Compiled by Bonnie Hafey and Berry Trenholm
Bus ticket currency
During the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s many children from Trenton went to school at Saint John’s Academy in New Glasgow. Some students would walk, a few got drives (there were not many cars at the time), or some took the public bus. The buses were always crowded and full to the doors before and after school hours. This would be strictly a “no-no” today. “Bus tickets” were available to those who could afford it. They were somewhat like gift certificates, and were available in large orange or yellow cards of 20. Each card had 20 tickets and one would be torn off and good for one trip. These were used mostly on bad weather days or if you were late. These tickets were a prize for Trenton students and sometimes used as currency for small favours: a sandwich, or yes, even a cigarette, or maybe just the butt.
Paper deliveries
The local newspaper, the New Glasgow Evening News, would be delivered to the corner of Main and Pleasant streets by bus. Large canvas bags were thrown on the sidewalk in front of the drugstore. The older kids would put them on their cart or sleigh and tote them up to Mrs. Duncan’s home on High Street. Annie Duncan was a longtime news correspondent for Trenton and also distributed papers to the paper boys and girls. The reward for taking the bags from the drug store was a nickel or maybe a dime for a double load. Sometimes a fight might break out if two groups arrived at the same time the bags were dropped off the bus. Occasionally some younger lads might be the only ones there when the bags arrived. They would be excited about the prospect of earning 5 or 10 cents. They would load up and start off to Mrs. Duncan’s. More often than not, the bigger guys would appear and relieve them of their burden and subsequently their reward.
Free rides and gum boots
The streets were not salted back in the ’40s and ’50s. The car traffic would pack the snow down. The more daring of the kids would grab onto car bumpers and get rides up the hills, sometimes even part way to town. Anyone who practised this had to be careful not to take hold near the exhaust pipe or you’d have to let go when you started breathing in the fumes. One also had to keep an eye ahead for bare spots – if you hit them your feet would come to a very sudden stop and you would flatten out. If you kept holding on, it was very hard on the toes of the new gum boots dragging on the bare pavement.
Tragic news
Grace’s (Grace Fraser) Canteen in the 1950s was located at the top of the Car Works Hill, or the bottom of Duke Street. Grace was well known for the special hamburgers she served up and lively repartee that she loved to get started. The canteen also had a Big Nickelodeon Juke Box with all the latest country music of the day. This was also a big attraction. It played almost continuously. One vivid, fateful memory stands out to any who went to the canteen on Jan. 1, 1953. As each customer came in that day, they were met with Grace’s bleak, sombre news, which she expressed with genuine, heartfelt sadness: “Hank Williams Died last night.”
Not the proverbial lump of Xmas coal
Coal was a valued commodity in winter in Trenton and people would gather it along the railroad tracks where it fell off the loaded rail cars, on their way to the power plant or to Pictou Landing to deliver to waiting ships. Men or sometimes young kids, with buckets or bags walked the tracks after the train went by and collected the black nuggets. Many a room in Trenton homes was warmed up on cold winter nights from these bountiful collections.
Early sleep-overs
Today kids hold “sleep-overs” at each other’s home with the parents’ blessing. In the ’40s and ’50s shacks were very common and in vogue. These were built by the boys themselves from any materials they could scrounge. Some were pretty creative and comfortable. Guys would sleep out on warm summer nights. There wasn’t much sleeping as the guys would stay awake and tell stories till early morning. Occasionally they were even known to visit someone’s garden or orchard for a little midnight snack. There was trouble if your parents found out. A convenient and common escape was just to blame any mischief on the Mullys.
Horse drops dead
The following article appeared in The Evening News on April 11, 1938.
“Driving to his home at Hillside on Saturday afternoon, Henry Chisholm sustained a grievous loss when his horse dropped dead in the shafts of the buggy he was pulling. The animal expired, an examination afterwards revealed, from an acute heart attack.”
Oldest house used to be the Post Office
The house located at the intersection of Maple and Oak streets was originally a post office, and I believe this is the oldest house in town. Corey Hartling tells me this was the second building used for postal services. The first building was destroyed by fire, its location is not known. When the post office was moved to the Main Street, the building on Oak Street was converted into two apartments. It is difficult to believe now that two families occupied this dwelling. The outside dimensions appear to be the same. My grandmother, Catherine Hafey, and her family lived in the front half of the house, while Fred and Theresa Hughes and their four children lived in the back half. Each unit had only a kitchen and a couple of small bedrooms. There was no indoor plumbing. Fred’s son, Joe, tells me he remembers putting coal in the furnace, with the entrance to the basement being on the outside at the back of the house. The windows in the front unit were very small and high up on the walls. This was obviously for security reasons. I remember my grandmother telling me that one of the happiest days of her life was the day she moved into her little house on Maple Street. All the rooms had windows low enough for her to see outside even when she was sitting down.
The next location for the Post Office was in the building previously owned by Jim McNabb and later by the Trenton Legion. Mrs. Janet Fife was the post mistress at that time. She lived on Hampson Street. She was crippled and unable to walk to the Post Office. Her transportation was a pony and a small cart just big enough to seat one person. Older residents of the town tell me they can remember seeing her going to work each day in her unique little cart.
