Wednesday, August 16, 2017

#OralHistoryRoadshow - Port Blandford

Oral history event on local stores. Photo by Katie Harvey. 2017
On Wednesday afternoon Katie and I headed out to Port Blandford to meet with the Conservation Corps' Port Blandford Green Team and Calvin Efford with the Port Blandford Heritage Society. Calvin contacted the Heritage Foundation about having the Oral History Roadshow come to Port Blandford. The Heritage Society suggested we focus on the stores in the community as there have been over twenty stores in the community through the years, and many local people have memories of both shopping and working in these general stores, convenience shops, and grocery stores.

Thursday morning we met with the green team and provided an overview of how to do oral history interviews including consent, recording equipment, questions to ask, and how to process the material once the recording has been done. Following this meeting Katie and I interviewed two women in the community about their experience with stores in the community.
In the afternoon we held the public oral history event where twenty five people came out to share their memories of local stores like Roland Greening's (later Wanda's), Powell's, Pelley's, and other small stores. There were stories about the charge system, how everything was noted by hand, and memories of the delivery service first by horse and cart and then by vehicle.

Following the afternoon event Katie and I interviewed five community members about their stories and memories of working and shopping in Port Blandford. We are still looking for memories of the stores in Port Blandford so if you have one let me know by calling 1-888-739-1892 ex. 5 or emailing terra@heritagefoundation.ca

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