Gaspesian Heritage WebMagazine

I was just a young fellow of ten years of age when I remember my mother saying that it was time for me to accompany my father in the woods trappin’. She did not like the fact that he would be two weeks alone out in the woods without anyone around to look out for him. The woods can be a dangerous place for a fella on his own. If anything ever happened back there in the woods, he would be in bad shape! My daddy would go 50 miles back into the woods – that’s right-50 miles on foot into the woods. So after I had done about three years of school, I quit and headed into the woods with my daddy.

My fondest memories of living on Bonaventure Island are the beautiful beaches. Bonaventure Island has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. I remember when I was a child I was told to stay away from the cliffs, as they were very, very steep and my aunt and uncle were afraid that I might fall off or that something terrible might happen to me. They were very protective of me.

We may not have had much as kids growing up in Douglastown, but the one thing we did have was a lot of fun. We used to play cards and board games, but the highlight of our days was going to the post office.We kids always used to hang out at the post office.I will never forget Mr. Kennedy, the postmaster we had for years and years.He was as nasty as anything; mad as a rooster. We would go all over the place on the bikes.

When we were teenagers, we’d hang out at the covered bridge in Wakeham. We would sit on the side of the bridge and talk and share chocolate bars. There were always several couples hanging out and sharing jokes or cuddling under the covered bridge. At the end of the night, we’d walk home together. We’d go to the bridge two, maybe three times a week.

When the ice was thick enough to haul wood across, the lake would become our rink for skating and hockey.We used to play hockey from the minute we cleared the snow off to the minute the ice started to crack and melt.We had to have a rink for the boys and a rink for the girls because the girls wanted nothing to do with hockey.All they did was complain about us playing hockey all the time, so we made them a rink of their own where they could skate and we could play hockey in peace.

Our home was the gathering place in the community. We were one of the first ones in Little Pabos to have a radio. I remember when the Lone Ranger would come on. My grandfather, who was in his eighties at the time, would come and find us to let us know that the program would be on shortly.

You don't see many hobos around the Coast today, but when I was a young girl, there were plenty of them in Shigawake. They would carry a stick with a bag tied to the end of it, just like they do in the movies; filled with clothing or something to eat. The hobos would travel back and forth along the Coast, some by train, and others by foot. Most of them would "ride the rails" as they say. This meant that they would hitch a ride on the train, hiding either underneath or on top or even inside the boxcars. The hobos that we saw traveled the roads.

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In 1890, a companywas formed under the name of Cascapedia Manufacturing and Trading Company by Senator William C. Edwards. Angus MacLean joined Sen. Edwards about 1904. Some years earlier Sen. Edwards purchased 659 square miles of limits on the Grand and Little Cascapedia Rivers, to which he added another 558square miles in 1907, which he acquired from Robitaille.

Just before the turn of thetwentieth century, three Fallow brothers from New Richmond Station (then called New Richmond Centre) -- George (Geordie), John and James -- formed the Fallow Lumber Company and went into the lumbering business.