Transcript
Nanaimo Historical Society Fonds
Series 2 Sound Recordings
Tape 88 - Folder 12
Transcribed by Lois Park, February - March 2008
Mrs. Lillian Dixon speaks regarding the Finnish Community at Chase River
[Tape is poor quality and they talk over each other - some of the inaudible words may be Finnish]
Henry Poikonen: The date is February 21, 1980 Henry Poikonen speaking, my dad, Joel Poikonen is beside me here, we have with us Mrs. Lillian Dixon. We are going to talk about Chase River and Nanaimo in the days of long ago. Hello, Mrs. Dixon.
Mrs. Dixon: Don't make me too old.
Henry Poikonen: Oh, no (laughter)
Joel Poikonen: Konstantin Maki who was born in Finland on March 16, 1867 in the District/Municipality of [Errho?] in [Bossa?] Province. He died in Nanaimo hospital as a result of an accident on the highway. On his death, May 6, 1930, he was 63 years old.
As a young man he had to leave his native land and come to Canada. He came here in 1887 and later came here to Vancouver Island and took permanent residence here in 1889 and worked here in the coal mines. He worked in the coal mines for over 40 years. It would have been about �23 when he started.
Finnish Brotherhood Society in Ladysmith, Branch # 17, he joined that in January 9, 1910 and then later transferred later on to Chase River Lodge on May 1, 1930 and, up to his abilities, has always been active in the Lodge. I think that is all the relevant information from here.
He was a real peoples man, always taking part in all, whatever was required. He was well liked.
Henry Poikonen: So you were born in Chase River and were you the only child or did you have brothers or sisters?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: There were fourteen of us altogether.
Henry Poikonen: Is that so!
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Some of them died in infancy and I think three died when diphtheria came, was at Chase River in about 1912, I think three died.
Henry Poikonen: Oh, boy
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: There were ten of us; eight girls and two boys.
Henry Poikonen: Okay, and the family home was on Maki Road?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: At Chase River
Henry Poikonen: On the east side of the highway there
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes.
Henry Poikonen: Near where there were greenhouses for many years. They are gone now aren't they?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: The green houses are. Next door was Uncle Vic [Maki?]
Joel Poikonen: Otherwise know as [skeehalla?]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Joel Poikonen: Well, do you remember about the activities, do you remember when the hall was built?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, I was very young and I can remember them going to it. They were married in St. Paul's Church in Nanaimo though.
Joel Poikonen: Were they?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh, yes
Henry Poikonen: Do you remember your mother's maiden name?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Jurvi
Joel Poikonen: Oh yes, now I remember
Henry Poikonen: So your daughter was named after her then?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: After her mother and grandfather, yes
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, he worked in the mines and we had cows, chickens, the odd time we didn't have a pig. Well, we all had to work around the yard, we use to call it a farm but when some people from the prairies, we called it a farm, we only had five acres, that was really quite a joke because when they go farm there are sections and so on.
Henry Poikonen: There was quite a population of Finnish there, at Chase River.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Henry Poikonen: They use to live on Milton Street, most of them before.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes. Hoffman's lived across the road and Charlie [Gustavson?] lived a little farther on. Well, his property adjoined across the road from us.
Henry Poikonen: [Gustavson's?] family Finnish name was [Maasanen?]
[over lapping argument between the three as to who lived there - [Torkkos?] were around there some where, no, no, they were Ladysmith people Sable may later , oh it was one of the originals, I remember the house burnt down and then � built a new one.
Henry Poikonen: Name your sisters and your two brothers.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: The eldest was Mrs. [Slinpack?], [Mrs. Johhea?],
Henry Poikonen: [inaudible or Finnish] the one that went to Russia.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Henry Poikonen: Was his first name ??
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: [Wester?]
Henry Poikonen: Oh yes, a very fine man.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: [Johetta?] Mrs. Anderson, he was a Captain on a fishing boat.
Joel Poikonen: Who was this?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Anderson, then Mrs. Bob Carruthers, I think there is something in the museum from his coal mine and then myself. And then another sister Mrs. Sid Robertson who lived all her married life in Youbou. And my brother, well then Honey [inaudible] and then Jean he lived in Youbou all his married life, too and then my youngest sister [Lilla Rainer?]. Mrs. Rainer, they lived in Nanaimo, then he went to Port Alberni and a garage business. He lives retired in Parksville now, so there are four of us left. Three girls.
Joel Poikonen: There are quite a lot of good-sized families in Ladysmith and Chase River as I recall.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, I don't know if there are any bigger than ours. [all three talk at once making it inaudible] There were five children and I think some were still born and then a space and five other children.
Joel Poikonen: Vic Maki's had a quite a big family?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh yes, they had six boys and four girls.
Henry Poikonen: Were you all born at home or some at home and some�
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, I think they were [Mrs. Sailo]? The one you spoke of, she was what they called a mid-wife, I mean, they sent for her and I know my youngest sister was born at home. Because I can remember we were all sent out of the house and it was quite a treat, we were given bread, and jam and milk outside.
We couldn't go into the house and then we went to my uncle's next door and then after that.
Joel Poikonen: and the usual story they gave the children was that the Doctor brings the baby in that bag of his
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: with his horse and rig.
Henry Poikonen: Do you recall the name of the person who built the Finnish church in Nanaimo?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: My Uncle Vic and my father. They were the contractors who built that big church on Milton Street and Victoria
Henry Poikonen: This is important because there has been discussions later that other ethnic groups claim that church. See that is why I wanted to find out and get that on this tape who built that church. It is definitely a Finnish church.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes, and I have the name of the minister who use to be.
Henry Poikonen: [Broomfelt?] He baptized me, [discussion, yeah that's his name, part of this are inaudible that's more then I've got]
Henry Poikonen: [Finnish words - it is not clear from the above discussion who's baptismal certificate they are looking at] Baptismal certificate dated by or signed by J. J. Lundell, [Carbonato?] , Washington Pastor Finnish, Evangelical Lutheran Church
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Because he moved back to [Carbonato?] because the church was dying down the didn't have enough money to keep it going. And he came Nanaimo and out to Chase River to conduct services maybe once or twice a year.
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, I remember he came [inaudible words as to where he came] to probably in 1920 or 1921
[Discussion among themselves as to time and place, a god fearing sort. And Ralva?]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And [Ralva?] was a nephew of my father.
Henry Poikonen: Niece
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Niece
Joel Poikonen: Yes, she worked for us when she first came from Finland. At Chase River, Ladysmith, we had a boarding house.
Henry Poikonen: Well this is something; it is wonderful that you keep some thing like this.
Joel Poikonen: Let me have a look, I wonder what happened to mine. I never saw it.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: I found it rolled up in a tube you see. When they went to Chase River, they had bought five acres of land, I guess they sold it in 5 acre lots in those days, I don't know.
Henry Poikonen: What year do you know?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: That we moved to Chase River 1908.
Henry Poikonen: Mrs. Ima Norris told me that they moved there in 1901.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: They did, eh.
Joel Poikonen: [inaudible discussion of when someone else moved in 1911 or 1912]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes, well my father, our family moved out May 1908.
Henry Poikonen: You lived here in Nanaimo, up until then
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes, first at North Wellington, then my mother came over from Finland, she said she landed on about half a dozen planks on the wharf and her first meal in Canada was cheese and crackers and the mud was up to the wheels of the buggy. When they took her, she had two brothers you knew [inaudible]
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, they were one of our boarders, I remember Charlie had gone through a bad accident in the mine, he had fallen.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And then, oh I knew when she landed, and then they met and were married, they were married in February I think, Canon Good was the minister.
Joel Poikonen: Your mother was lucky getting a ride. When my dad arrived, he walked all the way .
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Then they moved to, they lived at Wellington and then I guess when the mine closed, I presume that was what it was, and they moved to Nanaimo.
Henry Poikonen: That was in 1900 wasn't it?
Joel Poikonen: Yeah they closed all of them and had to move to Extension first.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: and they came to Nanaimo.
Joel Poikonen: Well, the smart Finns settled in Chase River because there was so many mines close by.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And then they must have been there, my sister was eight [inaudible it appears they are looking at documents and pictures]
Henry Poikonen: We will have our break for now.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well this one here, that's [?} Maki, isn't it?
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, that's [?} Maki right there and my father and mother, dad with his big red mustache, that �s me in the front on right hand side with two little [Alton?] boys, their father had got killed in the Extension mine.
Henry Poikonen: We are just looking at this picture of the Poikonen Boarding House in Ladysmith, and there is two of Mrs. Dixon's uncles in the picture.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And that is my mother and father with their young family.
Henry Poikonen: and who is this here?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: My brother Con, remember [inaudible]
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, he got killed by that Thompson boy.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yeah, well they never proved it but they still figured it was him.
Joel Poikonen: You know those doggone Chase River girls were so pretty that my and my [inaudible} didn't have a chance. They were all snatched up before I..
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Those are all older then me, I'm not on that picture.
Henry Poikonen: Oh, I see. How many in that one?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: This is [Jonyetta?], no this one, and this is Mrs. [?] brother Con, that [Miriam?] - Mrs. Bob Carruthers, this one is Con and that was [ ? ] And that is Ivy, and my brother Walter. And I guess I come after that one.
Joel Poikonen: None of your other relatives except [Finnish] your aunt went to Russia.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: My Sister.
Joel Poikonen: Sister.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: my sister went to Russia not my aunt.
Joel Poikonen: Oh yeah, terrible. And have you ever got any information on what�.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Not that, She wrote a few letters and then they stopped coming but when [inaudible] you remember a few years ago she said [?] was killed in the war. Where was that war?
Joel Poikonen: They attacked, Russia attacked Finland but that was one of [Sylabed?'s] boys but what happened to [Wester?]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: We never heard.
Joel Poikonen: Yeah well I heard what happened too but I would mention that now.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: [?] the youngest boy, they said starved to death and he was in the army too.
And I said how could he starve. [Elby?] said well they only had leaves to eat and roots of trees and I think a hefty big kid like that would
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, well that's how there is starvation.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: They died of starvation.
Joel Poikonen: I read a book written by Finnish communist leader, he said 20,000 Fins were arrested for shoplifting.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: What is that place where they hang their washing on �.. that is our old house at Chase River.
Henry Poikonen: Oh boy, look at that.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: That our father and mother built. Well, it was community work I think, didn't they, everybody helped everybody else.
Joel Poikonen: I guess they did
Henry Poikonen: They did a work bee or what ever they called it.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Henry Poikonen: Oh yes, they held big bees.
[inaudible discussion between the three]
Henry Poikonen: So that is a big house two stories and
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Burnt down now, Real Estate burned it down, oh that was dreadful
[Discussion with everyonel talking as clock chimes, inaudible]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: There is the two [Sylabpat boys?]
Joel Poikonen: They went to Russia, I heard the police came and arrested them in the middle of the night .
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes, I heard that, well, we heard rumors of that too.
Joel Poikonen: And his wife later went to inquiry, ask about him. Went there twice and went the third time and was never seen after.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: There is the five of us, the five youngest about eight years difference. And then the other five, our family was sort of in two lots.
Henry Poikonen: So this house faced south didn't it?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: It faced west.
Henry Poikonen: Faced west. Oh, it faced west [inaudible as they all talk together]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: That was our road there, facing the highway and that' Mrs. [?} she wasn't suppose to be in that picture. But a photographer took that picture, I can remember the day he wanted us to get in, there is my youngest sister, my brother.
Henry Poikonen: That was you son who got up and made a little speech
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Henry Poikonen: I appreciate that, I think that is quite nice of people.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: He is quite interested in anything historical.
Henry Poikonen: Lets look at this picture again. So these were all bedrooms on the top floor, there was a basement
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Basement, yes, high and dry high basement, built up, not [inaudible possibly a Finnish word]
Henry Poikonen: I suppose you store potatoes and things like that.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Vegetables and then that where the [vice?]
Henry Poikonen: At the back end of the house
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: At that window the [vice?] was there and all the [inaudible] tools and that was one bedroom and this was another, there is a bedroom and there is what we called a parlor in those days.
Henry Poikonen: A parlor facing the front porch and a big bedroom facing the bedroom.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: That was my father and mother's bedroom, I don't know why �
Henry Poikonen: On the side there.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And that was the kitchen.
Henry Poikonen: Kitchen in the back
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Bit of a [inaudible] there you see.
Henry Poikonen: [inaudible] in the back yard?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No we never had a sauna, my mother never went to it either.
Henry Poikonen: So you had an outside biffy somewhere
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes, we did
Henry Poikonen: And a well?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: A well that never went dry, people use to come and haul, carry water from our well.
Henry Poikonen: [inaudible} a modern Finnish sauna, we have one.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh do you have sauna?
Henry Poikonen: Oh boy, I sure like it.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Our son had a sauna, my nephew has a sauna, he lives Argyle and Glenyr, the corner of Argyle and Glenyr.
Henry Poikonen: Oh, is that so, is that Selma Joe's husband?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, no, my sister, my nephew, my youngest sisters son, [Eddy Rainer?] Your daughter would know them from school I guess. Maybe she would. But he had an electric sauna too. No, we didn't have one.
Henry Poikonen: We had this according to plans we got from Finnish engineer at Port Moody and he made the heater from it and the Swedish carpenter from Wellington built it. [inaudible as they all talk}
Henry Poikonen: So I suppose you spoke Finnish at home
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: My mother and father talked Finnish to us but we always answered them in English.
Henry Poikonen: Well, that's the way it's going in our family. [laughter] [?} she understands Finnish but she answers
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: My father would talk English but my mother would [?], not when we were around
Henry Poikonen: Same way in our house.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, when we were around, a couple of English people went there talking to some of our friends and she told them where we were, if we were out, she talked English when we weren't there.
Henry Poikonen: My mother was exactly the same way, if any of the children were there, you couldn't get her to say one word of English.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, my mother either.
Henry Poikonen: But accidentally, I overheard her. She spoke English very nicely. But she just wouldn't, she was afraid the children would laugh at her because [inaudible all speaking together]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, that's the way they said it too.
Henry Poikonen: So the Finnish community was no doubt very close, everybody visited everybody else, pretty well.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, I guess my parents maybe were so busy that they didn't have time. Not, there was Mrs. [Gustavson?] and Mrs. Mike [Hendrickson?] (not ?]. Mike [Hendrixon?] they visited each other that I can remember. And Grandma [Gustavson?] Ina Norris's father, we called him Grandpa [Gustavson?] and she visited there. And [?], and I guess now that I come to think of it Mrs. [Setterpack?] came to visit once in a while.
Henry Poikonen: The old one
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Henry Poikonen: My aunt married [Setterpack?]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh yeah, no this would be the second Mrs. Setterpack then.
Henry Poikonen: Oh...
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: It won't be the first one.
Henry Poikonen: [inaudible]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yeah, that was her name.
Henry Poikonen: Well, Dad paid for her ticket when she came out [inaudible]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And the eldest girl she went through school to be a school teacher and they sent [inaudible]
Henry Poikonen: The school was not where it is today? It was where you make a left turn towards Cedar.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes but my eldest sister she went to [Elder?] School was in Nanaimo so, but the others, well my sister Connie and Miriam went to Chase River School but I don't think Con or [Delca or?] went to Chase River School at all. They were older.
Joel Poikonen: Con worked next door when we lived on Price Street and he bragged to the others that he could speak Finnish so [inaudible] the others had a good laugh because he had some trouble, he went to borrow a rake and he just couldn't remember the name for rake in Finnish.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh, yeah
Joel Poikonen: But he tried, he knew quite a bit but he couldn't remember name like that.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: He was, he and my Dad were carpenters, you see, between the mine and carpenter work that's when, mind you my father did carpenter work
Henry Poikonen: So he didn't work as a coal miner.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Mainly carpenter work. Now, [?] house [?] used to live on Howard Avenue.
Henry Poikonen: Yes, I interviewed him and he said he was house was built by a Finn in Chase River.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: That was my father I believe.
Henry Poikonen: Yeah, he really praised the house, how very well built it was.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: He told me that, he told me long ago that my father and my uncle built that house.
Henry Poikonen: Funny how these things tie in together.
Joel Poikonen: Yes, when it goes around it meets again.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: The courthouse and this old post office that they tore down my brother painted the flagpole.
Henry Poikonen: Is that so?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: They couldn't get anybody
Henry Poikonen: to climb up there
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: to climb up there. The courthouse isn't shingled though', it is some other kind of slate.
Henry Poikonen: Slate, yeah.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: But Con was a, he was a Finnish but he was finishing carpenter, he hung doors and window frames.
Henry Poikonen: Yeah, so you have been telling me about Milton Street and Prideaux Street.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, I wasn't there only [?] will remember what he was told. There was [Gustavson's?] and [?] and people by the name of [Obergs?]
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, [Obergs?] Their son became a professor of anthropology.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Joel Poikonen: Chicago University.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yeah. When my sister lived at Tofino she went out, she had a little boat, and she went out once on the beach she saw this lady waving her hands, and waving her hands so she went to see and there was Mrs. [Oberg?]. She was a widow by this time and had the two boys and one was very very ill and then after he died, my sister went to Vancouver this Carl came, she got him to come to go to school, university, and go to school.
Henry Poikonen: Yeah, that's the boy. Mr. [?] [inaudible]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh, yes
Joel Poikonen: I didn't think that boy would amount to anything; he had such a narrow face. [inaudible or possibly Finnish]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Well, one of the boys very big and sickly but Carl was [inaudible?]
Joel Poikonen: Miss Hilton [inaudible possibly Finish] was secretary at the biological station; she recalled that Mr. [Oberg, Professor ?] came out to visit [?] club once and he was going make a speech in Finnish but
Henry Poikonen: He realized he couldn't speak it
Joel Poikonen: Yeah he couldn't speak it
Henry Poikonen: Yeah, couldn't speak it and all of a sudden it came to him that it had slipped away.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yes
Joel Poikonen: Not good enough to make a speech
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: I think they all moved about the same time, they all bought property out in the country. They wanted to live out in the country.
Henry Poikonen: What do you know about the building of the church, it was your ?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, I wouldn't it was before ?
Henry Poikonen: Name some names
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, Mr. Weeks, Jack Weeks, I don't know whether you know him or have heard of him. But I was over at their place one night and he lives right across the road from me. And he was telling me how the Finn people built that church down on the corner.
Henry Poikonen: Yes
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And I said to him, I think John [?] had a little different idea because my father told me that the Finn people built that church that lived there along Milton Street, so he could verify it.
Henry Poikonen: Oh, yeah well this verification. You know that. See I made that statement there when I gave that talk I was not that sure but I was later able to verify that.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And they sold to, now they are on Wakiesh Avenue, the gospel hall, they bought the church from, the deeds, from the Finn people's church.
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, Doctor [Lindall?] Pastor [Lindall?] was there.
Henry Poikonen: But there was another church group there for quite a while, uh, they had Acme Motors. Wasn't there another group that?
Joel Poikonen: Scottish brethren, I don't know what name. Mrs. [Paulberg?] used to go to that one, when it was a gospel hall.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh, yeah but that was [Finnish word?}. What were they?
Henry Poikonen: Yeah, they were Estonians. But she spoke [?]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: But [inaudible] didn't they call her
Henry Poikonen: But that's her nationality [?] Estonian
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh well, maybe [inaudible] that church.
Henry Poikonen: [inaudible]
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: I don't know I never heard of anyone remembering [inaudible]
Joel Poikonen: No, it was such a long time ago.
Henry Poikonen: it was at the northwest corner of Victoria Road and Milton Street, that was the exact ?
Joel Poikonen: Yeah the mining company gave it for free.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: The property
Henry Poikonen: Yeah
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: But, but I was�
Henry Poikonen: With the understanding that it could only be used as a site for a church.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: A church. And I mean all the men helped, and I don't say that it was just my father, uncle
Joel Poikonen: No but they were in charge of them.
Henry Poikonen: Some body had to design it and know what to do
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: But it has been changed two or three times since.
Joel Poikonen: Oh yes, they wouldn't recognize it anymore.
Joel Poikonen: [?] relative of Bishop from Finland came here and he insisted on taking a picture of it.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh, yes
Joel Poikonen: So I was standing in front of it and [inaudible], the Bishop who came here but he had a very hurried visit.
Henry Poikonen: Now, you grew all your vegetables and potatoes, I suppose.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Our potatoes and some vegetables but not in a big way, we didn't have any
Henry Poikonen: Just for your selves.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh yes, just for ourselves.
Joel Poikonen: They didn't grow much for vegetables
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: And they didn't
Henry Poikonen: Not like the Yugoslavs in particular
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No, no but we had apples and plums. An apple tree and a cherry tree and so on but we didn't have vegetables in great deal. I can remember eating carrots and cabbage.
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, well in soups.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Yeah
Joel Poikonen: I can't recall any of the Ladysmith peoples growing any vegetables
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh
Joel Poikonen: They didn't use to bother
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: We use to have a few but not. We always grew rhubarb, a big rhubarb patch. People next door, Wilkinson's and Todd's, they had greenhouse so we always got tomatoes from them. I mean we did have tomatoes but I don't remember having a big vegetable garden. Not until we got a little older. Then we put in, us kids, put in a garden. We had berries, like gooseberries and raspberries and black berries but
Henry Poikonen: So you had a horse and wagon, I guess, or buggy or
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh yes
Joel Poikonen: Most Finns had
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: We had a wagon horse and buggy horse.
Joel Poikonen: I remember Chase River people came to that Ivy Green Park and had a picnic. See [inaudible] opened that road there.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: Oh yeah
Joel Poikonen: So Chase River people came there by horse and buggy.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: But we had what we call a, my father [inaudible] he had some more property up on [inaudible] Crossing on the old road and he was going to roll that when it was seeded he got killed. He had a horse and roller.
Joel Poikonen: That's terrible.
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: A great big horse, a workhorse.
Joel Poikonen: Yeah, I remember when that happened.
Henry Poikonen: You were mentioning when I was talking to you the other evening I guess about the wagon when someone died when the wagon came around. Wasn't I talking to you about that ?
Mrs. Lillian Dixon: No.
Side Two of the tape is blank.