Not Too Long Ago: Stories of a Traditional Way of Life

242 Pages·2012·2.47 MB·English

by  Garry Cranford

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Not too long ago [electronic resource]: stories of a traditional way of life / Garry
Cranford, [editor]. -- 2nd ed.
Includes index.
Includes Our lives (originally published 2000).
Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-926881-99-7 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-926881-69-0 (EPUB).--
ISBN 978-1-926881-70-6 (MOBI)
1. Newfoundland and Labrador--Social life and customs--Anecdotes.
2. Newfoundland and Labrador--History--Anecdotes. I. Cranford, Garry, 1950- .
II. Title: Our lives.
FC2168. N682012 971.8 C2012-901122-3
© 2012 by Garry Cranford
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of the work covered by the copyright hereon may
be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic or
mechanical—without the written permission of the publisher. Any request for
photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems of
any part of this book shall be directed to Access Copyright, The Canadian
Copyright Licensing Agency, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5E 1E5.
This applies to classroom use as well.
Illustrated by Bob Pope
Cover Design: Peter Hanes
FLANKER PRESS
PO BOX 2522, STATION C
ST. JOHN’S, NL, CANADA
TOLL FREE: 1-866-739-4420
WWW. FLANKERPRESS. COM
First Edition printed in 1999.
16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing
activities; the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $24.3 million
in writing and publishing throughout Canada; the Government of Newfoundland
and Labrador, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation.
PREFACE
In 1998, I was engaged by the Seniors Resource Centre, based in St. John’s,
Newfoundland and Labrador, to interview and record recollections of seniors
around the province, especially those involved in some way with the
association’s outreach program. To facilitate this, the Seniors Resource Centre
put out a call through its outreach programs for volunteers, and asked outreach
leaders to refer me to persons in their communities who might not otherwise
come forward.
I spent that year travelling around the province, visiting seniors in their
homes, and taping interviews. I was briefed on the backgrounds of these seniors
and the highlights of their experiences. In Bonavista, I interviewed fishermen; in
Burin, seniors with memories of the 1929 tsunami; in Labrador, stories of the
trapline; on the west coast, stories of experiences in World War II; and in
Twillingate, a lighthouse keeper. These people shared their stories of a
pioneering way of life, raising families in hard times, stories of close calls while
engaging in sealing, and, of course, wherever I went, I asked for ghost stories.
The purpose of the Seniors Resource Centre project was to collect stories of
high interest from seniors with which other seniors would identify, and therefore
encourage them to become engaged in reading. Another outcome was to produce
a lasting social studies collection of interest to future readers, students, and
researchers of Newfoundland and Labrador culture.
The end result was over 100 hours of taped interviews, and hundreds of pages
of transcribed conversations. From there I edited the transcribed texts, and a
panel of seniors selected those they found most interesting. Setting priorities, a
collection of stories found its way into book form, titled Not Too Long Ago, and
its length was determined by the budget available for a book.
Because there was so much additional incredible material left unpublished,
Flanker Press took it upon itself to produce a supplementary book titled Our
Lives, featuring stories that had been culled and excluded from the initial
selection.
Both books are now combined in this new, expanded and revised edition.
Royalties from the sale of this book will go to support programs of the Seniors
Resource Centre.
GARRY CRANFORD
FEBRUARY, 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank the 66 seniors who contributed to Not Too Long Ago. It is said
that experience is a great teacher. If so, your experiences are about to give
readers a great education in Newfoundland and Labrador history and culture.
All of you have greeted me in your homes, and offered an open invitation to
return. I would like to thank you for your hospitality.
On behalf of generations to come, I congratulate you on your contributions to
this book.
Producing Not Too Long Ago took the co-operation of many people across the
province. This would not have been possible without those who know our
communities and who know our seniors. I wish to thank Joan McLean of
Northwest River and Janet Skinner and Donna Paddon of Happy Valley–Goose
Bay. In Cartwright, Jessie Bird also recommended many wonderful people to be
interviewed.
Across Newfoundland, contributors were recommended by our network of
seniors, peer advocates, community leaders, and personal contacts: Barbara
Barrett, Arnold’s Cove; Linda Bath, Bonavista; Dorothy Bonnell, Bell Island;
Peggy Doucette, Port au Port; Theresa Greeley, Gander; Evelyn Grondin-Bailey,
Burin; Harriett Greene, Port aux Basques; Stella Hollett, Burin; Catherine
Pennell, Trepassey; Philip Power, Grand Falls; Gladys Snow, Rocky Harbour;
and Jim Young of Twillingate. Thank you all.
I would like to thank Coordinator Doris Hapgood, the teachers, and the
students of the Rabbittown Learners Programme who work-shopped the
material. Thanks to Pam Rideout and Janet Goosney of Teachers On Wheels,
and Suzanne Sexty and the other members of the Seniors Resource Centre
Literacy Committee. Thanks to our readers: Hazel Blackwood, Evelyn Percy,
Rick Simon, Brigitta Schmid, and Mary Woodruff. Don McDonald and David
White of the Literacy Development Council also offered valuable feedback and
comments. I also appreciate the technical advice from Dr. Philip Hiscock of the
Department of Folklore, Memorial University. For her overall encouragement
and direction, thanks to Rosemary Lester, Executive Director of the Seniors
Resource Centre. Thanks to volunteer Jerry Cranford for the design and layout
of the book, and to Margo Cranford and Vera McDonald for reading final drafts.
Financial support for this project has been provided by the National Literacy
Secretariat (Human Resources Development Canada) and the Literacy
Development Council of Newfoundland and Labrador.
THE STORIES AND THEIR
ORGANIZATION
The stories in Not Too Long Ago were collected from seniors across the
province, primarily through taped interviews, supplemented by written
submissions. The reading style is as varied as the storyteller, and edited as little
as possible, in an effort to retain the original flavour of the conversation. In all,
there are 66 contributions.
In addition to those contributors for the literacy project, I have included an
interview I conducted with my grandmother, Mildred Cranford, who talks about
“In Service” and “On the Labrador.”
The goal of this project was to bring together, under one cover, a collection of
stories that represented a culture to which mature Newfoundland and Labrador
readers could easily relate. By doing so, it is hoped that the content will have as
high an interest level as possible to those readers this book is aimed at: the adult
reader.
All major regions of the province are represented. In the original editon of Not
Too Long Ago, the stories were grouped into geographic regions, but in this
editon, the stories are arranged alphabetically by contributor, and generally, are
much expanded, by bringing together those stories from the second collection,
Our Lives.
For ease of identifying the geographic location of the stories, or where the
contributors lived when they were interviewed, we have included an index, and
to further enhance the indexing, we have greatly expanded the table of contents
to show topics discussed, which usually easily identifies where the stories come
from.
KATHLEEN ABBOTT
R ?
ETIRED
Kathleen Abbott of Port au Port West is a very active senior. She is the
driving force behind the restoration of Our Lady of Mercy Museum. She
has big plans for the convent and Our Lady of Mercy Church. But she
wasn’t always interested. I visited Kathleen at the museum.
I WASN’T ALL THAT interested at first. I started working on the museum
project the year I retired from teaching, 1990. This museum used to be the
rectory. It had been rented out several times and it was ready to be demolished.
I was called for a meeting and I said yes. I was voted in as chairperson and
I’ve been here ever since. It was quite a challenge, and gets to be more of a
challenge every year. I always had something to do, because I had four children
and I had to raise them as a single parent. My husband died over 45 years ago.
T O L M M
HE UR ADY OF ERCY USEUM
FIRST OF ALL, WE STARTED on the museum. The sun porch was falling
down. Right away we had to look for project funding and there wasn’t a lot of
money.
We started sending out feelers through the church bulletin. We asked people
to bring in information and pictures. And we got what we could from the
schools.
Right now our high school is closing and we have made a deal with the
principal that the trophies and the pictures will come here. There is always
something coming in so we can freshen the displays, or develop new ones.
Parishioners are taking a lot of pride in it now, especially since it has become a
provincial heritage structure.
Each year we do something different to encourage visitors. We have a tea
room which we will open next week. We serve tea in pots and we serve old-
fashioned recipes.
S R
HOWER OF OSES
THERE WAS A LOT OF DEVOTION to St. Theresa with our traditional priests
back in the late 1800s. She is one of our youngest saints because she died when
she was 24. In 1997, she was made a Doctor of the Church, and that is really
something.
Doing the grotto was one of my goals, but it was really begun by Father Joy,
because of a miracle that happened to him.
Father was kneeling, giving his thanksgiving one morning after mass, and he
was sick at the time. He was praying, and all of a sudden he had a vision. In the
vision, he got a perfume smell of roses and a shower of rose petals fell at his
feet. When he described it to the parishioners the next Sunday, he told them he
didn’t know what the reason was.
He said it was either that St. Theresa wanted the people to pray more, or that
she wanted something erected in her honour. Right away he took up a collection
and he got $1,000 and put up a statue. The St. Theresa’s statue in the church
came from Rome. Devotions to St. Theresa continue to this day.
In my mind, if Father Joy thought it was important, we should also have
something outside the church. So, we built a grotto to St. Theresa in front of the
museum.
INGE BARTH
Many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians had hard lives. Mrs. Inge Barth
had a hard life, but it was different from that of most people. She sent along
a story of her life for other seniors to read. Here is a part of what she wrote
about her life, and starting out in Labrador.
I WAS BORN IN Germany in 1928. My father was called Fritz Schreiber and
my mother was called Mimi. We had three farms: an animal farm, an
agricultural farm, and a farm to grow food for the animals.
Life was wonderful! I began to train St. Bernard dogs. There was much work,
and I earned very much money. My day began at 5: 00 when I got up. At the first
farm I trained horses for the German Army. Then my father died and I was in
charge of three big farms, a herd of sheep, and I had 400 workers. They treated
me very well. At first I was afraid they would not take my orders, because I was
only 15 years old.
This all happened during the Second World War. We provided food for the
German Army. It was a very bad time. At the same time, the Russians invaded
Eastern Germany and they took all the animals. I was captured and they sent me
to the camps in Russia.
I worked in the mines for about 12 hours every day of the week. This
happened in Siberia, to the north of Russia. During my capture there, I received
only two hours of rest per day, no money, no food, and no shoes. I wore two
bags on my feet. After a certain time, I met two German soldiers, one of whom