Family Stories

The Fore- Runner:

Boys were being rounded up to be sent off to war and my great grandfather, Frank, was flat footed. This meant he wasn’t eligible to go to war because he contained a flaw. His younger brother David went and served overseas in World War II.

As time passed, they were in need for more men in the war and this time they didn’t care about little imperfections. As Frank was preparing to head to Halifax to go off to war, a strange incident occurred at the Laybolt house.

One day, the children were playing in the front yard when they noticed Uncle David coming up the lane. They ran inside yelling “Dad, Dad, Uncle David’s coming up the lane”. When John went to look out the window, he could see David but he never made it to the house.

Two days later they received word that David was killed in battle.

Fishing Then:

Fished on dories that were fifteen-eighteen feet long and come lobster season Frank had eight hundred traps he had to set. It would take them one whole week to get all these traps out to set. They would run their rope before setting the traps, with selex (stone) attached to the end.

They had a block on the bow and one on the stern, and they’d hall that rope by hand the entire time. Once they were so far apart, the traps would be dropped over. When the line was full, they would go back to shore and load their next set of fifty- sixty traps and continue on from where they left off.

After the season started going and everything was in place, they would hall every single trap up by hand, get their quota, re-bait and send the traps back down. They would be out on the water from daylight to dark every day during this season.

You would pray that every time you started haling up the rope that it didn’t break because everything after that was all connected. Of course this happened on occasion, but sometimes too often. You either tries to pull that rope up really slow to keep the rope from letting go, or have to go all the way to the end of line and hall against the tide.

A Visit from a Stranger:

Frank was dating Eunice and also working on a farm in Johnson’s River owned by the McGuigan’s. Their daughter was showing interest in Frank while he was working there.

One evening, after work, Frank was walking home. As he was leaving the farm, a stranger came up and approached him from behind.

They carried out a conversation for a while and as things were coming to an end, the stranger looks at Frank and says, “Stick to the woman you have, she’s a good woman.”

When Frank turns back to respond, there’s nobody there. The stranger has disappeared.

Growing up with Fishers:

Every Laybolt, for years was big into fishing; even the Laybolt’s in Nova Scotia. Back then, they didn’t fish in thirty-eight feet long boats; they fished in ‘dories’. They had to hall all their lobster traps up from the ocean floor by hand.

Frank’s children were often sent to school with lobster sandwiches for lunch. Lobster was an ordinary meal in these families.

When it was time to eat at school, Ambrose and his brothers and sisters were looked down upon as being ‘poor’ because they ate lobster for lunch. If you brought roast beef for lunch, you were categorized as being wealthier.

The death of John Leonard Laybolt:

John often fished oysters in the Scothfort, PEI. He had a shack out there that he would stay in throughout the week so time wouldn’t be wasted traveling back and forth from home every day.

John needed to go for some groceries so he got in contact with his son, George. They were driving to the grocery store when they approached an oncoming vehicle. The other vehicle came on to their side of the road. George swerved and this caused John to hit his head on the box. The blow must have been hard because John later died.

What Turned into Rescuing the Dead:

My great-great grandfather John Leonard was working on a ship, laying cable line for electricity from the mainland to Prince Edward Island.

While they were working on this project, they received word that the Titanic had sunk. Their boat was sent off to help rescue the passengers.

By the time they got to the ‘site’, there was nothing but floating dead bodies. It was now their job to collect these dead passengers and take them back to Nova Scotia.

A Journey to Halifax:

Frank and Eunice took a trip over to Nova Scotia with their two child at the time, Aeneas and Evelyn. They also took along Frank’s parents, John and Elva.

During this visit, they worked at the war ammunition dump. They put together ammo and mixtures that were being sent over to World War II.