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Fred Slaunwhite

To View Fred's Family Tree CLICK HERE
To View Fred's wife(Lucy Anne Slaunwhite) Family Tree CLICK HERE

Fred Slaunwhite of Sandy Cove, Terence Bay, a former fisherman, has always lived by the government wharf in a house that was moved from Ryan's Island, originally owned by Edmond Ryan. Fred says, "We tore it down then carried it up in the boat and rebuilt it." There is a mast from the old ship, the Joseph Earl under a sill, placed there by Fred's grandfather when he rebuilt the house. His great grandmother was Isabel Marion Beck.

Fred was married in 1928 on Christmas Eve and has thirteen grandchildren. He remembers the fishery and fish factory that existed in olden times when people came to the village to buy fish, "boneless fish, that's what they used to call them," he says. He also remembers packing up to go to Halifax in the wintertime to work as a stevedore where he paid $15 a month for three rooms. He recalls the Halifax fire stations and the big white horses they used. When there was a fire, bells would ring and they would harness the horses to haul water in big tanks. Fred went to school at the Crossroads in Terence Bay and some of the teachers he had were Mrs. Barkhouse, Mrs. Timblock and Mrs. Cunningham, but he didn't like school. He recalls, "It had a big old pot bellied stove in it and we would cut the wood to keep the fire burning. All the boys would have to do that to keep it going....we had to go across the marsh for wood."

Residents were required to remove snow from the roads in wintertime. "We would have to go out on the road every snowstorm and if you didn't, you had to pay three dollars," says Fred. They shovelled all day as far as White's Lake, at least five miles from home, and then walked back in the night. This was at a time when travel was by horse and buggy. He thinks the first car in the village of Terence Bay was owned by Herb Little.

When asked what he did for fun in the old days, he replies, "No one had fun in those times." He also talks about using up all the wood in the village for buildings and burning in the winter, saying "Everybody kept on cutting the trees down....soon there was no wood...then we had to go across the harbour and get more wood." Still, Fred believes the old days were better than today even with easier living. "It's not what it used to be," he laments, saying people are not as honest, and too many young people are getting into trouble.

Fred passed away on 17th November 2002, shortly after our interview...

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