216_BarbARadio-created-2010.mp3

otter.ai

28.01.2024

no

Unknown Speaker 00:00
cost her in jail. Back in 1913. She worked for the miners all fire and rage say in labor is worthy of a true living wage. She had Stern's and stars and stars in her eyes, an endless horizon hidden miracle prize. She had stars, stars, the stars in her eyes, and she would not take for Woody Guthrie was a man. And when he wrote songs, he's stood for the fight. That cruel hunger is wrong. And he never stopped caring. And he never stopped trying with hope and defiance. He said his songs play. He had stars and stars stars in his eyes, and endless horizon a miracle prize he had stars, stars and stars in his eyes, and he would not take no for an answer. There are people who for some reason or other had to quit school early family pressure economics, truancy, whatever it was later on in life they realized not being able to read and writes a big hindrance they go back to school as courageous knit deserve diverse in the song as well. There are people who struggle to read signs every day saying what is it that's written there? And what does it say? And for the courage these learners this way, or they will not take no for an answer. They all have stars, stars, stars in their eyes. Plus horizon a miracle prize they had stars stars stars in their eyes, and they would not take no for an answer. Oh, now the dunes deers claim the children today they care nothing at all for a world far away. And yet under they're cool. And they're careful disguise. We're looking at young ones with stars in their eyes. They have stars, stars and stars in their eyes. Plus horizon a miracle prize they have stars stars stars in their eyes, and they will love up take no for

Unknown Speaker 02:58
not taking would you love me as a teacher and a mom when I buy vitamins for my family. I want to make sure I get all my letters right? How much B and C do they really need? Well that's where I go to pharmacy. I trust my live well pharmacist to help me make the right choices. Yes plus, pharmacy has a free vitamin club. When you buy 10 vitamins or herbal supplements you get one free for quality vitamins

Unknown Speaker 03:25
you're less brave and my dad found out we were

Unknown Speaker 03:30
going offline at age three you're gonna call what you need is wildbird see

Unknown Speaker 03:48
Star box it's the name to call for all your farm friends and Critter supplies. Just down the rail road. Enjoy the free coffee and sweets kick ass sales, black oil sunflower seed $25 for 40 pounds hungry

Unknown Speaker 04:07
jumping on your bed. We're gonna call

Unknown Speaker 04:16
frayed and old pets. We ain't afraid and old pads weird frayed and old pads we.

Unknown Speaker 04:54
blaspheming booted blue jeans Made them turn their tally brownie girls

Unknown Speaker 05:45
pencil pains and

Unknown Speaker 05:54
dreams was

Unknown Speaker 06:12
in Delaware when I was younger they thought St Andrew but in the spring I had gray and I was I was new wicked wise man was you wonder you see my lightning here my god

Unknown Speaker 07:03
Wan

Unknown Speaker 07:12
Saltspring books is proud to sponsor word on the rock, our islands radio show about books Saltspring books wants us islanders to eat sleep read, because life is simple

Unknown Speaker 07:32
Welcome to Word on the rock. I'm David Hart and today we're have a guest, Bob asked who was representing the Saltspring archives. And I'll talk to her in a moment I'll just tell you a bit about her. Barb is former principal and teacher and Saltspring and now works as a university instructor and consultant. And an interesting thing which sort of you may be able to see why she's working in the archives. She comes from a family which genealogy has played a huge role. Her great uncle William Irving was the first European boy born in Fort Victoria in 1851. She then married into a family who are descendants of Katherine park trail, and Susanna moody. So family history from both sides of the continent, the whole family tales are rooted in her array and a recent have helped her pique her interest in that preservation. And sure, that's a great, great help for Saltspring archives in the History Society. So as an educator and salts been for three decades, Barb always made sure that her students were introduced to local history. Their aim was to help the students take pride in their home and have a place a sense of place in the broader world. And I'm sure that that that will help us when we go to look for volunteers to continue the work of History Society in the archives. So I think the big thing is that volunteering and Saltspring archives provide Barb was an opportunity to help preserve the history of Saltspring for all peoples, First Nations and those who followed later. Those of us who are come late, please.

Unknown Speaker 09:21
Well, I still feel like to come lately, and I've been here for almost 33 years.

Unknown Speaker 09:24
Well, that beats me. I've been here just about well, I guess 10 years is very long. Well, what made you decide to come to Salt Spring?

Unknown Speaker 09:36
Oh, it's a long story. But the we had friends that were living here and somebody offered us their house for five or six days. Our kids were young and we decided to take advantage of it. It was August. It's the time of the Perseid meteor showers. It was warm at the city's beach and we were down at the subarea As we would walk to the beach every day, and the kids would swim in the ocean and play on the logs, and at night, we would lie in our sleeping bags and watch the shooting stars. And when the vacation was over, the kids said, Please, please, Mom and Dad, can we move to Salt Spring? That was August, and we were here in October? Yes. So that the beauty of this place and the the welcoming community that existed, certainly were big parts of what drew us to come to Salt Spring and then getting involved in the school system. My husband got involved with soccer with the kids and on and on the story went and it's unfolded from there.

Unknown Speaker 10:41
So you're very much a part of the community. absolutely marvelous, marvelous. Well know about the the archives that how did they begin because they weren't always here?

Unknown Speaker 10:54
No. This Historical Society started in, I believe it was 1982. And they started on their way. And at one point, people started to give them artifacts, and they stored them in the old Atchison house on Stark road. Then in 1989, when the Atchison said passed on, and it was time to sell that property. There was no home for all of these artifacts that were being stored. So Mary Davidson and her friend, Peggy Tolson and Mary's cousin, Agnes Cunningham got together, and Mary and Peggy, in particular, went after a grant. And they got $1,000, from the Heritage Trust to BC. And that helped them to establish the archives, they then got in conversation with the folks from the Mary Hawkins library, and they were allowed to store a filing cabinet there. That was the beginning, fall into our filing cabinet. And that house, but we had at that point. And then, of course, everybody had bits and pieces in their basements here and there, but the main things were stored in the filing cabinet. And then there was an opportunity to get another grant was called a windfall grant. And that room that we have down in the basement of Mary Hawkins library, which is about 28 feet long and maybe 12 feet wide, became the windfall room and house the archives and they were able to buy some furniture and beg and borrow and got all kinds of donations of desks and filing cabinets and bits and pieces, and or some computers. And although I don't know, I don't think they had computers. And I think it was a typewriter and Agnes Cunningham bless her sold, typed on every piece of information that came in, she had it all typed up and catalogued. And with Mary's expertise as a school librarian, they were able to put together very comprehensive archives that has grown and grown from there.

Unknown Speaker 13:00
Well, that's quite a story and some puts you just trying to think of the age. So that's about 20 years,

Unknown Speaker 13:10
21 years now. Yeah, yeah. And of course, it's changed tremendously. Now that we've entered the computer age, we're in the age of technology. And to our good fortune, Frank Newman moved to Saltspring from Saturna Island. And Frank has been our resident technology person, ever since he found us on the volunteer website where volunteers were needed on Saltspring. He gave Mary a call. And that was the beginning of a wonderful love story. Because without Frank, we couldn't have managed to do the things that have been done on collect. Find it, and it just grows and grows and grows in leaps and bounds.

Unknown Speaker 13:55
But the my daughter's market esteem, the CEO has just sent me an email. I get this question all the newspapers either way back. Or 200 cents on some of the first. So that digitizing is kind of a worldwide process that's going on now we know that Google is digitizing the world's books. They can get copyrighted. So this is a huge process something because this is a one man. I think you all but Frank has taken on other people to work on

Unknown Speaker 14:40
this. Well, you must work it is a one man show because Frank is he's the main man around technology, but we've been able to get some student grants. And we've had a wonderful student assistant, Natalie Featherstone who's worked for us for the last year, and she's been digitizing the direct woods now. Anybody that went to the driftwood 50 year celebration or want to step in, or copies of the first driftwood signed out? Well, those are all being digitized, scanned and digitized right now. And I believe we got four or five years of that done the rest of the paper, and we'll have that on hand for generations to come, if any be surprised what people want to know. They'll come in and, and they'll say, Well, my, my grandfather died and I'd like to see his obituary and he died somewhere in I think it was maybe February of 1972. Can you help me? And boy that volunteers go digging, and they're able to find it and and the joy that it brings to people when they're able to discover answers is just

Unknown Speaker 15:47
wonderful. Well, and another aspect of that, I mean, that's certainly very true. Is that the whole world, people to be doing? It isn't just an absolute and exclusive to solid Springer's to get access because once you put it up on the web that means

Unknown Speaker 16:03
well, let me tell you a story about that. We have correction of the Beyonds and the Shanta Lu sisters. Paul beyond was their uncle, and they bought a farm out on a prawn road. I believe it was around 1910 T problem. I'm just a little unsure of the pace but long time ago, and he was in the French army. And his job during the First World War was to be a photographer. And so he would go up in those little biplanes and he would lean over the edge. They were open biplanes lean over the edge and take pictures. Well, they're pictures of the trenches. And they're unbelievable. They're just unbelievable. Well, after there's his he brought a lot of those photographs home with him like he may have developed them at home for all I know, and they were stored in the barn of it will be our house. His two, he brought up his two nieces, the Chantilly sisters, and those who have been around for a while will remember them. One of them had polio and was confined to a wheelchair. Her sister, she did all of the books on the phone, and her sister delivered eggs. And I can remember when we first came here, Miss Chantilly, driving around in little doubts and truck. And she could hardly see over the steering wheel. she I think she might have been about four foot nine. She's a tiny little woman, she ran the chicken farm and she would hit the eggs and then she would bring them to town. And I was a memory is clear Isabel for me to see her driving her little truck. Well, after she and her sister passed on the archives were someone put me off, that's as fast as they would like to go and look in the barn. And there, they lifted up, what would have been just storage areas for probably feed or implements. And in there were rolled out all of these photographs from the First World War and they were undamaged. They were not water damaged, but they weren't damp. And so some knowledge and company were able to, to bring in long into the archives. And we have been scanned and digitized. And they are now on the website. Yes. Well, as you say, round the world. Here we go. We have had people, professors from France, find those, they know exactly which trenches what this is their field of study, and they have their students able to access the Saltspring website and find information for their research. So let you who knew from a chicken farm to some university in France? Amazing. There

Unknown Speaker 18:56
we are. Well, some of you have these papers with Edward particularly. And you've got archived photographs, are there other sorts of photographs that have, I'm sure there must be others.

Unknown Speaker 19:10
We have 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of old photographs. And we're in the process of digitizing all of them. And one of our biggest difficulties is finding out who the people are in the photographs. So we count on those that have been in the community for a long time to give us that kind of information. And we are very fortunate that people will do that. We also have something called the SBI which is the Saltspring Bureau Saltspring Bureau of Investigation. Yes. And so things get posted on that. And with a little question, do you know this person or do you know where this is? And then there'll be responses that come in when people say well, I think it's this and I think that's that but it's it's a lot of batting for people to, to spend time doing that. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 20:03
This is a non private eyes.

Unknown Speaker 20:06
Yes, that's right.

Unknown Speaker 20:09
Well, that's great. But these things are available. So this, the SBI is available through a link on the web from that link from the archives.

Unknown Speaker 20:18
Yes, it's on the Archives website. So if you go to www dot Saltspring, archives.com, all one word, then you will find a photograph on there and compilation of photographs, you will find the old church and

Unknown Speaker 20:38
this is on on that.com. Don't forget to SBI. And then you'll get

Unknown Speaker 20:44
to the Saltspring archives homepage. And then if you look on there and go to our collection, you'll find right in the middle s vi, if you click on that, it will take you places. We have a number of people that tried to find information on who's buried where, and we've got cemetery records. And that's something that people can look up as well. And they don't need to come into the archives, they can actually look up all of this information. We've got the Saltspring voters list from 1875. We've got Saltspring Island voters 1898 census for Salt Spring for 1901, and 1911. Marriages from the United Methodist Church, the Anglican parish registry. We've got all kinds of different things on there maps, place names, key dates that have been compiled by Charles Kahn in his book Saltspring, the story of an island. And one of the other things that we have our fabulous audio files. Yes, I think we've got now I did look and now I forgotten but I think we've got in excess of 175 of them on there now. And those audio files are wonderful. They're they've been picked up over the last say 30 years. And they are interviews that have been done with fam people that remember from that being in a pioneer family, the stories that have been passed on. And one of them that I'd like to share up. That'd

Unknown Speaker 22:23
be great and listen to that one. But before we do that, these are all available to people, Susan Webb, okay, go to the web and listen to them, play them and all

Unknown Speaker 22:33
you have to do is go to the homepage and where it says audio files. You click on that make sure your sound is turned up. And you will find all of these audio files on different families on Saltspring. The one I brought along today was the Goodrich sisters. Many people here will know Marshall Hi Nikki. He recently did a presentation at the Historical Society on the Silvius. The development of Vesuvius and Goodrich road is down there and he is a good rich family. And this is a little clip of his mother and his aunt, and they were talking about the bitten courts. Now the federal courts were early builders on the island, and one of the misters Betancourt's had five sons. And this just tells a little story about Mr. Betancourt and his five sons

Unknown Speaker 23:27
right so let's listen to this this is an example of one of these audio files that you can hear like yourself BEDTIME STORY

Unknown Speaker 23:42
most a bit more than five sighs Well, it was always used. The large wasn't originally it was a store come to the post office was where was the launch right at the forefront. What was Madden news hotels a few years. It had many very lawyers it was idle free news. In fact, we called it the haunted house is a very nice kid that could run through different news. Less breakers my dad found out we were doing it in a state court sitting on the compromise or excavations for the same coal mine over in dark Bay. On the map, you'll find that it's duck bein, but originally that was known as Dark bay because it was so sheltered. That's where the slopes used to enter but she used to call it just just the creek. Well, it was St. Mary's Mary's outlet, which was reasonably good days to even Laurie Mort used to get his coat Oh, from the beach years ago, just by waiting a little time and see, it seems note and this was in the 40s, he was still not a good quality, but it was usable. And there are copper cribs, all along this coast and definitely long right opposite on Vancouver Island. And in our great wisdom, we thought that was wells because they're all crammed down. But we found out later that they had been excavating for copper, and there is an abundance there, but it's just too expensive to do anything with it. And I think every point has its copper deposits as well. It's just not high grade enough to be economical to do anything about it. Because those old birds, they probably could make a nickel where nobody else could anyway, it's probably kept it to his idea of keeping his five sons busy and out of his saloon. I mean, he didn't mind making money off other people, but certainly not all his sons that was to keep them busy. And one of his major projects was fence building wood cutting, break water, making all these things that had no beginning no end, in the back of our property from whom my dad bought from Vanguard is about five miles of snake fences that go nowhere have no fields no nothing. And when asked about this, he said, Well, how the hell else you're going to keep five boys busy. And this is literally what there's cords of wood out there. And some civil What did you cut it for? Was it for boats or ships? Or what he said no, that kept him out of the pattern. This is it. But how he had the authority to make five hands do this day after day is the rest of us and surely to Mr. Betancourt can't find sandals.

Unknown Speaker 27:00
Well, that's that's a great it's a great route. Saul Springer's a long time had a good sense of humor? Yes. Yeah. That's what a way to raise sons.

Unknown Speaker 27:10
And maybe it's a really good idea.

Unknown Speaker 27:13
There's a little clue there. For us Oh, yeah. So well, we've got marvelous things. We've talked about audio files and the digitized. So but you mentioned other sorts of artifacts. In the collection, I imagined the filing cabinet is the probably the things that don't fit very easily into that filing cabinet. Well,

Unknown Speaker 27:37
most of what we take we try to fit into the filing cabinet are into our big boxes that we have. We don't take items that really belong in a museum, right? We're restricted more to the pieces of paper, the different records and photographs. And so most of those will fit into very large, acid free boxes that we buy. That's one of our biggest financial outlays is to buy these acid free boxes. And we store everything in there according to what is called a phone. And that's the whole collection put together. And our volunteers categorize everything that's in a box. And they also put that online so that we can do a search to find something when someone comes through.

Unknown Speaker 28:27
Now, supposing there are people out there who Saltspring who have objects which don't fit so neatly into our filing cabinet or whatever boxes. Is there a prospect that there'll be a kind of museum that will house those at some point? Well,

Unknown Speaker 28:44
there is a museum at the moment at the farmer's Institute. And I know that that is open on special occasions and is opened at times when the person who is the curator there is contacted and he will open that for people, there is a hope that someday we'll be able to have some kind of a museum that is closer to town that more people can access more easily. One of the worries for people is that they want to make sure that the artifacts that they turn over are safe. And so we need to make sure we have a safe and secure building. One of our dreams is to have some to research more of the history of the First Nations of Saltspring. And to have some collections that speak to that we've had some research done around that already. You'll

Unknown Speaker 29:34
read well that's that's so that's sometime in the future it is and there'll be development then presumably of collaboration there. Now you're going to have a new home and the new library. You're looking forward to that I'm sure

Unknown Speaker 29:52
boy are we ever from our our damp dark little place down in the basement that has been a wonderful home but you It's outlived its time. And so we're really looking forward to being in the new library and having our everything nice and safe and secure, which is safe and secure as it can be now, but every time there's a threat of a flood, we panic. And we've got everything up good and high on shelves so that we're, we're safe from that. But we're looking forward to being able to put it in a brand new building where everything is clean and safe. And we have great areas for people to spread out and look at what's there.

Unknown Speaker 30:33
Yes. So it would have been would be much more of a place to visit. But But I guess the the security and the having proper surroundings will make a huge

Unknown Speaker 30:40
difference, it will make a huge difference as well. Absolutely. Well,

Unknown Speaker 30:44
we're coming close to the end here now. And I want to so we know we told people that or anyone listening that, but ways to access this is primarily through the website, be able to find links to all of these things. I want to make some

Unknown Speaker 31:08
one of the things that we have on there, as well as the contact email address info at Saltspring archives.com. And if there are people who are interested in history, in local history, or in world history, anything you're interested in, that involves something historical, we would love to have you come and work with us. We get all fired up, we get excited. We're looking for people with passion, right. So if you're interested in coming and joining us, please email us. And let us know if you're interested. We'd love to have you on board.

Unknown Speaker 31:42
So that you mentioned the Historical Society has regular meetings at which people present things

Unknown Speaker 31:47
that's right there every What's the second Wednesday of every month, and there's one coming up next Wednesday, May the 12th, that central hall at two o'clock. And it's our annual general meeting, but the meeting part will be very short. And we're going to have the hysterical society come and it's called the historicals meet the historicals the history of the hysterical society. And ARVA Chalmers Reed Collins, April Curtis Sinquefield. CO and my case will be there to put on a performance for anybody that wants to come in. It's by donation.

Unknown Speaker 32:20
So that's something which seriously you shouldn't miss. No, seriously, you should not write well. Barabbas Thank you very much for coming. This has been extremely interesting. We could go on and talk quite a bit more about this. And I'm sure now I want to make some longer announcements. The that on May the 10th. We have a message from Sue. Kathy page, we'll be having a book launch. It'll be her new book called The Find and that will be 730 at artspring. Then word on the rock in in May the 12th is going to be Marlon first doll, her new book which I don't know what the title. And then on May the 19th Derek Lundy will be talking about his new book, Borderlands. And of course, storytime on Friday, the exciting, exciting, exciting city tales and Margaretta is going to be presenting those and I must thank our sponsors Saltspring books for continuing to support word on the rock and I hope you all enjoyed the program very much we've been having great fun presenting it for you. So thank you see you next week

Unknown Speaker 34:01
spread the wealth of literature to our friends and neighbors on the island

Unknown Speaker 34:11
let's ask Saltspring islanders why country grocer is their favorite food store for shopping 10% off day because it's services good and you always find that people tend to say that they got the less of it what's between the bodies?

Unknown Speaker 34:36
Right