Some
farm women also kept diaries and these have great value in allowing
us to see the nature of rural women’s lives. In this diary Alice
Bulmer, who lived at Aulac, New Brunswick, a small hamlet on the Cumberland
ridge near the site of old Fort Beausejour, describes daily activities
in the midst of the Great Depression. Typical entries describe the weather,
the farm and garden tasks performed by members of the family, and the
coming and going of family members, relatives and neighbours. These
latter interactions and movements are interesting, for they suggest
both a freedom of movement that was available to rural people in the
automobile age, and a relatively high level of casual visiting on the
part of family and neighbours. For example, an entry dated July 26 describes
going to church in the morning after which “Mary and Bill over
for an hour at noon then went to Tidnish shore. Mr and Mrs J.M. Oulton
spent the afternoon with us. Albert spent the day at Amherst shore.”
The latter references to the shore refer to nearby bathing beaches,
where some local people might have had small summer cottages. If Sundays
were a time for leisure, weekdays were spent with the men cutting hay,
and women and men picking berries, weeding gardens and visiting. |
