Page 35 - Daphne Hart - 89 and Feeling Fine

to Alligator Pond. We walked everywhere. Always a
bunch of women traveling by night, usually with loads

on their heads. My mom never liked leaving me at home

so that I would tag along with them.

I remember the donkey-drawn cart. We didn’t have

one—only the more successful folks had them. My poor
mother was used like one. If you were well-off, you

would have a mule with a buggy.

We usually broke stones to put on the roads. It seemed

like forever we were breaking and piling up stones on

the side of the road. Then, around Christmas time, they
would come and measure it, spreading it on the roads.

That was our income for Christmas.

They would do that on all the roads. As children without

shoes, we had to walk on them. Life was very hard.

I recall when a war broke out somewhere. We lived in
fear every day. We always heard what they called "great

guns" going off at a place called Sandy Gully—day after
day.

34