Videos and interviews

Interviews

Living Memories of the Lévrard-Becquets

This series of interviews was made possible by a generous contribution from the Government of Canada, through its “New Horizons for Seniors” program. These audio-visual documents preserve the memory of our elders. As Amadou Hampâté Bâ wrote, « Chaque fois qu’un vieillard meurt, c’est une bibliothèque qui brûle ». [Every time an old man dies, a library burns down.]

These interviews will be posted on our website gradually over the summer of 2015.

Recollections of Alain Manset, a young immigrant in 1951; he left France with his parents and describes his first impressions on arriving in Canada; now thoroughly rooted in Quebec society, he lives in Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, where he devotes himself to the study of local and regional history. 6 min 26 sec

Interviews with Gaston Mailhot

At the general store; Gaston Mailhot’s beginnings as a clerk at the village general store; by inspiring confidence, he rose through the ranks and drew the attention of prospective employers. 4 min 54 sec

Baskets for the tomatoes; where tomatoes are grown, containers are needed to carry and sell them; the region, which brought tons of tomatoes to market every year, had to have a factory for baskets and containers. 59 sec

Hunting, a passion of Mr. Mailhot’s; local hunting, of course, but also big game in more distant regions.

Ice fishing; a popular activity in the region….

Baskets for the tomatoes; where tomatoes are grown, containers are needed to carry and sell them; the region, which brought tons of tomatoes to market every year, had to have a factory for baskets and containers.

The tomato growers and dealers; a thriving industry that brought prosperity to the whole region and a reputation that spread across the province.

Postmaster and bank manager; in his newly built house, one room was fitted out as a post office and another as a branch of the Banque Provinciale

Backwoods medicine; when travelling with a doctor and a veterinarian can be very useful; see why.

Rescue on the ice; suddenly a great sheet of ice broke away from the shore, carrying off several fishermen! How could they be saved?

The recollections of Julienne Neault and Jean-Noël Mayrand

The Mayrands settle in Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets; fearing nothing and full of optimism, Jean-Noël Mayrand and Julienne Neault decided to make their home in our region. 3 min 2 sec

Setting up the grocery store in Saint-Pierre; the first steps of a business that made its mark.

The apprentice butcher; he learned everything on the job.

Sausage and cured meats; the art of making good charcuterie and winning a loyal clientele.

A new building; when a big decision has to be made.

Thefts and fire; the unavoidable incidents of a shopkeeper’s life.

Knight of Columbus and dedicated volunteer; the community involvement of a model couple who had just received the Lieutenant Governor’s medal (spring 2015).

Cécile Poisson-Tousignant remembers…

Secretary at the tomato cannery; the tomato cannery supported a good part of the population and called for constant supervision. 5 min 36 sec.

The Tousignant grocery; a village grocery store, an indispensable economic institution at a time when buying local was more than a slogan. 12 min 54 sec

I am so comfortable at the Des Jardins Les Becquets residence! After a full life, Mrs. Tousignant is spending happy days in this village she hopes never to leave.

Cécile Spénard-Poisson, a worker at the tomato cannery:

The work of the “peelers” in the 1940s; Cécile Spénard-Poisson (no relation to the previous speaker) describes the daily round of the women who prepared the tomatoes for canning. 4 min 17 sec

Peeling with a spoon; the women used modified spoons to prepare the tomatoes, removing the core and the damaged parts.

Sterilizing the cans was a delicate step and essential to the quality of the product; making ketchup was a way of turning the leftovers to profit. 2 min 6 sec

Herman Poisson, as a teenager, learns his trade at the cannery:

Young Herman, brother of Cécile Tousignant-Poisson (see above), describes how the tomatoes arrived at the cannery and were weighed, before being handled for canning. 2 min 23 sec

The tomatoes were then washed and scalded to make the work easier for the women who peeled them before canning; the finest tomatoes were sorted by hand. 2 min 3 sec

Once peeled and prepared, the tomatoes were placed in cans and sealed airtight before the next step, sterilization. The whole process was mechanized and automated to maximize productivity. 3 min 27 sec

Mr. Poisson reveals the secrets of making ketchup; nothing goes to waste, to the great delight of our taste buds; this ketchup was bottled by the Old City company of Québec, a major maker of pickles and condiments at the time. 1 min 27 sec

The old buildings needed serious structural repairs; the heat source for the autoclaves, the steam that scalded the tomatoes to be peeled, and even the steam engine that took over from electricity during power failures all came from sawmill waste and second-grade wood, readily available in the region.

Cooling the cans was an important step in ensuring the quality of the product; at the end of the season, the cans were labelled by a small crew according to the buyers’ wishes; a “libelle” was pasted on them, the local rendering of the English word “label”. One of the buyers was the company of the merchant Cyrille Labelle, of Sorel.