Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

districts up to advanced grades, be admitted on FIVE Dollars tuition fees’.
Driven to School
Since she lived round the bend towards Westhaver’s Beach she usually
walked or biked to school and in very bad weather had to be driven by horse
and cart. She too came across the ice, when it was declared safe, in winter.
She remembers the weekly dish of ice cream treat at the tables at the back of
“the store,” Hyson’s.
Maritime Construction: Harris Strum- “The Hitching Post of Mader’s Cove”
Ulrica’s grandfather [Alex] and father [Harris], had built Maritime Manufacturers
& Construction into the largest employer in Mader’s Cove, and a
major construction company. The company had its own lumber, mill and
workshop.
“Dad had been born with cataracts in both eyes, and had to have one eye ball
removed..went through life with one eye. People said Harris Strum sees too
much with one eye…He helped people…He was the hitching post of Mader’s
Cove.”
The Bridgewater Bulletin also reported on June 10th 1919: Harris Strum..while
working in his mill on Friday, severed four fingers from his left hand. Dr. Cochrane
dressed the hand which is doing nicely.
Above, a later photo of Maritime Manufacturers
School Fees
So her parents paid school fees for her to finish school in Mahone. She was
one of the lucky ones. Her parents could afford it. The fees for visiting children
on short term stay had been set at $1 per month at the January 1928 Board
meeting, and in September 1933 the Board resolved, ‘for all scholars from outside
A Bought Lunch
Again she was lucky that her parents could afford to send her to a boarding
house for lunch. Other kids ‘from away’ had their lunch, usually in a tobacco
can, and ate lunch, usually unsupervised, upstairs in the school library.
Ulrica told an amusing story about Mrs. Veinot’s boarding house where she
went for a mid-day meal: Mrs. Arthur Veinot took in roomers and boarders,
young bankers ,a barber and a Sr. Mackenzie gentleman who was very deaf and a
noisy eater. The young chaps would remark-under their breath-“Mackenzie eats
his soup in eight different languages,” which made all but ‘Mac’ chuckle.
The United Church of Canada and CGIT
She and her parents were active in the Methodist Church and Sunday
School, and she was an enthusiastic member and leader of C.G.I.T-Canadian
Girls In Training . Her grandfather and father were both elders of the
Methodist Church, sang in the choir and were Sunday School Superintendents.
Both were closely involved in the establishment of the United Church of
Canada in 1925. The Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists
united nationally. In Mahone Bay the Presbyterian Church was chosen
as the centre of worship. Ulrica still remembers the solemn and symbolic
march of the whole Methodist Congregation [young and old], in a column,
two by two, to the “new” United Church.
The old Methodist Church became a community hall, used for movies,
meetings, scouts and guides, badminton and a host of other activities.
Ulrica remembered the solemn and symbolic march, in a column two
people abreast, to the “new” United Church.
T. G. Nicol , a traditionalist in religion, was so incensed he built his own
Presbyterian Church [now the Calvalry Temple] at his own expense.
89