Nostalgia

The Cremation

Back in the early 90’s I think it was, one of our regular clan, and one of the hosts of our semi-regular poker games, Ivan Patey, went away to the mainland for work.  He’d been gone a while, and none of us (the gang of people, I can’t speak for his family) had heard from him in quite some time.

Anyway, we had no clue how he was doing, or where he was, and yes we kinda missed and worried about him.  But of course we can’t show that!

We also have our streaks of dark humour, morbid if you will, and I’m sure most do, and while we were pretty sure he was ok (and he was) we also joked around that he had died.  Yeah it may not be funny to you, and sorry if not, but at the time, in the moment, we did, and I think he would see the humour in it too.

Around the same time, someone, Don Hart or Gary Cooper had the old club open again for a spell.  Never a very “going concern” business I don’t think, but was convenient for us.  In the closet there was an old jean jacket vest over a hoodie (memory fades, not exactly sure the look now) and no one ever claimed it.  I think it may have been there since before the club re-opened, but no idea.  It did however look exactly (to a few of us anyway) like one Ivan used to wear, so we claimed it as his.

One night, feeling especially mournful, a couple of us, who I’ll leave nameless, felt it was time to pay our respects.  So we took the jacket to the beach and set it afire and said a few words for our departed friend (departed for Toronto that was).

Missed ya then, and miss ya now buddy.  Sometimes I wish things could be as they were.

April 1, 2017 by Uncategorized 0

Radio Phone – Over

A short post tonight, but was somehow reminded of Radio Telephones today.  I can’t say I have much memory or experience with them, but there was a time when I was a small boy that for some reason dad was away for work.  Somehow I think it was only over around Clifton, but though that seems close, it is quite a jaunt, especially back in those days on gravel roads, and it quite likely was in winter.

rotary_1I am pretty sure it was winter cause my memory is pretty vivid of talking to him on our old white rotary dial phone, and it being dark outside.  I was pretty small, and was never a late night kid (some things never change).

What was kinda cool, or not cool about those phones was that you could talk, or listen, but not both at the same time (half-duplex vs. full-duplex), so the people on the phone had to take turns.  When you were done speaking, you’d say “over” so the other person knew you were done and then they could speak.

Small memory, but another small one with dad; I remember that holding that big old receiver and talking to him and saying “over”.

October 6, 2016 by Uncategorized 0

The Strange Case of Ralph’s Car

Not written in a bit, just because its not often a story comes to mind I’ve not already written! Probably cause I’m gettin’ old and just keep repeating myself. 😛

Anyway, was thinking about old times today, and for some reason, the strange case of Ralph’s car come to mind.  Now I’ll preface this by saying I really can’t remember if this is true, or if its me remembering a dream or something as true, but in any event, it SEEMS like it was true to me.

Back in the early 70’s, Ralph Smith used to have this big old car, well what car’s weren’t huge back then.  I remember Dad got a Chevy Nova in 72, and people thought it was tiny with its little 6 cylinder engine, but I digress. I believe Ralph’s was an Olds 88 or 98. something like the model on in this picture.  Seem to remember it was white with a green roof, but not sure.

f0258ed5fbec449322206f533c0c3783This car had some peculiar wiring issues in my memory.  Most are probably too young to recall, but back in olden times, we used to have these old car radios with analog tuners, and buttons you’d pull out then push in to set the channel.  AM radio of course, that’s all we had in those days, even if the radio could receive FM. On another topic for another day, who remembers scanning the dials late at night looking for skips? Remember getting all kinds of weird things like that, but I digress again. In any event, these old cars had an auxiliary option where you could turn the key backwards to listen to the radio, or use the wipers and a couple other options.

I seem to remember hearing about the weirdness of Ralph’s car, but then one day I saw it (or dreampt it, who knows, twas 40 years ago!).  We used to have a little store back home in Apsey Brook back then, well we didn’t was a small co-op of people that had it actually, but we were operating it.  Which meant going out to it with customers when they’d come looking not spending the day out there.  In any event, I remember Ralph coming over one day, and the car being parked outside on the side of the road.  Seem to recall me and Keith and Lorne being aboard with the radio on, and with the weird wiring…turning on the emergency signals, and then touching the brake, and the car would start!

Drop me a line with your old memories, or write me a post to add here, love hearing and relaying the old memories of home.

September 25, 2016 by Uncategorized 0

Rigging up those Lights!

We put out the Christmas decorations a week or so ago, doing it in dribs and drabs as its easier to pick at things than do it all at once. Such different decorations now than there were when we were kids.

We really only had strings of lights, and these were the old fashioned ones with screw in bulbs that burnt your fingers when they were hot.  And rather than patterned fancy blinks and things like today, if you wanted blinking lights you had to buy a “blinker” and plug the strings into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4NlR5KQLQ8
And of course, the worst, as noted in the song linked above was “One goes out they all go out!” A lot of the old strings were wired that way.  If a bulb blew, the whole string went out and you had to test every damn bulb till you found the right one.

Also, who remembers going to the Chain Store and buying replacement bulbs? Only to find some savage had taken all the green ones? Or pulled apart the assorted packages to make up their own assortment! Bastards!

A few years later we got the “mini” lights.  These were neat in that they had a “blinker” bulb you could take out and replace if you didn’t want blinking.  But they were still one goes out they all go out, and even worse, there were about forty leven different sizes! Getting replacements was a pain in the butt! And, and and…. the little wires! They’d bend and twist and make it impossible to get them right, plus on top of that, some of the bulbs would just not stay in!

The lights are much fancier now, and leds to boot, not burning half the electricity.  I used to imagine the meter man rubbing his hands in glee come December and January!

We used to put them out on our old front bridge, and sometimes on the little (or not so little over time) fir that grew out of the rock wall by the old gate. Even with the freezing cold, the old fashioned clips, and driving many staples through the wires, it was still kinda fun, and part of the season.

Think I’ll take Mom out this weekend to look at all the lights.  Love to see pictures of yours too!

December 17, 2014 by Uncategorized 1

Randall’s Store

When I was a boy, Bax and Eli Randall had a store on the road in around the harbour in Shoal Harbour.  I even remember an old gas pump outside saying something like 35 cents a gallon, though it wasn’t operational that I can recall.

The store had pretty much everything, building supplies (who didn’t have panel board on their living room walls from Randall’s at some point?), groceries, appliances, and many other things, plus, lots and lots of dust! Dad used to say though that Bax and Eli would rather spend hours talking about chain saws and chain saw parts than they would sell a fridge or stove!  I remember going there with Dad for plugs and feeler gauges and the like for the old pioneer,and they’d pull out the parts and talk about them and show them off.  There was rarely a light on, or if so, very few, always so dark and dingy.  Fussels cream and Carnation milk on the shelf covered in dust.  It was…. heaven!

I always heard stories about the Randall’s being “frugal” as well, no idea how much truth there was to any of them, but my favorite had to be the story about Bax bought 2 cars in St. John’s, and rather than paying someone to drive the 2nd home, he’d drive one a mile past the other and walk back and do the same over and over till he got them home!

I can still see the store now in my minds eye, not far from the old bridge as well with the double concrete loopy sides.  If I remember correctly it was so narrow you used to only be able to have one car on it at a time, but that’s fuzzy now.

Fun memories!

June 17, 2014 by Uncategorized 2

Herman Munster’s Lunch Can

Herman was a big man of course, so he had to have a big lunch can for his job at the graveyard.  Digging was hard work after all.  Somehow over the years we ended up with it at our place, or at least that’s what Eric called it.

It was, and is of course an old time sewing machine. Its a little dusty in this picture, not had it out in a while.  But old as it is, its still used fairly regularly here.  One mother’s day way back when I was still in school, we gave mom an electric one.  But it was too new to her, and getting lessons was both inconvenient and expensive, so it ended up being returned.

I’m not sure how old it is, at one time a date was visible on it, but its worn off now.  Its well over 100 years old at any rate as I remember the date being 18 something.

My mom got it as a gift from Aunt Fanny Phillips who lived up on the hill near us, where uncle Lionel Kelley lived later on.  Aunt Fanny was before my time, but from all reports she was a dear old lady.

Nan's Helper

Nan’s Helper

Its definitely stood up over the years, I remember mom sewing patterns on it, and still nowadays hems clothes and makes drapes and quilts with it.  Of course an eager little helper who doesn’t realize the machine is over 100 years older than her doesn’t hurt. 🙂

The sound of that hand crank whirring over and over was the backdrop to many a winter afternoon, and the sewing machine and its case a constant source of amusement. Not a lot of things stand the test of time like it has.

May 25, 2013 by Uncategorized 0

Nikki’s Nook

One of the treats of going to Clarenville when I was a boy was a trip to Nikki’s Nook.  Its possible my early memories have combined several places into one, but if memory serves. Nikki’s Nook started out down by the old railway station, not far from Duffett’s, Stanley’s and an old favorite for another post, Western Tire.  I don’t remember much about it, other than we could get that old Newfoundland take-out staple, french fries (or as we all called them then, chips) in a grey cardboard package, and eaten with a toothpick.  Of course we had to drench them in malt vinegar too, and not the weak stuff you get now, but the dark stuff that could take your breath away at 10 paces.

The other main treat there, and my first memory of ever having it, was a custard cone, or as it’s been named nowadays, soft serve.  It was soooo good, and soooo new to us back then, I remember people would be lining up for them. And then later you could get them chocolate dipped, and as a kid I was in heaven.  Kinda reminds me, back then you could also buy ice milk at the grocery store, which tasted similar, but haven’t seen in years.

Nikki’s Nook moved at least once, and I think maybe more.  I seem to remember it moving down Marine Drive to a little building near where the Lethbridges lived.  This may be a memory of another take out though, I’m not sure.  Later on they moved up near the stadium on the shopping center parking lot in another small building, and that became probably the most popular spot.  We’d come out from events at the stadium and get a custard cone.  I can remember it most especially on Clarenville Day (another topic for another day).

Eventually the owners built a new modern building closer to the old Scotiabank, but still within the shopping center parking lot, and opened a full scale sit down restaurant.  I’m not sure if the overhead was too much, or what happened, but eventually this closed down, and if memory serves, George’s Pub opened in the same building.

I’m not sure what, or if, anything remains there now, but god I’d love some chips in cardboard box and a custard cone!

April 25, 2013 by Uncategorized 5

Turpentine Engines

 

I feel somewhat like Ronnie Corbett telling this story, as it reminds me of the part on The Two Ronnies when he would tell a joke while sitting in an arm chair, and take forever, rambling to many stories and jokes along the way, before getting to the punch line.  This story, while not really funny, will ramble the same way.

Random Island apparently had many pine trees in times past, at least so I’ve been told. But near home at least I think I only remember one still being around in my memory. Most of the forest in back of Apsey Brook was fir and spruce, mixed with lesser juniper (larch, but the common name was juniper), birch and maple.

Fir trees have blisters of resin, or myrrh, or as most of us called it, turpentine.  This was annoying when handling as it was sticky as hell, and could squirt inadvertently into your eye.  Gloves were a must for handling it.  It could be very useful as an emergency bandage when you cut yourself though, forming a seal to stop any bleeding.  Spruce trees also leaked resin, but without the bladders.  It would often harden into knobs on the tree, which we called frankum.  Dad would cut these off, and skim off the overgrown bark, and chew it like gum.  I’ve tried it, and while I’ll never like it, after some chewing you could have something that resembled gum in texture, if not taste.

Like most rural areas of Newfoundland, there were a couple saw mills in Apsey Brook, one mainly used by my family, Dad, Uncle Hay and Uncle Luther.  As a kid, Saturdays were often spent down on the beach near the mill while Dad and family sawed fir logs into lumber.  Of course that led to an abundance of fir around the mill, with lots of little bladders for a kid to break and get into a mess with.

One of the by-products of sawing lumber were millstrips.  These were produced rarely on purpose, when needed as spacers, but more often as left overs from the sawing process.  They were thin strips of wood, usually less than an inch thick, and the mill yard usually had tons of them.  We’d use them sometimes as splits, others as spacers when storing wood to allow air to circulate, or sometimes, just garbage.

As a kid though, on those summer Saturdays, one of the past time was to take a portion of a millstrip and play with it in the brook or sound as a boat, tying a string to it, pulling around.

Tying this whole long rambling post together now, one of the neatest things to do with a millstrip, was to take it and break several turpentine blisters from the fir logs on one end, and then release in the brook or even better a standing pool of water.  The turpentine would release its oils into the water, leaving that familiar prismatic color effect, and also drive it forward like a little engine, amusing this little kid at least for hours.

April 19, 2013 by Uncategorized 5

Peace, Serenity, and Put Put

Waking up and looking out over the waters of Smith’s Sound, you can really believe you can hear the world breathing. Its so still, the blue sky and blue water, serenity. Then you hear the unmistakable sound that gave an engine its nick name, put put put goes an old Atlantic Make and Break engine.  I know there was another manufacturer as well, but all I can remember now is people talking about a 2 Atlantic when referring to these.  They were staples of the Newfoundland fishing industry for probably 70 or more years.

Most people whose livelihood came from the fishery had one of these equipped in their main fishing boat.  Nowadays people seem to keep their speedboats at a wharf or pier, but back then and probably still for some, a fisherman kept his boat off shore a ways on a collar.  I can only assume it was to prevent damage from storms or high winds, but I really don’t know the reason.  People kept a flat (a flat bottom boat) or a dory or rodney to get out to their main boat.  I can’t really do a collar justice, but its basically a wooden contraption anchored to bottom by a grapnel, which you could moor your boat to.  Here’s a link to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English definition.

Another unique thing to see related to this was seeing the old timers using a sculling oar to make their way out to the collar.  Someone skilled with such an oar could really make a rodney move!  A sculling oar is similar to other boat oars, but longer, with a handle, and a slightly different blade.  A skilled user could manipulate this oar as both a propellor and a rudder and steer and propel a boat.  I’ve tried it some in the past myself, and while I could make it work a little, its quite a talent or art.  I’ll never forget how quickly Uncle Lionel Kelly could make his rodney fly across the water.

Its a Tuesday evening here now, but in my mind its an early Saturday morning, and you can hear a loon cry across the water, a make and break put putting down the sound, and the quiet splash of water dripping from a sculling oar as Uncle Lionel makes his way to his collar as the early morning vapor rises over the sheet of glass that is Smith’s Sound.

April 16, 2013 by Uncategorized 0

We don’t want no stinkin Kool-Aid!

No way siree bob! Back when we were kids, we didn’t get no fancy schmancy kool-aid! We had freshie and we liked it! I still remember the little packages stacked in their boxes on the shelf at the CO-OP in Clarenville.  I’m sure the flavours had names too, but no one called freshie by its flavour name.  You had red freshie, or purple freshie, or orange or green.  I also remember Mom had these little Tupperware popsicle things, and we’d pour the freshie in those and have our own popsicles.  Tasted so much like a Mr. Freeze!

I’m not sure why it was the drink of choice for us, I assume it was likely cheaper, and maybe promoted a little more locally as I’ve since found out it was a Canadian product.

Tang

Tang

Thinking back on drinks, we also had the legendary Tang.  I remember reading that tang was developed for the space program, but I’m not sure how true that is.  What you may not remember though is that Tang also came in other flavours  Yes we had grape and red tang back in the day.  (Red is so a flavour! Stop arguing!)

Anyway a brief memory from today when someone mentioned something was tangy!  Anyone remember any other little things like this that bring back memories?

April 3, 2013 by Uncategorized 4

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