In Service
Aunt Nellie Yetman tells her story of working as a serving girl in the 1930s.
(larger version)
Whether working as a serving girl for a sack of potatoes, or scrubbing the Point Amour Lighthouse, many local women had their first working experience in service.
Around the age of fourteen, a young woman might go out to work as a serving girl, usually helping out with a large family, often when the mother had just had another baby, or was away in hospital. Point Amour Lighthouse, and the nearby Marconi Station provided employment for local women who cleaned and kept house for the lighthouse keepers and Marconi operators.
Agnes Pike tells us about leaving home: "'Pack your bags,' he said. 'I come up to get ya.' So anyway, it wasn't much of a bag to pack, never had a whole lot of clothes...and I put it in a bag and Joe took it, and me and him walked to Capstan Island, down to his mother's. That was a Friday evening, I'll never forget it. I got up a Saturday morning, didn't know what to expect."
Around the age of fourteen, a young woman might go out to work as a serving girl, usually helping out with a large family, often when the mother had just had another baby, or was away in hospital. Point Amour Lighthouse, and the nearby Marconi Station provided employment for local women who cleaned and kept house for the lighthouse keepers and Marconi operators.
Agnes Pike tells us about leaving home: "'Pack your bags,' he said. 'I come up to get ya.' So anyway, it wasn't much of a bag to pack, never had a whole lot of clothes...and I put it in a bag and Joe took it, and me and him walked to Capstan Island, down to his mother's. That was a Friday evening, I'll never forget it. I got up a Saturday morning, didn't know what to expect."
