'Think of how many families it sheltered': Stories of old Tracadie homes put to paper

As she embarked on the Tracadie and Area History Project, interviewing local residents about century-old homes, researcher Molly Pendergast made a surprising discovery.

"I was interviewing a man one day and he knew my grandfather growing up and he was talking about a song my grandfather used to sing," she told Mainstreet P.E.I. host Karen Mair.

He sang a couple of lines, and Pendergast thought she'd never heard the song before until she repeated them to her grandmother.

"She was like, 'Well Molly, you've heard that song a million times, your grandfather sang that to you when you were growing up,'" she said.

"It's actually a local song from our community that someone wrote probably back in the early 1900s and it's about three men who stole a pig one night and they were going to one of the houses in the area to get some liquor they were going to make a trade."

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Learning about the song underlined the importance of the history project toPendergast she's interviewing residents about the stories behind century-old homes that still stand in the Tracadie area.

"It made me realize just how quickly information can pass, and can disappear."

Memories of Tracadie

The project was spearheaded by the Tracadie Good Neighbourly 50 Plus Club, which compiled a list of some of the older homes and hired Pendergast to interview people who live in the historic homes.

"I picked a few main questions that I would ask everyone: What's the age of your house if you know? Do you know the builder? Is there any social history that you know of was there a post office or store?"

She also interviewed some older members of the community about what they remember of Tracadie "back in the day."

Holding 'the joys and the laughter'

"When you look at the old houses and you think of the history of the old house and you think of how many families it sheltered the joys and the laughter of the children in it and that over the years and years and years," said Leo Sheehan with the Tracadie Good Neighbourly 50 Plus Club.

"And then you go by an old house and you see it falling into the basement, and I find that very sad sometimes you think you can hear the noises and the things."

Sheehan hopes the project will encourage people to take pride in their old homes.

A booklet of stories

The group is working on putting together a booklet with photos of the old homes and the stories around them.

They hope to have it ready by December.

"It's been so rewarding to go around and visit people in my community and to hear their stories," said Pendergast.

"It's really amazing what you can learn in even a few minutes with someone."

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