Looking back on Sand Beach Date: 6/5/2009 Name: marie Location: E-Mail: Comments: In Sand Beach, in the 1930s, one of the regular peddlars who came around every week with his truck selling meat, was a Mr Patten (or Patton?). The truck would stop in the middle of the dirt road and neighbours would gather and make their purchases while everyone caught up on most of latest news from a radius of probably five or ten long miles --who had illness or any misfortune, who had a newborn, who moved away, who returned, how bad the storm was, who lost what by lightning, whose boat capsized, and so on. My two brothers and I
would follow Dad to the road, and most often the kindly Mr Patten would
press a big Newfoundland cent into the palm of our hand, each one! When
he came around in the fall with barrels of apples to sell, we excitedly
emptied our piggy banks to help make up the three dollars to pay for the
beautiful apples, barrel and all! Those were the days! How
could one ever forget such a p;lace and such neighbours! Blessed memories.
Date: 6/3/2009 By the way, I forgot to
tell the story of the time Clyde Wyman, our good neighbour, took
his little sister and me ('me' is correct in this case) with him in his
new little coupe for a Spring drive out to see the new construction of
the airport. The drive was most enjoyable till we got stuck in deep mud
to the axles! Clyde soon had a circle of friends around the scene
and by some effort "got us out of the stuck" --as we little girls later
described the scenario.
And I mustn't forget
to mention a special gentleman, a Mr LeCain, who drove a nice car,
a 1930s model, and his car would go by, heading toward town, as I would
be on my way down to the Sand Beach School. Mr LeCain never failed to tip
his hat to me each and every time! That's how I learned a little
more about refinement and respect for others, making no distinction.
I felt honored by him. One time he gave me a ride part of the way home
from school on a very cold February day. "Did you get any Valentines
today" he asked.
marie Entry Date: 5/29/2009 Comments: From 1934 to
May 1941 our family lived in the lovely Horton house in Sand Beach, and
now I want to relate a few memories of neighbours we had at that time.
I've already mentioned the friendly Cosman family next door.
Down from them was Tracy Goodwin and his wife who was a Knowles.
They had a lovely family of hard working truckers, mostly of coal in those
days, and it was Tracy with his big truck who moved our family belongings
to Dartmouth when my father was transferred there by Canada Customs in
1941. My mother and Mrs Goodwin and I decided to walk to make more room
in the car for my siblings.As we climbed Silver's Hill to the lone farm
house at the top, Mrs Goodwin kept repeating with every breathless step,
"Last place on earth, Mrs Doucette, last place on earth!" In Sand
Beach, her youngest son Carl was my brother's best friend.
Straight across the road
from the Horton house, was Mr MacKenzie's little store. When he was not
there it was Kathleen Wyman behind the counter. Mr MacKenzie
was a Boy Scout Master and was often seen in full Scout uniform with the
large brimmed felt hat. Mr macKenzie had a Scottie dog named Angus.
He also drove a Beach Wagon, and it was the prettiest station wagon I ever
saw. Its sides were panelled with beautiful light grain wood. [The only
other similar vehicle I've heard of would be the truck owned by a Mr d'Entremont,
and the picture reminds me of Mr MacKenzie's beach wagon. He used that
for transporting his supplies.
Down from Mr MacKenzie were the Rogers ladies, Mae and Winnie, and they sold lovely candies they made themselves. They had a wide variety of flavors of taffy kisses and some made into longer sticks and canes. They made a reddish cocoanut chewy log called a hunkadory, and then a flat white candy with yellow blob on top called a fried egg, and those were creamy and delicious. There were others but those mentioned were the favorites in the neighbourhood. At Christams time our family received one of their pound boxes of "ends" of candy and those were as yummy as the more perfect renderings of the original stock. The Purney family lived next door and every fall at Halloween they gave us children a box filled with beautiful chestnuts! Oh,the games we made up with these treasures! The Sand Beach school teacher boarded with the Purneys or with the Rogers, both beautiful large homes. The teachers there in
our time were a Miss Clarke who was succeeded by Mr Lawrence Doucette from
Quinan, and he had a large family of his own. He travelled by motorcycle
and went home to his family on weekends.
Various peddlars came
around, some with apples, others with fish and meat, and yet others with
a great variety of goods, such as Watkins or Raleigh products so well known
all over the place, but Sand Beach has many more stories of back then when
there was no pavement anywhere and where the Beach was a favorite summer
attraction and the harbour and Bunker Island and Cape Forchu with the beautiful
old light house where many went for a picnic. i remember the nasty experience
I had on Bunker island with a group from school, when I was stunned after
being bunted by a ram! I learned something new that day!
Thank you again Marie... G.J.LeBlanc When I was a little girl living in Sand Beach in the 1930s that beach down there where the roses line the lane almost to the water's edge, there were banks of white sand! tons and tons of it, but it's been cleaned out to the rocky bottom! Ages and ages created that sand and put it there and many went there every day all summer to play on the beach. Seaweed was not up on the shore as it is now. Only when the tide went out did we get to walk on the seaweed and see some of the rocky bottom. There were treasures in those days coming from a long and glorious-- and always tragic -- history of fishermen, sailors merchants and the sea. There is a haunting tale of a woman who lost her husband at sea and when the tide went out she would go to the beach and walk out as far as she could, in her nightgown, and call her husband through the fog and mist and with the foghorn blowing, it was even more eerie. Police had to rescue her when neighbours would report her out there. She had practically lost her mind over his disappearance at sea and in her sleep she would sleepwalk to the beach and go way out and call him at low tide. This was the REAL woman, not a "ghost". There was no ghost to it, unless it would be her husband calling back from the deep--who knows, but I never heard of any. This poor woman never got over her terrible loss and ended up in someone's care. So tragic and sad! (If I remember right, her name was Scovil, but it's a long time ago, but that name always stuck in my mind after hearing older people telling about Mrs Scovill being rescued from the flats at low tide down at Sand Beach.) That story always stayed with me because it's so tragic and sad. Marie I was amazed to find a picture of the old house I used to pass by twice a day in the 1930s when walking to and from Sand Beach to St Ambrose Convent school and church. It was on the right going up toward the golf links on our way to school. Because I was quite new there and hadn't walked up that way before without a grown-up, as soon as we started school the neighbour children told us that a Mrs. Scott was living there and that children had to be on their very best behaviour when passing by that house. The rule was that one must look quickly if one wanted to see it, but not stop and stare at it, just glance that way while walking past the property, because "Mrs. Scott" lived there and she could see us going by. They said she would not bother us if we were moving on, but if we stopped it was hard to tell what might happen. That for me was exciting and scary at the same time. Some children exaggerated saying the house was spooky, and it might well have been so. That's the kind of story older children told us little ones about that very same house as you have pictured on your website! i was so amazed to see it that I was almost trembling looking at it, this old 1930s house! Here it was on my computer seven or eight decades later! (to continue:) --So whenever we came close to that house, we almost held our breath until we were past it. We looked briefly , and way up at it, as we wondered silently, and kept on going toward home. Always we children kept that place of "Mrs. Scott's" in awe and her too, although we never saw her. But we were certain that she was watching us through her lacy window curtains, any time we walked past her house. The house looked different from any other we were familiar with. It was not like a box but rather reminded me of a castle or what had once been a palace. It was gray or unpainted in those days and tall weeds or grasses grew all around the house, back and front. and on both sides of the many steps that mounted to her front door. When I was a few years older I believed it had been the home of a seaman because there was a "widow's walk" where his wife could climb the turret to watch over the horizon and the ocean. This website gives me for the first time in my nearly eight decades of life some facts about that mysterious residence. So it was an Inn, yes, i believe it. And also we were told that Mrs. Scott at night would go up into the widow's walk and watch the harbour and she could see sailing vessels way out far in the distance. Sand Beach children had amazing imaginations and they loved to tell yarns to us littler ones! Such delightful and sometimes scary dreams and memories they gave us! Their parents must have read them many wonderful books when they were little to instill in them such imaginations and fantastic little stories! Such memories! Thank you! Marie
Why does it seem to me almost a violation for me now --a once timid child passing the Scott house so often-- to have now invaded the privacy of that dear widow who had been so reserved during the years we children were passing by, looking but not daring to stop to greet her, and to bring her mayflowers? Nevertheless, this great lady is speaking to us now, opening up some of her family history for us and giving us a real tour of her mansion there at 7 Main Street! May she rest in peace. Marie
Thank You Marie |
