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

Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor - Booklet Launch

Some of the people interviewed for the booklet, members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, and Heritage Foundation staff.

On Saturday, March 4th, Dale, Kelly, and I attended the "Merchants and Memories of Main Street" booklet launch in Grand Falls-Windsor. The launch took place in St. Joseph's Parish Hall just around the corner from Main Street where the memories of the booklet focused.

Interviewer Terra Barrett with longtime GFW resident Yvonne Courtney who was interviewed for the booklet.

“A Little Montreal: Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor” is the third booklet in the Collective Memories Series produced by the Heritage Foundation. This booklet focuses on the memories of people who grew up, lived, worked, and shopped on Main Street with a particular emphasis on the merchants and shops of Main Street, Windsor.

Reviewing photographs from the GFWHS.

The Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society (GFWHS) had a collection of their archival photographs from Main Street projected on the wall.  They displayed several 8mm and 16mm films from Grand Falls and Windsor including a soap box car race, baseball and hockey games. The Society also placed photocopied photographs and documents on a table for visitors to view and help identify the people pictured.

The crowd listening to a reading from the booklet.

The launch was a great success with over 150 people turning out and all the booklets being sold in a matter a minutes. The Society is placing an order for more printed booklets and can be contacted here! A PDF version of the booklet will also be placed online through Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative.

Debating who is in the wedding photograph displayed on the banner.

There were lots of refreshments provided following a couple of speeches and readings by three participants showcased in the booklet.  The Heritage Foundation had three large banners printed and displayed around the room which prompted stories and arguments had over who was in the photographs. After the official launch there were photographs taken of the staff members from different stores on Main Street such as Riff's, Cohen's, Stewart's, etc.

Former staff of a Main Street shop.
I believe this photo is of the Stewart's staff - let us know if the comments if you know for sure!

Discussing stories of Windsor.

The Main Street booklet is part of the foundation’s Collective Memories Project. This project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL, with funding provided by the Department of Children, Seniors, and Social Development. The Collective Memories Project invites seniors to record their stories and memories for sharing and this booklet and launch was an excellent opportunity to do just that!

Anne Warr posing with the Windsor quilt and the Cozy Chat banner which displays the photograph of her parent's wedding in the Cozy Chat.

~Terra Barrett

The birch brooms of Samuel R. Spencer, Cul de Sac West.

One of my current folklore obsessions is the traditional Newfoundland birch broom. I've written about birch brooms on this blog before, and you can read about what a birch broom is (and see a video of Mr. Joshua Young making one) here, and more photos of the process here. If you are so inclined, you can also read an article I wrote called "Street Arabs, Drain Sweepers, and Birch Brooms."

The birch broom picture above belongs to Janet Edmonds of St. John's, and was made by her maternal grandfather, Samuel Robert "Young Sam" Spencer (1920-2001), originally of Cul de Sac West, a now-resettled community just east of Cape la Hune on Newfoundland's south coast. 

Photo of Samuel R. Spencer, courtesy Janet Edmonds.

"Young Sam" shows up on the 1921 Census for Burgeo & LaPoile District - Cul de Sac West, the son of "Old Sam" Spencer (born 1879). He show up again in the 1935 Census for the same district. He later moved to Channel-Port aux Basques, and is buried in the St. James' Anglican Church Cemetery, Barachois Hill, Port aux Basques. 

A few years before his death, he made a batch of birch brooms for family members and grandchildren, including one for Janet and one for her sister. Janet tells me that he was a bit of a craftsman, and liked to putter around making things, including a long-handled "pooper-scooper" so he wouldn't have to bend over while walking the dog. 

Mr. Spencer's birch brooms are very similar in style to those made by Joshua Young, who grew up in Grey River, only a short boat ride (20km or so) from Cul de Sac. The major difference between the two makers is that Spencer's brooms are tied off with wire, rather than the cord used by Young. 

Do you have a birch broom with a story? I want to hear it! I'd also love to track down some living birch broom makers. If you have ideas or memories, comment below, or email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca. 

- Dale Jarvis

Booklet launch - "I’m going to tell your mother" Tuesday March 7th

I’m going to tell your mother: An oral history of childhood’s hidden worlds.
Collective Memories Series #004

Booklet Launch
Tuesday, March 7th
7:30pm - Crow's Nest Officers Club

Over a series of sometimes snowy Monday nights in January 2017, a dozen participants gathered at the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador’s office in St. John’s to learn the basics of oral history.

This extended oral history course was a first for HFNL, and was open to anyone with an interest in local history, culture, and folklore, and who wished to learn more about safeguarding our cultural heritage through the medium of oral histories. We had students and experienced cultural workers, retirees, former journalists, and people passionate about archives and family history.

One of the goals of the course was to have participants work collaboratively to create a finished oral history project. We talked about the importance of focussing a project, and after discussion, we agreed to conduct oral histories on the hidden and secret worlds of young lives, and to collect some of those stories you might not have wanted your parents to know at the time.

Our researchers went out and conducted their own interviews, prepared biographies of their storytellers, and selected memories for publication. On Tuesday, at 7:30pm at the historic Crow's Nest Officers Club, we launch the results of their work with "I’m going to tell your mother: An oral history of childhood’s hidden worlds." 

Come learn some of the secrets uncovered by our researchers!

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Gary Barnes, Leatherworker

In 2012, Nicole Penney and I conducted some research around Newfoundlanders who worked high steel.

One of the intriguing people we met as part of the project was Gary Barnes, a leatherworker and harness maker, who makes leatherwork for those working high steel.

In this interview, Gary Barnes discusses making leather works for high steel such as harnesses, frogs, and belts. Listen to the interview here or visit Gary's website here and check out his work.