Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2003 by The Elders Transcript Project
P.O.Box 323, Brookfield, NS, Canada B0N 1C0

Permission is granted to teachers, students, and heritage workers to reproduce small portions of this material, excluding photographs,for school projects and research. Any other use of this material is strictly prohibited.

Introduction
About The Elder Transcripts
Learn and Discover
Do You Remember?

You and I - the present generation - are the link between our grandparents and our grandchildren - between our past generations and future generations. That confers on us a unique opportunity and a great responsibility to pass on as much of the accumulated wisdom, lore and tradition as possible.

The "Elder Transcripts" is a splendid idea and an excellent vehicle for preserving and passing on this accumulated knowledge to future generations. We, in Brookfield and area have a proud tradition and many worthy ancestors that should be remembered. A dedicated team of workers have been interviewing a number of senior citizens and recording their memories and perceptions of earlier days - how they lived and worked, what was significant in their lives.

Most history learned in school is largely about wars and great political events in the world. Of course this has importance, but of equal importance are the local events in community. The development of social structures and the character of the citizens. All of these things are influenced by everyday people who claim that they have never done anything worth noting and have not been an influence in any of the world's great events. This community history is fascinating and very valuable, but is too often lost. We are fortunate that the "Elder Transcripts" program is saving much of our tradition. You are sure to enjoy reading the text or viewing the videos provided and thereby getting a further insight into the history of Brookfield and area.

Arthur J. Lindsay

About the Elder Transcripts

"We now live in an era where many families are often too busy to take time to learn about our ancestors - those to whom we owe our values, skills, and current standard of living. In many homes, e-mail is rapidly replacing written letters - soon there will be no letters to preserve for future generations. Once upon a time, families shared stories as a form of entertainment - today, television and the Internet have replaced conversation and story telling."

The vision of the Elder Transcripts project is to record the stories of Elders in the community of Brookfield, Nova Scotia, and surrounding areas. Using Videotape, we interviwed Elders, using a standard set of questions, and then transcribed the interview into book form. The stories are available to the public in a variety of forms, including videos, books, and this web-site. The project is based on a similar one done Digby, Nova Scotia (see related web links). The project team gratefully acknowledges the contribution of our Elders in sharing their personal memories so as to contribute to our understanding of community history.

Learn and Discover

To learn how this wealth of heritage experience connects to life today, visit the Quiz section, for questions to test your knowledge and suggestions for discussing what the Elders’ experiences mean to you today. Although designed for students, anyone can use this section.

Finally, we invite and encourage anyone viewing this site to discover your own family heritage, by interviewing family members using our standard set of questions as a guide.

To View and download a printable version list of the questions

click

We suggest you consider donating a copy of the completed interview text to your local historical archives, for the enjoyment of future generations.

Do You Remember?

Take a trip down memory lane with Mr. Reg Fleming as he reminisces about his boyhood in Brookfield.

“Growing up is hard in any town, city or village. For me, I would have to go back to 1939 to 1943 or thereabouts. You know, perhaps better than any one else, that our father became station agent in Brookfield around that time and we moved to Brookfield in the old station. The first nite we stayed there I thought the train came in one side of the old station and out the other. Never had we experienced anything like it.

Our first day at school, I suppose, was just like any other kid’s first day in a different school. There was the usual harassment from some kids and the friendly gestures from others. I can never forget the bullies and there were one or two who would gladly start a squabble but someone sneak their way out of it and get someone else involved.

But there were better memories than those days.”

Do You Remember – Part 1

1. This is rabbit season. Do you remember the boys bringing a sled full of rabbits to “Woodie’s” store to sell? I do.

2. Do you remember some of us boys filling “Woodie’s” icehouse for him and he would give us a bottle of pop and 25 cents? I do.

3. Remember “Charlie Suspenders” Sutherland driving Roy Hamilton’s cows, morning and nite, down to pasture beyond the railway track? I do.

4. Remember Hallowe’en? Everyone in Brookfield got a chance to clean out their toilet before they put it back to rights again. I do.

5. Remember the boys going to work at the “Box and Whistle.” Your dad, Noble, Short, George and Fred. What a faithful bunch of workers. Seems as though they never missed a day. I do.

6. Remember “Ding” and the way he drove his bicycle, just as fast as it would go and then slam the brakes on and throw gravel about ten feet away? I do.

7. I also remember when “Ding” got his first Model A.

8. Do you remember the men that worked on the Section? They were in a class by themselves. They worked together all day, so when quitting time came, they never walked home together but walked alone about one hundred feet apart; they were faithful, too: Homer, Jim, Aubrey and Ralph. I remember.

9. Remember “P.D.”? He always looked so prim and proper. His little hat on top of his head could easily have got him the job as Mayor of Brookfield. I remember.

10. Remember the men that sat around “Georgie’s” in the evening? Almost all of them chewed tobacco, Charlie and Yulet and two or three more. Simon was the smart one, he sold gas and made money while the rest spit tobacco juice in his old coal burning stove. I remember.

11. Remember going to ball games in Guy’s truck over to Musquodoboit - twenty-five cents would get you there and back and if you didn’t have it, ten cents would do? I do.

12. I could go on and maybe I will sometime but one last event to remember is the day Dorothy Bell got run over by a lumber truck in front of the school just at closing time. I can remember being a pall bearer at her funeral, but I can’t remember who the other boys were – maybe Eric, Bob, Hughie, Gordon and ?

Do You Remember – Part 2

1. Remember Jack Hudson and his fancy car? Mrs. Hudson always wore a flowery hat. I can see them yet, driving to the Farmer Store and her hat shining out the window. I remember.

2. Remember on Saturday nite how all the men with fancy cars, and I do mean fancy, would gather at the Farmer Store? What a display of nice cars. There was Ian’s father, Burris, from Pleasant Valley. I believe Sankey Dotton from Middle. Boy, what good cars. I wish we had them all today. I do.

3. Remember the Model T that four of the boys had? I think it cost them $5.00 each to buy it. It belonged to Morris, “Big Swede,” Dip and either Don W. or one of the Ross boys. What a prize if we could only have it today. I do.

4. I also remember the Model T that Ernest Sutherland had.

5. Remember going fishing with Rev. Lee Carter in his little baby Austin car? Hardly room for you and I after the Rev. got in. I remember.

6. I remember you and I spending all one evening working on my $7.00 bicycle so we could go fishing on it to Middle Stewiacke the next day. We had the chain so tight we could hardly peddle it. Can’t remember if we made it there and back. I remember.

7. I can also remember us going fishing, starting at Georgie Sutherland’s mill and fishing the brook from there to Forest Glen. Remember the day we had caught so many fish that we hid them by the brook to pick them up on the way back and someone found them and stole them? I remember.

8. Remember us fishing the brook from the “box and whistle” down the brook to Brentwood? We would rush along trying to catch as many fish as we could and who would come along behind but Charlie Johnson and he was catching all the fish while we caught nothing. I remember.

9. I remember the men loading lumber at the old Station Yard and I believe it was Roy Wright, Leroy’s father, who tallied the lumber for King’s Brothers. It was Roy Wright who nick-named me “Circus” because I had a bicycle that was away too high for me and I couldn’t touch the peddles. I remember.

10. I remember the first good bike I had; I bought it from Robie Bell for $7.00. I only had it a couple of days when Bob R., Eric H. and I got into a potato fight at the Farmer Store and I accidentally put a potato through Don MacNeil’s barber shop sign. Don said it would cost $7.00 to fix it, so I sold my bike to pay for the sign: hard lesson. And do you know my father was in for a haircut and remarked to Don that someone had broken his barber sign, and Don never told him it was me? I remember.

11. Remember that small, white bicycle that Charlie had? Well, both Charlie and I had a crush on Barbara Carter and competition was fairly keen and I can remember borrowing Charlie’s bike one nite for a short spin and wound up taking Barbara home on the crossbar of Charlie’s bike: awful! But I remember.

12. I remember when Ian MacMullin was learning to drive. We used to travel up and down past the cemetry on I think what you call Carter Road now. As I said earlier, Ian’s father had a beautiful Model T and we used to take it for a spin up around what was then the old ball field. How Ian would make the dust fly and spin around on a dime. I remember.

13. Remember when Don H. worked at the Farmer Store and he and some of the other boys, like Francis H., would save up all the rotten apples and tomatoes and when Georgie H. would walk out to serve gas to someone they would try to hit him? What a fun time. No one every got hurt and it sure made a lot of laughs. I do.

14. Remember Jack Taylor and his little ½ Model A? He always met the mail train and some of us kids did, too. Jack would never give us a ride from the railway station to the Post Office, but once he got going we used to run and jump on; he never really drove too fast. I do.

Part 1 - to learn more:

1, 2. – visit Miss Freda Brenton to learn more about Wood Brenton’s store.

5 – visit Mr. Donnie Locke to learn more about work at the Brookfield Box Company.

9 – visit Mr. Ray Hamilton to see a picture of Mr. P.D. Hamilton.

10 – visit Miss Freda Brenton, and Mr. Ray Hamilton, to read more stories about Mr. Geordie Sutherland, who ran the blacksmith shop and garage. The shop was also known affectionately as “Simon’s Speakeasy”.

12 – visit Mr. Ray Carter, who witnessed the accident.

Part 2 – to learn more:

1 – visit Mr. Art Lindsay to hear more about the “Farmer Store”.

9 – visit Mr. Donnie Locke to learn more about the train station and how rail travel changed with the increase in trucking.

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