"We didn't live in a place where there were stores" - Interview with Keith Hillier

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up

Keith Hillier, interviewed by Emma Lang. 

Keith Hillier was born in 1954 and grew up in Campbellton Notre Dame Bay. Today he is retired and lives in Portugal Cove-St Phillips. His mother, Violet Melina—known as Lina—was from Shoal Harbour and his father, Wesley George Hillier—George—was from Campbellton. They met when Lina came to Campbellton to teach school. Her family was well off with her father serving as the Roadmaster for the Bonavista Branch of the Newfoundland Railway. This afforded Lina the chance to attend the Normal School in St. John’s for three years to train as a teacher, more training than many teachers in Newfoundland and Labrador received. George Hillier was a carpenter originally working in the lumber industry building camps and later building public buildings in Central Newfoundland.

Father was a—well, when he was younger he worked in the lumber woods, and then he, I guess he was recognized in there at building camps and what not, as being a very good carpenter or whatever, so eventually he wound up being a carpenter and being foreman of a crew of carpenters, building hospitals schools, churches, and apartment buildings and whatever in the Central area.

He [George Hiller] didn’t work home, he worked in Buchans most of his life, which is, now is probably an hours job, but back then when it was gravel roads it was probably three hours drive from Campbellton…. But he didn't come home every weekend, he only came home, sometimes he came home every weekend sometimes he could go months. And, I kinda think, way back, when times weren't as good, he probably may have been away as long as six months at a time. Which is not uncommon around Newfoundland—if you left the place you were living in to work. So what was that like growing up with him gone. Well you know if you grow up without something you really don’t know you don't miss what you didn’t have

Like his father, Keith Hillier was interested in hand-on work.

Keith Hillier (KH): No, I didn't [like school] I couldn't stand it! [laughs]

Emma Lang (EL): Any particular reason?
KH: I don’t know what the reason would be, I was too hyper to be sitting in a seat for hours. It wasn't interesting. I mean, the subjects that were taught in school, I can't say that any of them interested me that much. Geography was perhaps the, geography and math was perhaps my most interesting subjects. English and French and history, if you had to read, I wasn't that interested in it.

EL:…what would you have rather been doing?
KH: Well I've always been a person that's been hands on and I’ve been very involved in a lot of things that require use of your hands, more creative. What would I have been doing?... I was fascinated, when I was growing up, the woman across the road used to sew and she had a sewing machine. And it was one of those where you put your feet on it and it goes around like, goes up and down with your feet. Now, I was just fascinated with the thing on the sewing machine bobbing up and down. I would sit on the corner of her daybed, you know? Right here going along and see her sewing and watch that for hours almost. But anyway, I became interested in sewing,

Mr. Hillier attributes his interest in sewing and cooking to his own creative interests and to exposure to these crafts he received while spending time as a child with his grandmother and mother.

I had a grandmother lived next door to me, so she was always into the, we'll say the women's stuff, and my father was away so I didn't get much exposure from him to the more manly stuff. But even if I did, I wouldn't have, perhaps been interested in it anyway. because, you know I just have a more of an interest in arts and crafts types things and wood working, once I got older, where I could have tools and buy the wood and what not. so, I became interested in carpentry work and I’ve been interested in it perhaps more so than anything for the best part of my life. I've been involved in renovating houses and building houses and that type of thing. but when I was a kid I was more involved, and I was interested in cooking and being in the kitchen and I’m still interested in all that.

Mr. Hillier taught himself how to sew, he said with a big laugh, “my mother couldn't sew on a button, right! she was more of a cooker and baker that was more of her thing and that what she enjoyed doing most.” But she was willing, with some prodding, to help him pursue his interests.

…we didn't live in a place where there were stores. It was a small town. There were stores, but you’d order a lot of things from catalogues. and I’d want her to be ordering fabric from a catalogue so that I could make curtains, say, or drapes for a bedroom and if I kept on enough, [laughs] and nagged enough [laughs] it just might happen. 

Today Mr. Hillier lives in a house with drapes he made himself, and continues to make things by hand.

This interview was conducted as part of a Collective Memories Mug Up project conducted by Memorial University students enrolled in FOLK 6740: Public Folklore, Winter 2017. If you would like to listen to the full interview click here. 

Photo: Julie Pomeroy, Town of PCSP, with Keith Hillier. 

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Hermann's Shoe Shop

Elizabeth Munch in front of Hermann's Shoe Shop. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Munch.

On October 14, 2016, as part of the Collective Memories project, I interviewed Elizabeth Munch Power of Grand Falls-Windsor about her family’s business and experience on Main Street.

In this interview Elizabeth discusses her parent's move from Europe to Canada, and how they made their way to Windsor, NL. She also discusses growing up in Windsor, her father's cobbler/shoe shop in Windsor, the camaraderie of the business owners on Main Street, and the family's move to St. John's. I posted a short clip of Elizabeth discussing Bonfire Night below but your can click here to listen to the entire interview and learn more about Hermann Munch's shoe shop.

Hermann Munch on left. Circa 1950s. Photo courtesy of GFWHS.

~Terra Barrett

“It’s a nice time, right?” - Interview with Palma Mercer

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug UpPalma Mercer, interviewed by Jordan Zalis

Palma was eager to get started at the Portugal Cove-St. Philips Memory Mug-up at the recreation centre. She was the first to arrive and had her hands full with old photos and a book of happenings that she found among her late father’s things. “Unfortunately, two pages are gone,” she said of the book from the 19th Century. Events of Newfoundland was full of community news-stories that had Palma smiling while I read it out loud. She takes pride in being born and raised in the seashore community, saying “I’m from Portugal Cove and never left – the only way I leave now is when I die.”

Life on ‘The Cove’ has been good for Palma (née Harding), who grew up on Harding’s Hill, an area of the community that has hosted her family since 1750 when the first Harding arrived in Newfoundland. As the family grew, so did their homestead, though they all remained close by. Palma, born in 1950, remembers the long conversations she used to have with her great-grandmother and how her father built their house himself.

Through our morning together, Palma shared with me some amazing memories that demonstrate the strong ties her family has to Portugal Cove and a certain historical richness she feels through them in the area.

“We never suffered hardships…my father always went to town and whenever he’d come back, he always brought me back a new dress…and I’d wait for him.” He did this quite a lot.

About her father, she says, “he was a very interesting man – he could tell some stuff too.” He worked construction down at the American military base and later drove a cement truck. About ‘The Cove’, she says, “he could go way back!”

“Oh yeah,” Palma’s husband agreed. They came to the Mug-up together, but he wanted her to be the focus.

“There were good wages back then,” she said of her father’s work and in turn, her upbringing. One advantage that Palma had growing up was that her father always had a car -- and always had a nice car. But needing a car can be another story altogether. Palma, an engaging storyteller, tells it like this:

“The house just up from me was a small bungalow. There was still a lot of snow left on the ground. So, me [and] my brothers, somehow managed to get up on the roof of the porch and jumping into the snow for fun, right? So, I had to jump -- and break my leg. Yeah, I got to my fear of heights that day, that’s where it comes from. But anyway, I had to wait all day for my dad to take me to the hospital. I had to wait the whole day, I never forgot that. My leg on a chair…I was screaming in pain. Anyway, back then you were put in the hospital. I was put in the hospital for two weeks for that…I had two brothers so [my mom] couldn’t stay with me, so they had an orderly sit by my bed every night…A cast on and a big old slipper on that foot…I got a terrible fear of heights.”

We found out then, that Palma had, in fact, left ‘The Cove’ at least once, and she laughs about it now, but this was 1958 and she explains “there were no taxis…I had to wait for my father to come home.” This was also during a great storm where much of the area was without power for two weeks – but they had a generator.

Palma’s father played into her stories a lot and him having a good job in town afforded her and her younger brothers other luxuries that were rare at the time. “We were one of the first with a television…one of the first.”

***

Summertime made for different fun growing up on Harding’s Hill on ‘The Cove’. It was “the spot.”

“We used to go [up the hill] and explore…we’d be gone all day…and go get some money and get some candies…then mom would call us for supper.”

She reflects warmly:

“We’d pile-up on Harding’s Hill, that’s where I grew up, it’s named after my family, and we’d play everything over there because there wasn’t much traffic going up and down. If there was we’d just move to the side and the cars would go back and forth. We’d play hopscotch and ball…softball…baseball. I’d be the only girl…and there would be six of us and my two brothers, and basically I’d be looking out for them too.”

But “looking out” did not necessarily mean keeping them, and herself, out of mischief:

“My [neighbour] was a fisherman, so at that time he had flakes there, they were called. He’d lay the fish out to dry in the sun…someone…anyway decided we’d take a few fish…and at that time in the backyard was a big old garage with old batteries and whatever. And we were trying to figure out how to set fire to roast the fish…Anyway we set fire to the battery…we got matches from somebody…somebody was a smoker or whatever…all to roast a fish, right?”

Or, there was the time she left her brothers while they got into it a little deeper at another neighbour’s house:

“The father used to have a backroom that he had all his old beer bottles in…I’m going to get in trouble for this one…But my cousin Doug and my two brothers decided they were going to take the bottles…and there was a snack store just down the hill…Siskin’s Store…So they went in…I don’t how much they got for them…They sold all of his bottles! Well I’ll say they were in trouble that night...I don’t know if they gave the money back to the man…I mean back then, that was a lot of money…For some reason, I didn’t want to get involved…mischief, right?”

***

Palma had so much to share, and really enjoys telling stories about her family, and food, and all the fun she had growing up in the area. Her tales are rich with imagery, full of real history, and reflect a beautiful life held with warm memories.

“It’s a nice time, right?”

This interview was conducted as part of a Collective Memories Mug Up project conducted by Memorial University students enrolled in FOLK 6740: Public Folklore, Winter 2017. If you would like to listen to the full interview click here. 

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Harold "Sparks" Squires, Wireless Operator

VA 10-56 "Sparks" [Harold Squires (telegraph operator)] and Adelie [penguin], Hope Bay. 1945. Courtesy of The Rooms Provincial Archives.  

In March, I digitized a series of cassette tape interviews from Admiralty House Museum and Archives. One of the interviews recently added to the Mount Pearl section of MUN's DAI was an interview with Harold Squires, a wireless operator who worked for the Marconi Company and traveled to the Antarctic on the S.S. Eagle. In the interview, Squires talks about life on the ship, his job, the other crew members, and his nickname "Sparks", One of the interesting stories Squires tells about the voyage, was how when the ship warmed up, the deck on the old sealing vessel oozed seal blubber. Squires also talks about working as a wireless operator at Cabot Tower and having to walk to work everyday.

To listen to this, and other interviews about Mount Pearl and the early days of radio in Newfoundland and Labrador, visit Memorial University Digital Archives Initiative.

“There were ghosts around Goat Cove" - Interview with Ruth Bugden

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up
Ruth Bugden, interviewed by Tanyan Ye
Born in 1944, Ruth Bugden has been living in Portugal Cove all her life. She grew up here, got married, and now her whole family, including three children and five grandchildren, are all living in this area. Her maiden name was Allen. Her father was born a Harding but raised by the Allens, and her mother had a similar story—she was born a Squires but raised by Piccos and then married to an Allen. That is because in the past adoption was more common and less regulated, as Ruth said, “Back then, you didn't have to go through any red tape. If a child needed to be looked after, somebody took it and that is the end of it.”

Though she grew up in Portugal Cove, she went to school in St. John’s. This explained why she does not have accent of the community, which she felt a little regretful. When she was three years old her whole family moved to Windsor Heights for a while where her father worked in a farm. That is why she went to school in the city instead of in Portugal Cove. When she was about ten her family moved to where they are living now, but she did not want to change school. Besides, if she continued going to the school in the city she could take bus but she would have to walk if she changes to the school in the community. Therefore, she finished her school in St. John’s.

During the interview she shared with us many interesting supernatural stories, some of which were what she herself or her mother experienced. When asked why her mother and herself tended to be more sensitive toward those things, she told us her mother used to be a healer, who was believed to be able to cure small diseases, or as she put it, “keep the warts away.” She also explained why she was able to cure people: “One of the things they say, if you never saw your mother…My mother never saw her mother. She was born and taken right away.” She herself was a caulbearer. As she said, there is a lot of superstition about caulbearers. “[it makes you] safe at sea, and you will do great things. So, I don't know what great things I have done. And other superstitions too about having special power, whatever.” She said, laughing and teasing that she believed she had special power.

She also shared with us her memories of the old days, such as dinner theatres. She was a leader of the girls’ group in the community, and they used to play a lot of those theatres. When she was teenager, the girl’s group was very active; they did a lot of volunteer work, organized parties for the senior, etc. She also talked about the transportation, family life, and school life back then. As a person living in the community for her whole life, she is familiar with stories circulating there as well, which she willingly shared with us as well, such as the love story of Fanny Goff. From her memories and stories, we can see how much the life in the community has changed; yet, the lovely parts of the old days remain, at least in our memories.

“There were ghosts around Goat Cove which is in the area of Beachy Cove School. And at some point at around 12 in the night you aren't supposed to be able to get through over that but my dad came, you know, courting my mother, said he purposely walked that way at 12 but he never did see anything. However, I have a mother that's been very, very sensitive toward these things and had a few experiences. She at one time visited who she called Granny Talker, and I wish now I knew exactly where it was but, she went to stay at Granny Talker's house, and when she got into the bed, she, just got into bed, and they closed the door, and, God, and these hands came out at her throat and she screamed. And the old lady came back in, talked to her for a moment and said ‘Don't worry my dear it is not coming for you.’ And, she found out after that somebody had died there or got murdered there or whatever, so. There's few things like that, there's few little things.”

“I have a couple of experiences with tokens, tokens of death. Just to let you know I was wide awake when this happened. My husband was a collection officer, and he had to go to work at 12 o'clock in the night so I was wide awake about 11 in the night, waiting to call him up to get him to go to work. I was sitting down knitting and my backdoor started to rattle, and my backdoor, I tried that after, my backdoor would not rattle. I could not get a rattle out of it. And there was rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle. And I went out, and there was nobody there. So my mum lived next door 'cause we built our home in the family property. And so I called over to her, and I said "Mum, did you hear anything or see anything?" And my uncle Will that I was very close to was in the hospital at the time, and she said ‘Don't worry my dear.’ She said ‘That was just Uncle Will coming to say goodbye.’ She said ‘He just walked around this house.’ And I thought ‘Ok.’ Right? And so within minutes the phone rang and it was Uncle Will's daughter saying her dad had just passed away. At the same time, he had a sister in New Brunswick, and she was walking up the stairs, and met him coming down these stairs. So, a lot of stories like that.”

“The Anglican church has moved now, but where the old church was, you have to come down the lane and go over the bridge, the bridge by the monument. And anybody living down in that area if they were coming from the united church, they would also have to come and go over the bridge. And some mornings, rarely, it didn't happen on a regular basis, but the congregations would get out of church at the same time, and they would meet on the bridge. And every time that you met on the bridge, somebody die during the week. And it happened. And you know, well, it doesn't happen now but right up until the time that the church moved, it was still happening. It did. 'Cause every time somebody would mark, you know, would mark it, "ok, we are gonna have a death before the week is out." And it always did.”

“Fanny Goff, Pheeny Goff, her name was Tryphena, and she was called Fanny, she was called Pheeny. But that was really interesting and it really happened, and I did a lot of research on that because I worked with a teenage girls' group down to the church, and our group is actually over 50 years old and, I hate to admit it, but I have been with it since it started. I was only a teenager, thanks. But we actually, we searched it and wrote a play and did it as a, almost like a little dinner theater. Then we do dinner theaters all the time down there now, our group girls. But, yeah, she was about to be married and it was this man from Brigus. I guess, Portugal Cove was kind of the hub back then because it had the first road that came from St. John's, and with Bell Island and the boats and everything, and the ferry, the bay, so I guess people were here for various reasons. I don't know how they met, but they planned to be married. And, so the day that was back in, I think it was 1823, so he was coming in couple of days, obviously before and she got really ill, and I guess no way to get in touch with him at that point, we didn't have the telephones. He was coming through the way they know, and stopped at his friend's in St. Philip’s, on the way down there was a man named Bill Squires, and only would be told that she had just died.”

This interview was conducted as part of a Collective Memories Mug Up project conducted by Memorial University students enrolled in FOLK 6740: Public Folklore, Winter 2017. If you would like to listen to the full interview click here. 

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Barry Porter, Lighthouse Keeper

In 2009, as part of a presentation to the Museum Association of NL, I did a sample oral history interview with former lighthouse keeper Barry Porter.  In this short interview, Barry discusses his life as a lighthouse keeper, where he worked, the characteristics of the lights, a typical work day, the fog horn system, and the difference between manned and unmanned lighthouses.

Listen to the interview here on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

Photo: Aerial view of Long Point Lighthouse in 1991, courtesy Canadian Coast Guard

A history-packed edition of the Heritage Update for May/June 2017.

In this month's Heritage Update:

• The Oral History Roadshow is hitting the streets;
• Digitization of the 35mm slide collection from the Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s Archives;
• Commemorating the St. John’s Great Fire of 1892;
• The Goats of New Perlican;
• A call for Modern memories;
• Hooked rugs in Cupids;
• Recognizing the Legacy of World War Two on Our Province’s Built Landscape; and,
• Finding the profit in heritage.

Also, an invite to our Historic Places & Folklore of Bay Roberts event on June 8th, 7pm, at the Shearstown Community Centre, Bay Roberts.

Download the pdf of the newsletter

Photo: Ambrose and Maude Squires of St. Philip’s,
standing in front of a yellow house, July 4th, 1962.
Allen and Pearl Squires Fonds (028) courtesy of the
Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s Archives. 

“I fished all these ponds, winter and summer" - Interview with Moses Tucker

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up

Moses Tucker, interviewed by Monique McGrath

Born and raised in St. Philip’s, Moses Tucker is a staple member in the community of Portugal Cove. Following his first run as mayor in 1978, he spent 15 years working various positions on the City Council board. After some time away from politics due to other work responsibilities, Mr. Tucker was encouraged by members of the community to run for mayor a second time, which he gladly agreed to do. With deep roots going back several generations, Mr. Tucker carries with him a strong sense of dedication and loyalty for the people of Portugal Cove.

Mr. Tucker has a passion for waterways: he loves to know where water comes from and where it goes to. A retired civil engineering technologist, he is a local expert on ponds, lakes and rivers on the Avalon Peninsula. In 1968 he helped install one of the main water lines running along Portugal Cove Road, which is still used to this day. Mr. Tucker knows how the community’s drinking water is treated, which pond it comes from, and where it is flowing.

“Our water right here comes from Bay Bulls. All of Portugal Cove and St. Philip’s, Paradise and Conception Bay South, our water supply comes from Bay Bulls Big Pond which is on the way down Southern Shore. It’s great water, actually super water! This is a development that was a necessity because of the growth of St. John’s. Windsor Lake couldn’t supply all the water that was needed for the growth of the city.”

Mr. Tucker’s interest in lakes and ponds goes beyond the scope of drinking water; he knows where are all the best fishing spots. Good luck trying to get that information out of him! What he is openly willing to share, however, is how rainbow trout found its way in most of the ponds and rivers in the Portugal Cove community.

“I fished all these ponds, winter and summer. Some of these ponds have been actually seeded with rainbow trout that were brought in from Ontario back in the eighteen hundreds. Little tiny things, there are thousands out there. They’re aggressive too, they eat on local worms. But once you catch them, you put them in the boat, they die quickly. But the trouts that are native, what we call speckle trout, they don’t fight as much as the rainbow trout. But when you bring them into the boat, one can be there for up to an hour before he dies.”

Mr. Tucker carries with him countless memories of growing up and building his life on the Avalon Peninsula, from going to school, to skating in the winter, to swimming in the summer. In closing this interview he shares a memories from his first time serving as Mayor of Portugal Cove, when he was required to create a prayer:

“When you do incorporation you have to create a prayer. You have to write a prayer to the lieutenant governor in council, and that still exists to this day. In order to petition something from the Queen or the Queen’s representative, it has to be done in the form of a prayer. That was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, because I’ve been involved with the church and the church choir since I’m 15 years old. And one of the clergymen we had back then was a strict man as far as what you could and couldn’t do. Kids weren’t allowed to bow. Girls curtsied and boys had to salute. You could only bow to one, he said, to God. Now for me to create a prayer to somebody that wasn’t God, that was way beyond what I was taught. It was a struggle to do it. When it was explained to me that this is a format that has nothing to do with prayers and God, I said alright, I can do it.”

When asked about the future of the Portugal Cove community, Mayor Tucker is very optimistic that the town will maintain its rural character all thanks to one very important geographical element in this area:

“I think its going to maintain a lot of the rural character. We have so much coastline, and we have this wonderful thing called Windsor Lake which creates a marvelous buffer from the city of St. John’s. We’re 10 minutes from the biggest shopping center in Newfoundland Labrador — the Avalon Mall, but the city will not come in and build and occupy around Windsor Lake. That’s the watershed, that’s the water supply. That gives us the opportunity here to lay back, and take it easy!”

This interview was conducted as part of a Collective Memories Mug Up project conducted by Memorial University students enrolled in FOLK 6740: Public Folklore, Winter 2017. If you would like to listen to the full interview click here. 

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Main Street Fashion

Cohen's. Photo courtesy of GFWHS.

On September 23, 2016, as part of the Collective Memories project, I interviewed Yvonne Courtney of Grand Falls-Windsor about growing up in Grand Falls, shopping on Main Street, the merchants and business owners, the various cultures on Main Street, and social events in Grand Falls-Windsor.

In this interview Yvonne describes the fashion of the 1950s and 1960s and shopping on Main Street. Describing Cohen's on Main Street Yvonne remembered:
Cohen’s had elegance right off the magazine covers. They had changed the shop completely. When you walked up those steps on the left hand side and entered the world of Cohen’s fashion you were just blown away. Everything was gorgeous. There were velvet coats or fur coats, fur-lined coats, there were hats like you had never seen before, there were shoes that were really today’s shoes with a clutch purse to match and the clothing was just gloriously beautiful and there was carpet on the floor and the dressing rooms were snazzier. Everything about Cohen’s was just snazzy, totally snazzy and big floor length mirrors, 2 or 3 of them in a row. You could stand there and see everything and you could stand there and just admire putting on a coat or whatever. Cohen’s really had a fashion sense that was a cut above. Cohen’s had a way of presenting it that was in a league of its own.

Click here to hear the full interview and leanr more about shopping on Main Street and the fashion of the 1950s and 1960s.

~Terra Barrett

#FoodwaysFriday - Sealing Vessel Memories

Unidentified sealing vessel in ice. PF-323.048. Donor: John Connors, 1998.
Maritime History Archive - International Grenfell Association Lantern Slides.

When we discuss foodways of Newfoundland and Labrador the first food that often comes to mind is the codfish. Cod has played a major role in everything from the province’s economy to its culture. It is featured in many traditional dishes however it is not the only food tradition in the province. Seafood and fish, caribou, seal, sea birds, berries, root vegetables, and imported products such as molasses and tin milk all play a part in the province’s food traditions. In celebration of the diverse foods harvested, grown, cooked, and eaten in Newfoundland and Labrador we will be doing a #FoodwaysFriday feature on the ICH Blog.

This week we are featuring an interview with Mr. Mark Johnson of Little Catalina. It was recorded in 1999 in Port Union for the Sir William F. Coaker Heritage Foundation and digitized by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. The interview focuses on Mr. Johnson’s work experience and his time in the seal fishery.

Mr. Johnson shares stories about his time as a wheel master on several sealing vessels, memories of hunting on the ice, and the conditions of the sealing vessels as well as stories about William Coaker and Port Union, boat building, cod fishing on the Labrador, sailing, and World War Two. This audio interview also includes a full transcript which is key word searchable.

If you want to learn more about Mr. Mark Johnson’s working life click here to read the transcript!

Share your stories and knowledge of food with the hashtag #FoodwaysFriday.

~Terra Barrett

"Some Thousand Miles Apart, and a War On." The WWII Letters of Allen Squires and Pearl Morcombe, Portugal Cove-St. Philip's

Allen Squires in uniform (028.02.02).  Detail of one of the many letters he wrote to Pearl Morcombe.

In April I had the pleasure to work on a collection for the Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, organizing the Allen and Pearl Squires fonds. The couple made a financial donation to the town in the 1980's to establish the community library, and with that donation came a box with some of the couples possessions, 35mm slides, war medals, and stacks of letters written during the second world war. When I first opened up the box, the stacks of beautifully handwritten letters, immediately peaked my interests.

Stacks of correspondence from the Allen and Pearl Squires Fonds, Portugal Cove-St. Philip's

The letters were all sent to Pearl Morcombe of Melrose, Massachusetts during the Second World War. Pearl corresponded with fifteen different people, family and friends who talked about their own lives and life during WW2. A large portion of the correspondence is from Allen Squires of St. Philip's, who had known Pearl years before, and had reconnected as penpals when Allen's sister Edna Tucker sent Pearl his address. Pearls mother was from St. Philip's, so Pearl already had some connection with the area, and Allan often wrote about the area, telling Pearl she should visit. They wrote about the war and their homes and families. He often talks about everyday life at war, the food they ate, where they slept, and their entertainment. While stationed in England, Allen wrote in a letter on March 13th 1941:

Souvenir sent by Allen to Pearl, Sept. 15, 1940 

"If Hitler thinks he will brake the moral of the British people, he is making a big mistake. There's a little girl drives a van in every morning about 10 o'clock, with coffee and buns for the boys. The other morning she came in and told me she was up all night. I asked her what the trouble was, and she said there was about thirty fire bombs dropped in her back yard that night. So she said she worked on them all night with the men and helped to put them out, and still she was on the job at nine in the morning with her little van, with buns and coffee for the boys. I told her she ought to get a medal and she just laughed about it. I never saw people with such wonderful pluck. They are really marvelous. If there is any holes in our socks, they will take them and darn them, or if we want anything done, they are quiet willing to do it. They post all our letters. I don't think I shall ever forget them."

Through out his letters, Allen often talks about the women he meets at war, and tells Pearl she should find herself a boyfriend. As they continue to write to each other, and their relationship grows, Allen's writing becomes more romantic and he talks of their future together. On April 24th 1942 Allen wrote:

"I am living in hopes that some day I will be able to make you my little wife and we can live happy for the remainder of our life. That may sound funny. Some thousand miles apart, and a war on, but such things can happen." 

028.02.01 Allen and Emma Squires. Courtesy of
the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives.

Pearl also receives letters from other people, including those related to Allen and from Portugal Cove-St. Philip's. She writes to Allen's sister Edna Tucker, and his brother Leslie Squires who moved to the USA for work. There are letters from Edna's son Jacob J. Tucker who first writes when he is 16 and a member of the 1st St. Philip's Troop Boy Scouts and leader of the Boy Scouts orchestra in St. Philip's. He eventually goes to live with Pearl in Massachusetts for his health and seeking opportunity. Allen's mother Emma Squires writes to Pearl, primarily when she has not heard from her son and to ask if Pearl has received any letters. Emma Squires emotional letters are those of a worried mother, wondering if the war will ever end, and her sadness over the death of her husband Gus Squires. Most of her letters are steeped in melancholy, including one letter from September 26th 1944:

"Just as I am writing this I look [through] my window at such a lovely sunset, I never saw before. Just like a picture as it shined on the church just by my house, its red roof and all white. It made me feel so sad. And when I see anything looking so lovely it makes me think of things very sad. Well Dear, what do you think of the dread full time is going on now. I suppose this is the finishing of most of our Dear ones. I am thinking there isn't many of them going to be left by the time it's finished. I guess they will be most all thru with it all. I was in hopes of my Dear boy coming some time, but since this hard time have started I am feeling pretty bad at it all."


In one of the last letters, a August 14th 1945 letter forwarded to Pearl from Leslie Squires, Emma Squires writes about the end of the war and news that Allen is returning home to Newfoundland. She once again describes the view out her window, but this time with the joy and relief:

"The church bell is ringing now and Bell Island is all a light guns firing." 

028.03.201 View of St. Philip's Church and Bell Island. Taken by Allen and Pearl Squires August 10th 1962
Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives.

For more information on the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives, contact the Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Heritage Programs and Services Coordinator Julie Pomeroy.

~ Kelly

"We never did go hungry on Saturdays" - Interview with Clarence "Mac" Miller

Clarence (Mac) Miller Interviewed by Nataliya Bezborodova

Clarence (Mac) Miller is a lifelong resident of Portugal Cove – St. Philips, NL. He was born September 19, 1943. Mac Miller is the only son in a family of five children. As a child, he often accompanied his father who worked as a truck driver supplying goods to boats for Bell Island. He married in 1968, having growing up in the same community as his wife. He has two daughters and is “waiting for grandchildren, still waiting.” Mac Miller worked in public utilities for 35 years, and is now retired. His interest in history and geography started as a schoolchild, and he began his own research in his family genealogy which led him to become a local Heritage Committee member.

“Saturdays when there would be no school, myself and another friend of mine, we used to go with my father to Bell Island to help deliver the produce. We would be in the back of the truck. Now of course, at that time everything was sort of in, not cardboard boxes but in small wooden crates. I can remember, we would be in the back of the truck, we would be passing the stuff out to my father and he would be bringing it in but from going to one place to another if we were hungry we would open a box and have a banana, an orange, or an apple or anything. Flick the peels out of the truck so my father wouldn’t see as he was driving. We were in the back of the truck with a big tarpaulin over the truck. So, we never did go hungry on Saturdays. All the rest of the week we were hungry, waiting for Saturdays, and get paid a dollar for doing that too.”

Mac described the work associated with growing up in a family of girls:
“Otherwise there wasn’t much time for entertainment so to speak, because when my father worked on Bell Island, I had to come home from school and get all the supplies for the night, I had to get splits, small pieces of kindling for lighting the fire in the morning. I never had too much time for sports. When I did, that was mostly at school, playing baseball, soccer. Some Saturdays when my father wouldn’t be at home, when he would go to Bell Island on a Monday and wouldn’t be back until Friday night, and I being the only boy, I had to do all the work. Sometimes coming home from school I used to have to go in the woods, which was about a mile hike cut a few sticks of wood, haul them back, physically haul them back to the house about another mile, and cut them up for a day. Some Saturdays we had to cut up enough wood for the fire for the whole week, which didn’t leave much time for anything else: stealing vegetables out of the gardens or anything else like that, right? That’s about it for me.”

Mac: “I didn’t like my siblings, they were all girls. They didn’t like me either!
Nataliya : You had a hard time!
Mac: I did have hard time! [laughter] They got away from everything. That is why I had to do all this hard work, go to get firewood,and so on. Girls didn’t do that stuff. They would be stuck inside the house, while I was outside in the cold at everything else. Well, my five sisters, we all went to school here in Portugal Cove. Finished high school there. I was the only one who did, as they say, post-education. I had one year at the University, but I didn’t like that. And at about nineteen years old I went to work, and I stayed at that job for 35 years until I retired.”

Although there was a lot of hard work Mac also recalled some of the games and activities he would play as a child:
“In summer when we had holidays, we used to play soccer. we played baseball a lot. We used to grow our own vegetables too, fish every now and then. We weren’t a fishing family but every now and then you would get out with someone in a boat, jig a few codfish for the week. We used to play some games. One game we used to play is tiddly. Different places you go in Newfoundland, they call it by a different name, right. We called it tiddly; we played with a couple of sticks. I actually had a real ball to play soccer with. Can you believe that? A real ball. We went swimming. We would walk over hills from Portugal Cove about a mile hike to go swimming in the ponds. […] So, we used to hike over hills almost every day in summer or on our holidays. Go for a swim, then come back home again. We used to spend a lot of time around the rocks, we used to call them rocks, or a shoreline. Jigging connors, sometimes you would get a small codfish that used to be in around the rocks, fry that on the rocks. One thing I remember that we used to do. Do you know what conk is? Seashell that grows on a rock. We call them conk, right. They are males and females. We used to go down on the shoreline and pick those off the rocks. Pick the male ones off the rocks, because the male ones are bigger and fatter. We put them in an old tin can, and make a little fire. We boiled them and ate them. They were lovely! They were actually really lovely!”

“My friend had a horse. Of course late in spring of the year and late in fall of the year you had to cut a grass, let it dry, put it to a barn for the horse in the winter. That used to be good because once we got the barn full of hay we started jumping in the hay. If you were warm at all, if you were sweating at all, you itch like anything. It was fun, but at the end of it you almost wanted to walk another ¾ of a mile to the pond to go for a swim. We used to swim in the salt water too. Saltwater is a lot better to swim in because saltwater is heavy and fresh water is not. We used to get in saltwater, and just float. We get on our backs and float. Saltwater will keep you up. In fresh water you have to move your hands and feet just to keep in that same position. I remember one place called Claire’s beach. It used to be a beach of a family Claire's that lived there. I remember myself and this other guy were swimming once and we were out twenty feet in the water, and we saw this tail come up in the air, out of the water. It was a shark about thirty feet from us. That was closer than I’ve ever been in all the time I spent swimming in saltwater to something chasing us so to speak. Here was this shark. We got out of water pretty fast.”

“I live more in the past than in the future or the present. I always did. When I was going to school, history and geography were my two passions. Especially history. For some reason, I don’t know why you get hooked on something […] I think it was just about how the things were back that then, what they did and so on. […] I don’t know, just an interest I had… why someone becomes a hockey player, what made you become a soccer player. It was just something I was interested in, it was just in me for some reason. Then I just kept at it, and at it, and at it, it just got more and more challenging. Then I got into family history, and it was fine, doing genealogy. Not even one thing in particular, but the overall thing, history, how did this come about.”

This interview was conducted as part of a Collective Memories Mug Up project conducted by Memorial University students enrolled in FOLK 6740: Public Folklore, Winter 2017. If you would like to listen to the full interview click here. 

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Making and Reloading Shotgun Shells with Albert Hiscock

On July 13, 2016, as part of the Collective Memories project, I interviewed Albert Hiscock of Champney’s West. In this short interview Sarah describes growing up in Champney’s West, memories of the Hazel Pearl and Saladin shipwrecks, and gives an explanation of how to make and reload shotgun shells.

Listen to Albert's full interview here on the Memorial University’s Digital Archives.

And enjoy this short video of Albert demonstrating how to make and reload shotgun shells.



~Terra Barrett

#FoodwaysFriday - Goats Galore

Trinity. Goat cart. (30 01 078) Rev. Edwin Hunt Photographs - Trinity.
Geography Collection - Historical Photographs of Newfoundland and Labrador on DAI.

When we discuss foodways of Newfoundland and Labrador the first food that often comes to mind is the codfish. Cod has played a major role in everything from the province’s economy to its culture. It is featured in many traditional dishes however it is not the only food tradition in the province. Seafood and fish, caribou, seal, sea birds, berries, root vegetables, and imported products such as molasses and tin milk all play a part in the province’s food traditions. In celebration of the diverse foods harvested, grown, cooked, and eaten in Newfoundland and Labrador we will be doing a #FoodwaysFriday feature on the ICH Blog.

This week we are featuring an interview from the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation interviews in 2005 with Mr. Carl Smith of Hant’s Harbour. In this video interview Mr. Smith talks about growing up in Hant’s Harbour, the games he played, going to school, and the traditional work in the area. He also discusses picking berries and growing vegetables. Tune in around 24:00 minutes to listen to Mr. Smith talk about keeping goats and telling the story of his sister’s surprise when she noticed the goats were missing only to be told they had eaten them!

If you want to learn more about Mr. Carl Smith’s life in Hant’s Harbour click here to watch the full interview!

Have you kept goats? What are you memories about keeping them?

Share your stories and knowledge of food with the hashtag #FoodwaysFriday.

~Terra Barrett

Launching the Oral History Roadshow... with goats, of course!

In the work that we’ve been doing to document NL’s living heritage, we often hear the same concern expressed by local seniors - that their stories are dying out in their communities. Inspired and led by this, the main objective of the Oral History Night Roadshow is to conserve those stories in a creative and innovative way.

The Oral History Night Roadshow is a project to capture the stories and memories of seniors, to empower and encourage seniors to showcase their memories through a series of public oral history night celebrations, and to share their knowledge and experience through the production of a booklet for each set of community stories.

Simply put, the Oral History Night Roadshow will see us travel from community to community, hosting a series of Oral History Nights, open-mic storytelling sessions led and inspired by seniors in that community. We will partner with seniors involved with local museums, cultural organizations, and 50+ clubs to bring together local seniors, create partnerships, and plan each event. Seniors in each town get to pick the stories important to them. People will come, have some food, mix with a broad selection of locals, and tell stories.

After the Oral History Night, we’ll linger around the community, meeting individually with the seniors, and doing one-on-one recordings of their stories. We’ll archive and share those online in partnership with Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, and select specific stories to transcribe. We’ll be adding to our collection of community history booklets, then returning to our partner communities for a book launch party!

We are delighted that our first partner community is New Perlican, and we’ll be rolling into town Friday for our Goat Tea, sharing stories about the goats of New Perlican and other animal tales -- stories of animals raised for meat, milk, and eggs, family pets, work animals like goats, dogs, horses, cows, and ponies, hens and roosters.

Did your family have a goat? Got an animal story you want to share?

Join us at the Veteran’s Memorial Community Centre, Main Road, New Perlican on Friday, May 19th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

The Oral History Roadshow is made possible with assistance from the New Horizons for Seniors program. Photo of New Perlican goats courtesy Louise Coombs. Know the people (or goats) in the photo? Let us know!

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Becker's Jewellery

Becker's Jewelry. Photo courtesy of GFWHS.

On September 22, 2016, as part of the Collective Memories project, Audrey Burke and I interviewed Dolores Becker of Grand Falls-Windsor about her husband Ernst Becker’s business and experience on Main Street.

In this interview Mrs. Becker discusses her husband's move from Germany to Grand Falls-Windsor, his watch repair and jewellery shop, as well as the other businesses on Main Street. She also remembers the supportive nature of the business owners on Main Street especially Mr. George Stewart.

Mrs. Becker describing George's kind nature:
Mr. George Stewart, who was up on the end with the big grocery, we knew George well. We would go to him for the groceries. So George used to come down and visit Ern in his shop. Ern couldn’t leave because he was the only one there. So he would come and Wayne Morris would come, and George said to him one day, “There is a little tiny spot next to my store,” he said, “you don’t need to be in this drafty old place. Why don’t you come up here?” It was 8’x32’. So he went up into it and Mrs. Basha and the Cozy Chat next door, she owned that bit of land and George owned a little bit so he got the land from Mrs. Basha and built this little 8’x32’ shop.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Mrs. Becker.

~Terra Barrett

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Occupation Folklore of the Fishery

Gordy Doyle. 2014. Photo by Terra Barrett.

In 2014, as part of the Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove Oral History project, I did an interview with fisherman Gordy Doyle of Petty Harbour.  In this interview, Gordy discusses growing up in the community, and his life as a fisherman including folk beliefs and occupational folklore such as pranks.

Listen to the interview here on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

Location and names of some of the traditional fishing berths in Petty Harbour.

~Terra Barrett

“My dad actually saw missiles go through the water" - Interview with Kathy Miller

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up
Katherine Miller, interviewed by Marissa Farahbod

Although she was born in Toronto and travelled to different parts of Canada after she got married, Katherine Miller grew up in Portugal Cove. She explains that her father, her grandfather and her great-grandfather were all born and raised in Portugal Cove. She knows the place well and remembers many stories her parents and grandparents have told her about the Cove.

Katherine, who is known as Kathy to local people, is now doing a genealogy of people in Portugal Cove, and has therefore a wealth of knowledge about the names and markers in the area. Her stories about the life of residents in the past in Portugal Cove are fascinating, and the personal story she shared with me, tragic.

Kathy tells several interesting stories about her father’s childhood in the Cove. As a child, her father, Archibald Miller Jr., had witnessed the sinking of two German U-boats and had seen the Hindenburg pass over during the Second World War:

My dad actually saw missiles go through the water and strike the boats. He was a small boy. He lived down on what was known as North Point and he was actually either on his way to the wharf or down on the wharf when he saw the torpedoes, I guess however he saw them, maybe he was just leaving his home to go down because it’s a little further up, but he actually saw the explosions and saw the boats go down. Another story that he told me was that he was, I guess, fortunate enough to be outside the day that the Hindenburg went overhead. So he was a small boy again, ‘cause in the night time they used to keep their windows closed afraid of the light, afraid of the, you know, ships and what not, seeing them and would strike, that he actually did see the Hindenburg go over Portugal Cove.

Kathy also knows the story behind the names of some places and markers in the Cove. She relays the story that her father told her about Cross Pond, as follows:

He also told me of a story about ponds known as Blast Hole Ponds. One of them he had thought was renamed Cross Pond because of the drowning death of a man who had gone up there to cut wood. I don’t know if he had a horse and sleigh or a dog and sleigh to pull his wood out. He got down to get a drink of water from the little brook or trickle of water that was coming out of the pond and the dog or the horse moved and the sleigh pinned him underneath and was like a, according to my dad they said that the water was only an inch and a half, two inches deep, but because of the position of sleigh he couldn’t get up and drowned in this small trickle of water. And to my knowledge, he is the first person to be buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery, up on Cemetery Road. He would be the oldest grave up there. And that’s how. But like I say, he always thought one of the ponds had been referred to then, from then on as Cross Pond. To mark the death of him they had put a cross or something up there, I guess over the years now it has decayed because it was only a wooden cross.

According to Kathy, her grandfather, Archibald Miller Snr., is the reason why there are rainbow trout in Blast Hole Ponds:

My grandfather walked from North Point, where he lived, into Murray’s Pond with two buckets and he took two buckets of rainbow trout and deposited them in Blast Hole Ponds. So, anybody today who catches a trout, a rainbow trout, out of Blast Hole Ponds is because my grandfather was responsible for putting them in those ponds.

Remembering her childhood in Portugal Cove, Kathy describes going to school in St. Lawrence and being a quiet individual. She recalls being a member of GA (Girls’ Auxiliary) and JA (Junior Auxiliary) and taking part in community or religious activities such as making palm crosses for parish members on Palm Sundays.

Kathy remembers having a quiet and “uneventful” life up until 9th August, 1985. On this tragic day remembered by community members at the Cove, Kathy’s children, who were in her car, drove off the cliff. She describes the heart-breaking events of this day in detail: Her shock, the one ambulance, the rushing paramedics, the complications and so on. She explains how her life changed after that day because of her daughter’s condition, and how she later lost her in 1998. Kathy finds it difficult to talk about the day, nevertheless she does not want the day to be forgotten as she believes it is a part of the history of Portugal Cove.

Kathy is interested in gathering the stories in Portugal Cove and working on its genealogy. She wants to find more relations and roots. She wants to discover and put to the test some myths and legends about the Cove. For instance, she wants to discover if rumours about the existence of bats in Portugal Cove are true. She also wants to know the origin of local legends about a plane crash, which were in existence before the plane crash that occurred in 1978.

There was supposed to have been a plane that crashed up there but not the one… apparently there was the one that crashed in 1978. Not that one. This one would have been older. But they could never find it, because the trees never really, they were so dense down there that they could never find this plane went down. So it might be interesting once, now that the track has been made, the trail from the Geys down to Bauline. If people start going off into the woods and search on whatever, maybe the rumour or the myth of this plane will be always there. It may come to, you know, an end. I don’t know. I have to do a little research.

Kathy does not live in Portugal Cove anymore. But she is eager to reconnect to a place she grew up in and is attached to. She describes how happy she is that her other family members, like her nephew, are becoming more and more interested in the stories of the Cove. She believes that by gathering and sharing these stories, Portugal Cove’s fascinating rich community history can be better preserved.

This interview was conducted as part of a Collective Memories Mug Up project conducted by Memorial University students enrolled in FOLK 6740: Public Folklore, Winter 2017. If you would like to listen to the full interview click here. 

#CollectiveMemories Monday - May Day

International Grenfell Association photograph collection.
Labrador and Northern Newfoundland.
May Day: Labrador Public School.
Series VA 94, Item VA 94-35.5.
Courtesy of The Rooms Archives.

Last week I had an interview with Peggy Snow who attended our initial Mount Pearl Memory Mug Up. Peggy grew up in Kilbride and spent a lot of time swimming in the river and playing in the secret hideouts of Bowring Park. During our interview she described her childhood in Kilbride including children's games, local businesses, and the importance of the school and church.

Peggy attended St. Augustine's school which was part of St. Bride's College also known as Littledale. One of the memories she shared of her time in school was her memories of the May walk which she describes in the audio clip below. During the walk the children would wear blue ribbons and crown a Mary in celebration of the Virgin Mary.

Similar traditions or celebrations involving a May Queen and maypoles occur around the world during the month of May. In England May Queens are crowned and maypoles or may bushes are often erected. The tradition of maypoles are also seen in parts of Newfoundland and you can read this may bush blog post to learn more.

Another part of the province which practised the tradition of crowning  a May Queen was Labrador. Although I don't know much of the practice I came across the above photo during a work term with Them Days in Labrador and it immediately came to mind as Peggy described her memories of crowning one of the children with blue ribbons during their May Walk. I reached out to Them Days Archives and was told the practice was thought to have been brought by English settlers and was concentrated in the communities of Cartwright and North West River.

Were you ever crowned a May Queens?
Do you remember May Walks, maypoles, or may bushes?
Let us know and share your memories and photographs!

~Terra Barrett

Launch of "Railway Memories - Stories of the Newfoundland Railway"

In the summer of 2016, I started chatting with Stephen Bonnell and the folks at the Clarenville Heritage Society. The Society, based out of the old Clarenville railway station, was interested in getting involved with the Collective Memories program and safeguarding some of the stories associated with the railway and with the history of Clarenville itself. So off I went, and I helped to interview two local gentlemen, Lindo Palmer and Baxter Tuck. Both of them had fabulous stories of their time with the railway, and I felt that we needed to showcase their memories in some way.

At the same time, I knew there were other oral histories mentioning the Newfoundland Railway which we had worked to place on Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative (DAI). And so, with the help of our staff at the ICH office, notably Heather Elliott, Terra Barrett, and Kelly Drover, we put together the next in our ongoing "Collective Memories" series.

Today, we are pleased to launch this, our fifth in the series, designed by Jessie Meyer.

"Railway Memories - Stories of the Newfoundland Railway" is available as a freely downloadable pdf, and contains stories from: Beverley Ann Butler, Patrick Collins, Joseph Cormier, Henry Hutchings, Colin Pike, Lindo Palmer, Clayton Tipple, Baxter Tuck, and Ron White.

Download the pdf here.

Top photo: A break in the line, 1917. Courtesy of the Maritime History Archives, photo #PF-329.042. The Collective Memories Project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, with funding provided by the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development.