Base Gagetown Community History Association

Memories From Ken Harrison - February 2001 - as told to Betty Damery

A late winter afternoon chat with Ken turned out to be very interesting. There are some people when you sit down to talk to them, you can just tell they know so much. Just drop some words from the times way back, and you can see the smile come to Ken's face and watch his eyes light up. He remembers the people, the fun, the way things looked back when he was a young man growing up. I dare say he can still smell the country road, the hay fields, and Mom's bread coming from the oven. Ken can certainly remember the Moore sing songs. I wanted to know what he could tell me about the Moore's, and I found out that I really needed more than one afternoon.

Ken told us that the Moores were all tall, distinguished looking men. “I remember”, said Ken, “we'd all go down to the Moore house and sing”. “We sang so many songs”. When asked if he remembered a few favorites his response was "The Little Brown Church in the Wildwood”. “Oh, yes, we always sang that one, it was one of the favorites”.

"I remember Ken Moore sang base, and he was a real good base. Murray, he sang baritone - I never heard a better baritone; and Moses he was tenor. Charles Ballard he sang with them and he was their lead singer. They all harmonized you know. If we made a mistake Nettie would tell us, she would set us right. Nettie played the piano.”

Ken recalls: “I remember at my mother's funeral. Charlie stood on the end, Murray and Moses and Ken were all there, you could hear them sing all the way down the road. They sang all my mothers favorite pieces. She loved "Safe In the Arms of Jesus" and “What A Friend We Have in Jesus". I can still hear them.

Any time we were in church you would think the roof was going to raise right off the building. It was different back then, everybody sang, not like today - people just mumble along, but then the hymns are different now. They don't seem to sing the good old pieces any more. I can still hear Walter sing, you know he use to sing solos at the Main Street Baptist Church right up till the time he died.

It was good times back in Jerusalem. You know, we didn't have all the things people have today like snow mobiles and movies to occupy us, but we always had a lot of fun. Everyone talked about their neighbors, - neighbors and friends were really important back then. Everybody talked about the Moores and what great singers they were.

I remember the last time I sang with the Moores, it was at Bob Elliots funeral in Fallsview in Saint John. It was the Jerusalem Group - you know the Moores and the Harrisons, all of us.

I asked Ken to tell me of a a typical Saturday night would be in Jerusalem. He said "A bunch of us young fellows would go down to the store - we'd stand around and eat candy bars and fill ourselves with ice cream then we would go down to the Moores and sing. We'd sing for 2 hours or more. Then start out on our mile walk home. Sometimes Bob Russell would be there singing and we'd all pile into his car and he'd take us home. Others that would be there singing were Gerald Webb, and my brothers and Charlie Fulton.”

Ken told us another story passed down from his mother. Ken remembers “She always told what a good lady Rebecca Moore was, she was a great person (Mrs Moses Moore).She was a mid-wife and Ken says that on his birth registration, it states that Nurse Moore was the attendant. Of coarse, all us kids were born at home back then, there weren't any hospitals. Yes, Mom always said what a great person she was.”