Living on relief
Heroes Remember
Living on relief
Transcript
I remember when we were living on the dole relief, 6 cents a
day. That’s $1.80 a month per person in the family, and my
father had to work for that. When he got sick, to get
nourishment, we only got the very necessities of life. And when
he got sick, he had to get a doctor’s certificate, or
prescription, to get like milk, eggs, and stuff like that, the
necessities of life, you know, the vitamins. But most he lived
on was fish, and pork, and salt beef and things of that nature
or what we … the government would give him a little plot of land
to seed potatoes and to grow and to try to keep the family
going, from starving, and so on and so forth.
Interviewer: So as a young boy you were probably
out working, at a very young age.
Yes, well, I did. I used to work on the fish wharves, and
the fishers would come in with salt fish, and the Bowring
brothers, or the Jobe (sp) brothers and the big merchants. And
we got about five cents an hour. And then, after a while, then
they put it up to ten cents an hour.
Description
Mr. Evans describes his family life before enlistment, the hard work and the poverty.
George Harold Evans
George Harold Evans was born March 17, 1926 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He was one of thirteen children. His father, a First World War Veteran, worked in the Newfoundland fishery and Mr. Evans fished with his father.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 1:32
- Person Interviewed:
- George Harold Evans
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Branch:
- Merchant Navy
- Occupation:
- Messboy, Fireman/Stoker
- Date modified: