-34- LIke IN MY KARLY YEARS

The Island of my boyhood may well be described as pastoral -~- perhaps even idyllic. There was no nerve-shattering thunder of jet planes; no reek and roar of speeding cars and trucks; none of the frantic hurry and scurry toward nowhere in particular that marks present day existence. Employers and employees went about their duties with a calm deliberateness. There was an atmosphere of leisurely activity, but there was also a high degree of efficiency; there was no loitering or dawdling. The daily farm work program was so arranged, with respect to time, that papery did a routine task remain unfinished at day's end. |

No matter what the season, people always had time to pause for a friendly word... When two neighbors met on the road, en route to the forge, the grist mill, or the store, they invariably pulled up for an exchange of views and news -- unless, of course, a temporary coolness arising from a recent clash of political opinions stood in the way. Politics was the subject upon which practically all neighborhood differences were based.

Entertainment was, for the most part, limited to what people were able to provide for themselves. There was a small moving-picture theater in Charlottetown -- "Wonderland" by name -- but it was in operation only at night, and few country dwellers cared to spend an evening in the city. Radio and television were years in the future. Practically the only available innovation was the gramophone, otherwise known as the phonograph, and later as the Victrola. My Grandfather Devereux was, I believe, the owner of the first instrument in the district, where it immediately became — an object of keen community interest. It had an enormous horn, gaily . decorated with green ahd gold lilies and roses; the records were of the cylindrical type. When his purchase became generally known, neighbors, as

well as people who dwelt at considerable distances, came to listen with

rapt attention to the assortment of raucous, tinny sounds that poured