"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. 

What Do You Remember About the Community Post Office? #Folklorephoto

028.03.126 "Mrs. Dine Haynes." August 17th 1962. From the Allen and Pearl Squires fonds. Courtesy of the Portugal Cove St. Philip's Archives.  

Do you recognize the above post office? or Mrs, Dine Haynes?

The image is part of a collection of slides taken by Allen and Pearl Squires in 1962. Allen Squires grew up in St. Philip's and while home for a visit for the summer of 1962, Allen and Pearl traveled around the Avalon Peninsula taking photographs in various communities including Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, Pouch Cove, Torbay, St. John's, Holyrood, Brigus and others. This slide was labeled "Mrs. Dine Haynes" August 17th 1962, though there are no other photographs from that day to give other clues to where this might be.

The left side of the photograph shows a cemetery, which appears to only be next to the Post Office because of a partial double exposure, and not part of the actual location. In the window is a Players cigarette advertisement and a Brookfield dairy ad "For a treat try a Polar [Bar]", indicating that the Post Office also served as a store. Do you know which community this Post Office was in?

What do you remember about your local post office? Was it part of a store? Was it in someone's house? Who worked there?

~Kelly

#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!

“I remember my first cup of tea" - Interview with Delores Susan Mitchell

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up

Delores Mitchell, interviewed by Ema Kibirkstis

Delores Susan Mitchell, nee Greeley, was born January 3rd, 1957, and has lived her entire life in Portugal Cove. Her mother, Annie Violet Roberts, was a “townie” from St. John’s and took care of the home and family, and her father, Leonard Greeley, was a labourer for Stokes. She lived with her grandparents Archibald and Suzy, nee Churchill, in North Point until the age of nine, when her parents built and moved to a new home further down the road. Mitchell fondly remembers her heavily tattooed grandfather that had a story for every mark and was in charge of local grave digging, and her grandmother who would always favour her as the only girl and often treat her when making a trip to “town.”

North Point, or “The Geeze,” was isolated compared to the rest of Portugal Cove, and so they were often left “off to themselves”. Most of her memories growing up a tomboy, living with four brothers, or playing with some of her closest friends, Joselyn Churchill and Sylvia Greeley. When not in school, Mitchell recalls spending most of her time outdoors and “making their own fun.” During the warmer months, she recalls playing softball, skip rope, hopscotch, hide-and-seek, and spotlight. In the winter, they would go sledding in the meadow behind her house, and if there was freezing rain, skate down the hill. Everyone would get around by biking or walking, and if they were to go to “town”, St. John’s, they would have to take the bus.

Mitchell recalls holidays and special events amongst family and friends dearly. During Christmas time, she remembers her father and members of the community mummering, and on Christmas Day many people constantly stopping by. What was particularly exciting for her, was when Santa Claus visited on Old Christmas Day (January 6th). On New Years Eve, her family would wait in front of the television together until midnight struck, and her father and grandfather would go outside to shoot their guns with the rest of “the cove”. Amongst her friends, Halloween and Valentine’s Day were the most exciting. During the latter, children would leave anonymous valentines at each other’s doors. Amongst her family, Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) was particularly fun because her mother would hide coins, nails, needles, buttons, or her own wedding ring in the cakes, each granting their own prediction for the future.

In the neighbourhood, she recalls there being a woman who read tea leaves and ward off warts, a man who could stop blood, and the “cat man” who lived alone amongst an abundant amount of felines. Just up the road from her were two grocers, Hibbs’ and Churchill’s. For every other need, they would have to catch the bus to St. John’s.


ON BEING THE ONLY GIRL

“One Christmas, Santa had left me a beautiful walking doll. Let me tell you, she was a big doll and she looked real. She was beautiful. Well, the boys got their hands on it and glued her eyes shut. It broke my heart. I could never get her eyes open again – I was devastated. I kept her, of course. I could never have anything. I had a stroller, a doll, child’s stroller, and they took the wheels off of that to make a buggy for themselves, oh my… But no, I couldn’t have anything. Everything I had they destroyed.”

ON HER FIRST TEA

“I remember my first cup of tea I had as a child. My grandmother poured some in a saucer because it was hot, and I would blow on it to cool it down, and drink it from the saucer so I wouldn’t burn my lips. Loved it and I still drink tea today. She got me hooked on tea.”

ON LACK OF FEAR

“When we had a lot of freezing rain and it was really cold, we would put on our skates and we could skate down the mountain. And I remember one year, I lost total control coming down over the mountain, and I went through my neighbour’s fence. I was hurt, nothing broken thank god, but I did get hurt. I was in bed for a while. But we had no fear.”

ON VALENTINE’S DAY

“They do Valentine’s different now. We used to make out our valentines, and most of the time we wouldn’t sign our name, we’d say, “Guess who?” If I would send one to you, I would write your name and then I would say, “Guess who?” And what we did, we would put them underneath your door, or by your door, and we’d knock and run away. Whatever child was home inside that house was anxious, listening for the door or a knock on the door so that they can go get their valentine. It was fun… We would try to guess who it was, and that was all part of it trying to guess “Who was that one from?” And trying to catch someone trying to leave a valentine at your door to find out exactly who did it, that was fun too.”

ON HIBBS’ GROCER

“There were two stores: Churchill owned one, and Hibbs owned one. Two stores next door to each other. My mom always had an account. People had accounts at Hibbs’, and as they get paid - like my father got paid he’d pay so much on his account… They had bologna, tinned food, salt meat, and whatever, right? And of course, she [Mrs. Hibbs] would have her little book with my parents name on it, and she would write down everything that they put on their account. And then of course when they paid their bill, it would be marked paid. Then it would start again.”

ONE THE CAT MAN

“He lived down from me. He loved cats. Nat Pond was his name, that’s what we used to call him. He loved cats. One of my brother’s and a neighbour’s child went down there one day and drowned one his cats in his well. Oh, he was devastated… They were young, and you know them boys, up to their antics. So anyway, he came up to my parents and the parents next door, and of course my brother and my neighbour’s son were chastised, most definitely. There were cats everywhere. He loved cats. And he lived by himself – don’t know if he was ever married, he could have been, but when I was old enough to understand, he was on his own. And he loved cats, he just loved them.”

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. 

Alex C. Gruchy General Dealer, Pouch Cove 1954 #Folklorephoto

028.03.013 Alex H. J. Gruchy, Delcie Squires, and Pearl Squires in front of Alex C. Gruchy General Dealer, Pouch Cove. 1954
Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives 

These two photograph are from the Allen and Pearl Squires fonds at the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives. Allen and Pearl visited his home town of St. Philips, taking 35mm slided in 1954 and 1962. The slides show the couples travels around the Avalon Peninsula including Pouch Cove. The above photo shows the Pouch Cove shop Alex C. Gruchy General Dealer in 1954. Allen Squires and Alex Gruchy served together in WW2 as part of the 166th Newfoundland Field Regiment Royal Artillery. Below is a photograph from Allen and Pearls 1962 visit, showing Allen Squires, Alex and Jean Gruchy with their children and a friends baby.

 028.03.132 - Alex and Jean Grouchy and their son and daughter and friends baby and Allen Squires (in suit) in. Pouch Cove. August 12th 1962. Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives.  

Are you from the Pouch Cove area? What do you remember about the Gruchy's shop?

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

Seniors wanted for NL food video series

Food First NL and its partners are currently looking for seniors from across the province to show us their food skills for a series of short educational videos! These videos will capture the rich food knowledge, skills, and traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador seniors so that they can be celebrated & enjoyed for years to come.

Food First NL will be travelling to the communities of selected seniors to film the videos in June, July, and August 2017.

You can nominate yourself, or a senior that you know!

Please fill out the application form, attached, and return the form by Friday, June 2nd by email to jennifer@foodfirstnl.ca or by fax to 709-237-4231 or drop it off in person to the Food First NL office at 44 Torbay Road Suite 110 in St. John’s.


If you have any questions about the opportunity, please feel free to contact Jennifer Wood at jennifer@foodfirstnl.ca or 709-237-4026.

#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

New Perlican's Goat Tea and Other Animal Tales

Did you grow up milking goats? Do you remember hauling wood by goat instead of horse? Do you have memories of keeping gardens or raising animals? Do you have old photos or items associated with the agricultural history of New Perlican? The Heritage Foundation NL, in partnership with Heritage New Perlican, wants to know!

We’ll be hosting the Goat Tea and Other Animals Tales in the Veteran’s Memorial Community Centre, Main Road, New Perlican on Friday, May 19th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

“We are looking for anyone connected to New Perlican with stories about goats or other farm animals, growing vegetables, or building root cellars,” says Heritage Foundation folklorist Dale Jarvis. “If you have memories or photographs of agriculture in New Perlican, we would love to hear from you.”

This innovative project is part of the Foundation’s Oral History Roadshow and will highlight the importance of oral history as well as traditional knowledge about animal husbandry, self-sufficiency, food security, and agricultural practices in the community. It will also connect the past to the present and showcase interviews with the current generation of goat-owners, and will demonstrate how goats are used in New Perlican’s older cemeteries today as lawn mowers to cut down overgrowth.

Come for a cup of tea, and bring photos, goat yokes or other agricultural objects to show off. There will be a digization station to scan or photograph items, so you can take your originals home with you. The information gathered will be used alongside oral history interviews and archival research to create a booklet about the goats of New Perlican.

Check out the Facebook event here!

For more information please contact Terra Barrett with the Heritage Foundation toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5 or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca

#FoodwaysFriday - What is your favourite game meat?

Assorted meat pies from Bidgoods Grocery Store in the Goulds. Photo by Sharna Brzycki.

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 1986 with Mr. Arthur Boyd. Mr. Boyd was 81 years old at the time radio broadcaster, Hiram Silk, interviewed him about growing up in the area of Little Bay Islands and Petries where he was born. Mr. Boyd discusses hunting rabbits and caribou, farming and selling veggies by the barrel and pound in Little Bay – potatoes, turnips, cabbage, the whole works.

If you want to learn more about the area of Little Bay click here to listen to the full interview!

What is your favourite game meat? Are you setting potatoes this year?

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

~Terra Barrett

"That’s certainly my best childhood memory" - Interview with Wally Pynn

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up

Wally Pynn, interviewed by Jill Jablonski
It was in Fox Point Newfoundland in 1953 that Wally Pynn was born to a Principal Lighthouse Keeper and a family of musicians. Wally’s family began to value music in the twentieth century after tragedy struck. It was in 1910 when Wally’s grandmother’s childhood home burned in a fire. The children, with no father and no house, garnered the concern of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, a man who came to Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1880s to provide services to people of the province. Dr. Grenfell took the children to an orphanage in St. Anthony where they were provided with shelter, food and an education in music, which Dr. Grenfell personally fostered. “In fact, he sent two of my relatives to somewhere in Kentucky to study music for a couple of years. And they came back, and anyways, they’re known for playing the organ and piano in St. Anthony” Wally recalls, proud of that heritage.

Wally, who has played a tune or two during church services in Portugal Cove, learned to play the piano and pipe organ when he was a child growing up in a lighthouse with his mother, father, and four siblings. With four siblings and five cousins, who lived close by, Wally never was in want for entertainment. There were games to play, music to learn, and chores to do. One of those chores was berry picking:

I didn’t like picking berries so much. My mother was an avid berry picker, and uh, my uncle’s wife who lived on the lighthouse as well, they loved berry picking. We used to have to go berry picking with them in the fall. I used to hate that. But uh, I love berry picking now. It’s interesting, yeah. We’d go over on the Cape, which was just on the other side of the lighthouse. Lots of bakeapples used to grow there. . . It’s a marsh berry. I like them, and my goodness. We’d go away and, on the Cape, and oh in a day I suppose, we’d pick three, four, five gallons of bakeapples. It was just a lot. Yeah. And, uh I don’t know, lunches were always molasses bread it seems. You know. Butter and molasses bread, and come time to take a break, we’d all sit down by this, you know, little brook. I don’t think the brook was running. It was just a bog, and we’d scoop our cups down into the, we wouldn’t have milk or pop, or anything like that, we’d just have an old glass of cool water, and we would scoop up the water, and have it with molasses bread, and I don’t know. It just seemed like the best snack in the world. If we were lucky, though, Mom probably, probably would bring along a box of cracker jacks, or chips, or something like that. But we just loved cold water and molasses bread.

Also filling his time was school, which was located on the other side of a graveyard from his lighthouse. He never saw any ghosts in the cemetery, and he never felt as if the lighthouse he called home, was really haunted. Instead, it was a warm place that overlooked the water that his grandparents made their money from, as they ferried people to and from their destinations on their deck boat:

My grandparents. They owned what we called a deck boat, it wasn’t a yacht, but it was along those lines. It was a big deck boat, and because there were, no roads that connected the communities on the Northern Peninsula until the mid-sixties or something, my grandfather and my grandmother used to ride people around, take people around to various communities, like the doctor, the nurse, the dentist, social worker, and all those people. And each trip, say the social worker had some work to do in Main Brook, which was sixty miles away, or whatever. They would pay my grandfather twenty dollars to take them around. So he did that, my grandfather and grandmother did that in retirement, and would take the rangers around, the policemen, used to call them rangers back in the day. So I remember I would be sitting on the cliff, or standing on the cliff. Me and my cousins, you know, waving at the deck boat, Grandmother and Grandfather going by, cause we knew we would get a quarter at the later end of the day. They would come into the wharf, and we would go down to meet them and stuff. And my grandmother was the most wonderful person in the world. Just the sweetest darling, and guaranteed, whenever we saw Grandmother, she would have this big purse full of change for her grandchildren, and we would get a quarter. But anyway, just to see, I can hear the boat too, just passing by the lighthouse, “oh there’s Grandfather and Grandmother coming in today” and “they’re leaving now”. They would have those people, those people that were required, for whatever reason, in other communities, it was the only way to get there, you know, take them by boat. Because there were no roads, or anything that used vehicles. I think the road didn’t go through the Northern Peninsula until 1966, and uh. So yeah, that’s what they did in their retirement. And just to go onboard the deck boat was so nice. Grandmother had a nice little stove on there, and she would make little pies and little buns, that kind of stuff. The boat would be tied to the wharf, and we would play cards together, and read stories, and go down and visit them, and that’s all nice. That’s certainly my best childhood memory.

Others thought Wally's home was lovely too. One man even stopped and near the Pynn's hen house, and began painting a picture of the lighthouse. This man’s painting inspired Wally, who as soon as he found some cardboard and paint, copied the artist as well as he could, and painted the lighthouse too. Painting is not only a skill to Wally but a comfort, just as his wood carvings and writing is. One might ask where he gets his inspiration from. The answer is a combination of past and present. Memories of the graveyard, of berry picking, his love of family, and music, they have shaped and inspired him. But the quiet serenity of Portugal Cove, the rolling hills, greenery, the lap of the water, and Beachy Cove. They are his current sources of inspiration.

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. 

The Torbay Airport 1954. Do You Remember Your First Trip on an Airplane? #Folklorephoto

028.03.059 Torbay Airport.
Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives.

The above image taken in 1954, shows the first terminal building for the Torbay Airport, now the St. John's International Airport. The Royal Canadian Air Force opened the location as a military airport in 1941, constructing the first terminal building in 1943. It would become a civilian operation in 1946 and was run by the Canadian Department of Transportation.   

028.03.055 Pearl Squires in front of Trans Canada Air Lines plane. 1954.
Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives.

These two photographs are part of the Allen and Pearl Squires fonds at the Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Archives. Allen Squires was from St. Philip's and the fonds includes two sets of 35mm slides taken while visiting the area in 1954 and 1962.

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

#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. 

Do you still write letters? Have you ever had a penpal? #Folklorephoto

Recently I was working on some material from the Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, which includes these stacks of letters written during WWII between two penpals who would eventually become husband and wife. With today's social media and email communication, the personal handwritten letters are a really beautiful sight! Do you still write letters? Have you ever had a penpal?

#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.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep075 What is an Art Hive?

Dr. Leah Lewis is an assistant professor, counseling psychologist, creative arts therapist and project lead of the Open Art Studio or Art Hive. Art Hives are forms of community based practice, grounded is social justice and art therapy frameworks. Also known as open studios, art hives create publicly accessible spaces for people to gather, exchange, and make art.

• Open studio, open heart
• 'Art hive' project fosters sense of belonging for immigrant, refugee teens

The art hive project at Holy Heart highschool is working with newcomer youth attending the ESL programming there, all of whom are immigrants and / or refugees. In this episode Leah explains Art Hives, the history behind them, and describes an great example found in Montreal. We also discuss the importance of arts in building community, and explore how to use the Art Hive as a place to learn leadership skills as well as practice creativity.

###

The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

“It was better times, it was" - An interview with Diane Morris

Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Memory Mug Up

Diane Morris, interviewed by Cassandra Colman

It was a windy day in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s when Terra Barrett and I interviewed Diane Morris at the local community center. Diane was born in Twillingate, Newfoundland in 1948, and has been a resident of Portugal Cove since 1986. Diane moved to Portugal Cove in order to pursue a career with Newfoundland Hydro, from which she retired in 2002. Diane and her husband still live in the same house they moved into when they first settled in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s just over thirty years ago. When asked what drew her to Portugal Cove, Diane stated:

“We were planning on buying a house anyway, so we came down, went down to the gas bar down at the service station – I saw a picture of the house in the paper. So then we had a look. I wasn’t planning on buying it at the time, but we did… it was the first one we looked at, it was a good buy. It’s nice down here… it’s very quiet. You are close to everything, the scenery is nice. You have a perfect view of Bell Island… And the neighbours… it is nice here.”

In addition to the tight-knit community, quiet atmosphere, and beautiful scenery, Diane enjoys the opportunities that Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s has for her to fulfill her more athletic inclinations. She is an avid hiker, and enjoys taking to the local trails around Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s with her hiking group. Diane’s favourite trails are located around an area known as Rainbow Gully, where she hikes and snowshoes fairly regularly:

“There’s a lovely hike out in Bay Roberts, but I like them all actually, because we do different ones. We do a bunch around here… we did some of the East Coast Trail as well, right? But the one over behind here [Rainbow Gully], that’s a really nice trail. It’s not one I would do on my own because I think I would get lost, because of the different, you know, little, different off-shoots from that.”

“They come from everywhere, but the two people that set [the hiking group] up were from St. Philip’s. I got involved because they had a meeting over here regarding it. I guess it has been going on for five or six years or more now, but as time went by people came from everywhere – you know, St. John’s, some from the cove, some from CBS – wherever… everybody’s welcome. It’s a great time. We started off with five or six people there every Saturday, and now you might get twenty five or thirty… And then sometimes we go to somebody’s house for a bit of coffee and a little snack after – not every one, but we do that sometimes, which is kind of nice.”

Diane also spent several years rowing in Regatta boating competitions – a style of fixed-seat rowing in which a coxswain steers a boat and a team of rowers on an established racing course. Though she primarily participated in Regatta rowing in St. John’s, Diane also talked a little bit about the Regatta competition held annually in Portugal Cove.

“They have like a mini-Regatta [in Portugal Cove], because I mean they have all these little wheel-spins, and darts, and everything like that, and food, and stuff like that. It’s usually about a whole day, you know, down by the ferry, down that area, right? It’s like, I guess, like a mini-Regatta as compared to St. John’s, which is much bigger, but it’s like a mini-Regatta, which is kind of nice.”

Diane also had a great deal to tell us about her childhood in Twillingate. She grew up in Twillingate with her younger sister, her two younger brothers, and her parents. Diane’s mother was an operating room nurse at the local hospital, and her father was in the merchant navy, and later worked in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and as a stationary engineer in Twillingate’s local hospital. Her father was born in Northern Bay but grew up in Twillingate, and her mother was from Salmon Bay. Of her childhood in Twillingate, Diane had this to say:

“It was better times, it was – I think it was, when I was growing up. It was not as hectic, you know? And stuff like that. It was good.”

“[We would play] Cowboys and Indians, we used to play that. We used to play baseball and softball. We’d swim and we’d skate. We’d have a dance party at the school, something like that, we’d go to that. And we’d meet our friends at a little restaurant, something like that. When the weather was good, we were always outdoors… we used to slide in the winter time. It was enjoyable.”

“We would play hopscotch, and jumping rope… We were always busy. We were never bored, I can say that.”

In wrapping up our interview, Terra asked Diane if there was anything someone who had never visited Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s should know. Diane reiterated all her favourite parts of living in Portugal Cove, and concluded her statement with this:

“I have no plans on moving anytime soon – my age will probably force me later on, but I like it here. My husband likes it here too… It’s just a nice community, you know? It’s very nice, it’s very quiet. I think if anybody, you know, who didn’t live here and came here to live, I think they would enjoy it. It’s nice. I didn’t know where we would have bought a house when we bought it, we just happened to see it down here. It’s close to everything… it’s a nice place.”

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.

Do you remember the Mount Pearl Curl? - Tuesday's #FolklorePhoto

You may remember Kerri Rodden-Kemp from Kilbride who appeared
on The Ellen Degeneres show with her big hair from 1989.
Photo courtesy of CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.

This week I did some follow up interviews from our Mount Pearl Memory Mug Up events which took place at the local library. Debbie O'Rielly who grew up in Mount Pearl in the 1970s and early 1980s described her memories of playing games, going to school, and visiting the local shops. She also explained the system of trails she would play on as a child and later as a teenager used as a hangout spot. Debbie also mentioned some of the major changes and the growth she has seen in the community over the years.

Aside from childhood memories there was one particular thing I had to ask Debbie about and that was the origin of the Mount Pearl Curl. Debbie explained that the phenomenon started a couple of years after she graduated high school but she explained the process of creating the famous Mount Pearl Curl. In the clip below you can learn how to recreate the style with the help of a lot of hairspray and a textbook.



Do you remember the Mount Pearl Curl?
Do you know how this hair trend started or how it spread?
Better yet, do you have photographs?
Let us know in the comments or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca!

~Terra Barrett

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Preparing Turrs with Sarah Hiscock

Sarah Hiscock of Champney's West.

On July 7, 2016, as part of the Collective Memories project, I interviewed Sarah Hiscock of Champney’s West. In this short interview Sarah describes growing up in Champney’s West, shares her memories of the wreck of the Hazel Pearl, and explains how to prepare turr to eat. I’ve included a short audio clip below about cleaning and eating turr.

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


~Terra Barrett

Riddle Me This! Riddle Night at The Crow's Nest Photos

Terra Barrett and Dale Jarvis hosting Riddle Me This!
Photo by Kelly Drover.

Riddle:
We hurt without moving, we poison without touching. 

We bare the truth and the lies. 

We are not to be judged by our size. 

What are we?

(Answer below)

This week our office hosted Riddle Me This an open mic night of traditional riddles at the Crow's Nest. Dale and I came prepped with a selection of riddles from online sources, friends and family, and Memorial University's Folklore and Language Archives. Several audience members also brought riddles to puzzle the audience. It was a great evening of brain work outs and we had requests for a repeat session. We even had one audience member who came decked out in a riddler inspired outfit.

We recorded the riddling session and are working on a list of the traditional and contemporary riddles rhymed off  on Tuesday night. Stay tuned to the blog updates where we will post the completed list and let us know if you would like to see this event again!

~Terra Barrett

Sara Anne Johnson, in her riddler dress, and Dale Jarvis at Riddle Me This!
Photo by Terra Barrett.

Answer: Words

From Pliny to Placentia Bay: The Folklore of Vinegar. #folklorethursday

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got, and home did trot
Fast as he could caper,
He went to bed to mend his head,
With vinegar and brown paper.

The traditional “Jack and Jill” rhyme we learned as children dates back at least to the 1700s, and exists with a number of different verses and variations. What we are focussing on today is that second verse, with the reference to the vinegar plaster. An earlier version, noted in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, goes:

Up Jack got, and home did trot
As fast as he could caper;
To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob
With vinegar and brown paper.

The idea of patching your nob with a vinegar plaster goes back a long way. Greek physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40 – 90 AD) included vinegar in a cure for headaches in his five-volume De Materia Medica. Dioscorides was employed as a medic in the Roman army, so I suspect he knew a thing or two about bumps on the head (and hangovers, for that matter). The idea was supported by Pliny the Elder, who encouraged the use of a vinegar plaster as a cure for snakebite and scorpion stings. Vinegar as a headache cure persisted for a couple thousand years, ending up in children’s rhymes. Well into the modern era it was a common practice in areas without sophisticated medical care, and still survives as a home remedy today. In a 1946 article in Decks Awash, Victor Butler writes,

Many years ago when people lived in the harbours and coves of Placentia Bay, they were without medical assistance in time of sickness and accident. This was one of the prices liveyers had to pay for living in isolation. However, in all the communities first settled, there resided from one to three middle aged mothers who were skilled in administering to the needs of the sick and suffering. Some were more skilled than others in using the limited amount of available remedies to cope with the different ailments. In later years I have given much thought to how those very intelligent, although illiterate women, acquired the skill to use the different roots, leaves, barks and buds of trees and plants in a suitable manner to ease the pain and discomfort of people suffering from so many different ailments. The majority of settlers in the Bays and Harbours migrated to Newfoundland from England, Ireland, Scotland and the Channel Islands. They must have been aware of the different remedies mentioned and then passed the information along to their descendants.

Butler then goes on to list various traditional healing concoctions. Two of those involve vinegar:

7. White liniment —- Equal parts of spirits turpentine and white vinegar were combined with the whites and the shells of two eggs. 

8. Brown paper and vinegar — Brown paper saturated with cold vinegar was placed on foreheads for headaches.

Dame-Dob-of-the-nursery-rhyme was, apparently, of the same school of traditional medicine as Butler’s three middle-aged Placentia Bay mothers.

Today, we are more likely to use vinegar on our fish and chips. Even that custom has its own traditions and folklore.

According to a 1980 article by Susan Coen, the 1953 Avalon Telephone Company phone book had one listing under "Chip Service" for St. John’s -- Ron's Snack Bar, Lime Street. In an interview with Ron Martin, son of the original owner, Martin noted this about vinegar:

The vinegar, fast foods don't even think about vinegar. But vinegar is a very important thing to fish 'n chips. It's got to be brown and it's got to be mixed vinegar. Little packages of that white vinegar, we just don't even use on fish 'n chips. It sounds foolish, but it's a fact. Brown vinegar. I drink it. I actually drink it. Yeah. Every hour I usually have a handful of brown vinegar.

Today in St. John’s, a new generation of vinegar-makers is emerging. Janet Harron is the proprietress of Wild Mother Provisions, a food company specializing in artisanal vinegar and the traditional baked goods of Britain and Ireland. Harron currently sells at the St. John’s Farmer’s Market and her beer-based vinegar (technically alegar) is also available at Rocket Bakery and other retailers in downtown St. John’s.



“We are looking for stories about the use of vinegar in Newfoundland and Labrador,” Harron says. “For example, do you remember a vinegar plant in your house when you were growing up, a home-fermented vinegar made from toasted bread, molasses, yeast and water? What was it used for? Do you remember eating vinegar pie? Or a vinegar drink sweetened with molasses?”

Harron notes that this vinegar drink dates from the 18th century and is called “switchel” or "Haymakers’ Punch" in United States, not to be confused with Newfoundland and Labrador switchel, which refers to tea left boiling on the stove all day.

What are your vinegar memories, or pieces of vinegar folklore from your community? Did you have a vinegar plant? Let us know! Comment below or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca


Works Cited:

Butler, Victor. Angels of Mercy. Decks Awash, vol. 05, no. 05 (October 1976): 14.

Cohen, Susan. “Fish ‘n Chips” in St. John’s. Culture & Tradition, vol. 05 (1980): 43-54.

The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).