| My name is Olive Monica Dawson. I was born
in Poulamon, Isle Madame. Brought up and lived in Sydney just about
all my life with the exception of two years in Calgary. I attended
Sydney schools and graduated from Holy Angels High School with Secretarial
. Worked about ten months at St Rita Hospital in Sydney as Medical
Record Librarian. Very interesting work, but my heart was set
on Teachers College. I taught primary children four years in Cape
Breton County and then almost eight years in Sydney...with a break
of two years in Calgary (using my secretarial) and one year to work
with Dr. C. Cusack, a dentist. We serviced the school children. At
first we travelled throughout Cape Breton Island with a mobile clinic.
He drove the truck and I drove his Studebaker. My first
day driving alone after I received my license I proceeded over the Cabot
Trail to Ingonish area. I said many Rosaries that day.....but I made
it and considered myself a good driver after that. When winter started
we were stationed at the T.B. Hospital at Point Edward looking after the
children’s dental needs.
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| My parents were both born and brought up in Poulamon
They were Thomas Alfred CLEMENT LeBlanc and Marie Anne ETHEL Sampson Clement’s
parents were James LeBlanc and Mary Louise Benoit Ethel’s parents were
Francis Xavier Sampson and Agnes Landry Parents of James LeBlanc
were Augustin LeBlanc and Gertrude Josse Parents of Mary Louise Benoit
were Remi Benoit and Delvenia Pertus Parents of Francis Xavier Sampson
were Isaiah Samson and Margaret Boudrot Parents of Agnes Landry were William
Landry and Ellen Culliton
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| I had five sisters–Bernice, Eunice, Lorraine, Andree,
Lucille and three
brothers–Raymond, James and Lorne. Raymond died at 16 years of age and Bernice died just over two years ago. |
| I met and married Victor Ronald Sylvester Dawson in 1963
- 1964
We have four children Ronald, Patrick, Brian and Monique. Ronald is married to Janet Willingham from Seattle. |
| Vic was born and raised in Sydney. Vic’s parents were
Sylvester Dawson and Theresa Murphy from Bay Roberts and St John’s
Newfoundland
Parents of Sylvester Dawson were Patrick Dawson and Ellen French Parents of Theresa Murphy were Richard Murphy and Honora (Nora) Travers. Parents of Patrick Dawson were James Dawson and Mabella Russell. Parents of Richard Murphy were Martin Murphy and Margaret White |
| Vic has one sister Pam
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| Vic was born, raised and educated in the Sydney schools.
He obtained his B Com degree from St F.X. majoring in Economics.
He made ice cream at Ideal Ice Cream, carried the mail at our Sydney
Steel Plant, and worked two summers at the Open hearth before graduating.
He worked as Chief Clerk Corporation stores with the Dominion Steel and
Coal Corporation. Then he transferred to the General Office
at Sydney Steel to work as Systems Analyst, moving to the computer
data processing
department when the punched card system was replaced. He wrote the CDP exams and was awarded this certification which was the only professional data processing designation available at that time. With our steel industry failing a transfer was made to NSEIT. He went back to St F.X. and received his B Ed . He taught Data Processing/Information Systems, Programming and Systems Analysis at the Nova Scotia Eastern Institute of Technology and University College of Cape Breton. |
| After our separate schools were voted out I taught Religion
in the city schools two days each week. The same time I started working
with the Guiding movement as a Snowy Owl with the Brownies for our Parish.
I stayed with the Brownies for ten years and loved every minute of it.
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| Vic volunteered with the Catholic Charities for years
and it was no surprise to me that when St Vincent de Paul started in our
Parish he was on the bandwagon.
Presently he is the president of St Theresa’s Conference. Now that he is retired he is there all the time. We work together as team and are kept very busy nowadays with so much poverty and unemployment in the area. We have built a central depot for clothing and food plus a shed for furniture. We give some 3,000 grocery orders every year. The steel, coal and fishing industries have collapsed so we have many in need. Right now we are putting together personal kits to give the ladies leaving the transition house. |
| We both love cross country skiing (sad) I didn’t get
out this year at all, but Vic went whenever he could. I don’t know if you
ski, but the woods are always so beautiful, little animals around and the
swish, swish of the skiis in the snow....so peaceful. In summer we
love to hike around Isle Madame and on the different Islands and
anywhere and everywhere there is a path.
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| We love all types of music---- be it classical,
jazz, folk, cowboy, pop. But I don’t like hard rock.
I do oil painting in my spare time. Vic is my critic. I think one needs helpful criticism with any hobby. Vic loves gardening, and I love to watch him do it. Of course we both love genealogy and this keeps us pretty busy. No time to grow old around here. |
| We don’t do much travelling any more, but a number of
years ago we bought an old camper van, a Ford Econoline 350. Vic
made beautiful bunks for it. It had stove, furnace, sink. etc. We
had never gone camping before and with four kids we took off on a cross
Canada trip. Wow! We were still all friends when we returned
after two months in Canada and the US....Yellowstone included. We
put our feet in the Pacific
ocean at Pacific Rim. You name it and we did it. After that we just travelled around Quebec, Newfoundland and our three Maritime Provinces. |
| I felt like we were losing a friend when we sold the
van, but we just wanted to go to Poulamon and stay for the summers and
enjoy...
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That’s us......
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