File: arsenaultrobert-oh-familyencouragement_M.mp3
Speakers:
RA – Robert Arsenault
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
RA: The type of encouragement there is now from parents -- to give their kids everything and to become super-achievers is a nonexistent thing in Acadian culture, in those days anyway.
KP What was there instead?
RA That was just rock steady support of all things nice. That's all. Whatever people were exposed to, you were exposed to it. Whoever had a talent to pick things up, picked it up. It was an individual effort sometimes
KP So once someone had decided to take something up, there was a lot of support?
RA No. (laughs). You just fended for your own self and developed your own skills you know. Just picture this. I've got 3 kids and I have a hard time keeping control over 3 kids. There was 14 kids there, right? And I don't know how much individual attention you figure parents or whoever can give to anybody. Right? This is something else. This is survival of the fittest. And I guess at a very young age people fend for themselves. They're out there harvesting ,and planting and doing whatever has to be done. Fishing, getting married young too. Very young, used to.