We lived on the north end of Quadra at the sheltered bay called Gowland Harbour. The only way in or out was by private boat or trails through the forest and on the beach at low tide. The nearest settlement was at Quathiaski Cove approximately ten miles away, on the side of the island that was directly across from Campbell River. There was a B.C. Packers store at Quathiaski where we went for supplies and to sell fish at the fish barge. That is where I was first introduced to bottled soda pop. I recall Orange Crush in the tall frosted bottles with the bulges on the side, and I thought it was the loveliest thing I had ever seen or tasted. It was ice cold from being kept on ice, which was used a great deal because refrigeration had not come to the island as yet.

My grandparents' homestead was much larger than my parents' place. They had farm animals, lots of fruit trees and a large garden area, containing many kinds of vegetables, almost any kind you could think of, including huge tomatoes and cucumbers, which we children ate straight from the vine. No one worried about pesticides, as the only thing used in the garden was animal fertilizer. We loved to get into the pea patch, which we were forbidden to do. Occasionally we forgot to close the gate and my grandmother's goat would go in and have a grand feed. Of course we were never guilty. It was the same with the strawberries and raspberries; they drew us like magnets.

One of the children's chores was to collect the eggs from the chicken house, which we dreaded, as quite a number of the chickens did not part with their eggs willingly. They hoped to hatch them into offspring, I suppose. I liked the feel of the warm, brown eggs in my hands. One of my young aunts liked eating the eggs raw, which horrified all the adults, but they ate and immensely enjoyed the raw egg white meringue piled high on top of the lemon pie that my grandmother made on special occasions.