Preface

The lines that follow were not originally intended for publi- cation. What began two years ago as a scratch-pad activity for relaxation, gradually grew like one brick upon another into this 30-unit piece. The period covered by these chapters is roughly from 1935 to 1955, a mere twenty-year span of time. Only rarely does the writer make a brief dash beyond the range of the mid 50s. There is no attempt here to tell a whole story, but rather to give a glimpse of a larger picture. The events described are left open ended and the chapters arranged haphazardly. They are not the result of research but simply one person’s reflection of an age and lifestyle already so different from that of the 90s.

In the twenty-year period covered here that lifestyle was deeply rural and agricultural, the pace was slow, the boundaries small. Almost without exception there was no electricity, no central heating, no indoor plumbing, no paved roads and only a handful of the older feeble telephones. Yet life went on quite well as the people lived near to nature and generally close to God. The residents almost without exception were of a kind, that is of Irish background and Roman Catholic, the church steeple being the centre or magnet around which the community lived and moved.

The pages that follow reflect upon events as found almost exclusively in the school district of Iona West wherein our homestead lay. In a few instances a slightly wider territorial range is included. These reflections are intended as a silent tribute to our ancestors who first settled the Iona hills and to the later generations who built on their foundations. I have done only mild justice to their inborn goodness. When the picture is put together all we wish to say is that “it happened in Iona”.

Art O’Shea Charlottetown, P.E.I. December, 1990