Mercurochrome, Spirits of Nitre, Olive Oil and Oil of Citronella

Anyone remember these old medicines? Are they even still available? Well I guess technically Oil of Citronella was more used a insect repellent.  And yes I know you can get olive oil in the grocery store, but lets talk about the uses we had for them back in the day.


Mercurochrome was an antiseptic, often put on small scrapes and cuts. Left a red splash on the skin.  I can remember the little bottle now with the eye dropper style dispenser.  It had mercury and was removed from the market. Mercury is what made hatter’s mad.  Never had any noticeable effect on me though (cough).

Olive oil was warmed and used in the ears to break up wax as well as to alleviate ear aches.  Any other uses I don’t recall!

Spirits of Nitre – I remember this as a medicine to use for an upset stomach, or gas.  We always had this on hand as well as peppermint (which i don’t think was the same as peppermint extract).  Not sure if that was its official use, but hey if you know more please comment!

Oil of Citronella – My memory of this really just comes from one instance, my cousin Bill Smith gave me a partial bottle of this telling me it was the best thing to use for “fly dope” (insect repellent). I still remember the green glass bottles, and I know there were a ton more of these little glass bottles in households years ago.

Remind me of some more?
January 2, 2013 by Uncategorized 5

New Year’s Eve

Bluff Head Cove Pond

I’ve worked in the hotel industry, and have seen the posh black tie New Year’s Eve balls with the brass band followed by a fancy champagne breakfast.  And while that’s what many want and love, my New Year’s favorite was much simpler.

It may very well be a combination of trips that come together as one memory, but New Year’s Eve for me was best spent down at Randy’s and Everette’s cabin.  We all sat around the table, likely still wearing our skidoo suits because it was so cold, even with the old wood stove going behind us.  
The smell of a roast of moose cooking in the oven, covered in onions, a bottle or bottles on the table, and poker being played with the gang.  
The night I remember, while I can’t swear it was New Year’s Eve, we had been playing and all decided to go to bed.  It was bitterly cold that night, I remember warming my gloves on the atv’s exhaust trying to keep my hands warm.  Sometime after we had gone to bed, (And inceidentally, after a bottle of coke had frozen on the table), Shawn Avery and Rick Turley showed up, pretty hammered from what I remember, and got us all up again.  I think we’d probably have gotten up again anyway to relight the fire, it was soooo cold!
Sounds painful doesn’t it?  But it was a great time and memory.  
Happy New Year!
December 31, 2012 by Uncategorized 0

Shortest Phone Conversation

Watching the world junior hockey championships on TV, I think back to the shortest phone conversation I ever heard. It was when the gang I hung around with were trying to organize a hockey game in on Elliott’s Cove Pond.  I remember Derek Smith calling David Quinton and the conversation went “Hockey? Yep, when? One” That was it.

One o’clock rolls around and we are all in on the pond, which was like a sheet of glass.  Teams were decided by piling sticks and throwing them in opposite directions, you were on the team where your stick went.  Nets were generally a pair of boots separated by the length of a hockey stick, sometimes we had goalies, often the person or persons who had no skates, often there were none.  I really don’t remember if we had any for this particular game, but I do recall one goal the puck rolled and rolled and rolled.  I believe it was David Smith that skated pretty much the length of the pond, all the way to the park, to get it back, took about 10 minutes or more.

Another thing I remember was that the pond ice was so hard, that stopping like you would at a stadium was much different.  If you tried it that way, you’d often dig yourself a rut and go flying over, lucky to not snap an ankle, much less spray up a sheet of snow.

Ah good times 🙂

December 30, 2012 by Uncategorized 1

Jannying
From downhomelife.com

Jannying (or mummering) is a tradition from Newfoundland that had nearly died out until popularized in a song by Simani.  I had never actually seen a janny until I became one myself.

Traditions varied from location to location, but back home at least people would dress in in old silly clothing, wearing scarves and long underwear on the outside,often stuffed to disguise both gender and size.  Once dressed you would go from home to home, singing, stomping, and generally being silly while the people tried to guess who you were.  Jannys usually spoke with an indrawn breath as well in order to disguise thier voice.

Once you had been guessed the hosts generally shared some form of alcoholic beverage (mmmm Aunt Lil Pelly’s slush) and a piece of cake or cookie and then often picked up more members from that house and moved on to another.

The one side effect of Jannying I remember, other than a hangover, was the in and out from warm to cold while wearing warm costumes caused chills from the cooling sweat.  Am sure many a flu was contracted!

Today in some locations the tradition seems to be being replaced with a mummers parade.  While I like the parade concept, I am not sure I want it to wholly replace the tradition either.

Any mummers lowed in?

Please share any mummer stories or pictures you have!

December 28, 2012 by Uncategorized 0

Salt Fish and Scrunchions

Here in Nova Scotia the tradition for Christmas Eve seems to be lobster (blech).  Back home in Newfoundland, or at least my part of it, the traditional Christmas Eve meal was salt fish (cod) and scrunchions.

Scrunchions are basically small pieces of fat back pork, fried up crispy (like bacon fat) and then served with the liquid fat over your fish and potatoes.  Sounds gross to the uninitiated I know, but its sooooooo delicious.

Salting cod was (and still is I guess) the traditional way to keep it for the long winter months before everyone had electricity and deep freezers.  Salted and sundried, the fish would last for a very long time, and when wanted, was left to soak in water overnight and then drained and boiled the next day.

Fat back pork was another staple in every household, and used for anything needing fat, traditional Newfoundland foods had a high fat content, with lots of fried foods.  I can only assume the hard rugged lifestyle helped the older generation burn it off.

For me another treat from the salt fish were the leftovers. Why? Because they’d typically be mashed with leftover potato and onion and then fried (mmmm more fat) into fish cakes, one of my most favorite meals ever.

Are you hungry yet?

May you be blessed with your favorite foods, family and festivities over the holidays.  Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2012 by Uncategorized 1

The Bookmobile

As long as I can remember I’ve loved to read.  I can remember reading Hardy Boy books way back when they were almost as big as me.

This was instilled and reinforced I’m sure by the travelling Bookmobile from the Newfoundland Public Libraries.  I think there was a library in Clarenville when I was a boy, perhaps in the fire station building? I forget for sure, but most of my reading came from the bookmobile.  These travelling libraries used to come to some rural towns back in those days, perhaps most, I really have no idea, but I remember it fondly.

Many a Hardy Boy adventure, and lesser known adventures such as Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, Tom Swift, and quite a collection of English kids books by Enid Blyton (anyone else read Five Find-Outers and Dog?) were inhaled voraciously by me.

I am also pretty sure I first read one of the first sci-fi fantasy books I ever read from here, that being A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

I still love to read to this day, and will always remember the smell of books in that little mini-bus, the walls filled, a desk installed behind the driver so he could just spin a chair round and stamp the little pocket at the back.

Was an event and treat to see that bus come down over the hill and run out to wait for the doors to open.

If anyone has any pictures of it, or recollections to add, let me know!

December 22, 2012 by Uncategorized 5

Toy Time Around Clarenville

Growing up back home in eastern Newfoundland, There were no huge malls or big box stores, instead we had locally owned stores.  The names will ring bells for some, Western Tire, Stanley’s, Duffit’s, Junes, and a bit later The Chain Store, Ayres, but the granddaddy of them all for me was Cholock’s.

This was a huge department store or seemed huge to a kid anyway, located near the railway tracks in downtown Clarenville.  (The building later became home to the department of wildlife offices for those who may be trying to locate) I don’t recall a lot about the store per se, but what was the huge draw was ….. upstairs! …..

Image from http://clarenville.newfoundland.ws
Image from http://clarenville.newfoundland.ws

My memory may be foggy, as its been closed for many a year, but if I recall correctly, upstairs only opened a few weeks before Christmas, and it was full of toys, toys and more toys.  It was a magical place for me, and I’m sure many other local kids.

A little later on Ayre’s opened in Clarenville too, Riff’s was in that location after, followed by other places, but Ayre’s remains as a big memory. Their toy section seemed huge at Christmas time, I can’t recall if it was there all year round or not, and I’m sure it would seem small compared to today’s stores, but it was also a great place as a kid.  Another one that was less well known maybe was, I believe, called Martin’s.  Near Hyne’s Jewelry they sold musical instruments and I can’t remember what else.  I was and am musically inept, but I was always fascinated by the things in there.

We didn’t see toys all year round in stores then, or if we did, not locally.  To go these stores was to start Christmas, and I look back on it fondly, and wish that some of that magic passes on to you and yours this season.

December 20, 2012 by Uncategorized 7

Church in Small Towns

While I’m no avid church goer, the church of years ago was more than about the service.  Each small town had its own church, with unbelievable amounts of local work and wealth (or lack of wealth) invested in it.

I remember the pulpit and pews in our old church probably cost more than the town made in a year, tho I really have no idea where they came from. Perhaps they were made my locals, it was all before my time.

I remember each week a family had a “turn”.  If it was your turn, you had to light and maintain the fire in the old old wood stove, as well as provide wood, and ring the bell.  Yes it had a bell, attached to an old rope pull, and as a kid, it was actually a treat to be the one to go ring it a half hour or so before service.

After the service was over, people would hang out outside and socialize for quite sometime, and traditionally most would invite the minister home for lunch/dinner. Of course when he accepted your invite the parents tried to have the kids be on their best behaviour.  Not really sure that part ever worked with me!

December 19, 2012 by Uncategorized 0

Bus Rides

When I first started school, we were bussed to a school called Balbo Elementary in Shoal Harbour, named after an Italian General who landed and departed from there in the 1930’s.  I can’t say I remember much about school there, nothing memorable right now anyway, but I do remember this one huge bump on the ride home that made us all come out of our seats, more so I bet because it was only a few people on a mostly empty bus, so less weight.  Anyway, I remember it well, I swear I once hit my head on the roof, tho my memory may be faulty (perhaps from the bump?)

December 18, 2012 by Uncategorized 0

Outlet….

I’ve created many blogs over the years, and always felt like I abandoned them.  I think its mainly because I felt I had to write for others, and while my interests are varied, it never felt like everything belonged together. I felt noone else had any interest in what I was writing.

But I think what I really need is somewhere to just write a few words here and there, so lets try this again.

The blog is titles Random Island Memories, and a lot of my posts will be about growing up back home on Random Island, but be forewarned, I may veer off on tangents and be prone to rant occasionally.

December 18, 2012 by Uncategorized 1

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