We got off the train and we went over to [Pete’s sister] Cora’s. And we had supper there. And then the shivaree crowd came.

Oh, their noise was something awful. They’d come from all around to the shivaree: walk for miles. And they’d have great, big tubs, wash tubs, and they’d have every darn thing you could think of, and the racket was something terrible.

And you came out, and then you used to treat them. I remember the last time, when Pete and I went over to Cora’s, I had bought a whole lot of doughnuts, three or four dozen, I think. I don’t know if Cora gave them anything or not but they all went. They weren’t looking for it, you know, but you’d have to hand them something. I wouldn’t have time to make sandwiches.

Many’s the [shivaree] I was at. I remember one at Magnus Ross’s when [his son] Gussie"< was married. And I went down, walked down from here... And I’d just old clothes on. Then I got to the door I looked in and Magnus was sitting over in the corner, Gussie and the wife sitting there, and they looked as if they were at a funeral. There wasn’t a bit of sound out of anybody.

So I got in, and I walked across the floor, and I went over, and I sat in Magnus’s lap. And that started it. Oh boy, did they ever laugh and laugh? And then everything went on from there. And I’ll never forget — she had ice cream, homemade ice cream. Oh boy, did I ever get filled.

Train Stops and Stories

The train stopped up at the station. The mail came out on it. And oh, they’d come from miles around, every direction. You could see them come and gather to meet the train. And then, of course, they’d go to the post office and get their mail. I used to be out [in the store] some, but [Pete] was nearly always around there, on account of the post office. I’ve known him to be sitting here near midnight and somebody’d come and he’d have to go out. And out he’d go. He had the post office for 36 years, I think.

But oh, that was quite a thing. Angus Neil MacDonald, and all those fellas. They’d sit around at the station up there, you know, chewing tobacco and spitting it in the stove. Just gathered and talked.

[Angus Neil] always walked up to the station. Always, always. Dad [Pete] had a store, you know, and he used to sit in there first, chewing tobacco. And never minded where he’d spit.... You know how [his wife] Katie was. She’d never have anything like that at home. My husband Pete

M Kate MacLean Emery 29