Page A10, The Standard, Saturday, May 9,1992
LIFESTYLE
Edith Degagne's 90!
Always busy, she still makes her crafts
By DARYL BERRY Special to The Standard
IRON BRIDGE - Imagine a time when communities were close knit.
Everyone in the area was considered either family or friends, and everyone worked together and helped each other out whenever they could.
Video games and television were not even dreamed of yet, because there were just too many chores that needed to be attended to. Radio wasn't even common. All long distance news came only once a week through the mail.
Stamps were only 2 cents and when you received news of the death of a loved one or friend, you knew it was bad news by the black-edged envelope it came in.
Crime was almost non-existent. Houses were not equipped with electricity, let alone refrigerators and all of today's luxurious necessities.
Life was centered around the farm and hard work was everyone's occupation.
For Iron Bridge resident Edith Degagne, this lifestyle isn't something she has to imagine, it is the way of life that she was born into ninety years ago this Mother's Day._
Born May 10, 1902
Edith May Smith was born May 10, 1902 to George William Smith and Annie (Berry) Smith in Parkinson Township, north of Iron Bridge, on the family farm. The farm is located a few miles from the Hwy. 546 turn-off on the Little White River Highway, though no road existed there at all at the time of her birth.
She remembers hearing that her parents 
used to walk from the farm to Bells Falls, 
then down the road to Iron Bridge for dances. 
They would dance all night before making 
the return trip to the farm. All-in-all about
 a 32 mile round-trip in those " days.
When she was just two-and-a-half years old, Edith's mother died and she and her brother Henry were raised by their grandmother, Mary Ann Berry. At an early age she was doing many things that girls don't now expect to do until they are married.
At twelve she made her first bread. Knitting and making clothes were things she spent much of her time at.
At the age of fifteen she was married.
Joseph Degagne came from Quebec and spoke no English when he arrived in Parkinson looking for work. Edith spoke no French, but somehow they overcame the language difference and on July, 16, 1917 they were married at home on the farm. Bellingham United Church had no minister of their own at the time, and they had to have the minister from Thessalon come out to perform the ceremony.
Mother of nine
In 1918 they had their first of nine children, James Henry. He was followed by Joseph Norman, 1920; Annie Marie, 1922; Nellie May, 1925; George Oliver, 1927; Emily Elizabeth, 1929; Hazel Eileen, 1930; Edith Wyona, 1935; Russell Eldon, 1938; and Dorothy June, 1942.
In 1931 Edith was doing some canning and noticed that her daughter Hazel seemed to have something lodged in her throat. She was taken to Thessalon, then on to Sault Ste. Marie. A Dr. Sinclair decided there that Hazel should go to the Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto. As this was the depression, they were a bit short on money for that length of a trip, but their neighbors David and Elsie May (Mamie) Brown gave them a cheque so that they could go.
Upon arriving in Toronto, their first time ever in the big city, they rushed Hazel to the hospital. Edith remembers the doctor making an incision in the little girl's throat and putting in an air tube. A nurse then sat for hours working a foot pump which pumped air into Hazel's lungs. This nearly tragic first trip to Toronto ended with the healthy return of Hazel to the farm.
Edith remembers the depression in the 1930s as a time when people were travelling across Canada looking for any work that they could find. Many people were passing by the farm in search of work in the bush camps located to the north. Many stopped to ask for some food and though times were hard, they were always fed.
Worked at bush camp
In 1937 she went to work at one of those camps herself. For 5 months she slept in a tent with the blackflies and worked each day cooking for 25 to 30 men. With no way of keeping things cool, it was hard to keep fresh meat, and the crew lived mostly on bologna and canned meats.
1937 was also the year that the then-Liberal government made good on some election promises and began work on the Little White River Highway, clearing the roadway and building some poplar bridges.
This shortened considerably the 5 mile walk her children had to take to the Parkinson school. The school house is no longer used, but is still located between the Gerrit Schuur-man farm and the Lloyd Reed farm on Hwy 554.
Edith went to school in Kvnock Township across from the Kynock Hall. Other childhood memories in-
clude the very first time that she saw a car. A cattle buyer came to see her father one day and he was driving one. She and some other kids, having never seen such a thing before, got frightened and ran into the house.
They peeked out of the window and stared at the thing until the cattle buyer left. Then, with it out of sight, they felt brave enough to leave the house and inspect its tracks.
The first car anyone in Parkinson had was a 1917 Model T owned by Ed Willis.
Her first experience riding in a car came after she was married. Her husband Joe bought his 'first car second hand and one day he took her to a sale in Wharncliffe. There they bought a bed and brought it home atop the car.
In 1947 the Degagne's bought a barn from Donald Bell, the postmaster, who owned a farm at Bells Falls. They moved it piece by piece to the Degagne farm.
The barn was there until 1990 when it was accidentally set on fire and burned to the ground.
Celebrated 50th anniversary
They lived on the farm until they built a house on Clarissa St. in Iron Bridge and moved to town in 1957. Ten years later, in 1967, Joe and Edith celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In July of 1971, at the age of 83, Joe Degagne passed away.
Throughout her life Edith has always participated in the Agricultural Society's annual fall fair. Her grandmother was always entering vegetables and crafts at the fair and Edith just continued the tradition.
At age 16 she remembers travell-
EDITH MAY DEGAGNE
ing to the old Orange Hall in Iron Bridge with her father and grandmother and taking home the quilting prize.
Today she has a Lifetime Membership at the fair. As well she baked one thousand pies and sold them in town. This was just one of her many baking feats.
But the most popular one came each year at Halloween. To many area youngsters her house was considered the most important stop each Halloween, because that was where all the little ghosts and goblins etc. got Mrs. Degagne's famous gingerbread men.
Unfortunately, 1990 was the last year she made the special treats -one hundred and seven to be exact.
That year she also stopped making quilts. Her last quilt was made for the 1990 fall fair. Everyone of her grandchildren has a quilt that she has made for them, and some of her great-grandchildren.
But don't for-a minute think that
she has given up making all of her crafts though. Since Christmas 1991, this mother of nine, grandmother of thirty-six, great-grandmother of fifty-six and great-great-grandmother of one, has made one afghan and was half finished making the second sock of the thirtieth pair of socks she has knitted this year, when being interviewed for this article.
This world of ours has went from horses and buggies to cars and space shuttles during her ninety years.
In fact many things have changed since 1902, but one thing remains the same.
Edith Degagne has always kept herself busy, and will continue to make the many nice crafts that she make for her family amd friends
She is truly one of the few people who can be described as an inspiration to us all.
Happy 90th Edith. And many more.