Item AAAB5779 - Pauline Romaine interview

CALL NUMBER: T4135:0004 PERIOD COVERED: 1913-1983 RECORDED: Castlegar (B.C.), 1983-10-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Biographical information. Father wants to leave Doukhobor faith; comes to Brilliant in 1913; anecdote about immigrant train; communal life in Brilliant; privation of settlers; graft in commune; father quits commune and moves to Grand Forks; mother, ostracized because her husband left, leaves commune. Anecdote about Grand Forks brothel. Father moves to Trail; family moves to Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan; life in Blaine Lake; moves back to Trail in 1924; train and boat trip back; anecdote about boat ride; child molester; anecdote, father leaded in 1928; 1927 polio outbreak. TRACK 2: Recovery from polio; high school in Trail; father sick; Normal School in Victoria; Mr. McClarren, (principal) started first Doukhobor schools; teaching certificates; back to Trail in 1931; Doukhobor school trustee, Mr. Sheffield, offers her a job; anecdote about Sheffield coming to her house; teaches at Ootischenia school for 114 dollars a month. School in cobbler's shop; teacherage in commune; trials and tribulations of teaching; Sons of Freedom children returned from foster homes; salary cut to 90 dollars a month; moves to Glade, becomes principal; accident kills several teachers; Major Clarke takes over from Sheffield; Glade school bombed in 1936; rebuilt school burned same year it was rebuilt; was paid to call the roll at burned school to keep it open; anecdote about poor heat in school; guard at Glade School; reminiscences about recreation at Ootischenia; anecdote about Glade ferry. CALL NUMBER: T4135:0005 PERIOD COVERED: 1913-1983 RECORDED: Castlegar (B.C.), 1983-10-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Anecdotes about Glade ferry; recreation; relief camp at Shoreacres; ferry operation; relief camp worker anecdote; transients calling for food and clothing during the Depression; anecdote about clothing; KC jam factory; Brilliant Doukhobor library; Depression life and commerce; local economy of the Kootenays; CPR and local economy; first radio in Ootischenia; Pat Romaine on local economy; dances at the Castlegar community hall; anecdote about courting; Swedish immigrants in Castlegar; immigration during the 1920s; Ukrainians in Castlegar; Eremenko's first store; Plotnikoff's store; White Russians arrive in the 1920s; Castlegar boomed with car pools; bought land in 1943. TRACK 2: Kinsman Park donated to city; Pauline meets Pat Romaine; father in hospital; courting Pat Romaine; anecdote about homemade beer in Trail; anecdote about a dance at Deer Park; moving to Castlegar in 1944; brother killed at Cominco; father leaded at Cominco; moved in with parents; lead poisoning and compensation; brother killed on hill; Pat Romaine on unionism; conditions before unions; move to Deer Park; electioneering in Deer Park; party at road opening; Robert Sommers as Social Credit candidate; Pauline hired as teacher; bad feelings against her as a teacher; rewards of working with children. CALL NUMBER: T4135:0006 RECORDED: Castlegar (B.C.), 1983-10-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: How the children she taught turned out; discussion of modern school politics; one room school in Deer Park; difference in lifestyles; feuding between neighbours in Deer Park; fruit farm goes down hill; local packing house; [steam?] boats taken off lake in 1954; employment lost with boats; CPR buying policy; gyppo logging on lake; log picking; Renata fruit box factory; local economy dries up; Procter maraschino cherry factory; changing fruit markets; good fruit refused; pig farming; anecdote about pig farming; BC Tree Fruits; anecdote about fruit from Australia; Grand Forks war time seed farms; fruit market during the war; forestry employed people to cut fire trails and to work as fire lookouts. [TRACK 2: blank.]