The trunk of tourism

A woman describes the concerns and fears her family felt in Halifax Harbor, as they traveled as tourists.

AN.: And then, the other image is within that enormous hall which you probably saw in the- now the Museum of Pier 21, eh… where there were groups of people. By families, I suppose. Eh… And some… ehm… And officers or rather policemen, I don’t think there was another corps. But mainly eh… after… officers… Those- those from the immigration and… some ladies, who must have been sisters. Either Victoria Order of Nurses after, I suppose, but they might- no, they might have been Red Cross. They might have been some volunteers, but I don’t think so. Now we have volunteers everywhere, but then I don’t think there were any. There must have been, then, besides the medical personnel, which performed the- the first check-up, for the most visible ah… symptoms of illness. Eh… There were several… like, they appeared to be nurse or medical personnel. And, because… Moreover, there were various, like, runners. One of the gave us three boxes -which we had never seen before -Kellog’s Cornflakes. Which we took, for the train trip. We didn’t open them at that time. Eh, because we didn’t- we didn’t know what it was. It was a primitive attempt to advertise a product to new customers. This was the image- the first image eh in the land of Canada, on land. It was inside the enormous room of reception, recording, checking and waiting. Eh… There were difficult parts, like ehm… eh… let’s say the status we had, of the tourist, they were looking at us a bit eh, you know now. At that time, tourism eh… My mother necessarily had a trunk as well with some of our belongings, besides the suitcase, therefore it was… It was evident that… We came to stay. Eh… There were some parts which… of course I didn’t speak. My mother knew English, some English. Eh… My father didn’t. Eh, therefore, she had undertaken the role of answering. And I think- and it makes a big impression on me, that they had no interpreters. It makes a big impression on me. But I don’t remember, them having interpreters. Neither Italians, nor Greek speakers. Eh… Then the checking of the belongings. That is, we opened up all these things.