16

the community except for house parties usually held on Sunday nights. On stormy days the fishermen contented themselves-with fixing or

salvaging some of their gear. The Situation at North Lake at that 4

time; (and some would also apply it todayl)‘\ is described:

If a fellow were lazy, he could sleep to ten

or eleven o'clock and get up and talk for the

rest of the day. There was lots of bootleg

liquor then and some of them would be on the

drunk. Some here and a bunch there. They were

pretty near all bootleggers. Mostly anybody

at the Harbour had rum around. They didn‘t 64

have it for sale, they.had it to drink. Most fishermen and workers, however, spent their time constructively such as carrying out maintenance jobs at the factory or fixing up gear. Some people recalled that some people who worked at the :Eac- tory spent their evenings doing such things as growing gardens and other tasks around home. There would be visiting back and forth within the community. The people at the cookhouse would usually gather around and listen to the radio or tell stories. about Such' things as ghosts. . (Percy Beaton seems to have been one of the best storytellers in this regard) .65 rum running (some of the peo— ple at "The Point" were involved in this illustrious business), 66 shipwrecks, and treasure (which was supposed to be buried in the East Point area by Captain Kidd) .67 Some of these stories were originally heard by Lorne Johnston and subsequently printed in his "Ole Salt" column in The Guardian. One person notes:

They didn't do very much actually. There

wasn't the goings that's on today. Go to a

house and somebody would step dance and you'd

have a house dance or something like that.

Social in the school, that was the only thing 68 that was the big event of the Spring.