He was one of the 1st settlers?"Answer: "Yes, he was one of the first loyalist settlers. He was granted land on Digby Neck.Question: "In Rossway?"Answer: "Yes. That's right, because my father's farm was part of the original grant of land. My father's mother was a Tempany. And my father's people were also loyalists, but they came I think to Yarmouth County, and then it was my grandfather who came from Yarmouth County to Rossway. And he bought from one of the Tempany, his farm, and it was part of the original Tempany land. He married Hanna Tempany."Question: "Where did this Major Tempany come from? When he first came here, where did he come from?"Answer: "I'll tell you Wilson's history. I think he came from Pennsylvania. But my father's history says he was born in Northern Ireland. And the name of the town is on his gravestone up in the churchyard. There's quite a long bit of where he was born etc. But my father told me that he came from Virginia to New England and than Pennslyvania, or wherever it was. But my father says New English, but he may be wrong. But originally he was suppose to have come from Virginia at the beginning of the revolution, because when he came to Digby he brought with him, several of the old slaves from his plantation in Virginia, and their graves are in the fields down near the first home. My father showed them to me once. It's all grown up to pasture by now, but my father did show me where those graves were."Question: "Could you read anything on them?"Answer: "No, there were no marking on them of any sort, but my father knew where they were. He was always greatly interested in any family history and apparently his grandfather or some of his relatives had showed him where they were. And when I was a very small child, I remember going to see the remains of the first old house that was built. The first that Robert Tempany built. Some of it is still standing and why on earth they didn't preserve it, I'll never know. I remember going into it with my father and being amazed at the size of the fireplaces in it. They were perfectly huge."Question: "Now, they were, I suppose made of stone?"Answer: "Yes, they were stone."Question: "What were the farms like? Were they large farms?"Answer: "You mean the original one?"Question: "Yes"Answer: "Oh, it was a large grant of land. I couldn't tell you exactly how much it was, but it was quite large. And as far as I know it went from the St. Mary's Bay shore up to the main highway, I suppose that was the main highway afterwards, I don't suppose there were any roads when they first came there. And they built their homes near the shore. And when the main road was built down through Digby Neck, then there was this long lane we always called "Tempany Lane" and it's still called that now. It's marked. If you drive down there you'll see it. And it's where the original Tempany home was. There are still several houses down there, of course, they're occupied today, and one of them, I don't think there is more than one of them that is still in the family and that would be a great, great, I don't know how many greats, a great-grandson of the Tempany, and his name is Thibault, George Thibaets, because his mother, Rose Tempany married Frank Thibault and he was French and his family came from Brittain. They were very, very blond and Rose, his wife would have been my father's own cousin. But her father had built a home on part of the Tempany grant and some of it sold on the other side and as I said, my fathers' father had pert of it and my father's farm was part of it."Question: "It must have been quite large."Answer: "Oh, Yes. It was a large grant of land. And of course, it was all wood."Question: "They must have had quite with it at first."Answer: "Well, yes, I would think, because they's have to clear it all out."Question: "Getting back to Digby, most of the people that would have boarded here would have been tourists?"Answer: "Yes, except in the wintertime. There would have been a few school teachers, or possibly one or two, either men or women who worked in the bank or something of that sort."Question: "Would you think that the tourist industry than, was larger then it is today?"Answer: "No, I don't think it was larger, but of course, it was entirely different. People came by boat and train, and stayed much longer in one place. And there were several large hotels that were offering at that time. There was……… Lodge, Manhattan, Myrtle House, Columbia House, which was a year round affair, it was up in back of where the Post Office is now. And The Pines, of course, it was always there. And ever so many small private boarding houses, like this one. And usually all pretty well filled up."Question: "What about business in town? What was it like? Pretty well built up?"Answer: "Well, there were two banks, as long as I can remember. There were more grocery stores."Question: "Can you remember any names?"Answer: "Well, there was A.A. Shortliffe and than H.T. Warren, A.R. Turnbull, South End Grocery and I think it catered more to the fishermen, than the regular grocery store. I think it was owned by a Sproule. There was a wharf down there by that name, 'Sproule's Warf.' We use to fish off it for smelts. I can't think off hand, any other grocery stores."Question: "Well, that's quite a few?"Answer: "Oh, there were several. There were one or two, I think smaller ones, that carried a few groceries, along with what I call odds and ends."Question: "What about clothing stores?"Answer: "Yes. There was……………Which was suppose to be the best one in the town, I would say. It was afterwards, "Wreghts", but when I was growing up it was…………….. Then there was J.L. Peter's and afterwards was Roop's. And there was two Jewellery stores. Where Sauunders is, was Keen's Jeweller Store and a Mr. Charles Lynstrom had another very nice jeewellery store. He also did watch repairing etc. And several meat markets. But I remember just one good old reliable fish market, A.J. Stoddard. He had the best finnan haddie you ever ate. Just wonderful."Question: "What were the winter like?"Answer: "Oh, just about like they are now, I would say. As far as weather is concerned. Some years we'd have more snow than others."Question: "There were some years you had snow as high as the buildings?"Answer: "No, I don't remember snow like that in Digby. I do remember on winter I was still going to school in Rossway, when we had a terrific amount of snow. There was actually tunnels in some parts of the road. So you had a roof of snow over you head when you went through it. And I can remember coming home from school and climbing up the snow banks and standing with our feet over the telephone wires. That was a lot of snow. Now I just remember that once. And heaven help you if it got a little soft and you sunk down in it. The other boys and girls had to come and pull you out. And I do remember going to school in the spring and there was ice and snow on the road, we walked a mile to school, and it came a sudden thaw or a warm rain storm, you'd have to wade your way home and some of the older boys would pick you up and carry you over the deep, deep puddles."Question: "Do you recall the 30's Answer: "I wouldn't have been here than, I was married in 1920 and left here."Question: " Did you? And where did you go than?"Answer: "I went to Massachusetts. Brookline, Mass."Question: "And how long did you stay there?"Answer: "Oh, a couple years, I guess. Than we went to New York. My husband was an engineer, and electronic engineer, and we moved nine times, during my, we had one daughter, and she was 19 different schools before she graduated from high school. We were transferred all the time. We lived in Maine, we lived in New York and back & forth."Question: "Which did you like the best? New England states, or Digby?"Answer: "I likes them both. I loved New England. I like the Boston area particularly. It always seemed like home there. Because off and on I was there perhaps, as much as I was anywhere. And my husband died 9 years ago and we would have been married 50 years that winter. I was just 21 when we were married." Question: "So what the depression like in the states?"Answer: "Well, it wasn't very pleasant. My husband was working for RCA in New York. He was stationed at long Island, in New York. And he & several of the other engineers were let go."Mrs.J.Walker Part # 2 October 3, 1979Question: "So he didn't have a job?"Answer: "He didn't have a job. No. But he worked for radio station, temporarily in Boston. We left Long Island, came up to Mass., and I think one of the main radio stations, I can't remember the name of it, but worked there temporarily. And than he finally took a job as a radio operator & went to sea, in order to have something to do. And we had just one child, as little girl, and we were staying with his father & mother at their home. And she was in school and I worked off and on at one or two different department stores in Boston. Were ever I could get the extra work."Question: "Was you husband from the states?"Answer: "Yes, he was, but his mother was born here. WE use to play together when we were small children, in the summer. His mother would come from Mass., in the summer. She had her old home up here and I was here with my Aunt and that's how we met."Question: "Entertainment as a child? What exactly did you do? Would you have many toys?"Answer: "We didn't have a lot of toys but my sister & I were always very happy together. She's two years younger than I. We had dolls. We had a cat, but no dogs, because my father didn't like dogs. We had two boys about our own age, who lived very near us, next store in fact, with whom we grew up and played a lot with those two boys. We made our own games I guess. But we had Croquette and we played card games like in the winter. Of course. We had to study, because we had homework. We always had homework during the school year. And apart form that we had church and Sunday school."Question: "Were there any organization or clubs?"Answer: "Not that I remember in Rossway, No. Not when we were small children. I don't think so."Question: "When you were small, did they have a cinema here in Digby?"Answer: "I don't remember just when it came. But I do remember going when it first was here. When I would be here in the summer was when I was allowed to go. Because in the winter I wouldn't be allowed. But I do remember going. I can't remember what it use to be, Comedies I think. Little short films that you were suppose to laugh at. But I do know that when I was in high school, that was the period when they had this serial that we went to every week. We didn't want to miss an episode. I can even remember the name of one. It was 'The Broken Coin'. And we would walk through snow-drifts or pouring rain to go down to the Odd fellow's Hall, which was the theatre, to see that week's episode of the serial that was running."Question: "How much would it have cost you than?"Answer: "I don't really remember. Usually your boyfriend took you. So I don't really recall."Question: "Were they silent movies?"Answer: "Oh, yes. Well, talking didn't come in until, oh, it must have been about 1930, maybe a little before."Question: "Did, you go skating?"Answer: "Oh, Yes. We went skating a lot in the winter."Question: "Was that on outside pounds?"Answer: "No. I learned to stake out of doors when I was small. But we skated at the rink. They had hockey matches etc."Question: "When would they have built that? Do you know? Or was that before you can remember?"Answer: "It was a roller skating rink originally, and there was an English man who came here, a Mr Walker, and they flooded it in the winter."Question: "What were the skates like?"Answer: "They were boots like hockey skates, but heavier. You put them on and laced them up. And we use to go swimming in the summer."Question: "Where abouts did you go swimming?"Answer: "We use to go down in the Racquette when the tide would be in. there was a regular swimming place down at the South End og town. Right near where the lodge was. There was a sandbar."Question: "Was it near the Yacht Club?"Answer: "Right around there, I think. Of course, there wasn't any Yacht Club then. but there was some bath house there, where you could change, and you only went at high tide because there was only water when the tide was up."Question: "What about the hockey games? You said they played hockey?" Answer: "Oh, Yes. They always had a Digby Hockey team."Question: "Can you remember, did they wear a helmet?"Answer: "Oh, no."Question: "Much padding?"Answer: "No, very little. I don't think they maybe played as rough as they do today."Question: "About how many would be on a team?"Answer: "Well, I'm not sure."Question: "Were there a lot of people that would go to the games?"Answer: "Oh, yes. And we use to have a skating carnival once or twice in the winter. Everyone would go fancy dressed. There'd be a prize for the best costume. That was lots of fun. I remember one elderly lady, Miss Clinton, who had a candy shop here in, for years and years. Her and her sister started in having and ice-cream parlour years back and they served the most gorgeous ice-cream that anybody ever could imagine. Homemade ice-cream & they had a candy shop in connection with it. And if I remember rightly, they had the first soda fountain. I think they had the first one in Digby. Then both the drug stores got them, I remember that. I don't remember when they went out of business. But this little Miss Clinton, she was a beautiful skater, a good figure skater. She had been a nurse, and R.N. in New York, and she always had a lovely costume for the carnival."Question: "And what would the costumes be?"Answer: "Oh, I can't remember anything in Particular."Question: "Were they comical ones?"Answer: "There were funny ones, and pretty ones, all kinds."Question: "Did you ever win a prize?"Answer: "No, I never did. I'm not a very competitive person. I was just happy to be able to go and have fun."Question: "Do you remember of anything else? Did they have ballroom dances?"Answer: "They were having dance classes here, someone was teaching ballroom dancing and I remember going to that. And then I remember the dances they had, way back, World War 1, for the service men."Question: "Where would they be held at?"Answer: "Usually at the Oddfellow's Hall, or I remember going to one or two at the rink. I don't remember what we had for music though." Question: "Well, That's about all the question I had. Is there anything that you can think of that may have happened in Digby?"Answer: "I use to enjoy the summer very much, before I was married and went away. There were more things to do for tourists right in town because, of course, there had to be, because people stayed, two weeks, or longer at a time and they had to have something to do while they were here. I mainly remember the nice boat trips they use to have. This was just small boats, that use to take parties out. There were several of them and according to where the tide was, they'd go to Bear River and back and Annapolis. Way up in the Joggin when the tide was in, and to Point Prim, Port Wade, Annapolis."Question: "About how long did these trios take?"Answer: "Oh, two or three hours. A better part of the afternoon or morning, whenever the tide served. And someone from the boat would call and let you know when they'd be going out. And you'd congregate down at the slip by the Manhattan Hotel, which was where the IGA is now or down here at Fishermen's wharf. And they often use to take fishing parties out. You know, just line fishing. Then there was a man from New York, who came down here several summers, and he had a small ship and he use to take parties. He use to go maybe all day. He'd go all over. And it was a lot of fun."Question: "You had lots of entertainment then?"Answer: "Oh, yes. I can remember they had a cricket team, I remember going to cricket matches."Question: "What was it like?"Answer: "Well, it's that famous English sport. You play it with a ball and bat. I I don't think they play it much now.'Question: "Do you remember any other sport?"Answer: "No, I don't recall."Question: "well, that was very interesting interview. Lots of information. Thank-you very much."