About this project
Few things affect us more than the human voice. Voices speak for themselves. They don’t need interpretation. They teach us how to listen. They teach us how to love.
In the winter of 2007 I began to listen to a group of seniors tell their stories about growing up in Verdun, Quebec. These seniors represent a dying community of English-speakers whose families settled in Verdun prior to and after the First World War. The culture that evolved was an oral one with a distinct lexicon and accent. But voice, like anything else, changes over time.
With this website we hope to share some of these stories and continue to collect more, as we piece together an oral history map of V
10 comments:
Now we did mention this site quite some time ago,but it was unavaiable online for a while,but it accessable once again:There are many stories available on the site,some I hope are available through this topic (hope the links work basically) Kathryn Harvey ,runs the site, so maybe you will enjoy checking out here site. Guy once sat in with many of these people at Dawson's Boy's Club (& Girls Club) and they prepared a lot of info pertaining to the History of Verdun. I wrote to Kathryn some time back & had her send me a DVD / CD of the night at Dawson's ,I like it,& I'm sure you would too. Most of it can be seen on the website.
http://www.verdunmemories.org/ Cheers !! HF&RV
Well this is good all the links seem to work fine & all the features work as well (listening to their conversations etc etc ..the only thing I found ,was that when you click on 'The Film' the player wouldn't load for me,However I do have the video here at home anyway. Maybe it works Ok for the rest of you, but I remember having the same problem a couple of years back when I first came across this site: I will look into possibly posting the video here ...let me think about it for a bit & hopefully I can figure a simple way of adding here..........Cheers !! HF&RV
ps: I think you will like seeing all the old Verdun photographs that appear in a strip across the top of each page on the site.There are some really neat ones that all of you will remember easily,from our days as kids in Verdun
The lady talks about being a member and getting married at Chalmers United Church. My mother and I went to that church many times. I don't remember how old I was, I am guessing about 8. I asked the "janitor" if he needed help cleaning the church. He said yes. He ended up giving me $2.00 which I am sure was a lot for him to give. I went down to the corner 5 and dime store on the corner of Church & Wellington. I think it Was Marshall's. I bought 10 gifts and some wrapping paper for that $2.00. That $2.00 was a fortune to that man I am sure. But not only was he generous, but he gave this fatherless poor boy a lifetime of memories for that unselfish act. That is why today, I try to be generous when I get the chance. Of course that is with my grandkids mostly. Thanks again Les for that heartwarming audio history.
Here you go Winston, there's your two bucks.........and you are right ,that was a lot of money,given the times.Good story too, I'll bet that oldman would love to be able to read today, about your appreciation ,these many years later.I'll bet the woman on the tape would know the mans name ,and perhaps what became of him.?
Cheers !! HF&RV
Here is the whole photo album from our Photos section: so some of you can sit back and checkout this old album.maybe I will select an album periodically & post it again as a slide show, ? It's easy to forget or just take for granted all the photos posted on this site,from everyone.
Cheers !! HF&RV
I don't know what happend to him, but he was very old at the time. Of course when you are 8 years old, anyone over 30 looks really old.... God bless him....
Nice work Les. The album brought back some vivid memories.
Such wonderful memories....thank you for posting
I grew up in verdin onAllard Abe went to margaurite boursouis from gr one and two,wento to fifth ave you school, and then to st willobroads.My two best friends were Billy Heaney and Ronnie benne. I alleyways wondered what happened to them
well I hope you find some info on your two friends Billy Heaney and Ronnie Benne
Thanks for taking time to post as you surfed by.
Cheers ! Les
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