Wheadon, Mary Ann. Interview with Mary Ann Wheadon about her early memories, schooling, and holidays.

• Main Author: Harrington, Julia
• Other Authors: Wheadon, Mary Ann
• Format: Moving Image (Video)
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Migration/settlement; Schools; Poetry; Songs; Families; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ich_avalon/id/8743

Mary Ann Wheadon shares that she was born and raised in Scotland and moved to Newfoundland in 1946. She talks about her life in Scotland, her schooling in Dundee, and how she came to Newfoundland. She also shares some of her memories with her husband, and about her songs and poems. 00:06- 02:41 Mary was born in Scotland and raised there, she has been living in Newfoundland since 1946, she has three brothers and one sister, when she was a teenager most women worked in Jute mills, women made bags, carpets in the Jute mills, then people had not much money to spend; 02:44- 04:27 she attended school in Dundee named St. Mary, she went to this school till grade six, then she moved to another school for secondary education, Mary tells that they all went to work after the age of fourteen, all of her siblings used to give the money to their mother, her mother bought clothes and foods for them with that money, her mother was always home to take care of household chores; 04:37- 07:57 at her young age Christmas was not like now, they did not have any own Christmas tree, they used to see big Christmas tree in different stores, she used to celebrate New Year’s eve, they celebrated New Year at night 12, her mother used to make dumplings on their birthdays, that were huge dumplings, these huge dumplings were used to be their birthday cake, when she was a teenage then the war happened, her sister also used to work in Jute mills; 08:00- 14:46 she tells her early experience in Dundee city, there were buses and tram cards as transportation, people had no car then, she tells that Dundee is a busy city, transportation was quite good, from Dundee she went to Glasgow, there she met with some women from all over Britain, from there she came to Halifax with the women, stayed in Halifax for a week and then moved to St. John’s, her husband belonged to Western Bay, her husband lived in Bradleys Cove, there was no stores and shops then, they stayed there for some time and then move to Labrador, they had a girl to cook for them, Mary tells ...