Document text
ORIGINAL MSS. OR FIELD NOTES (Check one)
PUB. Living i,ore in iewEni,;1wd
(Maine)
TITLE Ovide Iorin, French Canadian
WRITER hobert Grady
DATE WDS. PP. 24 to 26
CHECKER DATE
SOURCES GIVEN Interview
COMMENTS
Maine
Living Lore
Old Town
(The Life of Ovide Morin, French Canadian)
(As told by himself to Robert F. Grady)
Ovide: "This pace has changed a lot since I CIAMe here from Saint Epphane.
They didn't used ,c,o have any lights, wat, sewers, telephones, or anything
like dat. (Mr. Morin ;urnished aprroximate installation dates for these things
in a previous interview). A feller asked me once if I ever seen one of those
old wooden plows like they used on the sidewalks once. It was made like dist
(he illustrejed with his hands) and a man sat on top of it to hold it down. It
wee pulled by a horse. I told 'im I saw dEt.
"I remember when my fader was le.vint home to comp here, he had a big dog.
An' believe me, mister man, if you come around dat house at night or when no-
body was home, you better look outl My fader says, 'I can't take dat dog wit'
me,' so he gives him to a feller tht lives about five miles away. He put 'im
in a big bag, ant cut a hole so just his nose would stick through. Dat feller
kept dA dog in the cellar for three days, but when he let him outdoors he came
back to our house. When my fader was leavint dat dog jumped up and scratched
on my fader's chest. It was j.ist like he was sayinl, 'Take me wit' you.' I
felt bad when we drove away to see his settin' at the door. I often wondered
what became of dat animal.
"Someting I can't do is kill an animal. We had a dog here once that got
sick. I don't know what was the matter wit' him, but when we saw dat he wouldn't
live my wife says, rfou better drown dat dog.' The ri\nr is ri:ht behind our
housl, but I couldn't do it, no sirs I gave 5.00 to Fred Nichols (h mane agent)
an' he took h:m away. We had some kittens here dat my wife wante1 me to drown,
but I couldn't do dat. Some one must have done it, because I didn't see them
after a feo days. We used to have about a hundred chickens here, and so- etimes
my wife would ask me to go out and kill a cou_le for dinner. (LL-. Morin is not
as blo:dthirsty as all this wouid indicate). I used to do it, but it always
made me sick afterwards.
Mallet
Living Lore
Old Town
"There's peen soething the matter with my throLt lately. I cough, but
there doesn't seem to be any ding daere. I've been right in the house all
winter. I never go over to town because I don't like to spit on the street.
I'll be glad when the warm weatler comes so I can get out an' do a little work
around the house. I've been
all the doctors over hare (in Old Town; none
on French Island). They ;gi,re me some meAeine, but it don't do any good. It's
fu:ny I go to Jed at, right an' it don't bother me at all, but when I get up
I start to cough. When the warm weatner comes I'm _7oing to Bangor to see a
doctor there.
"You know what's killint this country, mister man? It's the automobiles.
Yes sir. When I came here there was lots of saw mils: everybody was working.
They didn't get much money, out they got a living. If a man had three pairs of
h:rLes on his farm he had :o hire a rdan to drive each pair. Pat was three men.
Now he gets a tractor an, one !flan can do as much work as the three. It's the
spme in the milis. My wife used to work in a cot on mill in Waterville. She
run four looms: now they run thirty.
"It cost more to live now. We used to have woode tables that we made
ourselves. YOU couldn't use them now because you have to hay, the same as
everybody else. We use o have a go d table in the kithen, here, but my
wife wanted some'6hing oetter an, we got that. That set cost 365.00. (a table
and four chairs) We cae make it bigger th n that, but it's &_11 right unless
we have company. Every month now a woman has to sp-nd $5.00 on her hair. That
Nas morD than they use. to spend a _ifetime. Up in Quebec the men never
used to cut their hair. It used to grow long on their neck, and if their
mustache got to( long, they used to eive it another twist. Me illustrated
how that was done.)
Maine
Living Lore
Old Town ,Z
"There was never any superstitions around Old Town. I never heard of any,
anyway. Maybe if you ask some of the old men over there they can remember see-
ing some. That makes me think of someting, though. When O. G's wife (he calls
his oldest boy O. G.) was sick they took her to the hospital in Bangor. She
got pret7,y bad, ant they thought she wo.adn't live. I was sittin' right in
this chair one night, an' my wife was down at the hospital. Nobody was home
but me and Blanche. (his daughter) All at once I heard a rjo just like dat
(he raped with his knuckles three times on the wall) outside at that door. I
went out on the porch, but nobody was therel By an' by I heL-d that rap again
ant I says so Blanche, 'You loAt on the other side of the house ant I'll look
out here. There's somebody around here, somewhere.' She looked out one door
an' I looked out the otner, but nobody was theret I says to her, 'Blanche, you
wait ant se -3: dat girl is dead.' Mister man, half an hour later my wife called
up o the teleehone an' toLd us that O. G.'s wife was deadl
"I kne. what was goin' to happen because I heard those raps before. Our
baby was -ick ant my wife was out here holdinI it i her arms and rockinI it,
an' the baby was cryinI. That child was pretty sick. I was sittin' in that
next room, an' I heard those three raps. They weren't outside, ant they weren't
on anyting. I just heard them. I didn't tel anybody, but I says to myself,
'Dat baby will die.' Mister man, the next day dat baby was dead& Yes sir,
there's someting there. We can't explain it, but we know it's there.