Dick Peters

Richard Tahakie Peters was born on September 1, 1925. His place of birth, he claims was disputed between Ontario and Quebec due to the nonexistence of records.  According to family knowledge, he was born in Tsisnaihne by a midwife. Richard’s mom was Harriet (Agatha on certificate) and his father was Mitchell Peters (Tahanientaien). His siblings, including him, added up to 5 girls and 5 boys. Richard’s wife was Ella and they were married almost 53 years. They had two daughters, Lynn and Kerry, and now he has grandchildren too.

As he gave more thought to his family, he remembered his grandmother, her name was Tehoronse. She would tell her grandchildren some of her stories while growing up in those days. One was that when she was a little girl, the people were building the St. Regis Catholic Church in Kanatakon. The women of these crews had to help by going to Yellow Island and haul “river sand” in the dug out canoes. The sand was used as mortar to hold the stones together.  Richard said the dugout canoes were called “wakaratakon.”  The strength of those canoes is all that they had to carry the heavy sand.

Richard explained that long ago, the trees were very big.  When a tree was cut down, it had to be brought down gently if possible as not to cause splintering throughout the length of the tree. Otherwise, it would be useless to build a canoe with. Making canoes took many weeks of pounding and digging out the insides, if you can imagine this.

   He went on to share more hints of life from back then. To preserve a handmade pack basket, it was soaked in pure rainwater. If any other kind of water was used, the basket would dry out and crack easily. The rainwater was a preservative.  

Richard then told of times when he watched and joined his father who did a lot of hunting and trapping. Every fall time, he saw his father gather all his traps together and stack them all together. He would then gather as many pine balls as he could and lay them on top of or all around the traps. All of a sudden he would light this pile...a huge flame would arise. “What is the reason for that?” Richard would ask his father.

“That is so the animals won’t smell the fingers of the human on the trap,” he answered.  

Our discussion then switched to the foods of long ago. He was talking to a friend who also grew up during hard times. His friend said, “I wonder if there is anyone who did not have to grow up on salted pork? Nowadays young people wrinkle their nose at salt pork or even bologna. They remembered when pigs were butchered and knowing that rarely was a piece of that animal not used. Chittlings and tripe was a favorite to some. Even the hocks were used after the hoofs were pried off with a special gadget.  The meat sure made a delicious corn soup. The way people add all those vegetables in their soup nowadays, that isn’t corn soup, it’s vegetable soup!

He still remembered the way his grandmother hung up the braided onions for the winter along with the cabbage that hung by the roots. The chores of the children included going barefoot into the potato bins in the cellar to level them off so there would be room for the crops.  There were so many good memories of his grandmother and parent’s ways that got them through the hard times. Hard work!

And how many people nowadays remember “black strap”...the taste of those cookies and cake made from this was so good even if it was second to the real molasses.

Richard was pretty much on his own by the time he was 14 years old and did things he wouldn’t be able to do today at that age. He hung out with older men because he was quite tall for his age already.  Shortly after that he became an ironworker during the time when money was very scarce.  Sometimes he wondered why he went into that line of work when after the service he was continuously being asked to go to work at the Seaway.  That was because of his training from the Navy. He struggled with his decision and now regrets not going to the Seaway.

He was so in a hurry to show me his books from his Navy career back in the early 40’s. Richard was happy to share that he still has his mattress, which he came home with from the Navy. Not only that, but other items as well, like his shoe shine kit and brush. He will not part with them he said. He went on to tell about exactly how the guys had to fold their hammocks and mattress along with other gear. He said they were very heavy.

  During his tours in the Navy and for being active in the Second World War, he was exposed to many countries.  Richard’s memory was so clear as he spoke about this part of his life. Some countries he traveled to were Scotland, England, France, Africa, Egypt, India, Ceylon, Sicily and Italy. In Oran he saw a gigantic hospital. He was so amazed at seeing so many servicemen who were wounded and being transported to the hospital.  Thousands and thousands of injured soldiers were waiting for ambulances that came off the ships to pick them up.  Richard was just so surprised at the amount of men and wondered if there would be enough to continue the fight.  

  When asked what his specialty was, Richard replied by saying “my specialty area was to take care of the guns on the ship along with other guys.”  He explained about an incident that took place in their convoy of ships as they were returning from Russia.  A ship in the convoy broke in half and judging from the size of that vessel, it could hold about 30-40 men. The broken piece was visible and deemed to be a shipping hazard. An escort ship was ordered to shoot it full of holes so it would sink. That was so no other ships would hit it. All those men went down, but they said if another vessel would hit it, it would be a loss of a lot more men.  

There was another incident on their ship, Richard and another crewmember were in charge to be a lookout at the front of the ship. As daybreak opened its eyes, the two men spotted a floating bomb in the upcoming water ahead.

 “Turn right! Turn right! A floating bomb ahead!” yelled the 2 men as loud as they could.  The ship was turned quickly but almost got the rear end of it. Richard said they saved the lives of everyone on that ship that time, but were never acknowledged. He still wonders about that to this day, why?

  His time served in the Navy was from 1943 - 1946, and the name of his convoy ship was “George De Angel.”  They faced many dangers during his time. He thinks back to the times and the ship they rode in the convoy. He remembers times when his ship was behind a vessel that carried high-octane fuel and behind them was a ship that was loaded with ammunition. If any of those boats were ever hit, it would have been mass destruction and would have wiped us all out.

  Well Richard, I must say I met an intelligent and very interesting man when I visited with you and I enjoyed it very much, thank you.  You gave me an assignment and I’m still working at it.  Only you would think about that and still wonder about it so it would quench your curiosity and now mine.  I’ll be back to see you when I find all those names, the ones that survived the times.  I will also try to see what R-100 means?? See you soon.