Operated it had in excess of 40 subscribers. Back a number of years ago, one neighbour would call another and carry on a conversation, usually with a few laughs. This began to attract a quite a few listeners. One night, at 8 o’clock, a clock began to chime. One person said “Oh! Oh! there goes Big Ben”. Click went the receiver.

Some of the homes from the station to the Western Road as well as the Canada Road were hooked up with Island Telephone Co., which took over the assets of the private company at a later date. At this time, party lines were set up with a maximum limit of 6 patrons, still using the old type crank phones. This later changed to a maximum of 3 phones per line. By this time dial phones were being used. By 1997, every-one had private phones.

Maritime Electric Company

Maritime Electric installed the electric line which was energized on September 8th 1955. This cleared the way for the new wonder (T.V). Parents of young children feared that having a T.V. in the house would keep their children fiom their homework. However, it wasn’t long before there was a set in every house. Before that time a lot of neighbourhood visiting was done. But once the T.V. entered the homes this practice soon diminished. Both the telephone and electric lines were knocked down by a severe ice storm in January 1956. Power was not restored until May of that year. It is said that, Alfred and Marjorie Colwill had the first TV set in the district.

Emigration

During the early years of the community, many of the young people went to the Eastern States to find employment. The early 1900's also saw many of the young men going on “Harvest Excursions” to Western Canada with most returning after the cutting and threshing were done. However, some stayed out and later bought farms of their own. Later on, Central Canada was a destination, and more recently Western Canada. As there was no Employment Insurance in those days, many young men spent the winter months in the lumber woods of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine.

Radio

The first radios began to appear in the district in the early 30's and were battery operated. There are many reports of the first. This is hard to pin down. One night a group of young fellows were gathered at the local store when some-one announced that there was a boxing-match on radio that night. With great excitement they all walked about a mile to Dick’s house (where Bruce and Kim Rayner live now). The boxing lasted one round but it was worth it.

World Wars

Six men, with ties to the district served in World War 1 while fourteen served in World War 2. The names of these people and other information appear through-out this book.