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Box Cars and Box Socials
These are the words of David Villeneuve of
Barry's Bay.
David Villeneuve traveled all over looking for
work.
Sometimes he rode in boxcars. Sometimes he rode
on top of boxcars.
David Villeneuve joined the army to get a girl.
They taught him how to cook, instead.
Finally David Villeneuve settled down in Barry's
Bay.
He found a good job and a good wife.
David Villeneuve told these stories about the old
days.
He did not write them. He told them.
If you read the stories out loud you will hear
how he talks.
These stories were written down for two reasons.
One reason is this:
We want to remember the old days in Barry's Bay.
The other reason is this:
These memories make good stories for adults who
are learning to read.
These stories have been written down for the Oral
History Project of the Barry's Bay Public Library.
Box Cars and Box Socials
David Villeneuve
We used to ride the boxcars...
In the early thirties we had no job and we could not pay for any
transportation.
We could not pay for it, so we used to ride the boxcars. We used
to ride the rails.
There were always watchmen, but they could not watch the whole
lot. There might be one on each side of the train, but if you were
four or five hundred yards away you were safe.
So you would wait till they got a little steam up, wait to hear
the whistle. As soon as that train started moving, then you would
catch it and away you go. They can't catch you when it is going.
They would not bother with you ...
They would not bother with you unless they were looking for
somebody.
If they were looking for somebody then they would catch you. They
would bring you in the station and ask you a lot of questions.
Because in some places, some of the guys used to rob the bank and
then jump on the freight.
You would ride up on the top of the car. If the car was empty
then you would come in the car. If you got on top and you caught
hold of the roof, you could make a swing and you could swing right
in. That's the only way you could get in because it was so high up
off the ground.
If you were on top and the watchmen came they would not come
close to you. They were human as well as us. They knew it was hard
times. But they were getting paid to keep us off.
So they would keep some of us off to show the higher-ups that
they were
doing their job. It is the same as a policeman in the city. If he
doesn't arrest somebody he won't be there very long. They are going
to fire him.
To get to my mother's funeral...
I rode on the tender to get to my mother's funeral.
The tender is behind the passenger train.
I had just finished splitting a big, big pile of wood. Something
told me to get out on the highway. So I got out on the highway and
here I saw my uncle.
I was wondering what he was doing out there.
He told me my mother was dead. My uncle had no money and I had no
money.
We had to get to Pembroke some way. There was no freights going
out.
And Ottawa was a big place, it was hard to get in. The inspectors
are all over a place like that. You have to get away from the
station all together. Once the trains started moving, then you could
catch it and they would not bother you. Because in two minutes you
were gone. Far.
We made it...
Well, we made it. And I took all the back streets I could once we
got into Pembroke. I did not want anyone to see me because I was all
black.
You would get very black riding the tender through a tunnel,
because it is only about four feet from the car up to the round of
the tunnel. You would not get hurt. But you would get all black.
Because the smoke hits the roof of the tunnel and falls down.
We got in at six o'clock in the morning. I got washed and I had a
bath. I changed my clothes. I did not go into see my mother until
eleven o'clock in the morning. She was buried at two o'clock in the
afternoon
My mother was waked at home...
My mother was waked at home. And the funniest thing happened to
me there! After the funeral we went back to the house. We only had a
small house.
When the whole gang got there it was kind of crowded. But there
was a cot that they did not use. So my dad told me, he said,
"You can use that cot." He put it the place where my
mother was waked. I don't know to this day if I imagined it, but I
could not have imagined it because I saw the mark. Something
scratched me on the leg!
I was kneeling down to say my prayers and something came and
scratched me. And it wasn't a cat. They did not have a cat. But
there were marks on my leg. I showed the marks to my father and my
sisters. They said that it could not be a cat because there was no
cat.
To this day I don't know what it was.
My father was strong, against smoking,
and playing cards...
My father was strong against smoking and playing cards for money.
I smoked but he never caught me. Well he caught me once.
Down at the mill there was always a spare man. My dad was the
spare man. That means he would take your place while you went to the
toilet. But you went to the toilet to smoke, see. Now there was a
big knothole in the board. The guys poked it out. So when you were
sitting down all you would have to do is look, and you could see
everybody that was coming.
I don't know what happened this day. I guess I was there too
long. And I was not watching through that knothole. And here my dad
came in! I had the cigarette in my hand. He did not hit me, but he
gave me an awful look.
And then he grounded me. He said, "No more outing for
you!"
I was working for two years before I smoked in front of him, or
played cards. But I used to play in between. When I knew that he
wasn't coming, I would sit in!
I looked everywhere for work...
I looked everywhere for work in the thirties, but there was no
work. I got one day a week from the town of Pembroke, for relief I
got two dollars and eighty cents a week. That's all I got. Then I
got the odd job by going from one house to the other to see if they
had wood to saw.
The rich people used to buy four-foot wood because it is cheaper.
Then they would get two men to cut it. So we would get about seventy
cents a cord, between the two of us. That's what we used to have for
our money.
I went to Stittsville with my uncle. We went into the job office
together. I got a job but he did not. Because he would not tell a
lie, but I did. They asked me if I could milk a cow. I said I could.
Well, I never milked a cow in my life! But I wanted that job.
I thought, "I will get a little bit of spending money
anyway, and I will get my meals and I get my tobacco."
Well I got nothing. Because the next day I had to go to Pembroke
for my mother's funeral.
Selling something...
In Hamilton and Niagara Falls I sold pencils.
You had to sell something, otherwise they could put you in jail
for begging.
People would give you the money, but they would not take the
pencil.
I got a lot of money. Well, not a lot. Maybe ten or fifteen cents
at a time.
If we did not have something to show, the Policeman could put us
in jail. So we were selling something. They could not do anything to
us.
On top of the hill in Hamilton...
We stayed up on top of the hill in Hamilton, over the dump. We
had a Model -T Ford that we slept in.
From the top of the hill you could see all of Hamilton. It was
nice, you know. We stayed there about a week. Then we moved to
Niagara Falls, then back to Toronto. From there we went to
Thistletown. Then we were in Ottawa. And then we went up to Port
Arthur and Fort William and Nippissing.
Oh, there were quite a few places.
We were looking for work everywhere ...
We were looking for work everywhere. But you could not find it.
We tried to get a job on the boats in Port Arthur, but you had to be
in the Union.
Whenever the boat come in they would unload it, or they would
load it, but you had to be in the Union. We wanted to join up, but
we did not have the money to join up. It cost $2 to join up, so I
did not have the $2, so I did not get the job.
Then we went to a house if we thought that the place needed
painting.
We would go and ask the people if they needed to be painted.
Sometimes they gave us the job and sometimes they did not.
They asked us right away if we belonged to the Union.
They're strong for the Union up there. Very strong.
"Come on up to Barry's Bay!"
Then after all that traveling I was back in Pembroke. My brother
came from Barry's Bay here, and he went over to Quebec to work in
the bush. He asked me if I would go with him. I said yes.
I went with him and we were there about a month an a half and
then we were finished. Then he was coming here, and I was going to
stay in Pembroke.
So he asked me, he said, "Come on up to Barry's Bay!" I
said, "I don't know," I said, "I was never
there." "Come on up!"
In 1939 the War broke out ...
I worked in the mill here in 1939. Then the War broke out. I went
up to Folliette, up past Sudbury. I got a job in the sawmill up
there. I was making good money, three dollars a day.
But after three weeks they went on strike! So there I was. I
could not afford to pay my board. So I said to my uncle, I said,
"I quit." He said, "You can suit yourself" He
was a foreman, so he was all right. I caught the freight and I went
to Pembroke. I got a job in the mill. I was there until June. Then I
quit. I said, "I'm going to join the Army."
How I came to join the Army ...
There were quite a few soldiers from Petawawa in Pembroke at that
time. And me and my chum were trying to pick up a girl one night and
every time we went to pick up a girl, a soldier would come in and
cut in on us. So l said to my chum, "I'm going to join the
Army. I'm going to put that khaki suit on, too."
So that's how I came to join the army. I joined the army in order
to get a girl. And I did not even get one.
I landed up as a cook ...
On the 24th of June I went down to Ottawa and I joined the
Governor General's Foot Guards. I went over to England. We were in
the Infantry for pretty near two years, and then we went in the tank
business. I found it a little bit hard. And they were short of
cooks.
So I said to my chum, I said, "By goalie," I said,
"There's one thing," I said, "I'll get something to
eat." I said, "I'll go in for a cook." He said,
"You can suit yourself."
So I signed up for a cook. They gave me a course in being a cook.
So I landed up as a cook. And that's what I was the whole time I was
overseas, a cook.
But we were right up close to the lines. We saw the enemy getting
shot, and we were shot on too. We used to make our trenches, and we
used to lie in them, and the bullets used to go right over our
heads. We were in just as much trouble as the guy right in front.
I was luckier than some ...
I was luckier than some.
Four of my chums went through the whole thing, and we were
getting all ready to come back to Canada.
We went over to England, to catch the boat in Liverpool. We got a
ten day pass to go to Brighton. So we went there, and here two of
our chums fell down the stairs in the pub.
This was in the winter. And I guess from everybody coming in, it
formed a little bit of water, or slime, on the stairs. So when they
were going down the stairs they slipped and they hit their heads.
There were two of them died there. So they were buried there.
I felt sorry for them. After going through all that war. I don't
know.
One guy was very, very neat. Oh, he was very proud of himself. He
kept his suit just perfect. And his boots all shined up and
everything, and his hair all slicked back. It was sad to see him
die.
I came to Barry's Bay on the train ...
I came to Barry's Bay on the train the first time. It was pitch
dark when I got off. 8 o'clock at night. Pitch dark. So I did not
see anything that night. But the next couple of days or a week I got
around. I found the place all right. I did not like a big place. I
liked a small place.
So I got settled down here and I liked it.
In town here it was like a farm. There were cows and horses and
pigs and everything. I had 75 chickens here and I had four pigs in
the back yard. Now you can't have them. They cut that out twenty
years ago. They banned it. No more chickens. No more pigs.
I used to get up to go fishing at 4 o'clock in the morning. I
would go down to the boat house and get in the boat. Away I would
go. The wife would not see me until that night. Sometimes I would
catch some, and sometimes I would not even get one.
But I was still in the boat, and on the lake, and I liked it.
Barry's Bay is for me ...
She wanted me to move back to Pembroke, my wife did, but I said
no.
I said Barry's Bay is for me. It's small and you can go anyplace.
You know pretty near all your neighbors. When you go to the city you
don't know anybody.
The box socials and the pie socials,
they were good...
The box socials and the pie socials they were good.
Fifteen, twenty cents, thirty five cents, you could buy a pie or
a box.
The auctioneer would auction them off.
The girls knew who owned a pie or a box, but the men did not
know.
The boxes were done up with the ribbons on them and everything.
The auctioneer would be up in the chair and a woman would be
holding it up. The auctioneer would ask, "How much am I
offered?" "How much am I offered?" Then held start
off maybe with ten cents.
"Am I offered fifteen?" "Am I offered
twenty?" And you go up.
Well sometimes you get up to fifty cents! That's if two guys want
the same box, or the same pie. They would start bidding and one of
them is bound to get it when the other fellow goes broke.
Ifthe fellow goes broke, well then he can't buy it.
She would sit beside you ...
After you bought whatever you bought, then the person who made it
would come over to you. And she would say, "You bought my pie,
or my box."
And then she'd come over and she'd sit beside you and she'd eat
your lunch with you. There would be a couple of cookies, a donut, a
couple of sandwiches, a piece of cake. Oh, it was good.
The money would go for the school, or to pay for the school hall.
Ormaybe for the children, for the books or the pencils or something.
Or maybe to pay for the fiddlers.
We had lots of entertainment here ...
Oh, we had lots of entertainment here in Barry's Bay. We still
have. There would be fiddlers, and guitar players. And there would
sometimes be a banjo or accordion, it all depends.
I danced quite a bit. I would go to a dance and I would just get
home and change clothes and go down to work. Work all day, and then
at night I might go out again. When you're young, you're young.
We would be out there, dancing, about five miles from here, and
we would hear the bell for the Angelus.
The church used to ring the Angelus bell at six o'clock in the
morning, 12 o'clock noon and 6 o'clock at night.
They would ring it three times a day. And we could hear that
bell.
If we did not have a watch or even if we had a watch we would
say, 'there's six o'clock.' And then we would hurry up. Sometimes we
would walk. Because there were hardly any cars. There might be a
buggy or a wagon.
Now they do not ring the bell ...
Now they don't ring the bell except for weddings and funerals.
On Sunday they ring it, but they don't ring it at 6 o'clock.
Some of the old timers here who lived close to it, I guess they
kicked. They could not sleep after they rang the bell. So the priest
that was here, he cut that bell ringing out.
I go to church whenever I can ...
I go to church whenever I can. When it's too stormy I don't go
but any other time I'm there. I'm not a fanatic about it but I still
go. I know it is my duty.
I don't have to be forced. I go of my own free will. I always
did.
I would go dancing Saturday night and go to mass Sunday morning.
That's why they started having the mass on Saturday night.
The boys and the girls used to go out Saturday night and get
drunk. Then they would not go to church the next morning because
they had a big head. So the church said, "We're going to fool
them - we'll have Mass on Saturday night!"
They had you both ways ...
It's the same thing with the people with lots of money. They used
to get up at seven o'clock in the morning and away they would go in
their car. They would not go to mass. So then the church started a
mass at seven o'clock in the morning! You could go to mass at seven
o'clock in the morning and then you could go away.
So they had you both ways! It was good life that.
If you missed it at seven-thirty Saturday night, you would get it
at seven o'clock the next morning.
I finally settled down when I came to
Barry's Bay ...
Yes, I traveled. I went down to the East Coast far as Halifax and
New Brunswick. I went as far as Port Arthur out the other way. And
then I went as far as Niagara Falls that way.
I went over to the States. And then I went on the boats. I
finally settled down when I came to Barry's Bay.
I still had the urge to go, but the wife held me down, and I'm
glad she did.
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