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Alice Caroline Jollimore Thomas

To View Alice's Family Tree CLICK HERE
To View Amos Thomas's(Alice's husband) Family Tree CLICK HERE

Alice Caroline Jollimore Thomas of Sandy Cove, Terence Bay was born in 1908, daughter of Zachariah Jollimore (1867-1950) a carpenter, and Alethea Maybee (1874-1935), a teacher. In all, there were eleven children in her family. She has aunts and uncles who married into the many families of Terence Bay, Lower Prospect and Sandy Cove. They have names such as Brophy, Slaunwhite, Innis, Yeadon and Marriott. She tells us the Jollimore family came to Nova Scotia in 1752 aboard the ship "Betty". In 1753 ancestor Pierre Antoine Jollimois from Montbeliard, in France, settled the town of Lunenburg along with 1,400 other Foreign Protestants.

She remembers going to the one-room Crossroads School where the boys sat on one side and the girls on the other. She enjoyed the Christmas concerts and her best friend Laura Drew's company. Laura was the daughter of shopkeeper Richard Drew in Sandy Cove where he sold molasses, oil and a little of everything. Alice's brothers were musicians who played at the dances. Her mother taught music and her father played the violin, playing for the family almost every evening.

Alice remembers the mailman's name as "Daddy Wheels" who came from Terence Bay. Her first trip to Halifax at age thirteen was with her brothers who were driving the horse and wagon with a load of mackerel to sell on the streets. She says, "Every hill we came to, we had to walk up the hill because the horse had too much of a load. I thought Halifax was right around the corner. Well, what a surprise!" It took six hours to get to town and a bit less than six to come back because the load was lighter. But Alice didn't come back, she stayed in Halifax with her second oldest sister Pearl, who lived on Davison Street off Charles and West Streets.

She met her future husband in Halifax. He was working with Pearl's husband at Ben's Ltd. as a wagon driver, delivering bread. In 1926 Alice married Amos William Thomas from Hammonds Plains, the son of Clarke Thomas (1881-1924) and Bertha Burchell (1881-1976). In 1927, Alice got married in Spryfield at the church on the Herring Cove Road, then spent the next thirty years in Halifax. Alice and Amos had 8 children, the first one born in 1928. The couple also got their first radio in 1928. For a while they lived on Windsor Street and Amos drove a milk truck. When they moved back to Terence Bay in the late 1950s, Amos drove the school bus from Lower Prospect, Upper Prospect and Shad Bay taking students to Atlantic Memorial School until he retired in 1965. .

Alice has seen many changes: the coming of the automobile, electric power, road improvements and television. She also remembers the trawlers and the fish plant, which was owned by a group of Portuguese at one time. It operated for a while but was never a big success. She comments, "Things have changed so much. I think all the improvements have been for the better."

Alice passed away on 28th July 2003.

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