Courtesy Lena MucEachcrn

The Polly Tea, 1903.

of July. It was peritonitis, but they didn’t know it then. They called it inflammation of the bowels then.

I remember [the Polly Teal]. That’d be the summer my father died, 1903, and I wore a black dress that Ella Gillis made. Of course, you had to wear black then, for a year. No matter how old you were.

I can see the field now. It was that field to your right when you drive into Jimmy Halliday’ s.

I guess there was music. They had meals and I guess they had music... . The tent was the eating place — went down to the shoreside. The tables were all set up [and the tent] was all covered with branches to keep the sun off the food. A big wire fence all around. I didn’t eat there: probably didn’t have the 25 cents or whatever it was.

1. The Polly Tea commemorated the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Selkirk settlers aboard the Polly from Portree, Isle of Skye, to Orwell Bay, 07 August 1803. It is believed the ship anchored in Orwell Bay, adjacent to the site of the anniversary

picnic.

Kate MacTavish 199