Burke, Donald (Pat)

Interview date: 1991-01-23, Part A

TimeTopic
00:00Introduction
00:33Years working at Fresh Pond Ice House
01:00Jobs at the Ice House
02:55Shipping of ice and number of buildings
04:22Packing of ice in the buildings
06:33Cutting of ice from the pond directly to rail cars “high rigging”
07:40Clearing snow from the ice
09:22A woman (who?) joins the interview
09:27Cutting and storing of ice
14:39Workers
16:30Back to storing and shipping ice
19:00Working in the ice house
21:11Year of 11-inch thick ice (normally 12-inches thick)
21:30Back to plowing the ice & sinking the ice
24:20Tractor fell in the pond
27:27Boarding houses
30:00The end of the ice business
32:45Steamboat kept the channel clear
34:48Workers getting along well
36:10Kids play – Ice flows
37:25Canal and ice chips
39:40The ice house fire
41:20Meeting House burns down

Interview date: 1991-01-23, Part B

Approx. TimeTopic
00:00Horses, tractors and flows continued
01:23Dining hall and fire cinders
02:40Personal questions / schools
07:00Ghost stories – Infant Jesus
10:44Early years
12:27Fessenden Mill, other jobs
13:41Kids games
16:00Milford St. school, stories
18:20How Pat lost his finger
19:15How Pat found his mother
21:05Grange Dinner story
22:44Town Legends
26:00Ice house work and wages, odd jobs
29:04[Stop recording]
29:05Passenger train schedules
29:43[End Recording]