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New Year’s Eve at the Desroches Family
If we go back a few years,
I think around the winter of 42-43,
if I remember correctly,
we had a heavy winter, and
during the winter, we didn’t drive cars.
In fact, we didn’t own a car that year.
And we had had some bad snowstorms
right during the Christmas holidays.
And we had to go to church.
Instead of walking we went in a large sleigh.
The sleigh for loading hay and
for loading cord word and anything else you want.
The big sleigh could fit the whole family.
With the cutter, there wasn’t enough room.
(Tell us, the family, how many were there.)
Yes. There were 15 of us in the family so
We went through the small forest.
Then through the fields.
And finally arrived at the church.
And mass was at 9 o’clock.
And it was a high mass!
It was really special. It was long!
It was a mass that never seemed to end!
Because we couldn’t wait, the children couldn’t wait
to go down the hill on the 16th,
because our grandfather Desroches
lived very close to the church.
So after church, we took the sleigh down.
And we would go into the house,
and he would take the horses to the stable.
And when they got back,
we would say the customary greetings,
even the little ones had to,
“Happy New Year” and
"Paradise after a long journey here on earth"
That was very important!
You should never forget to say that!
Anyway, after that, well,
the women had to start preparing supper.
And while we waited
for supper to be ready, well,
the men would take out their little flasks.
Some of them had
a bit of moonshine in there.
And you know? They would pass that around.
They made a circle.
The men would stand in a circle.
And then, just a little bit, in a little glass,
about an ounce and a half.
And you would, glug, glug, glug.
You had to drink it straight up, like that!
And it would be passed all around, then,
they would start to sing a little.
[Singing in the background.]
Then, the women would announce
that supper was served,
so we would eat in two or three sittings.
One sitting was not enough.
We had to wait our turn.
The children would eat last.
(How many would there have been?)
Oh, we would have been a big enough family.
There would have been about 40,
50 of us in the house; you had to prepare.
Then, after supper, well
you had to take care of your throat a little.
And we would sing.
[Singing in the background.]
The Desroches family
knew hundreds of songs.
It was non-stop.
We would also sing in English,
because there were some,
there were Anglophones there.
That made for a little bit of tension
[English song in the background].
The Anglophones would have liked
the Francophones to speak English all the time,
And the Desroches head sometimes!
It’s almost as hard as
almost as hard as a rock I suppose?!
But you know, you could sense anyhow,
that little bit of tension,
that always existed in the parish,
the little separations you know.
Anyway, they would sing.
And for us anyway,
after 3 o’clock
a little around 3 or 4 o’clock,
the grand-parents had prepared a little gift
for the grand-children.
But it was a very little gift
We didn’t get presents at Christmas.
That was, no, no.
That was a religious holiday.
Another year we received an orange
for each of the children.
One orange each, that’s it.
(But it was really nice to witness the joy.
And the party would last until three
or four in the morning.)
Yes, that was normal.
They could sing, sing, and sing and sing.
I don’t know where they got all the energy from.
(Those are wonderful memories.)
[Singing in the background.]