I was born February 10, 1922 at East Point in a little house. I was delivered by a nurse, Mrs. Beaton. The house was not too far from the light house. There were eight of us - four boys and four girls - and we didn't have too many clothes, just a lot of hand me downs. Mom did a lot sewing. We'd be in bed and we'd hear her on the sewing machine at night making our clothes. We didn't wear slacks in those days. We were handy to the school so we walked to school. It was tough. I really don't know too much about my native ancestry. We looked it up, and my father's mother was a Conway who was a Native. There are a few with native ancestry around here.

My father fished for a while. In those days, they just fished in a dory and they got about ten cents a pound for lobster. He did carpenter work, too. He built our own house that my brother Bernie has now. I was a teacher and taught in the one room school - then in the consolidated. I always liked the one room schools. The kids learned from one another. We were closer to the parents of the children we taught because they would be bringing them to the school or they would invite you to dinner so there was a closeness there.

My father had a car and he was always called if there was a doctor needed. Dr. Gus was in Souris and, sometime, he'd have to get him and take him back again. It was a long way by horse. The first time I got to Charlottetown was when I went to college. There were two brothers and a sister older than me; they stayed around and worked on the farm.

I wanted to be a teacher and, I guess, I was inspired by my teachers. I was lucky to go. We didn't get too much. We started teaching first for $24 or $28 dollars a month and the district would give a supplement of $75. If you had to pay board out of that, there wasn't too much left. I first taught near home and then lived with Lewis Stewarts when I taught farther away. I started teaching at 18 and taught for 31 years.

We had a lot of fun with lots of parties; this fellow used to play the fiddle. I stayed at my own folks and every night we'd have some dance there. My grandmother loved music and she would get up and dance. We really had a happy time. We danced the sets, a few waltzes, but mostly sets. First, there were no cars and you just went from house to house.I met my husband at a supper party one night. I went with a friend and her boyfriend; she was a teacher too. We just went for a drive. We were married in 1946. We have 22 grandchildren.

I had three or four of my children before I went back to teaching.. They couldn't get a teacher up here so they came after me to go back. It was a big school, for Fairfield had no school. The children came up here; I had 39 one year. The grades would sometimes have spats between them. I went to North Lake after that and I really enjoyed it there. They were very nice kids and they got along together. And then they consolidated before they had the school built so grades 7 and 8 were in one school and 1, 2 and 3 in another. I went to Elmira to 7th and 8th there. I was here two or three years and then I went to South Lake for grades l to 3.

I guess our weddings, anniversaries, and our children's were all happy times. I have 16 girls and six boys among the grandchildren. Two of them are in college this year. More children are going to college now than 15 to 20 years ago.

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard