My Momma Told Me

Today I would like to share something with you about my Mom. First of all I want to talk about the photo  of her sitting with a valentine postcard. My mother who is 92 has been a collector all her life. She has saved things since she was a little girl, and has told us stories about them. Like the little basket she has which was made with porcupine quills and given to her when she was around 9 years old from a little native american friend she met in Cape Breton where her father worked for a while.  And the christening dress her mother and her made for her first baby  and then she used it for all of her children, including me, then many of her grandchildren also were baptized in that same dress.  She had a set of granite pie plates that she had when she was first married in 1932 that she has given to me, and I will treasure them for as long as I live. So now we get to the photo and her valentine. This postcard which I made for her with her original valentine is what you see in the photo above. The reason she had me make these postcards was because her valentine was given to her 86 years ago when she was six years old and it was given to her by her teacher. She treasured that valentine all these years and kept it in immaculate condition, and we are seven in my family and she could not give it to everyone so we came up with the idea of me creating a postcard with her valentine, which I did and in the back I put that it was a copy of her valentine she got in 1924 when she was six years old. I also added  from top to bottom where the line goes, "With Love from Mom.  She ordered 16 of them and they came in this week, she is so proud of those postcards, she wants to give us each one for Christmas with a note from her on the back, even it is a valentine it is very special for  my family.  And also a great souvenir.

Now something else she shared with me this week, was her wedding ring, I did not know this but she told me in 1932 ,my Dad sold his bicycle for three dollars and bought Mom a wedding ring, and he paid for the marriage license  too. Mom said she had the ring for a long time but one day someone spilled some mercury on it and it melted. But to me this story is so interesting because I can add this little tidbit in my family tree notes, and maybe one day one of my descendants might enjoy reading all about my Mom and my family.  I hope you enjoyed this little story. Now about the

T_Shirt Image above, well I was asked to have this one made, and to use my own judgement on what to add on it, he works at the Bingo and his wife is there too, so I created this shirt for him, and for others who want to buy one, I bet when he wears this at the Bingo I will have sales from it.

If you are interested you can find this tee shirt in my Hobby folder and then you click on my Bingo Folder at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*   So that is my blog for today, please tell your friends about my blog and also about my store and  mention my genealogy website http://www.acadian-roots.com/   Thanks for the  visit ,do stop by again, and Have a Great Day. Aline

The Good Old Days

Looking through my books, I came across the following tidbits in Brin d'Histoire from the Societe Historique de Grande Digue, which I shall translate to english. The title of the article is "Growing up in Grandigue by Camille Theriault.
David and Zelma Theriault arrived in Grande Digue in 1917 with one daughter Marguerite.David had left his work on the advice of his doctor. A property at the corner of the road to Caissie Cape caught his eye. Besides the house was a a barn, a garage and a grocery store. Here was clean fresh air that David needed to take care of his lungs.
This young couple went to work. In the summer of 1918 David Theriault began selling his products around the cape with a horse and wagon ,twice a day, while Zelma took care of her house and other work. To make work easier the house was connected to the store through the kitchen. This was done by Baptiste Despres and a few neighbors.
In October of the same year a son was born (Camille ) and nearly every two years from then on were born eight more children.
Camille Theriault who was 76 when he told these stories lived in Ontario at the time. He said he spent 14 years growing up in Grande Digue. Here is more of his stories.
In the spring of 1924 a company (probably Whiterose) set up gas tanks in front of the store and it was operated by David and Zelma.
It is safe to say that on the side of the store was the place that gathered the most snow drifts in all of Grande Digue, sometimes up to 14 feet high. David and Zelma had to answer to the folks as if it were their fault.
Probably many folks of Grande Digue won't remember Michel a Romain Caissie. I can see him coming home and listening to his stories. He was a shoemaker, he could fix nearly any tools even cut hair. He was an interesting man who always travelled by bicycle with a bag attached to the back seat. He travelled all over the villages and was known as far as Saint Antoine.
About my mother:
I am amazed how mother would be so calm doing a crisis and I give her credit she well deserves. With six children near her, her baby Aurele fell and hit his forehead on his bottle and the blood started running. The children were ready to panick but Mother said " Don't get nervous, it's nothing". With that attitude she gave everyone something to do. "you will pump the water in the basin while I hold a cold torniquet, the blood will stop you will see". Then she decided to get help from her capable neighbor " Marguerite ,get dressed warm and go over to Baptiste Despres, tell him exactly where the cut is. He will stop the blood in a hurry you will see". And the blood stopped with the help of the neighbor.
It is true, mothers are unbelievable sometimes. I remember when I was around ten years old and my cousin and I were on Dad's truck (where we were not suppose to be) and it had rained and the front of the truck was slippery and we would slide off the truck, at that time (long ago grin) the license plates had no frame around them and they were sharp, and I slid down and didn't I slip on the edge of the license plate and split the front of my leg near my ankle. The wound was open so wide you could see the cord inside the wound that moves the leg. But believe it or not it was not bleeding, so I hopped over to the house, Mom was scrubbing her floors, she saw me, she didn't panic one bit, made me stand on a chair and she took a clean white cloth and wrapped it around the wound and Dad and her took me to the doctors office. He had to put in eight clamps and a bunch of stitches and she stayed by my side.
I also remember an episode with my son, he was getting all upset and I was very stern and guided him through his dilemma. I remember thinking " I gotta be strong for him" and I think I was.
Well I do hope you enjoyed today's blog and will stop by again soon.
Have a great day.
Aline