When women would walk long distances, they would take off their shoes, and walk on their bare feet to save the shoes from wearing out so quickly. They would take butter selling for 20¢ per 1b.; geese selling at .50¢ each; and eggs selling at .10¢ a dozen, to market.

Most people wore suits made of homespun, as the hand-crafted suits were called. The wool was washed, picked, carded, spun into yarn, then woven into cloth. It was related by Mr. Andrew Tuplin of Margate that in the early days to be a tailor, one must have three years apprenticeship. The first year they were paid $1.00 per month, the second year they were paid $2.00 per month, and the third year $3.00 per month.

When planed boards were used for floors in the home, they were kept white by scrubbing with a white sand, which was found in the swamps.

Mattress ticking was sewed into a bag shape to fit the bed size, then when the grain was threshed, the clean, new straw was put into the ticking and filled to make a mattress to sleep on. The straw was probably chang- ed twice a year. The downy feathers from geese and ducks were saved

and used to make pillows.

As time progressed and settlers came, Margate became an enter- prising community, with its mixed farming and later fox ranching.

Margate Corner was a busy place with industries including: a gen- eral store owned by Reuben Tuplin; a grocery store owned by Ira Wood- side, brother of Preston; The Wm. Pound Carriage Shops and Forge; A lumber and flour mill; a cobbler shop operated by George Hamilton; A tannery and cobbler shop owned by George Mayhew; the Wesley United Church, later the Methodist Church; School; Parsonage; Orange Hall and

Post Office.

Young men Wishing to learn a trade as carriage builder, served two to three years as an apprentice. Then they were ready to set out in the world to make a living for themselves, getting a job with someone or else setting themselves up in business. Several young men of Margate did learn this trade.

As Margate Corner was a busy centre when the Railway was being laid across the Island, there was some talk of it passing through Margate, but Kensington was favored and so with the passing of the years, the busy centre of activity gradually dwindled.

Down the Creek Road (described elsewhere), more than one hundred years ago, a Wharf was established at the Thompson property, on the South-West River. Ships sailed this river then, bringing supplies and ex- porting goods. This has all disappeared today — only the location of the wharf is known and all is a memory with the older generation.

The City girl said “That big hen should lay big eggs”. The big hen then just crowed and crowed and crowed, because that’s the kind of a hen

he was.