[00:00.00]UNIT4
[00:15.10]A Canadian Family Story
[00:18.16]My story begins in Newfoundland
[00:21.66]where my brother and
[00:23.20]I were born during
[00:24.29]the Second World War.
[00:26.04]The island of Newfoundland,
[00:28.55]which was originally a British colony,
[00:31.29]became the newest province
[00:33.26]of Canada in 1949,
[00:35.56]the same year that the People's
[00:38.40]Republic of China was born.
[00:40.48]Our mother was born
[00:42.67]and raised in Newfoundland.
[00:44.42]During the War (World War II),
[00:46.83]she worked in St. John's,
[00:49.78]the capital city, where she
[00:51.75]met a young Canadian sailor
[00:53.28]from Ontario. He was
[00:55.69]a member of the crew
[00:57.66]of a Royal Canadian Navy ship
[00:59.30]that was part of one
[01:01.16]of the convoys that
[01:02.69]escorted supply ships across
[01:04.22]the Atlantic Ocean to Europe
[01:06.63]during the war. They fell
[01:09.58]in love and subsequently,
[01:10.90]got married. The rest
[01:12.32]is history, so to speak.
[01:14.72]Our family moved to Ontario
[01:17.79]in late 1945, just
[01:20.96]after the war ended.
[01:22.71]In 1999, acting on impulse,
[01:27.09]my brother and I decided
[01:29.28]to take our mother to
[01:30.59]Newfoundland for a visit.
[01:32.67]It had been almost
[01:34.20]fifty years since we had
[01:36.17]last visited our mother's outport
[01:37.81](remote or very rural island village)
[01:42.19]where she grew up.
[01:43.94]It was also the 50th anniversary
[01:45.68]of Newfoundland's becoming part of Canada.
[01:49.41]In 1950, I was six
[01:53.46]and my brother was five
[01:54.77]when we last visited
[01:56.08]our mother's childhood home.
[01:57.94]At that time, Ireland's Eye
[02:01.33]was a vibrant, quaint
[02:03.52]fishing village hugging the
[02:05.38]rocky shore of a small,
[02:06.80]enclosed harbour. There was
[02:09.21]no electricity. There were no roads,
[02:12.28]no automobiles, and few signs
[02:15.22]of automation of any type.
[02:18.07]There were oil lamps and
[02:20.96]wood stoves in the homes
[02:22.49]and mere sootpaths between
[02:23.80]the aggregate of small communities
[02:26.32]on the hilly island,
[02:28.18]also named Ireland's Eye.
[02:30.26]We can still see and
[02:33.76]hear the inboard motorboats,
[02:35.29]putt putting (sound of engines)
[02:38.35]into the harbour, hauling
[02:40.21]their day's catch of fish.
[02:41.75]The image of hardy fishermen
[02:44.70]with pitchforks hoisting and
[02:46.45]tossing the codfish up to
[02:47.77]the stilted platforms from
[02:51.92]the bowels of the boats
[02:53.56]is still quite vivid.
[02:54.87]The aroma of salted,
[02:56.84]drying codfish, lingers still.
[02:59.58]What I remember best,
[03:02.97]of almost half a century ago,
[03:05.92] was going out with
[03:07.46]my Uncle Fred in his boat
[03:08.99]to fish. That particular day,
[03:11.94]we were huddled together
[03:13.80]and lashed to other boats,
[03:15.56]just outside of the harbour.
[03:17.31]I can still hear
[03:20.15]the lively gossip between
[03:21.68]my uncle and the other fishermen,
[03:23.87]above the rippling and splashing
[03:26.06]of the waves against
[03:27.37]the hulls of the boats.
[03:29.45]I remember the boats
[03:32.29]heaving periodically, on the
[03:34.48]huge gently rolling waves.
[03:37.21]My Uncle Fred had only
[03:39.51]one arm, but amazingly,
[03:41.04]he could do everything
[03:42.58]as if he had two hands.
[03:44.65]He could even roll
[03:46.08]a cigarette and light it.
[03:48.26]These are my memories
[03:50.89]of the quaint Newfoundland
[03:52.42]glory days gone by.
[03:55.05]It was a very hard life
[03:56.69]in those out ports,
[03:58.33]but a life romantically cherished
[04:00.52]by most of those who lived it.
[04:03.69]Our mother was not feeling up
[04:05.88]to the trip at the time
[04:07.74]we were ready to leave,
[04:09.05]but insisted that my brother
[04:11.35]and I go on this odyssey.
[04:13.65]We would later provide
[04:16.05]her with pictures, a written account,
[04:18.35]and videotape of the trip.
[04:20.87]Although we toured other parts
[04:24.48]of Newfoundland, including an overnight
[04:26.99]stay on the French Islands
[04:28.96]of St. Pierre and Miquilon,
[04:30.72]just off the south coast
[04:33.02]of Newfoundland, our main objective
[04:35.53]was to visit Ireland's Eye.
[04:37.28]This necessitated finding water transportation.
[04:42.64]We managed to arrange
[04:44.39]for a boat to take
[04:45.49]us on the half hour
[04:46.36]trip to the island.
[04:48.33]As it turned out,
[04:50.08]the married couple who
[04:51.61]ferried us over to the island
[04:53.25]was actually a couple of
[04:54.56]our distant cousins, whom
[04:56.64]we had never met.
[04:58.39]We had intended to
[05:00.91]have our cousins drop us off
[05:02.88]on the island and pick
[05:04.41]us up a few hours later.
[05:06.93]However, either because we were
[05:09.23]newly found cousins, or they were
[05:12.29]typically hospitable Newfoundlanders,
[05:14.26]or they thought that
[05:16.12]my brother and I would
[05:17.43]get lost, they wanted
[05:18.85]to stay with us.
[05:20.50]Probably all three factors
[05:22.25]influenced their decision.
[05:24.22]They were absolutely fabulous.
[05:28.04]They got caught up in
[05:30.45]what my brother and I
[05:31.87] were trying to do.
[05:33.29]They were very knowledgeable about
[05:35.27]the island and the people
[05:37.23]who had once lived there.
[05:39.64]Clutching a narrative of the island,
[05:41.93]written by another of our cousins,
[05:44.01]the forgotten history of that
[05:46.20]special place became more coherent
[05:48.72]to the four of us.
[05:50.80]As we entered Ireland's
[05:53.10]Eye's small harbour, which was guarded,
[05:56.59]by a family of hawks
[05:58.02]in a nest high on a rocky point,
[06:00.20]a weird sensation came over us.
[06:03.71]There, in front of us,
[06:05.79]was the place we visited
[06:07.32]fifty years before, and about
[06:09.61]which we had heard and read
[06:11.58]so much throughout our adult lives.
[06:14.76]We thought, what an
[06:16.73]aesthetically breathtaking sight!
[06:19.79]The glittering sun, on that day,
[06:22.09]gave everything a picture?postcard image.
[06:24.61]This was indeed a slice of paradise.
[06:28.87]The ruins of a few
[06:31.06]remaining buildings that dotted
[06:33.58]the hillsides and shoreline
[06:35.55]and the once dominant
[06:37.19]St. Georges Church on the hill
[06:39.26]at the end of the harbour,
[06:40.79]aroused in us an exciting sense
[06:42.98]of history and of our heritage.
[06:46.27]Looking out over the harbour
[06:48.56]from the hill by the church
[06:50.20]at the extinct community,
[06:51.41]revived memories of fifty years before.