Interview with Bev Boomhour, September 8, 2010

Bev Boomhour.jpg

Title

Interview with Bev Boomhour, September 8, 2010

Description

Oral history interview with Beverley Boomhour (née Cole), who has lived in Deseronto, Ontario, all her life.

Date

08 September 2010

Contributor

Beverley Boomhour
Edgar Tumak
Amanda Hill

Identifier

2010.19

Duration

57 minutes 43 seconds

Bit Rate/Frequency

128 kbit/s

Interviewer

Edgar Tumak
Amanda Hill

Interviewee

Beverley Boomhour

Location

Archives Room, Deseronto Public Library

Time Summary

0.00 Family have been in Deseronto for a long time: grandparents (Cole and Coverts) born in Deseronto. Family home on Fourth Street – one of the oldest homes in Deseronto. Grandfather possibly helped to build it.
2.00 Bev lived on Thomas Street, near the junction with Prince Street. Three bedrooms and seven children.
4.22 Memories of Deseronto Public School, teachers: Mrs Bird, Mr MacEwan, student Michael Hill (ringing the school bell when he wasn't supposed to), corporal punishment
9.00 Toboganning on Prince Street and Centre Street (known as 'Moons' Hill', because the Moon family had a dairy there).
10.00 Walking to school, taking hickory nuts from the tree by the school and cracking them on the sidewalk
11.00 Children taking peas from the back of the wagons arriving at the canning factory; picnics by the water; collecting pieces of glass from the site of the former glass factory; swimming at the steamboat dock at the end of Mill Street (until August, when the water got 'pea-soupy' – algae-ridden)
13:00 Talking about depression glass made in Clapperton's glass factory and death of a man called Jackson at the factory
14.00 High School memories; plays; closure of the school; quality of teaching staff; Mrs Bevidge; Mrs Kelman[?], who was German and taught French, even though she didn't know any, apart from what she learnt in night school
20.00 Discussion of the gymnasium in the High School and the cupola
21.30 Working in Deseronto: Canada Optical; Ernie Luck's plumbing store (doing the books for that and the bowling alley, also owned by Luck); Malley's drug store; variety store; drug store; Metcalfe's canning factory, canning peas and corn, picking burrs out of peas, 50 hours a week for $20
27.00 Businesses on Main Street: two barber shops, three grocery stores (Lyons, Robinsons, Burkitts);dry goods store (Moody's), Stovers and Sager's general store on St. George Street, row of stores where LCBO is now (Ed Roach - butcher's , Cora Mason's dress shop and a Chinese laundry); Chinese restaurant; Malley's drug store (now Dixie Lee Chicken)
31.30 Naylor's theatre: serials shown over 4 or 5 weeks on Saturdays; theatre open every night; school put on plays at the theatre; popcorn; Mrs Doran
33.00 Skating on Prince Street, chilblains; baseball; Mr Culhane took care of the outdoor rink
35.00 Attending the United Church; removal of the tower; covering up the big round window; CGIT (Canadian Girls in Training) – run by Mrs Townsend; Brownies and Guides
39.00 Church quilting bees; grandfather not allowed to play cards on a Sunday church
40.00 Deseronto Public Library – been a member for a long time; Dorothy McCullough was librarian for a long time, Helen Tunnicliffe. Mr McCullough ran the drug store where 'Griddle Me This' is now. He was responsible for issuing driving licences.
43.00 Winters in Deseronto – frost on the inside of the windows of the house, big snow banks, meeting neighbours while clearing snow, no central heating, children fighting over a fur robe
45.00 First car: Model A (embarrassed by it), first TV in early 1950s, her sister put the first telephone in the house in the 1940s (during a bad March snowstorm).
47.00 Deseronto people are very friendly
50.00 Memories of playing in banks of marl in the town barn on Prince Street. Later a garage – Dawson's. He had a showroom on Main Street, Ford dealership.
52.00 Memories of the wharf and ships. Town Hall was a canteen for airmen during the Second World War.
54.00 Memories of the Post Office: Mr Frasier was the postmaster. Liquor store, pool room, Skyway Lounge.