#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.

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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