Random Island

By Barbara Smith

Barbara wrote the following for a heritage site I was trying to get going.  Unfortunately wasn’t getting interest, so I shuttered it. The post is still useful and insightful though!

Back in the “really” old days, when dad (Hay Smith) was school age, the school in Aspen Brook had a full time teacher, but then for a number of years there were no, or not enough children to warrant one and the school was completely closed.

When I reached school age, mom (Cecelia Smith) and others started advocating for a teacher to get the school opened. However, because the number of children was too few, the Department of Education said it did not warrant a teacher. I was home schooled from kindergarten (if there was kindergarten then) until grade 2 (before official home schooling was even known in our area). I had a desk (borrowed from the old school) in the kitchen and each morning there was a specific time period when I had to do my work.

Aunt Rose (Bowring, nee Adey) who was teaching grade two in Corner Brook at the time, would send mom the curriculum and materials her school was using, I would complete all the work and tests and mom would send the tests back to her for grading.

Snooks Harbour School

By the time I reached grade three we were given funding for a half time teacher for the community. For grades 3-5 I attended the school in Aspen Brook for half the year and then went to Snook’s Harbour for the second half. Throughout all this time Snook’s Harbour school was open all year round as I recall. The building has been gone for many years now, but was located next door to the church and in front of the cemetery. One room of course and like all public buildings then, only one door (so much for fire escapes). As in all the communities, it was the centre for education and “times” and all community functions.

I do have some vivid memories of Snook’s Harbour School: the teacher had a table at the front as the desk and one particular teacher would get so mad he’d overturn the desk in his anger, on a regular basis!! But playing baseball on the field out by the water at recess and after lunch was always fun. I’d walk to Aunt Vic’s for lunch and occasionally if the weather was bad would stay there overnight.

For my grades 6, 7 and 8 we had a full time teacher in Aspen Brook and then for high school (9-11) I went to board in Clarenville, going up Monday morning with whoever was going up to work, sometimes getting to come home overnight on Wednesday night, but always getting home on Friday.

By Eric Cooper

Today marks the beginning of a new baseball season as the Chicago Cubs get set to defend their World Series title. It brings back many fond memories of playing baseball here in Snooks Harbour, “over on the garden” by Mack Baileys. Most all the young people would play, boys and girls together and regardless of age.

The bats were usually homemade, although there may have been a couple of bought ones too over the years. I made my own bat and I remember that Dennis would always have a nice homemade bat. Baseball gloves were rare. I had a glove but most did not. I loved that first glove and looking back on it I must have caught a million balls with that thing. Randy bought a catcher’s mitt and that one seemed huge to me at the time. He probably still has it.  As for balls we always played with a sponge one. The red, white and blue balls were popular. I would pick a ball out of the bin at the Chain Store or the old drug store, or Dad would get one for me.

In many ways our style of play was quite different from the Major League game. There was no such thing as having too many players as everyone would take to the field. When it came to hitting, every player on the team would bat during each inning and every player had to get out before the other team batted! Like i said not many had gloves, so an out could be made by letting the ball bounce once as well as catching it in the air. But the most popular way of getting an out was to pick up the ball and throw it at the runner! If you could hit him with the ball before he reached base he was out. This proved to be a little painful for the runner at times, lol. Of course you could also chase down the base runner and tag him with the ball in hand. Since everyone had to get out, the last remaining batter had a decision to make. If he went past first base he would have to try to get all the way around. The other thing he could do was just touch first base and run back to home plate. Needless to say it was hard to stay alive on a slow dribbler back to the pitcher! By the way we always pitched the ball underhand.

The ball would quite often end up in the salt water and we would throw rocks in a frantic attempt to splash the ball back to shore. If unsuccessful we would have to get another ball or wait and hope that the ball would drift in to the nearby mead, which it often did if the wind was right. Many balls were also lost in and around the brook as there was lots of alders, weeds, tall grass and foamy water. Usually these balls were lost by a right handed hitter making what we referred to as a “cross bat” in which the ball was hit well out of play into extremely foul territory. Craig Baker was famous for this and Dennis Baker and Glenys Baker also hit their share of cross bats.

As far as i know there was never a window broken out of Macks house, although hit on several occasions. One time I remember hitting a high fly ball and Gerald George was pulling into the driveway at the exact same time. Just as Gerald was getting out of the car the ball landed on his roof with such a resounding thump, then bounced off and hit the kitchen window. I dont know who got the biggest fright, me or Gerald!

Another memory is of Vick Smith singing out to Scott, Derek & Rod to come home for supper. It was quite a distance but somehow her voice carried in such a way that we could hear her. I also remember the time that Rodney Ivany and Sheldon Berkshire got into a fight on the field, but I dont recall why. Then there was the time that Rodney walloped Peter Smith across the knees with the baseball bat. Peter was flicking Rodneys ears and Rodney hit him with a swing that even Babe Ruth would be proud of! But these kind of altercations were rare. We had so much fun playing baseball and it was such a wonderful and rewarding part of growing up.

Its funny how some sounds can stir the memory, it’s like it brings everything flooding back. Growing up in rural Newfoundland, we had tons of gulls of course, but also some rarer birds, like ospreys (fish hawks) and a number of bald eagles, in my part of the world at least.

But the noise that brings all of those back to me, is from none of these, its from what we called a “Sterrin” (God knows if I’ve spelt that right, or if you can even spell a wrong name wrongly).  From looking up seabirds of Newfoundland, it appears to me it’s most likely a common tern, though I wouldn’t be surprised if we mixed and matched those and the similar arctic tern too.

Not much to say about them really, except they had this very distinctive chirping call, and I loved the way they looked.  Seemed so sleek and clean as compared to the gulls. Have a look and listen below.

When you go to Sport Chek or similar places, there are more brands of sneakers than you can count.  Same with jeans.  There are stores that specialize in them.

Growing up back home though there were very few available.  And of course we all got them at the Chain Store.  I remember later on, I saved a lot of money and bought a pair of Brooks from Roses Plumbing and Heating (Yes, I’m serious, the plumbing store sold sneakers).

Of the sneakers available to us were the old canvas high tops with the rubber thing right at the ankle bone.  I’m sure they were modelled after Converse, but I really don’t remember if they were real Converse or not. Then there were Cougars.  They were usually more like shoes than sneakers though.  But the one we all likely remember best are North Stars, with their distinctive double stripes.  Whether intentional or not, they kind of look like Adidas.  And of course we all had them for gym. and beating around. and everything.

And of course with our fancy shoes, we all had to have designer jeans to match.  And what else would we wear but GWGs.  The letters stood for Great Western Garment company. The Levis of Canada. I still remember the stitching on the pockets.  Similar to levis, but swooping down to make a loop below.  I know there were a few other options.  Like Levis for one, and Wranglers for another.  But I can’t remember any others now to be honest.

And of course we got them at the Chain Store too.  I mean where else was there?

Anyone remember any other brands? Anyone still have any?

The weather was messy the last couple days, rain and wind.  Days like these not only cause my sinuses to complain, but also make my decrepit old joints and muscles ache. I don’t know if you remember the old Three’s Company episode where the girls, for whatever reason, mistook the mother of the girl Jack was dating for the girl herself.  (I know, its was unusual for Three’s Company to have an episode about a misunderstanding).  In any event, Larry got in on the misunderstanding, and for some reason, ended up asking the mother about the fantastic scent she was wearing, only for her to say Bengay!

I used to play (badly) a lot of ball back in my younger days as well, and I used to use the old Rub A535 for my aches and pains. And I still use some heat cream from time to time, but when we were growing up, the product of the time was Mindard’s Liniment.  I remember the older folks using it a lot, and mom would use it on us sometimes when we were achy or had a cold.  She usually kept the bottle on the heater to keep it warm, but I remember it going on cold sometimes and feeling like ice.

There was no hiding when you had it on either, you could smell it from across the house, perhaps across the community! Makes sense I guess when I learned that the main ingredients were camphor and medicinal turpentine.  Just learned today when writing this that it was a product of Nova Scotia too.  To me though it’ll always be linked with things like Nitre, and the old Chase’s Almanac.  And that kinda reminds me of olive oil too, not the cooking variety, but the medicinal.  Perhaps I’ll write about that soon.

Saw someone post on Facebook “What do you call these?” in relation to Pepsi, Coke etc.  Of course what they were looking for was Soda, Pop, Soft Drink, etc.  But someone (Jim Pottle) had replied “Cans” – and that brought to mind that we actually never used to call them cans back home when I was small, we called them tins.  And we never called it soda, or pop, we called it drink.

I can remember it well, going to the store and getting a tin of drink.  What kind of drink? Pepsi, of course!  I can only assume we called it tins because the cans were actually made out of tin.  And remember that pull tab? How many broke off, and we’d try to ply it up with a key, or knife. And of course they were as sharp as hell (remember the do not lick the lid on pudding “tins”?).

I’m sure we’ve all likely cut or at least nicked our lips or tongues on them at some point or another.  And I remember the contests, always printed on the bottom of the tin.  We’d have to cut it out with a can opener to turn them in.  I wonder how many sticky can bottoms I’ve carried up to the old drugstore (the one in the old shopping center, on the end, Pizza Delight was there after).

That reminds me of the old old drugstore, by the fork in Clarenville where Marine and Memorial split.  But that’s another story for another day.