266_Black_Natalie-Horel.mp3

otter.ai

19.04.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
argue? No.

Unknown Speaker 0:02
So we transferred it into this.

Unknown Speaker 0:05
Who did all the work? Who did all the work?

Unknown Speaker 0:07
Well, we didn't lot. And then I we had some help like list, remodeling some of the house and the building. Chuck did a lot of the little inside things. Like, and then we took down 65 trees. A seat, it's hard to see where because still lots of trees. Well, yeah, but they were all around the house. You don't put cedar trees near your house because so many people are allergic to Cedar. So I said those have gotta go. And then we had blasting to do and more blasting and more blasting. And we didn't realize that we were going to have all that, because we had to blast all over. You know, you see the rock there behind that building. When you drive in. I saw a couple of huge boulders, Oh, this one over here. And that one we got nobody could see it. It was junk and everything else around it. So I cleaned out. I haven't picked them up that something's behind here. And it was this granite rock and I thought oh, we must expose

Unknown Speaker 1:08
a huge rock. Yes. Yeah. And the I guess you had to blast for the swimming pool. Did you?

Unknown Speaker 1:14
Just swimming pool? They have a swimming pool and Oh, really. But we changed it around here. We've got fencing and there's still a little bit of the old fence. But that's gotta go eventually.

Unknown Speaker 1:26
How many acres do you have 10 acres. So

Unknown Speaker 1:31
yeah, we worked away on it and work away at it and built that house with the trees. My nephew. He milled these trees, these posts. They all came from here. And we got had maple trees here and Chuck had we did all the little bits and pieces with maple. And you know with maple. You can't keep it outdoors. You've got to keep it where it doesn't get pick up moisture. Didn't know that. Oh, yeah. And anyway, and of course I love working with wood. Chuck we like to build things but he hated to finish some

Unknown Speaker 2:05
good combination. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 2:06
So am I like to finish so well between the two of us when he was able now there were times when he was not able to do things. But when he was able he just so at this one point when he decided he wanted to do more. I went and bought him a bunch of tools and stuff. said well go at it.

Unknown Speaker 2:27
Well, you know, you weren't born on Saltspring were you I was

Unknown Speaker 2:31
born here. Were born in Salisbury. Okay. 23

Unknown Speaker 2:36
And you're okay, so that makes you 90 years old? Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 2:39
had my 90th birthday in February for gosh.

Unknown Speaker 2:43
Yeah. And you you grew up here, but you went away for a bit, didn't you?

Unknown Speaker 2:47
Yes. I grew up here when I finished high school. I left. Okay. Laughter there was nothing here. Nothing Not here on Saltspring at that time,

Unknown Speaker 2:56
so high. So this would be it'd be in the 40s when you finished high school.

Unknown Speaker 3:00
I finished high school. Yeah. 1940 41 I finished high school. What were the what was the school like then? It was a chicken house converted. You could throw cats or dogs to the to the walls. The first time I went to that. But there was a little school just on that Blackburn property, which was on the block Bronk property which was across the road, right. Eventually that burnt down. So the school rebuilding now is, where is where the original school was. And you get these they had they had one to eight, the grades are one, two,

Unknown Speaker 3:36
how many students would be all together?

Unknown Speaker 3:39
There might have been sometimes maybe there was 10 Sometimes maybe there was 15. But there were hardly any people on the island, or only 800 People here when I was growing up.

Unknown Speaker 3:51
And those students would be obviously from the Ganges area or would they come from all over the world?

Unknown Speaker 3:56
Those that went to the school we're talking about is what's called the divided school Oh,

Unknown Speaker 4:01
yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 4:03
So that general area and from Fulford are at least part of overt but scoop corporate all also had a school, right. Okay. So in certain areas that they just they were able to come to the divide school and whatever. And then the horrible family, my husband, people, they kept, they were in logging and what have you and they moved all over the island with their donkey or whatever, if you want to call it.

Unknown Speaker 4:29
How long is the horse has been here when when?

Unknown Speaker 4:31
Well, they came in? See, Chuck was four years old when they came here. So He's two years older than I so they must have can't come here in 1990. Was it 1928? I think we're on age 2019.

Unknown Speaker 4:52
Where did they come from?

Unknown Speaker 4:53
They were from? Well, she was an American originally married married to Horrell, who was Canadian at the time that they worked in Vancouver. Scott Scott road or someplace out there?

Unknown Speaker 5:08
What would bring them to Saltspring at a time like that

Unknown Speaker 5:10
mostly timber? Yeah. It was timber and you know it was really set us getting towards the depression and nobody had any money so you know, you did things that could make a living out.

Unknown Speaker 5:24
Well, it's not many people have one road named after them. But you've got two roads and decided to carry your name Natalie and horrorland. When did they decide when did when did you find out they were going to name a road after you?

Unknown Speaker 5:35
Well, we Christian like I raised my family. They're like farm we built back when it was still a little little log house still on there. But you know, it needed to be pulled down, was built in 1958, I think. And Chuck's mother had bought the property and just at the beginning of the war, 1939, maybe 1940. And anyway, Chuck went to university when he graduated from high school, he went down, but it was called down into Western Washington. Oh, yeah. And then of course, war broke out and he had to, you have come because he belonged to Cadet here before he went down here to do the school. And then they had to join up right away. They weren't married yet. No, we didn't get married before the man. No, my pet. My father and my mother are both from their escapees. They came they're both polish. And that was around the time when Russia took over Poland. They were cruel, cruel people. Cruel Cossacks are terrible what they did to people. And chocolate. My father was the eldest of nine boys. And finally hit any rock. His mother said you go to America, make some money, and then you send for another brother. Well, what she did he came he's escaped how he got here? I don't know. There's so much about that side of the family. I just know very little about the name was Janeski was it? It was young with Chef skaters say, Yeah, but my father, my father did come to America came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and worked in the coal mines. I guess. I made some money and send it back to his mother how he got it back. I don't know at that time of history. And and he was given to his brother to come out here. But he didn't bring his another brother. He brought out his girlfriend. And they got married here and they settled down in Massachusetts. And that family, most of them are not alive. Now. There's only about two of them that are alive. And they settled in Springfield, Massachusetts. They had your day and he had my uncle had six kids. Yeah, thanks. And my dad came from Warsaw and my mother's people came from Vilna, which is on the border close to the border of Lithuania at that time. And, and how they got out here, I just don't know how we're how he managed to escape. I have no idea.

Unknown Speaker 8:18
Not only escape and get half get get all the way across North America as well.

Unknown Speaker 8:21
Yeah, pretty well. Yeah. But anyway, then. He brought his brother out. And he said, Well, I'm going west, I'm going west. So you gotta get to you know, they hit stone the train and came with to San Francisco. When he got San Francisco, there was this cry of gold in the north. In the Yukon. There's gold gold. So he joined the group and went into great work. So it was a Klondike or to he was a Klondike Er, yeah. And he was there until we're broke out. And then I don't know whether he got his Canadian citizenship to join up, but he joined up under current Colonel black. Black was his name. And he was overseas. Fortunately, he wasn't injured and he was over there for four years. And then when he came when, when the army was over, the war was over. I mean, he decided they still wanted to come west he decided he liked the West Coast. And, and I guess at that time, the soldier settlement board board had properties that they could these returning soldiers could buy, if they would very cheap, I guess in those days. And so he bought 188 acres and that was up where the Webster bought mine on the island after the reason he bought that was because he wanted timber. And because you know, that save money was getting scarce. It was getting really close to there was talk I guess around that time of maybe a depression coming And anyway, that's what he did. And that's where I was born.

Unknown Speaker 10:04
And you the war had an effect on you, too. You had to leave the island, or you chose to leave the island, I guess.

Unknown Speaker 10:09
Well, I Well, my we had a fire No, before that I must tell you, after my father got settled, and he figured that he got thing before while he was in the service, he used to go over to London. And being Catholic, he went to the Catholic and because he was always he went, joined a Polish club on his time off that they gave him a little time. And he met my mother's brothers, two brothers. And they got along very well. My mother never even saw him. She never even saw him at all. At all, she didn't have but anyway, after he got settled here, he contacted her, has her his wife, people and said that he would like to have their daughter's hand in marriage. And in the meantime, she was going with Russian and that was a no, no. Complete No, no. They were going to go to Australia, and she must have been what 1516 About that time. Anyway, so they put her on a plane or only gave her enough money to get to Vancouver. And when she got to Vancouver, the soldier settlement board met them and probably maybe a government official of some kind. And they had to get married. My mother had never even saw the man. She never knew what he looked like or anything. They had to get married a chain or it was arranged marriage. And when she came to Salt Spring, they came on this funny little boat that came to I don't know it was full Perger beaver point. I'm not quite sure about that one. And Gavin Mowat. My father got I got made friends with Gavin Mowat. And he went, he was meeting my father and my mother. At this little, I think it must have been beaver point, there was a little fairy that came in there. Or a boat that came in there at some time, then anyway, but with Gavin Mort had Mrs. Bobby wood sitting with him. And my mother thought, Oh, my God, and wherever I come through, because in England at that time, you never walked on the same street Street as a black person, really in England. Yeah. And she thought, oh, and Mrs. Bobby woods, you know, she's a lovely lady, really a lovely black lady. And she was about this wide and about this style. And my mum had said, they got to this foster log cabin. And in the woods, my mother's oh my god, she walked in the house and had a wood stove and an outdoor VFE. And she never even boiled water. He never knew how to boil water, because her father had a school for building, you know, within the closure department. And so she worked with her father, when they got to England, she worked with her father, and all their food and laundry and everything was done by somebody else. She had no idea. That must have been a shock anything. Anyway, she said, You know, I sat there and I cried for that day. And then I thought to myself, and I thought is smart enough. I'm going to make the best of this. And I'm going to be better do better than all these other people that I and then my dad took around and meet different people and he knew and says he said I would observe their cooking and I didn't like what they did. I could do better than that. But my, my dad, you know, he did teach her how to cook certain things. But things like making rice pudding pudding, you know, the rice went all over the place. And she was burying life and cake. She had all these eggs and she was burying these.

Unknown Speaker 13:55
Did she like the man that had been chosen for her that she like her husband?

Unknown Speaker 13:59
I think she made it reminded this is something she had to do. He was a very kind person. And but she she wasn't it was a little different class situation a little bit different. But anyway, she thought, well, you know, I'm here and I guess I'm here to stay. So I met her do the best I can. She learned to hunt. She'll contact you out a shot every man on trial spring. And of course that was a no no with the women here. They thought this was just

Unknown Speaker 14:28
terrible. So she was hunting deer and everything.

Unknown Speaker 14:31
Yeah, she shot deer up in the hill. And I'm forgetting I wasn't home because I wasn't told them that she saw deer right up on the hillside from Laos. So somehow I think I can try that one. I can't see any horns but maybe there are orange on it you never knew. Anyway, so she shot it. And then he then it totally disappeared. She's at all I probably missed. And pretty soon she saw the head again. And so she thought huh Maybe I didn't, I guess I didn't have it. So she shot it again. And so Ramses and a person here at sosi thought, Well, I'm gonna go up there and have a look and see if I did. And that's quite a way it's from now. It was way up the hills on the hillside property. There's you go in Blackburn road there and you wish to bucks. And because he or she came back down to get a wheelbarrow, I guess and see went up, brought those two deer down. And he was yelling at my father, who I guess was across the creek because we had a creek that ran right through our property. I guess he was calling to him. And he thought, oh my gosh, what she done to herself. And here she was trying to haul up these deer to skin them. Why? Gosh,

Unknown Speaker 15:47
this girl sounds like she adapted pretty good. He

Unknown Speaker 15:50
did adapt very, very well. But a lot of the women in the island didn't like that, because they didn't do those sorts of things. But she didn't care.

Unknown Speaker 16:00
How many siblings did you have? There was four of us.

Unknown Speaker 16:03
And I had five, I had five or nine. And then we went to school here and I went to grade one. And that was around that time that our house burned down. I was seven. And our lock house had burned down and my grandparents had sent money out for my mother to come with the kids back to England. They wanted her back there. And she thought, you know, I've worked so hard here, maybe I might like to stay when I go there. But when she got there, the kids were sick, because you know, there was still that awful fog that they had that

Unknown Speaker 16:39
old. From the smoke. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 16:40
burn coal and stuff like that. Yeah. And after we were there for over a year, and I went to school, there was this in London, or this was just on East London. That's where all the manufacturing of you know, all in all these sorts of goods that were that they made. And it was a big house that was about three or four storeys high, I guess it was, at one time, it probably belonged to one lawyer before that area was committed to doing this type of manufacturing. And anyway, so what was I going to say? No, and lost my train of thought, like you.

Unknown Speaker 17:21
You're you went to Union state for a year? Yes. And I went to

Unknown Speaker 17:25
school, and they didn't know where to put me because I had just passed into grade one. And I we got scarlet fever or not scarlet fever, whooping cough. And so there was no more school. I'd only been in school three months in grade one. So when I went there, but I learned so when I learned to do mathematics, and I learned to do whatever. I guess I learned quite quickly. Anyway, when I when she decided no, this is not healthy for the kids. We've got to go back to their father. And so she came back. And you know, and he had in the meantime, he was building a house. There were people on the property that have a mill, and they were making these railroad ties. And of course, a lot of them on the mill closed down. They left a lot of railroad ties up there. It was mostly, you know, there was a lot of those beautiful big trees in the island them. And so he built the house

Unknown Speaker 18:24
with those railroad railway ties. Yeah, that'd be tricky to do, because they're not very long.

Unknown Speaker 18:27
I know. And he did that. So we had the house but of course nobody had the inside plumbing or, or you carried water from the well and everything. But it was a good sturdy house. Three bedroom house and a big kitchen and a big living room. You know, they just built this because it was a good place to live. You didn't have all the fuss and fear that you have today. In building a house. Yeah, and that's. So then I came back and when I came back, when I went back to school here, they didn't know where to put me again. So they put me in a grade four or five, and I hadn't had grade two or grade three to grade. I didn't have much of grade one. I didn't have grade two and I didn't have grade three. And then I went into grade four. Well, and I the thing that bothered me because of that was English. I had a hard time which was English. And you see my dad had he was beginning to speak English well because he wouldn't he was up in the Yukon. He made made a real effort to try and change the language. And of course my mother spoke English because she was only five when Finn and may have to escape to Poland but she Anna cousin, and so she'd but my mother had no schooling. You would never know. When you read her letter so into write she always wanted to be a writer. She liked to read you would never know she never had any. But I think her grandfather must have taught her a lot because she worked with him, and she was a beautiful seamstress, beautiful screen. She could sew and she never learned all these crafts, all these craft. Now I guess she was kind of popular because she was a good looking woman.

Unknown Speaker 20:16
And you you got into nursing eventually. And

Unknown Speaker 20:18
I finished high school. Yes. When I finished high school, I decided that well, what what is available for women? And so I thought I would go and I started taking began helping chickens that were damaged. When I think of it, and I would get suturing up, they're bad. They're, you know, and they'd fight that. And I'd be suturing up. So I thought maybe I better go in for nursing. That I did. I went the whole St. Joe's and Victoria. Yeah. And I was there for three and a half years. Prior to that, I and I was 13 I had to go to work. And I worked at the Croft and did you know all about the Kafka and family? Yes, yeah. Dermot Croft, and she was a piano teacher. And so I've spent my four years there. What would you be doing? Oh, I was up five o'clock in the morning scrubbing on this washboard. And I was only 13 years old, no names and very small person. If my mother had known what I was doing, she would have been down there and hauling me out. But I wouldn't tell her because I thought no, I'm not going to. I have to do this times are tough. It's a depression. So I was there for four years. And then father sheelane he was the priest here he recommended gave me a nice recommendation. So but it was the chickens that I experiment.

Unknown Speaker 21:53
What sort of things we do besides sewing that sewing up the wounds and stuff?

Unknown Speaker 21:59
While the animals like you may have been helped deliver of calf, do little things I forgotten actually a lot of the stuff I do because you know, it's just like, Well, you do things. Yeah. And you don't even remember what you've done. And then of course, we had to learn I have to learn course, I have to learn to slow I have to learn to destiny. Took a few piano lessons, but I couldn't, couldn't carry. Keep it up and then you work at the Crofton house. I couldn't do my homework until 1011 o'clock at night. Oh boy, it was tough. But you know, I never had my mother. I wouldn't tell my mother all this. Because then she'd be kind of worried. Why didn't you tell me in the beginning? You know,

Unknown Speaker 22:41
there were a lot of tough women on the island when when you were here. Was it your, your your husband's sister was that when you want more

Unknown Speaker 22:48
when you want more color, but a bit about her? Well, she was born on Friday. And she was born in Vancouver I guess. But they lived in Friday Harbor. She there she lived with her then moved to RV Friday Harbor her parents moved their mother died young. And so her father she lived with her father. And he was a nasty type. He was only a little bit of a shrimp. But he was a mean kind of a mean that he was not very good with her. And she's a very smart woman, you know. But anyway, when she was 16 she was hell bent on getting out of there. So she met Howard Horrell how she met him. I have no idea. But anyway, she met him and they moved to Canada. And then she had two children. By then they were still in Vancouver, I guess they were that's when they were logging in Vancouver. And she had Margaret was the eldest and there was Helena, Eric, and then Helma. She had three kids, four kids that said she had one by a former marriage. The first marriage she got into is just as bad as being with her father and you know, but to get away from her from her from her father that was sort of a running away from her father. And then she met Harold webcon, who was a Swede that came from that Joe had got all these seven Germans and Swedes and whoever came to the country for work. He had them in helping in the logging business. And that's where they made their money in the logging business. And so she she was married to him for quite a while they had the three children and then she decided she didn't want to be married to him anymore. So

Unknown Speaker 24:32
that a divorce was to been fairly rare in those times

Unknown Speaker 24:35
divorce. Yeah, it was. And anyway, she finally got her divorce and then that she always looked after us when if he was injured or he was sick. She always looked after him divorce or no divorce. And then she got a job with when they had to Guca Boris when they brought him down to that little island just just off, you know the areas. She worked there for quite a while with it. was with the women. They brought the women down there. And they were down there and I can't quite remember how exactly how long they were there, but they were there for quite a little while. Yeah, they were. And that's how she made a fair amount of money. She made quite a little bit so that she could, you know, they were logging and then course at that time, it was right in the recession. And it was hard to get rid of some of their timber. But so she'd made enough money that it would help them through a period of time. And then she had met. Let's see, that was she had met. Harold worked. No, there was a fellow before them. Joe Lachman, he was from Austria. And then she did chin. He worked for the family. And so she got to kind of like him because he was quite nice. And he was cultured and he read and he was very good with Chuck. Very good. Chuck. So they got married. He made the money for her. She told me at one time she said, I'm married, are married my Howard Horrell to get away from my father. I married Joe because he made the money. I married Charlie because he wrote me this beautiful poetry. She was a character. And yet she did. Oh, manage things. She ran this job. She drove trucks. He did everything.

Unknown Speaker 26:24
Was she not a member of the Saltspring ladies fire brigade?

Unknown Speaker 26:29
No, no, she was not. No. But she she did a lot of good for a lot of people. She really did help a lot of people. She was very hard on the families on the families. She was not very nice, not very good. But she was good with everybody else and she helped people it's amazing the number of people that she did help and that Cushing Lake Village fair. You know that village in Cushing, my heard about it, yeah. Well, they bought that property from Collins brothers. They were family that or at least fellows that came from England eventually. And they settled there first. And they had own that cushion Lake farm at that time. But they had bought it from a family that came from South Africa. Doris Crofton, who was the daughter of that family that moved in, and then they sold it. And then they moved out of it because she had to go and go to school and victorious years of a very well educated woman. And she had went to college and Victorian music schools, very talented musician. And then that place sat idle for many, many years. And then the Collins brothers bought the property, just two bachelor's, two or three bachelors, I guess they were and they lived there for good many years. And that's and Granny bought the property from them. They when they sold that property, they bought property out at the north end, waterfront, that's I think the fam Simpson family, were the people that owned the property afterwards. But that was the Collins property at that time. And so she bought that and then she moved there. And, of course they had they were there for a while. We came back to Saltspring on 5058. We had been I've got married in Toronto. But in the meantime, we both got educated and what have you and and I was nurse and then I got kind of tired of nursing for awhile. And I thought because I was at nurse up in the LR, which I love Dr. I really did want you are aware about St. Paul. And a bit in St. Joe's this is where I got my training. But anyway, then I decided I wanted to get a little bit more education in the nursing field. So I took I went to St. Paul's and took this postgraduate study. And then I was night supervisor for several years. And then I thought, you know, all I'm seeing is nude bodies. And you know, and always a nighttime job. So I thought I'd like come on different. That's when I thought I joined TCA. Join the airlines.

Unknown Speaker 29:17
Did you so you all for your Canada transplant airlines

Unknown Speaker 29:21
when it's Trans Canada airlines. And you became a flight attendant? Yes. And then Chuck had in the meantime, Chuck and I know we were getting together. And he had a year to go and college and then and I decided that I wasn't going to go live on campus with a bunch of women yelling at kids and what have you. So I went east he didn't want happy about that. But and then he got a job with General Motors in Alberta, which head office was Toronto. And they sent him out to Flint, Michigan on on course right and he took a bit of law and he took, you know a few things in it all had to do with fire and, and accidents and all this sort of stuff. And then after that after he finished there, then we went, he went up to Washington and got a car. The company gave him a car. And that's when we got married. We got married down in Toronto, in Toronto, and we came across to Alberta, because that's where the work was. That was our honeymoon, crossing Alberta. And then I went to work at Holy Cross Hospital there for a while. And we rent it. We rented a place and rented and we were there for five years. And then Sherry was when I got pregnant with Sherry. But we always because I didn't have that kind of insurance over there. And I always came back here to have Mike, I have three of my kids back here once or my kids back here. It was always in transit.

Unknown Speaker 30:58
Right. And you were still working as a as an airline tenant.

Unknown Speaker 31:01
You're still fighting to know we couldn't once you married that was that's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. And anyway, so that's started out there. And then chuck, he'll start to give out after five, five years, he just wasn't feeling well. And the doctor told him he just better quit that job because he's got too much on his plate. Was it hurt? Or was it they had the size of an eight year olds heart. And then he ended up with arterial sclerosis with all his arteries. He was in the service for six years. And then the front. He joined with Canadian Scottish to start with and then when he, after his Canadian, Scottish for a couple of years, two or three years, they were sent out east. And he decided that he would like to, they were all going to move to England anyway. And he took exams for British British intelligence, and he joined the British intelligence. And he was with that throughout the rest of the war. And they had to go up front. Always the front lines first. Three times with with glee with you know, the, the people that you met weren't the enemy because they didn't just miss their targets.

Unknown Speaker 32:17
Yeah, friendly fire.

Unknown Speaker 32:20
And, of course, he got that his ears were damaged. And only two of them survived. He and a friend who lived up in northern Alberta, they were the only two that survived. And there were 32 of them that were sent over to the front. They have to leave before the soldiers came in. But he, you know, and then when he came out he was they go through a health thing, you know. And they found that he was deaf. But, of course, he was fed up with army and he never bothered to have it checked. And they didn't check out his blood pressure or his heart. Or they did finally check his blood pressure, but they neglected it. They didn't bother with it. And anyway, one of the fellows here that had been in the army, he was sort of looking after the troops there their interest here on the island. And he told Chuck, why don't you go and see if you can claim claim, pension for, you know, for the damage that was occurred, occurred. But of course, he wouldn't do it for a long time. And they didn't, they didn't follow up, just hypertension. And then finally, money was getting sicker and having these problems. He went back to the doctor and said definitely you've got the serious heart problems. And he had his first operation when he was 4646. The first he was one of the few that had a bypass surgery, and they only did one on him. And of course what they did is they drugged them in there the anesthetic that they used. I didn't know him when he came out, changed his personality completely. Took him almost 10 years to get almost back to where it never did quite get back to the same person but and then he'd had after we moved here, he had done much more he had three bypasses, but they only last about three months because all his arteries were these. But you know, he lived to 75 and they never thought that he would ever live because they kept telling me you're not your husbands aren't gonna live very long. He's not gonna I took him to Houston, Texas, down there to see if maybe because you know, they had start they got very well informed about heart surgery or what have you. Well, they wouldn't touch his heart when I took him down there and I sat there and then before they made up their mind, but finally they decided they're going to check him out and he had one whole block carotid artery because he was having all these in your mind. or strokes. And he was, you know, he was deaf and he was not with it at times. And I thought, you know, this was happening before I took him down there. So they did that surgery. 20 minutes after the operation, he was awake. And his color was good. But he was having all these attacks while I was taking him down by plane. And anyway, after he had that surgery, but he didn't operate on this one, they figured that half of it was blocked, but they were gonna leave it because he had to have some something to survive.

Unknown Speaker 35:35
Did you did you work in? In the hospital on Saltspring? Yes, for three months or three months. How did you like that? That must have been

Unknown Speaker 35:40
a little bit stagnant with the with the head honcho and yeah, I kind of enjoyed it. I was waiting to write my exams to see I have three months to wait. So I Gavin mod came and got in touch with me and said I'd like you to come and work on selfing right after I graduated.

Unknown Speaker 36:02
What was he that he could he would do that? Was he What was his position?

Unknown Speaker 36:05
Well, he originally was lager and then he bought up a lot of real estate and dealt in land and he helped a lot of people and there was a lot of things he got involved with. And probably most will say he kind of built the community

Unknown Speaker 36:21
helped build so he wanted you because you had a reputation as a good nurse.

Unknown Speaker 36:25
And my parents knew him really well. Because he was the first person my father met when he came to Salzburg family connection when he when he bought that property so so that was part of that.

Unknown Speaker 36:39
So these recognize some faces in that photograph. Well,

Unknown Speaker 36:42
I can't remember some of the girls names

Unknown Speaker 36:50
here's me there.

Unknown Speaker 36:53
I think we've got the so

Unknown Speaker 36:57
Juanita Smith Smith Yeah, that was poobah stared at school teacher. And the next Yeah, it was I knew her but I can't remember her name now.

Unknown Speaker 37:07
Try this other photographs. This is the

Unknown Speaker 37:11
same one. Oh, yes. We don't know. Oh, okay. So be nice if you knew some of the ones that we don't know already. So they put numbers on their heads.

Unknown Speaker 37:27
Harry Roberts now I can't remember

Unknown Speaker 37:37
their Harry was in here not I can't you know, I can't remember what he was what he looked like when he was in high school. He was short. I remember he was sure. This one I don't didn't look like Gary

Unknown Speaker 37:59
Roberts. I offered

Unknown Speaker 38:04
I'm not sure who identified these people. I think was fair haired if I could, but then I could be wrong too. Yeah, yeah. And that was foolish to the teacher. That was Juanita Smith. That was me. And I can't remember who these two girls were.

Unknown Speaker 38:27
So it's funny the Smith I know you're identified here.

Unknown Speaker 38:31
I saw your name I think I'm sure I did. Can I look at the second photograph? Yeah. Natalie looked like

Unknown Speaker 38:41
school. That's a horrible picture. Number five and that was for was one eight. So we've got all those journey. Billy.

Unknown Speaker 39:01
Billy he'll

Unknown Speaker 39:06
leave here. Then we cut.

Unknown Speaker 39:10
That was Johnny Bennett. I think number two Johnny Bennett. So Natalie white Bobby Loosemore was this one. Good 2930 Us 30.

Unknown Speaker 39:27
Billy Oh, that was Billy Hill. So we can leave that with you. Maybe you can fill in some of those. Those blanks. We can pick it up later.

Unknown Speaker 39:42
Yeah, well, louder.

Unknown Speaker 39:46
Of course you remember the school? Dorothy mort.

Unknown Speaker 39:51
Gavin mullets, first wife, daughter. They adopted this girl. Dorothy. That was Dorothy moderately got her here. Is that 17? Yeah Dorothy more 16 Well for when that was whenever it got up

Unknown Speaker 40:13
anyway. Oh, that's good.

Unknown Speaker 40:16
Can

Unknown Speaker 40:18
you get a call? Not 13

Unknown Speaker 40:29
pictures of citywide school. Oh, is it? This one is the chicken house school? And then one underneath there is the divide school?

Unknown Speaker 40:39
Yeah. Bill VARCOE Charlie VARCOE.

Unknown Speaker 40:47
That's a good picture. It's very clear.

Unknown Speaker 40:51
This is my sister Helen, my sister Bani Rosie Connery. That was a Nelson, Maxine Nelson. And that was a Wakelin. What was her name? I forget what her name was Johnny Bennett. And that was Mr. Grove at the time. And that was Charlie bill. And this was Crawford. One of the Crawford boys Jimmy Crawford.

Unknown Speaker 41:26
That was from a family I can't remember. And that was a wait Glenn. Roy Wakelin Arthur NOGs.

Unknown Speaker 41:38
Thought you said something was wrong with your memory.

Unknown Speaker 41:42
Sometimes people ask me something and I've got a blank I can't give it after they've gone it comes out. Pretty good weren't that many in the school? And that was like my, my sister's networking bunny and Pat came along after we came back from England. That was 10 years younger. My younger sister was 10 years younger than myself. And she passed away. She and Helen and Pat Labette passed away. They were 69 when they passed away both was cancer. Well, no. You heard medical neglect and medical neglect, but that was

Unknown Speaker 42:38
but I can't now look so familiar, but I can't

Unknown Speaker 42:43
I think their names are down here.

Unknown Speaker 42:47
backrow David just oh the justices. Yeah. That was the Justice family. Jimmy Crawford Yeah. Lionel justice Rodney justice and for those who are all a justice family, Florence Grove she was in. And that was second row. middle row

Unknown Speaker 43:23
that was your knobs Ellen. Ellen Connery. That maybe that was Ellen Connery. That was Rosie Connery. They were brother and sister. You Billy VARCOE Charlie VARCOE Johnny Bennett. Howard Nelson. Maxine, and then I said those are all up June Bennett.

Unknown Speaker 43:59
Lorraine Her name was Lorraine wakelam And then me where are you? Are you holding this you know that's me there. Oh, okay. Oh yes, I see that I could see the eyebrows

Unknown Speaker 44:19
Yeah, that was best but let's see army ones. I'm having a hard time with a lot of them because on most of those pictures, you know, they're not they're not big picture. So you know, they're small, small and even though I put my glasses on I can't you know, putting them in uniform is changed. change their appearance go a little bit. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 44:44
So anyway, we decided to settle here and this is where he lived out his life.

Unknown Speaker 44:52
So how many years have you been here?

Unknown Speaker 44:55
We've been here about 2526 See, we have to Couldn't make fun that for my family. Now what a wonderful place to raise your kids on the lake, you know, and they had, we had at that time, we had about 400 acres of property. And before, you know, some people it was so a lot of us sold off. And you know, they had their horses, their bikes, they had outdoor living, living, they were outdoors, and they were kids in today's world, you know, they sit in front of the TV and everything else. Now, I would never allow them when TV first came in weekends only were they ever allowed to have TV, not while they went to school. And they had their animals and you know, and when they had their animals, they had to look after them and they hadn't we had cows we hadn't. Were able to we were fortunate enough at that time to be able to do this. Do this even with Chuck's health as it was that he had his good moments sometimes. And then sometimes, you know, he didn't so but anyway, and I'm still here.

Unknown Speaker 46:03
Sure.

Unknown Speaker 46:08
Yeah, it's been it's been an interesting life. Yeah, I can see we have moved around quite a bit. We went from Calgary back to salt train or Chuck was supposed to have a rest because of his health. Then he got tired of that. The doctor said you got to take six months off and when he came back down, he after three months, he said, I just can't do this. I've got to find work. So we worked icon. He worked on the farm with his mother and then anyway, so then he moved up to the interior. We lived in Kamloops for five oh Bucha we lived in Calgary then we got back Saltspring and then we moved up to Kamloops for five years. And then from Kamloops his his mother and Gavin Mark came up and wanted this friend of ours and Rod Pringles way family wanted him he and Mike to take over the business down here. Oh, cool. How did you like Kamloops? Well, at that time, it was pretty rough was a town there was only 8000 people there and, and the Indians were around in the you know, they'd be fighting. And it was so hot and dusty. And, you know, it's not like it was today. And, you know, they, we had friends that came up from England. Anyway, while we're there. It was hard to find accommodation or anything. But anyway, was when they were putting the pipeline through, right. And anyway, they came up from England and of course, Chuck would take them down. They stayed with us for about a week or so. And they take them downtown to downtown to the town, the city of Kent. And he, you know, he'd watched what the Indians are doing while they were out. So the women were absolutely scared, silly. And the man was really into this. Chuck had eggs with him and he was saying you can fry eggs on the sidewalk here. I'll show you this. And he did all

Unknown Speaker 48:01
this, lots of stories take back to England.

Unknown Speaker 48:04
Yeah, he said I'm never coming back to England. And then he took credit we took we took a decide to go on a picnic out to small few SmartWay. Yeah. And that's Indian village quite close in there. Anyway. So we decided to have a picnic on the beach and it was nice and Chuck and Rod are checked in. And our friend Bert went out to get water but they wouldn't take any water close to the beach. So they went they had a long long ramp there ramp that went way out. 50 feet or so where the water was nice and clear to get tea. In the meantime, income these Indians on horseback and they're charging on the beach and into the water. And she is having a bird I am never coming back to this country. We've got to get going. We've got to go. Well, no, our ticket is such in such a way that she did not like it one little bit. And Christian men were having we had to refinish their picnic, though, but she wouldn't drink the tea away like drinking tea when horses are in that water. They've polluted the lake.

Unknown Speaker 49:20
We have kind of an interesting life. Yeah. Sounds like

Unknown Speaker 49:24
I guess a lot of people have you know, like that. And then we ended up back here.

Unknown Speaker 49:31
Well, thank you for telling us about lots of interesting stories.

Unknown Speaker 49:35
Well, it's my pleasure meeting you.

Unknown Speaker 49:37
You too. My pleasure. Got to meet two streets in one day. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 49:43
And I had not met Susan before I met you at the power at the last last yet the fall fair. That's right.

Unknown Speaker 49:55
Well, now I'll recognize the weaver did you go to the old timers? Yeah, I think yeah, I think because Frank said to me, there's Natalie, because I had you in my mind to get together with you and I missed you. So now I'm

Unknown Speaker 50:12
glad you made it up because it was really interesting to hear your stories.

Unknown Speaker 50:16
Your I've probably missed a few things that you do feel.

Unknown Speaker 50:20
Well, if you like me, you'll think of them all in three o'clock in the morning. You gave us lots of wonderful stuff.

Unknown Speaker 50:29
So this chicken house school, you have any memories about going to the chicken house

Unknown Speaker 50:34
school? Yes. When I first went to high school there, I would have been what 13 That was when I had to go to work at 13. That's when I started to work at the same time. I started high school. And it was just one room. One room but it was it was had been a chicken house. And I guess what they did it cleaned it all out. I don't know. It looked as if it was well, yeah, wouldn't put kids in school, chicken and stuff. Oh, anyway, but you know, there were cracks in the walls, you know, throw cat through the

Unknown Speaker 51:05
winter, it must have been cold

Unknown Speaker 51:07
in the center of the floor, just like when we went to the divide school in the center of the school and at the school room. There was one of these big round woodstove or coals wouldwould it was them. And then they had a screen around it. And everybody had hang their coats on they're getting burned down when we're going there. And that and then in the high school, they had the same sort of thing there with that one room, then they then they took out the protection and made two rooms out of it. And the other room was high school. And that's where I finished my high school in the second room. But it was the same thing crudely built. It had, I don't know they might have even moved in another piece of an old chicken house. joined it up.

Unknown Speaker 51:52
That's pretty amazing. But we had

Unknown Speaker 51:56
there was a lot of sports activities, you know, and there was always some little picnic games that you know, it all included sports. So

Unknown Speaker 52:05
did you enjoy sports?

Unknown Speaker 52:07
I would like it but I couldn't because I didn't have time. No, I didn't have time to God. I you know, when I tried at times, you know, like I liked them in town and I like tennis and I like running I would nobody could ever catch me. I was tiny. I wasn't very big when I went to high school. And I really was a runner at that time. And then we had people coming from Sydney and Sydney Tim Duncan, maybe Duncan area to compete with.

Unknown Speaker 52:38
And then we played on grass hockey. I liked the grasshopper question. Have we had any winter sport because it wasn't that cold

Unknown Speaker 52:45
at that time, so you got the snow at a different time to when you get the snow here so but you know, I got I got a fair amount of that in, you know, during recess and noon hour. That was when I got the after school course I have to go back to work. So yeah. I couldn't do anything after school.

Unknown Speaker 53:08
You were obviously a good student. Well,

Unknown Speaker 53:11
I think I wanted to get through this is the thing I wanted to make sure that I get Nick Clegg gone London education. Yeah. Good for you. Because so many of the kids didn't they just go for a while in grade eight. If they made it to grade eight. Yes, then they could just go and work. Yeah, they just go to work. Do you have any Windex? Yeah, I was gonna ask you guys you know, I never asked you would you like cup of tea or? Fine, thank you. Thank you. Come back again.

Unknown Speaker 53:38
Oh, that would be lovely.

Unknown Speaker 53:41
When we get the pool open to get it open until June because my daughter and my son in law are going back to bring a lot of her stuff back here. She's she's been living in Boston. Oh, really? Yeah. as well. This and that's your answer. This is Mike Pence. This is Taylor this prank. Yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 54:06
he's special. You're so lucky any polished your car? Yeah, he really just clean up.

Unknown Speaker 54:13
I tried to talk him into my scooter. But he wasn't interested.

Unknown Speaker 54:17
Are you trying to find a little job? Oh, it's good. Okay, I'm gonna index. Do you have any window index in my bathroom? The first half.

Unknown Speaker 54:29
All right. Well, we said

Unknown Speaker 54:33
well, it was nice for us. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 54:35
nice meeting, you guys. Just have to come back again. Maybe meet Roger and Wendy and gray come in the course of her job was high tech stuff from the sides. And then they closed her division down. Let's know you're still here. And she's been with the company for 14 years. She was in position to travel to Israel, Bangalore, India, and different places like that with with her job. And then they cancelled out

Unknown Speaker 55:14
that whole vision. They outsource it probably.

Unknown Speaker 55:17
I don't know whether you're taking on me or she just got to the point where she hated it. No, that's

Unknown Speaker 55:22
yeah. Well, a lot of jobs are like that. Now who is are these little things? I think they belong to Frank. Frank, but I'm not going to touch them because it's too complicated.

Unknown Speaker 55:30
too complicated for me.

Unknown Speaker 55:38
sunglasses on. Okay. Thank God. So picture. Oh, and another thing I thought we'd ask is, you know, we have the new archives here above the library, where we keep all the records and, and we even look after people's family pictures and whatever. And we also copy a lot of people's pictures and just, you know, give them back but we have a have a copy of them. And they're on the internet available for other people to do research and a lot of cases, family members. And I was just wondering if you you had any old Well, what material die

Unknown Speaker 56:20
younger my second oldest daughter, my second daughter, when she retires, I gave all those records and everything, both from Chuck side, some on truck side that that family had finally that they're on, and again, helped them to a degree, but she's going to do that get all that stuff together. But she's a geological engineer, and she's off island a lot. She's got a lot of work. They keep getting her off Island. And she said when she retires this is what she wants to do. So okay, she's got all the stuff. That's good. And that's what she wants to do.

Unknown Speaker 56:59
I wouldn't you want to sit down with Arthur. Okay. Okay. Here we are.

Unknown Speaker 57:08
Hardest part of my job.

Unknown Speaker 57:11
I think that'll be super Frank's in the background.

Unknown Speaker 57:14
Oh, good. That's great.

Unknown Speaker 57:15
I like that.

Unknown Speaker 57:21
Really interesting to talk to

Unknown Speaker 57:22
you. Well, it's very nice to meet you.

Unknown Speaker 57:24
And we'll leave these pictures here. And especially this one if you know any of these people when you