Marielle and Georgette Potvin’s testimonies about their shopping in Vermont

This videoclip is an extract of an interview conducted by Héritage Sutton with Georgette and Denise Potvin.

Marielle Potvin: I remember our shopping trips just before starting school in the fall. I remember that the jeans were a lot better quality on the American side. We’d come back from the States, from St-Albans and the company stores, and we’d have two, three shirts on our backs, or two pants, and worse, we were very noisy, but when the time came to cross the border, we all became very well behaved. We had been well warned; it wasn’t the time to act silly… There was one customs officer in particular, at Morse’s Line, that I remember…I’m not saying that there weren’t others, but this one was a gentleman who lived right nearby the border post. Sometimes, there was no one at the post, so we’d go straight through and he would come out of the house to greet us.

I think we liked him a lot, he was a good person. So, I think he deliberately didn’t ask about what you’re bringing back. Hello Madame Benoît, how are you? Did you have a good day? She’d say we went to my aunt Jeannine’s or whatever. And back then they didn’t ask questions about what you’re bringing back, so we didn’t have to stretch the truth. And if there were any questions, well…no, I never felt ashamed of the fact of what that our parents did … I did the same sometimes, too. So, no, it didn’t matter.

Georgette Potvin: But sometimes they played tricks on us. I remember one man. I won’t tell you his name [laughs]…

We went shopping in the States for the start of the school year, and he asks us if we have anything to declare. Well yes, a few school supplies. He looks in the bag…For what amount? About $20. So he made us pay the duty on our $20. [Laughs]… So we said, “Next time, we’ll say we’ve got nothing” [Laughs]. The worst thing, though, he was one of our neighbours… what a pain!…[Laughter]

Interviewer: From time to time he had to show that taxes were being paid; otherwise he’d get his knuckles rapped.