Nostalgia

Fruit chips ahoy!

Anyone that knows me reasonably well, knows that my favorite snack has to be chips.  Yes, I’m an unabashed chip-a-holic.  Growing up back home we had more brands than now, there were Lays yes, and Humpty Dumpty, but also Scotties (click the link for an image of those), and of course the big one of the time back home, Hostess.

Before the advent of the plastic bag we use now, chips came in these foil bags, we’d rip the top right off to get at them.  Often Hostess would have a contest, and we’d have to be careful ripping the top because the entry was printed right on the inside of the bag in this blue ink.  This ink also used to come off easily on your fingers, so I’m sure onto the chips as well…. yeah I’m sure that was good for me 🙂

Hostess also had these 3 … monsters? as mascots, they even had stuffed toy versions of them, I’m not sure if they had a name or not, but they showed up at all the events.

With a few exceptions (Dill Pickle, Ketchup (side note what ever happened to Catsup?)), I liked and like pretty much any kind of chips, but usually stick with the old standard “regular” or as they were and are known back home, plain. There were, however, three flavors released in the 70’s that even I couldn’t stomach.

I have a vivid recollection of them.  Going to the doctor in Clarenville was an adventure in patience as appointments had no real correlation with time as we know it.  I’m sure there’s a research paper about the effects of time dilation in medical clinics there somewhere.  The main medical office in Clarenville in those days was down on the lower road, and it had its own drug store (Budget Drug Mart I believe, though I’m not even sure it had a name then).  As a kid while waiting for an appointment I’d be up and down the stairs there a dozen times, looking at comics, wandering, alleviating boredom any way I could, often involving chips.  But for some reason, Hostess introduced Grape, Cherry, and Orange chips back then.  Being a chip-a-holic they all had to be tried.  But that was it.  I don’t think I could even finish a bag.  These had to be the most horrendous things ever produced as a snack!

And oddly, now I want a package, just to remind myself how bad they were.  Does anyone else remember these?  Anyone have a picture?!

 

February 17, 2013 by Uncategorized 6

When fish were big and boys were small

One of the staple things we had growing up was fresh, frozen and salted cod.  Here in Nova Scotia haddock reigns supreme, but nothing to me beats the taste of a fresh out of the water cod.  Generally the casual fisher back home used a hand line with a traditional or Norwegian jigger. We’d lower the line overboard till it hit bottom and then pull up a fathom or two and start jigging back and forth till we hit a fish, then we’d pull it up and into the boat to be immediately cleaned.

I can still remember the feeling when you hit a big one, or as dad called them, a growler. You’d be jigging the line back and forth and then suddenly you’d bring up solid.  Sometimes they were so hard to pull in.  And if you happened to hook a mackerel  well, then your line was on times tight and then loose as they’d swim madly like a fly fish.

And of course in the days before nylon line, we’d have the older cord, everyone had notches in the gunnels of their boats where the line wore into the wood.

This one year, for whatever reason, dad decided to try a trawl.  Essentially it was a line with 50 smaller lines attached, with baited hooks on each.  We set it out near our marks somewhere and came back a day or two later.  Well we were pulling it in and caught a few fish, and then… it appeared.  As you can see on the left, the fish was bigger than me!  This was probably about 1974 or 75 I think, I’m pretty sure it was before my sister was born, making me 9 or 10 in this picture.  The cod weighed in at 65 pounds!

We cleaned it and tried to salt it, unfortunately it was so thick it didn’t take well, or we didn’t leave it long enough, and some spoiled, but we still got quite a few meals!

February 16, 2013 by Uncategorized 0

Gravel Roads

I remember when Random Island first got pavement. It only came down as far as the end of Elliott’s Cove if I remember correctly.  We used to call it Election Pavement, because it was slapped down really quickly just before or just after an election call in 1972, with no road upgrading whatsoever.  Still though it was something I guess, a modernization.  Pavement came to the rest of the island in fits and starts over the years, but finally we all got it.

There was something to be said for the gravel roads though.  Of course a lot of those words aren’t meant for polite company, especially after the second flat tire of the day, or being choked with dust in the summer.  In later years, they used to come by and oil the roads, though what the “oil” was I don’t remember.  It did help with the dust, though with hindsight, probably was toxic too.

Gravel roads were fun as a kid though, I remember using the potholes like pylons and weaving through them on my bike.  Also hated when the grader came because it always made the road full of crushed stone and gravel, which was sure to cause a wipe out at some point.

Gravel roads were good for drawing hopscotch games in the dirt with a stick too, and of course there’s nothing like a real gravel road to get a real mud pie from when it rained.

This picture was taken in the late 60’s I believe. I was about 3-4 here.  In the background behind the church, you can see Apsey Brook’s old one room school.  The truck I believe was dad’s.  To the left is what we called the school garden path.  Across from the school was a beautiful garden we used to play on, and that path led to it.  Later on the land was sold or appropriated by the government, and used to dig out gravel.  A crying shame.

If you look closely at the path, you can see an old concrete pipe.  I blame that pipe for my slight claustrophobia, as I once got stuck in it.   Its also the path I remember from my coaster riding days, was a lot of fun to come down there and go across the road and down over the garden.

February 10, 2013 by Uncategorized 0

Tunnels and Forts

I grew up, well as much growing up as I did anyway, back in the 70’s and 80’s.  We had a pet rabbit back then, named Flip Flop, because of his habit of flip flopping which ear he had up and which he laid flat.  As he was terrified of being out loose, my dad made this long cage for him to run, and it was connected to our woodhouse with a little hole to an inside cage in the warm.

In winter Flip Flop would make tunnels in the snow in this cage and you could see him running flat out through them.  Us kids too loved to make tunnels in the snow, I was a small brat of a boy, and didn’t need a lot of snow for them, but it also seemed we had more snow back in those days.  I can remember wiggling through tunnels in the snow banks both short and long.

Just to the left of this picture would have been a clothesline stand dad had made, attached to the woodhouse, climbing up a few steps nearly to the roof, with a clothesline mounted a pole from it, with a pulley to string out the clothes.  In winter this would usually drift in, and it was my favorite spot to tunnel.  I could dig a hole under the bottom step, and get under the wooden stand, digging it out and wiggling myself into a cozy warm little house.  Being a loner even then, I could spend hours in there making my plans for world domination in my captain Nemo submarine, with my underground fortress buried in under Granny Walters Hill.  Somehow that fortress still needs to take shape 🙂

Don’t forget being a kid folks, go play in the snow when you can!

February 2, 2013 by Uncategorized 1

Newfoundland TV

Newfoundland has a great tradition of entertainment, from our own magazines such as the Downhomer and Decks Awash to wonderful TV shows like Tales from Pigeon Inlet, Codco, Wonderful Grand Band, and Up at Ours.  I can remember many a Monday evening busting a good laughing at Dickie on WGB and their take on things.  Who doesn’t remember Leo Budgell saying “My son the best friend you got in this life is your wallet!”, (you can hear it in the song posted on the left) or their take on the soaps with “I love you Dennis.  I hate you Paige”.  My personal favorite had to be Dickie in school, with the priest asking him his name “Dickie Fadder” and the priest saying there are no Dikies in this class, only Richards.

My favorite show had to be Up at Ours, where Mary Walsh ran a boarding house, Ray Guy played the permanent lodger who could always be found reading comic books, while Kevin Noble played Dolph, the taxi driver.  This always brings me back to more musical entertainment, because it reminds me of Joan Morrisey singing “The Boarding House on Federation Square”

And of course I can’t forget Ted Russell’s Yarns from Pigeon Inlet.  These were made for TV, but I remember the books and plays most of all.  We read the Hangishore in class in grade 11 with yours truly as the ‘angishore.  I remember Wade Bowring was the magistrate and I made him crack up when I leaned ahead, looked him in the face and said “Yer ‘onor? what is a ‘ole?”

I’d give a lot to have those old shows on DVD now, I think I’d still split a gut laughing at Greg Malone and Tommy Sexton.

Besides the comedy’s and variety shows, we also had some kid’s programs, like Skipper and Company.  I think that I remember a class or group from Random Island went to visit the lighthouse once.

January 30, 2013 by Uncategorized 5

Tea for you, collectibles for me

 

Back in the 60s and 70s, Red Rose tea distributed these little cards in different sets (dinosaurs, butterflies, birds, animals, I forget them all).  At the decrepit old age of 4-6, I wasn’t much of a tea drinker, but tea was and is a hugely popular drink back home, and Aunt Ethel Cooper, god bless her, drank more than her fair share.  One of the highlights of visiting her and Uncle Will was that she collected these for me, and I had many a complete set all in their own little specially designed books.  I regret not keeping these, but like other knick knacks over the years, you never know their value, not necessarily monetary, but memorial.

Red Rose also issued these collectible figurines at a later point, and she collected those too for me.  Dad even made a little display shelf we had in the upstairs hallway back home.

tea figurines

While I can’t remember Aunt Ethel overly well, I do remember her as a kindly soul, with a meal to share and always a cookie or cake around to snack on when we visited.  Uncle Will was, lets just say colourful, but still a man well loved (And perhaps well hated by some) for all that.  I remember him well, and fondly.

Its funny how so many of my Newfoundland memories have some sort of food relation, but I think that’s one of the common features of our culture.  How many times have you heard “Come in for a cup of tea?” over the years.  Visiting neighbours was a regular occurrence  one that seems to have lessened over the years, gossiping over a cup of tea.  I guess in outport Newfoundland, in those days anyway, it was the prevalent form of entertainment.

Anyway, if you’re nearby, drop in for a cup of tea and a yarn, and we’ll recall old times and fond memories!

January 27, 2013 by Uncategorized 2

It Only Happened Once

One of the infuriating things about my buddy Eric was that he ALWAYS beat me trouting.  We have trouted in some pretty out of the way places back home, scrabbling over deadfalls, walking through the thick woods where there was no path, one day, maybe more, taking off our or at least my shirt(s) and wetting it in a bog hole to get cool.  And I loved it, its a peaceful experience just being out there with no noises but birds and insects.  Well except for getting the crap scared out of you when a snipe flew up in your face! Holy god they startled ya!

I remember one summer trip in particular, Eric and I got up about 6 and headed off in the country, making our way to Smith’s Long Pond.  I know he definetly beat me again that day, can’t say how by how many, but I think the most memorable part was Vince Smith looking at us when we walked out the path and said “Trouting? TODAY? I looked at the thermometer on my patio at about 3 o’clock and it was 34 degrees!”.  You can only imagine how hot we were after beating through the woods.  And we both had raccoon faces after from our glasses blocking the sun.

Once though and only once I beat him.  It was different than those trips because it was an ice fishing trip to Island pond.  I’ve never really had a lot of luck ice fishing, but it was always a great day to get out for a boil up if nothing else.  Island pond could also be reluctant to give up trout at the best of times, but because they were so good, we kept trying.  This one day, we were fishing down the end of the pond, and I can recall beating him vividly.  The tally was pretty easy to take though, I got one, he got none.

January 26, 2013 by Uncategorized 3

Never enough stores

Random Island had about 2000 people when I was growing up, and of course a major metropolis like this needs somewhere to shop.  So lets see, how many stores were there?  I’ll probably miss a few but and misspell more, and only trying to list those on the go in the mid 70’s…

  • Boyd Smith’s – Petley
  • Ivany’s Cash Store – Lower Lance Cove
  • Fred Burt’s – Brittania
  • Art Vardy’s (I think?) – Hickman’s Harbour
  • Lislie Blundons – Hickman’s Harbour
  • Charlie Martin’s – Hickman’s Harbour
  • Willis Pelley’s – Lady Cove
  • Mrs. Burt’s – Lady Cove
  • Fred Reid’s – Weybridge
  • Hefford’s – Snook’s Harbour
  • Ron Reid – Snook’s Harbour
  • Bax Baker – Snook’s Harbour
  • Vick Smith – Snook’s Harbour and….
  • Apsey Brook Buying Club – Apsey Brook

The last one, people called ours, but it wasn’t, it was a co-op, owned by 3 or 4 families, and over the years run by May Smith, Cecilia Smith, Alice Smith and Mom.  I can’t say I recall it being many places, it’s last location was the old shop building across the road from our house, and we ran it, but I do recall being in that same building somewhere else, I think down on Alice’s garden, but it’s foggy.

A lot of these weren’t stores like now, they had no “hours”, you just went to the door of the owner/operator and asked to go out.  Some had more things than others.  There was a freezer in the one in Apsey Brook, with some staples like pork chops and fry beef (who remembers fry beef?) and Braddock’s sausages.  Treats like Screwball Ice Cream, Buried Treasure, Long Treats, and of course Hostess Chips in the foil bag. We sold salt beef by the piece, and sliced frying ham and wrapped it in waxed paper.  Potatoes were in 50 pound bags and sold bv the each or the pound.  And of course, we had Carnation mill and tea.  Remember Red Rose tea with the little cards in them?  Brown paper was on the big roll with the straight edge to cut it off.  Our cash register was a drawer with old bowls nailed to the bottom.

image

One of my favorite memories was of Uncle Larry Leawood coming to buy cat food.  He always called it pullit cat food, cause he had been reading the french side of the label. God I loved that man, so full of hidden surprises.

Some of the stores had much more, Boyd Smith and Fred Burt both sold furniture as well as groceries, and you really could manage to get by without leaving the island if need be.  I don’t know how any of these stores really made a go of it, there were so many for so few, but they lasted for years and years.

What did I miss? Leave a comment and let me know stories of stores back home.

January 22, 2013 by Uncategorized 8

Randall’s Garden

Snook’s Harbour

Down at the bottom of the hill, just below where you see the beach start is, or was, Randall’s garden.  Watching NFL football playoffs today reminds me of many a championship played there, in baseball, soccer, football, frisbee football, and even cross country pool/croquet.

Yes we had our own rules, large rocks were bases, arbitrary spots on the garden were end zones, throwing the ball at a runner and hitting him was an out, two more rocks could have been a soccer net.

Everyone played, of all ages, we needed to to just get enough to play.  Some rude comments and names were called, Sulfy Nelewah (yes I know, thats not how it was spelt backwards, but its how we sounded it out), Pick-Ass, and more I’m sure I’ve forgotten.

I remember getting off the school bus in the evening in Snook’s Harbour and playing whatever our game of the day was till dad came home from work and catching a ride home with him, often to hop on the bike after supper and ride back up to play till dark.  I can remember Aunt Vick calling Scott and Derek and Rod home for supper, yes we could hear her up at bottom (up at bottom?!, thats a post for another day).

How many red, white and blue balls did Craig hit in the brook when he “cross-bat”, how many times did Randy hit Mac’s roof? and even more, how many times did we throw rocks behind the ball when it went into the harbour to try and push it ashore?

If we got thirsty or hungry we could go to Ron’s store, or Bax’s store, or Hefford’s store, or Aunt Vick’s store.  I mean how many stores can a town of 80 support?  I will always remember Aunt Glad Hefford selling gum by the stick, and recording the tax on everything in a scribler.  Aunt Vick had this ancient cash register, was fun just to look at it.

Many an hour was spent on that garden, it was our field of dreams.

January 20, 2013 by Uncategorized 0

Blasty Boughs and Boil Ups

A cup of tea always tastes better in the woods.  I’ve heard that statement said so many times over the years and I guess I have to agree, because from my perspective anyway, it can’t taste worse!

One of the best things about a winter day on the pond trouting, or out on atvs and ski-doos though, had to be a boil up.  We’d clear out a spot on the shore of a pond, or by the side of a path, and gather up some dry brush, birch bark to start it, and of course blasty boughs and tops.  A blasty bough is something you know when you see it, but kind of hard to describe.  The best ones were the top of a fir, dried to a bone gray with needles clinging to it, ready to give off a tremendous heat, and easy to burn even when covered with snow once it was shook off.

We’d likely have an old graves apple juice can with the top cut out of it, wire strung in it, filled with snow and hung over the roaring fire to make a cup of tea.  The needles and twigs dropping in the water probably added flavour.  And of course, kipper snacks and sardines to eat, put on a forked stick over the fire, or eaten out of the can.

If we were lucky enough to catch a trout, it might be on a stick over the fire too, eaten with our fingers, burning the tips and jabbing them in a snow bank.  Tea was poured into an enamel or tin cup, (or for me anyway coffee, yes I’m different), drank scalding hot.

Ah yes, memories of times with dad come fresh to mind, times with Eric and Rod too, trouting on Smith’s Long Pond.  Good days.

January 16, 2013 by Uncategorized 4

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