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". . . to see what the mine looked like. We went right down to the bottom on the elevator and it was a fast drop!" Noreen has experienced the direct benefits of the sense of family that is evident in the mining villages. The community came together in her family’s time of need - losing her father in the No. 4 explosion. Noreen’s Story |
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| “I was born
1923, in Bevan, delivered by the midwife, Granny Aitken,
right in the house behind the store. I was the baby of three kids.
My dad, Alexander Robertson, was killed in the No. 4 Mine, the one
at Comox Lake. The big explosion was in February of 1923 and I was
not born until October of that year. |
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| “Canadian Collieries let us stay in the house rent-free. My mother, Matilda, did laundry for all the men who stayed at the hotel when they worked at the mine. I had a newspaper route when I was about ten; we all did things to make a little money for the place. The Chinese workers lived down close to the mine and worked on the railway track. I used to deliver their papers too. For the Chinese New Year they gave out great big oranges and candied ginger and lychee nuts. There used to be a Chinatown behind the hotel but it burned down. That was before my time; all I remember of it is black posts everywhere. | |
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