My father, Manuel
da Costa Jacome
Natif de Conceição, la paroisse voisine à Ribeira Grande, mon père, Manuel da Costa Jácome a une soeur, Deodata, qui émigrera aussi au Canada. Ses parents vivent à quelques maisons de la nôtre, plus bas sur la rua das Rosas.
Our life in São Miguel was very difficult. We were poor and work was scarce. Feeding the family on a daily basis was hardship!
How could we possibly organize ourselves if, every morning, we never know if we will find work or not. Our meals were very simple: bread and milk in the morning, fish for lunch, whenever available, and bean and cabbage soup for supper. Meat? It was very rare. The most fortunate families only were those who had a pig or chickens in their backyards. Chicken laid eggs. We would kill one on a special Sunday or on special occasions. That was our reality! We ate very little meat.
While nobody is listening to us, I‘d like to share a trick I did a few times at my parents’ house. I’d go into the chicken pen, hit one of the chickens, then tell my mother it was ill. She would kill the chicken almost immediately. That meant we would have a rare meal with meat.