'The people in our province better wise up'


Blasts from NL’s past


June 2005
“When I die I’m going to be 110 years old and shot by a jealous husband.”
— Dick Nolan, Newfoundland’s first Juno nominee best known for Aunt Martha’s sheep. He passed away in December 2005, The Independent.

“We have a good iceberg viewing area, one of the best, and Twillingate is known for its icebergs. But we’re not Greenland, we’re not Antarctica, we don’t make them, right?
— Cecil Stockley (a.k.a. the iceberg man), The Independent.

June 2006
“There was nothing there except bones and homes, and folks left the bones in the graveyard where they belong and most took their homes to places that had roads and schools.”
— Gordon Baker, former resident of the resettled town of Femme, The Independent.

“A few conversations have ended with folks telling me if I don’t like it I should get back to Newfoundland. My answer: as fast as I can peddle, buddy.”
— Then-Independent cartoonist Doug Bird, who bicycled across Canada in 2006 and wrote a regular column on his travels for the paper.

June 2007
“The people in our province better wise up. We have tremendous opportunities ... and we are letting some people for personal reasons, try and build a little kingdom in our province.”
— Then-Conservative MP Loyola Hearn, The Independent.

“One of the joys in life is tormenting horses’ arses like Loyola Hearn … that drives me.”
— Then-St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells, The Independent.

“Every time my father saw a wave wash up on shore on a TV show, he would cry.”
— David French, a Newfoundland-born Toronto playwright on his Dad’s homesickness, The Independent.

June 5, 1869
“It will be remembered no doubt, that when the statement was first made that employment would be found upon the Intercolonial railway for a number of our people, the objection was raised among others, by the antis, that our people were not able for the work. We were told that a fisherman could never be converted to become a landsman or a farmer, nobody denied the trash. We all know what our people are able to do under ordinary circumstances, as well as the wiseacres who give us their stupid and uncalled for opinions on the subject. At all events, the result has proved the unsoundness of the judgment of our self-imposed mentors. The men have gone to work on the railroad, and there is as yet no question or complaint as to their ability to do the work.”
— St. John’s Daily News.

June 22, 1880
“Dear Sir—Times are very backward here. The wind now is northeast, with a dense fog. Nothing doing with hook and line yet; cod traps doing fairly. A ‘sign’ of caplin at Tickle Harbour."
The Morning Chronicle, St. John’s.

June 7, 1907
“Early on Sunday morning last, a slight show of snow was to be seen on the ground, and on the previous Sunday morning early quite a coating was on for a hour or so. ‘June snow is good for sore eyes,’ says the old adage. There was a coldness to the air denoting considerable frost.”
The Harbour Grace Standard.

June 5, 1925
“Dear Sir—It has come to a pretty pass in our city when the so-called Public Press has been muzzled by a conglomeration of tin-horned statesmen such as now compose the Monroe Administration. Daily public scandals are coming to light such as have never been perpetrated by any Administration since Responsible Government, but the Daily News and Evening Telegram, which have always posed as being the 'Tribunes of the People' and 'Leaders of the March of Progress' remain silent, whilst Patriots for plunder are deliberately scuttling the ship of state. Yours truly, Citizen.
The Fisheries Advocate, Port Union.

Comments

stephen said…
Thanks Ryan. I love these quotes. Please keep it up.

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