Her parents farmed mostly vegetables; cabbage, cauliflower and potatoes. “One year they grew cucumbers which went to market in Saint John,” she says. “The cabbages and other vegetables grew by the ton. My father would take a truck to Halifax to sell them. My brother would drive the truck. They’d start out at 2 a.m. on those days.

“As children, we worked out in the fields with the men. Dad used to wonder if he worked us too hard, but at the end of the day, after supper, we’d go out and skip rope, so I guess we weren’t too tired.

“We grew up good an healthy. We worked hard, but we were never hungry. And we ate what we wanted. My mother baked bread twice a week, and each time she made 16 loaves. One time we had poor flour and until she could get to the village to get new flour, we had to have baker’s bread. That was a great treat. The home-made was always good, but something different, that’s a treat.

“She did other baking too. Drop cookies were a favourite; chocolate they were. And brown sugar cookies with nuts in them. We always had a birthday cake, no matter what else was going on. Four of us had birthdays in February, so it would be a big cake with four layers. 

“She had a recipe that was called Matrimonial Cake, it was only later that we called it date squares. And she made pies sometimes. Apple was the most favourite, or maybe raisin. Occasionally, she would make a jelly roll.

“We always had good home cooked meals. My mother cooked for all of us, and for the hired man as well. We would usually be 15 at table. I remember that when she made a boiled dinner, she always did potatoes in another pot. I don’t know if that was because the potatoes were the kind that would all fall apart in a boiled dinner, or if it was just that she didn’t have a pot big enough.

“If there was anything going on, we were always able to go, to get involved. When we went skating in the winter we always walked, unless someone was taking a horse and buggy, but we couldn’t all fit in one buggy anyway, so some of us had to walk even then.

“We always had a busy summer. We used to go up to Lakeville in Kings County to visit our grandmother. A big thing was the 12th July Orange Day Parade in Margaretsville; my father told us that he rode the white horse one year. 

“The Sunday School picnic at Stronach Brook was another event. We took a pair of horses, and a hay-rack with all the dishes and everything. They would make tea in big tea pot. It was that blue enamel with white spots. It would make 14 or 15 cups at a time, and they would just add more tea and more water all along. Of course we kids didn’t get tea, we would drink milk or water.

“There was the Calf Club; it wasn’t called 4H back then, but I did get to raise calves. We had a sewing club too, I learnt a lot from that. The teacher would get fabrics from Kingston. She said there had to be ten girls for the club, and my father said “I’ve got nine myself, I’m sure we can find one more.” and we did.