Hussey, Greta. Interview about life in Port de Grave.

• Main Author: Wilson, Lisa
• Format: Audio
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Oral traditions; expressions and the written word; Migration/settlement; Storytelling; Towns; Ghost stories; Communities; Hussey; Greta; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ich_oral/id/424

92 year old Greta Hussey shares stories of growing up in Port de Grave, travelling to Labrador for the fishery, and supernatural tales from the area. Born in Hibb’s Cove; Grandfather was lightkeeper in Bay Roberts; Family name (Lear); Father a fisherman; Labrador for fishing for 16 summers; 2:50 - Life on Lear’s Room book; Use of dog teams; Description of harbour; Lost husband after 13 years married; 5:50 - Courtship ritual; 6:10 - How she met husband; Everyone knew everyone; History of land purchase; 7:40 - Hampton Hall in St. John’s; Story of building house; Husband worked on the dock until laid off; Died age 35; Related hardships; Education; 10:20 - Confederation and education; Midwife births; Grandmother was a midwife; Remedies and cures; Raw potato treatment; 13:00 - Rubbing mustard; Poultices for pups/water whelps; Tobacco for bleeding; 14:55 - Story of the Blue Jacket ghost ship; Storytelling in the kitchen; 17:50 - Buried treasure on Greenspoint; 19:05 - Ship Cove Pond treasure; Weather lights and signs; Father was a fisherman; Old book from school years; 25:30 - Happy memories from Labrador; Woman who burned to death; Dances in fall of year; Foreign vessels from Norway; Food access and quantities; 27:25- Mat hooking; Vancouver Expo story; Emile Benoit and Rufus Guinchard; 32:20 - Selling things on the Labrador; Christmas memory; Thoughts on community of Port de Grave; Money and war years; 35:30 - Cornwall exorcism story; Protestant roots; 38:00 - Personal work history; Weddings; 41:15 - Family cemetery plots; Cemetery locations; Land values; 43:00 - Gardening practices; Story about using trucks to transport potatoes; 45:25 - Challenges around raising babies in past; Contemplating hard life; Transporting water in paint cans; Spring water; Family settled in 1724; 49:20 - Aging and attitude towards death; Vegetable farm; Community helping each other; Spinning wool and hooking mats together; Wedding attire tale; Raising children; 55:30 - Getting a telephone; Woodcutting injury; Belief in supernatural; ...