What are Your Family Tales?

The Left-Behind Bride, in the Canadian Historic Brides Collection is published by BWL Publishing.

Researching this book, I realized how many family stories get lost. Especially the women’s stories: -- their hardships, daily lives and joys.

In the up-coming blogs on the 6th of the months, I’ll share stories I’ve collected. Many come from the South Shore of Nova Scotia where The Left-Behind Bride is set. Welcome to the world of War Widow, Maggie Benson, 1929.

 In the beginning...

Reading Oceans of Rum during my research triggered regrets.

No, not the alcoholic variety. This book, whose subtitle is The Nova Scotia Banana Fleet in Run Runner Heaven, details many of the acts and events of the rum runners from Rosebay and Riverport on Nova Scotia's South Shore between the two world wars. Reading it, preparing to write The Left-Behind Bride, I wish I had asked more questions earlier in my life.

Many of the ships and their captains came from Riverport. The crews came from surrounding areas, many had arrived home after the war to find fishing no longer lucrative. Rum running offered another chance at money as well as excitement.

Much of the booze came from St. Pierre and Miquelon, the French Islands off the coast of Newfoundland. It consisted of whiskey from Scotland, wine and champagne from France and beer from Germany. After running such a load down the Rum Coast of the United States, the ships often went on to Barbados where they did pick up rum, or the makings of rum, and dropped it off on the return trip. It was dangerous and hard work.

The Regret

My regret is that, as a young woman, I knew some of the rum runners and their families. (I married into one of them.) I visited Riverport more than once, and both the families who came from there, and these stories are part of my children's heritage. And I never asked the "old timers" about it. Of course, they might not have told me.

But what I regret the most is not talking to the women. There are records of the ships and the men, but little is said of the wives and sweethearts. Lots of pictures of flappers, stories of the suffrage movement, and tidbits of life can be gleaned if you look hard enough. But what about the individuals and their fears, tasks, hopes and more. Maybe out there is a book where the author interviewed the women, but I have yet to find it. (Still looking.) However, with stories, if we know a person, we value their story even more.

What to do know about your family history?

When we are young we are interested in our lives going forward. It is only later in life we appreciate those that came before. How will our children and grandchildren think about us? What will they marvel at about our lives? Are we leaving stories for them to read? Are we retelling the family legends/stories or our parents? If you are a baby boomer you are the link between two amazing generations and of course your own. We cannot always go back but we can record NOW for the future.

My challenge

...is for you to write your stories. Find old pictures and write what was happening on that day, with those people, at the point in time. Include all the details, even those mundane ones. One day. in the not too distant future, other generations will look back and be happy you did so.

May's Free Read from BWL Publishing and Author Joanie MacNeil

May Free Read is from Joanie MacNeil

Sweet Temptations

(a romance)

To download a pdf copy of our free read visit the BWL Publishing website http://bookswelove.net

and click the book cover for Joanie' MacNeil's page

where you will find a link to your free download

A Little Bit About Herbs by Rosemary Morris

To find more of Rosemary's work click on the cover above.

Photo Credit- Nancy Bell

Borage ~ The Herb that Cheers

Herbs
Today, we are concerned about pollution, rivers poisoned by chemicals, the ozone layer which becomes increasingly thinner, etc., with the result that a simple lifestyle is becoming more popular. Wonder drugs and pills available over the counter from pharmacists often have unwelcome side effects, but many herbs from the kitchen, garden centers, greengrocers and supermarkets, or those grown indoors in pots or in the garden are easily available and beneficial for minor, everyday ailments.
A Brief History

During biblical days prophets sanctioned the use of medicinal herbs which grew in the Bible lands and throughout the Middle East where marjoram, mint, sage and thyme grew.
In Babylon circa 2000 B.C, the medicinal use of herbs was recorded with instructions for their preparation and administration.
The ancient Egyptians imported herbs and spices from Babylon and India. Through trade they learned how to use many including anise, caraway, fenugreek, opium and saffron from The Middle East.
Greeks studied herbal lore. The writings of Hippocrates, ‘The Father of Modern Medicine’, a physician and teacher, circa 400 B.C. was the pattern for medicine as we know it today. In the first century A.D. Dioscorides, the Greek physician listed more than 500 plants and herbs in his book Materia Medica, the standard work on the subject which Christian religious orders consulted.
Galen, a physician in Imperial Rome wrote medical books which were consulted for 1,500 years. Wherever Romans went they took medicinal seeds and plants. In Great Britain they introduced more than 200 herbs which included borage, betony, fennel, parsley, rosemary and thyme. After the Romans left, monasteries had ‘physick’ gardens. The monks became famous for their use of herbs to heal the sick. Herbal knowledge was mostly passed down by word of mouth until James Gerard, James 1st’s apothecary wrote his well-known ‘Herball’ in which he drew on the work of a Flemish physician, Dodens. Gerard wrote about plants in ‘that new lande’, America and mentioned the potato and the tomato - ‘The Apple of Love.’
The seeds and roots settlers took to America flourished. Native Americans introduced them to bergamot, discovered by the Spanish doctor call Nicholas Monardes, who wrote the first herbal recorded in America. In the 18th century the Shakers, whose influence lasted 100 years, grew and sold medicinal herbs, they included basil, borage, marjoram, horehound, hyssop, sage tansy and thyme with which they made ointments, pills, powders and salves.
During the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom, people moved into small terraced houses without gardens. The use of home remedies that required herbs declined. By the 20th century, scientific advancement meant there was no need to support an expensive herb industry. However, the use of herbs survived to this day in Mediterranean countries and elsewhere.
Ready made food made in large quantities to which preservatives have been added lacks aroma, colour and flavor, so many people try out recipes which include herbs and value their health-giving properties. They also drink herb teas and use other herbal remedies.

Herb Tea
In England a wide variety of herb teas are available from health food shops and supermarkets, and fresh herbs are available from greengrocers and supermarkets.
I often make a cup with herbs from my garden. One of my favourites is made with home grown freshly picked black peppermint or home- grown dried leaves.
To prepare most herb teas add a breakfast cup of boiling water to a sachet, to three teaspoons of fresh chopped herbs or one teaspoon of dried herbs and sweeten the drink to suit your taste. Leave it to brew for five minutes then strain it and drink it. To enjoy a refreshing drink on a hot day put a cover over the cup and put it in the refrigerator and enjoy your tea when it is chilled.

Novels by Rosemary Morris

Early 18th Century novels: Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies, The Captain and The Countess

Regency Novels False Pretences, Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child, Wednesday’s Child and Thursday’s Child. Friday’s Child to be published in June 2019

Mediaeval Novel Yvonne Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk
http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary