Indigenous Voices | Digital Kingston

“We had a curfew; we had to be in our rooms by 10 o’clock [even though] we were teachers, responsible for a number of children.”

March 2, 2018

Interview with Mabel Lowther

Mabel Lowther tells us about her experiences in Summer School at Queen’s University in Kingston in 1948, after her first year as a teacher in North Bay.

“Nora, who would give a grumpy old fart a free pint? Nobody! So that’s why I have to make somebody laugh, to get a free pint. ”

October 10, 2017

Interview with Tony Dowling

Kingstonian Tony Dowling tells Margi McKay about Bob Earls, nicknamed “The Earl of Rathcoole”, who lived in the Dowlings’ chicken coop in Rathcoole, Ireland for a time in the 1960s.

In the Dowlings’ back yard in Rathcoole, Ireland, 1960s (L to R: Nora Dowling, Jimmy Dowling, Bob Earls)

“There was a big bad storm … and tablecloth and silver blew into the Atlantic Ocean”

September 22, 2016

Interview with Agnes Chambers-Glenn

Dr Agnes Chambers-Glenn tells Margi McKay about her research into the Chambers side of her family.

A Talisman Rose from Down Cathedral, Northern Ireland

“It was the only house that my grandfather ever owned.”

September 20, 2016

Interview with Helen Bronskill

Kingstonian Helen Bronskill shows Margi McKay two photos. One was taken outside 62 Barrie Street, which was owned by her maternal grandfather John Nicolle in the early years of the twentieth century.

“There was this panic and she was trying to bat out all these pieces of burning cloth … so I remember this party very specifically.”

September 14, 2016

Interview with John Geddes

John Geddes tells Margi McKay about his 1953 Hallowe’en/birthday party, when an unintentional small fire forced the cancellation of his mom’s plans for a spooky game in the basement.