Merchants & Memories: What was your favourite shop when you were young?

Merchants & Memories Mug Up
Where was your favourite place to shop when you were young? What stores hold particular memories? Where was your favourite diner or soda shop? Which restaurants had the best service? Who was your favourite butcher, cobbler, hat maker, or dress maker? Where was the best place to buy penny candy? Do you remember your first job? And let's settle that age-old question: who served the best fish and chips in St. John's? We want to know! We'll put the kettle on, you bring your stories.

The Memory Mug Up is an informal story sharing session for seniors, where people gather, have a cup of tea, and share memories.

Merchants & Memories Mug Up
Marjorie Mews Public Library

12 Highland Drive

2:30pm, Wednesday March 29th
Free

Facebook event listing here.

photo:  A. Harvey and Company premises. World War II censored photograph collection.
Collection GN 181, Item A 54-149 [1942-1945]. The Rooms

#Folklorephoto Did you have a Newfoundland Certificate of Registration in the 1940's?

This Certificate of Registration belonged to Elsie Maud Whalen of Bradley's Cove. She was registered resident under the Defence (National Registration) Regulations on December 8th, 1942. Do you have memories of having one of these certificates? Did you have to show it to a police officer or Newfoundland Ranger? 

If you have information on these certificates, please email kelly@heritagefoundation.ca

~ Kelly

#CollectiveMemory Monday - Joseph Cormier, "The Nipper"

This week, we take a peek into the history of the Newfoundland Railway.

Joseph Cormier of Grand Falls got his first job with the railroad at the age of twelve. Not old enough or strong enough to work with the maintenance crews repairing the tracks, Joseph was given another, just as important job.

B 3-190, The Rooms Provincial Archives

“Oh when I was a youngster I worked on the railroad, I was 12 years old. … I was a nipper, bringing water to the fellows who was working on the rail, you know? I’d have a bucket of water and an old tin dipper, dip down in the water and go around giving drinks to the men, see, who were out.”

Young Joseph, spending so much time around the older railmen, started picking up habits that his mother wouldn’t have approved of.

“I got so far ahead, I got [inaudible] topped boots, you know, and I got to chewing tobacco and smoking, see? And this day I was coming up the road which overlooked the river, about seven miles from my home and I was up with a big chewing tobacco in my mouth coming, walking up the road, see? And next I look and here’s my mother coming to get me. I damn near swallowed the chewing tobacco! [laughs]”.

To hear Joseph's whole story, take a listen at the DAI!

Living Heritage Podcast Ep070 Sharing Our Cultures

Lloydetta Quaicoe is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sharing Our Cultures, Incorporated. The program, established in 1999, engages high school youth in skills-development workshops which culminate in them sharing their cultures with the public and over 800 Grade 6 students at a three-day event at The Rooms. Lloydetta obtained her PhD in Education at the University of South Australia. Her areas of research are the psychosocial needs of newcomer children and youth and their sense of place and belonging.

In this episode we discuss the beginning of Sharing Our Cultures, the growth of the program over the past 25+ years, the importance of the program and how students and the general public respond, this year’s theme and what to expect at the event. Lloydetta also explains how Sharing Our Cultures is going national this year.

Listen on the Digital Archive:
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ich_oral/id/702/rec/1

Sharing Our Cultures - Photo courtesy of The Rooms NL Twitter.

Notes from the Grey Sock Project - Knitting Our Heritage!

About the Women’s Patriotic Association

The Women’s Patriotic Association (WPA) was made up of over 15,000 women across Newfoundland and Labrador who donated their time to raise money and support those at home and overseas. One of the WPA’s goals was to provide Newfoundland and Labrador troops with the comforts of home. Volunteers knitted scarves, socks, mittens, and hats which were shipped overseas along with medical supplies and other goods.

To commemorate what the WPA did for those at home and overseas, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, the City of St. John’s, and other partners are embracing their spirit to help those in need today. We have been gathering volunteer knitters to knit socks, scarves, hats and other knitwear to donate to groups and individuals in need.  The Grey Sock Project aims to link traditional craft and contemporary community by creating knit goods, sharing knowledge, and helping each other.

Read more about the Women's Patriotic Association and the grey sock here.


Sock Knitting Patterns

Historic Patterns

• Check out our past ICH Newsletter for a WWI Knitting Pattern on page 5.
• The American Red Cross also gathered volunteers to knit socks. Click here and try your hand at this modern pattern adapted from 1917.
• The Canadian Red Cross Spring 1918 War Work book contains a pattern on page 15. No modern adaptation created. Take a look and give it a try here.
• See Needlework and Knitting Instructions produced by the British Red Cross Society in 1914 on page 17.

Modern Patterns

• Free Super Simple Sock Pattern - great for first time sock knitters!
• Operation Homespun - traditional Newfoundland and Labrador knitting patterns! Includes traditional sock pattern.

Donate your knitting to a good cause 

There are lots of people out there who could use a warm hat, scarf, or pair of socks. You have a couple options for donating your knitting to a good cause.

1. Donate to Some Warm Welcome! It is an initiative created to welcome Syrian refugees that are arriving in Canada. Hats, mittens, socks, scarves, vamps or anything that will keep someone warm this winter are welcome. Attach a tag that says “Welcome to Canada” in English, French and Arabic. These tags are available to download.

Source: Some Warm 

Welcome Facebook page

To donate to this cause, drop off your knitted goods at:

• any "Some Good Market" event (see https://www.facebook.com/SomeGoodMarket/ for dates and locations)
• Cast On Cast Off, 685 Water St, St. John's 
• The Bay Roberts Visitor's Information Pavilion, call for hours 683.1798
• MALA, 74 Broadway, Corner Brook
• All 95 public libraries of Newfoundland and Labrador. Check www.nlpl.ca for the closest one near you! 

2. You can mail or drop off your knitted goods to:

Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
1 Springdale Street, 1st Floor 

PO Box 5171

St. John's, Newfoundland
Canada A1C 5V5

3. You can also donate to your local shelter and/or food bank

#Folklorephoto Is there something wrong with this picture? How do you open a can of Carnation milk?

At our recent Tea Bun Workshop, a can of Carnation milk was opened like this, to the shock of many participants. How do you open a tin of evaporated milk?

#CollectiveMemories Monday - The Childhood of Janet Story

In September of 2013, I had the pleasure of interviewing Janet Story at her home in St.John's on the topic of growing up in St.John's.

Janet Story was born in 1924 and grew up in St. John's, NL. The interview begins with her providing background information about herself and her family, and then reminiscing about the children's game "Hoist your Sails and Run", ice skating, hockey, tube skates, street cars on Water Street, attending Holloway's School, playing marbles in the spring and sliding in the winter, and summer activities such as swimming and catching tadpoles.

Janet also shares her memories of being a young girl in St. John's during WWII, the blackouts of the 1940s and the Air Raid Precaution Group, playing field hockey and basketball as a teenager, and other memories of her early life.

Janet passed away three months after our recording session, but the full interview is available on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

You can listen to more of Janet's memories of her life in sports here.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep069 Building Boats and Building Community

Jim Dempsey is the President of the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador. Jim has been around boats and the ocean all of his life. As a boy, he spent his summers on the beach where he always had a boat to row. After studying marine biology and oceanography at university, he was fortunate to be employed in his field for over forty years. He has worked along the entire British Columbia coast, in the Canadian Arctic, and from Sable Island to Hudson's Bay on the east coast. For Jim, the Wooden Boat Museum has provided a chance to realize a dream to build wooden boats. This experience has been enhanced by the people he has met, the places he has visited, and the stories he has heard. In this interview we talk all about the wooden boat museum, their past conferences, the work of conserving boatbuilding skills, and their current educational and outreach programs.

Listen on the Digital Archive:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ich_oral/id/706/rec/1

Spencer Birch Brooms - The next generation! #nlheritage

I posted yesterday about the birch brooms of Samuel R. Spencer, Cul de Sac West. In a great example of how the internet can be a good thing at times, I got an email today from Mike Spencer, the grandson of Samuel Spencer. Mike is the first cousin of Janet Edmonds, who showed me her grandfather's broom.

Mike wrote, "he taught me how to make the birch brooms when I was a teenager and I have made a few over the years. I interviewed my grandmother about them when I was doing my degree at Grenfell, they used the brooms as a tool for processing salt fish."

I had mentioned in the blog post about his grandfather's broom that it was tied off with wire, instead of the cord used by broom maker Joshua Young. Mike noted that, "Pop didn't always use wire on his brooms, I think it was more about what he had on on hand," which fits with Janet's description of him as a bit of a tinkerer.

Mike also sent me a couple photos (shown here) of a broom he made in 2016. 

Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more broom posts sweeping your way soon! In the meantime, if you have a birch broom or a story about one, email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca. 

- Dale Jarvis