‘Seventeen sheep preferred to die than to be killed yesterday’

Blasts from NL’s past


Quotes of the week from August, 2006 Independent newspapers


“Flash not around thy fridge magnets and thy knickknacks. Keep the whoredoms, idolatries and fornications down to a dull roar.”

— Ray Guy to the politicians of the day.


“My disability is not a challenge, it’s another door that’s open to me.”

— Teenager Brad Evoy reflects on his stay at Lion Max Simms Memorial Camp


“We have no official sports teams, but we do have late-night spotlight games and peddle-bike gangs. There are no clubs to belong to, but everyone is welcome to the cabins the boys build in the woods.”

— Pam Pardy Ghent on life in Harbour Mille


“They are never going to make it to be truly middle class.”

— Al Antle of Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Counselling services on student debt


AROUND TOWN

“The body of a man, name unknown, was found floating in the harbour Monday evening last, it was taken on shore and buried. From its appearance, it must have been in the water a considerable time, as the initials on the sheath knife were completely washed away.”

— St. John’s Daily News, Aug. 26th, 1869


AROUND THE WORLD

“The Boston Traveller, in a late issue, remarks: ‘The people of Newfoundland find themselves in a condition deserving of sympathy. There is no manufacturing interest on the Island, and the agricultural interest is of the smallest. Newfoundland’s industry and her source of maintenance lie in her fisheries. The people find the mother country to be only a step-mother after all. England owns the Island, but has sold the rights of her subjects there to the French. Either she is ignorant of the fact Newfoundlanders must fish or starve, or else she doesn’t care whether they starve or not.’”

— Harbour Grace Standard, Aug. 19, 1890


YEARS PAST

“Seventeen sheep preferred to die than to be killed yesterday. They committed suicide. About seven hundred dollars’ worth of living sheep became what is termed as ‘meat’ when rather than stand and be torn to shreds by 3 dogs they collectively and one by one jumped over a two hundred foot cliff at Freshwater.

One of the flock, which had no Japanese-in-war instinct, ran in an opposite direction and thereby saved its life. Around 8:30 a.m. Roland Parsons who was out in his boat fishing, saw the sheep falling one after the other down the sheer face of the cliff.”

— Wabana Star, Bell Island, Aug. 30, 1962



Comments

Brad Evoy said…
Wow, I remember that article and aforementioned summer camp.
Good times, indeed (but I can't believe that was four years ago!).

Great blog sir, many kudos.
- Brad.
August 25, 2010 at 9:05 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The story of Samantha Walsh

Image
Samantha Walsh, a 13-year-old, Grade 8 student from Fleur de Lys on the Baie Verte Peninsula, disappeared one Sunday evening when walking home from her Grandmother's house, and I traveled to the community to research her story. The following feature article was published in The Telegram in February 2000. ••• "Sam, who had stripped off her ski pants when she got to her grandmother’s house, didn’t bother to put them on for the three-minute walk to her house. She went home wearing her coat and hat and long johns covered by flannel pajama pants, pink with black and white lambs, bought the day before at Value Village. But Sam never made it home. 'Loves you, Mom,' were her last words to her mother." ••• Samantha’s story By Ryan Cleary, The Telegram FLEUR DE LYS — The voice is that of a child, rising with a soft and sweet delivery from a room of living hell. It’s a haunting sound, the words of  Salt Water Joys , sung by a very talented and pretty littl
Read more

A survivor’s story

Image
The above picture of Bernard Dyke, a fisherman from Eastport, Bonavista Bay, was taken about two weeks after the fishing vessel Melina and Keith II sank off Cape Bonavista on Sept. 12, 2005. Dyke, then 17, was one of four crewmen who survived after spending four hours in the North Atlantic waiting to be rescued. Four others —Ivan Dyke, Justin Ralph, Anthony Molloy and Joshua Williams — were lost. Dressed only in T-shirt and underwear, Dyke survived by clinging to an overturned lifeboat. (His story is published below.) The search and rescue response times of the military’s Gander-based Cormorant helicopters are in the news again this week with parliamentary hearings being held in St. John’s. The story of the Melina and Keith II and an investigation into response times was covered in-depth by the now defunct Independent newspaper. The first coast guard vessel to arrive on scene was the Leonard J. Cowley — 9 hours and 45 minutes after it had been confirmed the vessel went down and
Read more

Nov. 7th, Telegram letter to the editor

Making this a better place I applaud Ryan Cleary’s letter in the Oct. 31 Weekend Telegram (“Time to act, not talk”) touting teamwork as the key to forging a future for rural Newfoundland: it was eerily reflective of the premier’s front-page interview. It’s a prime example on how we all could, and should, put partisan politics and prejudices aside to perpetuate the one commonality that binds us — passion for the promise of this place. The power of that unified front is visible with the government’s prioritizing the H1N1 vaccination roll-outs this week, in light of the international crisis for Newfoundland and Labrador with changes proposed to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) convention, and the national crisis with Quebec and the Lower Churchill quagmire. The people of this place must come first and we personified that this week. Thus, there is hope for the future. Rise to the occasion Having said that, like the tide, we need to rise to the swell of occasion as well,
Read more