I grew up in the small outport community of Cull's Harbour, Bonavista Bay, NL in the 1950s and '60's. There were 11 families in total and everybody helped each other when help was needed. It was a quiet place, a peaceful place. In summer I went fishing with my grandparents or uncle. Sometimes we would take a lunch and stay out the bay all day. We would go ashore, build a fire and relax or pick berries while we waited to check the lobster traps, salmon nets or trawls depending on which license we had at the time. I loved those boat rides, especially when whales were in abundance and they came up to "blow." I wish digital cameras had been invented then. There are so many memories I have of beautiful rugged shorelines and cliffs rising majestically from the water and towering hundreds of feet in the air. As I get older the memories are starting to fade and it would be nice to have photos to keep the memories alive. Fishing was a big part of our life but there were also chores to take care of on land. Gardens were planted in the spring with potatoes, turnip, cabbage, carrots, beets, cauliflower and lettuce. It was an awesome sight to watch these seeds grow into vegetables. There was hoeing to be done and weeding and thinning out to allow the hardier crops to thrive. But the mosquitoes......oh my God ...they were in the hundreds. At that time DDT was popular and everyone got sprayed all over with the potent killer. It is a wonder we weren't all poisoned by those noxious fumes. Gardening was thirsty work and there were no fridges or soft drinks like today. Oh no, our drink was usually water from the well...which was cool, if not cold. If we were lucky we had Lemon Crystals, which coupled with a huge amount of sugar, made for a delicious refreshing drink. Of course we didn't always have Lemon Crystals because there weren't any stores in our small community, so we had to take a trip by boat to the next community to shop...and if people didn't run out of staple foods, they didn't shop very often. Another favourite drink was molasses water. I chuckle now to think of the kids today drinking molasses water. But we lived in a different era and we made the best of what we had. Along with gardening there was grass to be mowed with a scythe, left out to dry, turned daily with pitchforks and when it was dry enough, it was bundled into something like a big ball tied round with a rope and dragged to the barn where it was pitched up into the barn loft. This was food, along with store bought oats for the horse to last all winter. There were fun times too. Girls made mud pies and let them harden in the sun. We played hopscotch, ring around the rosie and swam in the ocean. We also enjoyed catching squid on the sandbar at low tide. It wasn't funny when you grabbed them the wrong way and they squirted you with black ink though. The boys played Cowboys and Indians and sometimes the girls joined in as well. We were never bored. We made our own fun! In the fall, as the leaves turned from green to yellow to orange to red, the vegetables were harvested and placed in the cellar in different compartments. The cellar had shelves, which were lined with preserves made from berries and there was bottled moose, rabbit or turrs. Very seldom did we buy fresh meat or vegetables. Thanksgiving was a beautiful time when vegetables and fruit were taken to the church and thanks was offered for a successful year. There was also the harvest supper, catered for by the church women. Oh how delicious these meals were...especially the desserts. There would be different kinds of pies, cakes cookies and trifles. A child's delight for sure. With the coming of colder temperatures, it was time to keep the wood stoves burning longer both for cooking and to keep the house warm. I attended a one room school with one teacher teaching K-11. It was the responsibility of each child's family to supply wood and splits for the pot bellied stove in the school room. I remember my grandfather or grandmother walking up to school with me before school began when it was our turn to light the fire and try and warm up the schoolroom before the teacher and the other kids arrived. Many's a morning we sat and did our school work holding pencils in mittened hands because the classroom was cold. Apart from that we were almost suffocated with the smoke that poured out of that old stove every time its door was opened to add more wood. Of course there was no running water so we had outhouses for bathrooms. Our little bottoms got quite a rude awakening when we sat on the icy cold seats in the outhouse. Halloween was a wee bit different then. We didn't have costumes like today. We dressed up similiar to mummers and sometimes we were lucky enough to have a rubber mask. Well we thought we had it made then! We did go around trick or treating but instead of candy and chocolate bars, we were given fruit cake and maybe a glass of syrup. On November 2, which is All Souls Night, people were wary of going out because it was said that was the night when the souls came back and roamed the earth. Since there was no indoor running water or sinks, water had to be boiled on the stove in a kettle or pot to wash dishes. This water was placed in a huge pan and when the dishes were done, the water was thrown outside...not on All Soul's Night though. There was an old wives tale that if you threw water out on All Souls Night it would be thrown back in your face...so nobody wanted to risk it. Late in November the teacher prepared the kids for the Christmas concert. If you spoke clearly enough you were given a part in a skit or asked to recite a poem or two. The remaining kids were taught to sing Christmas carols and songs as members of a choir. Sometime before Christmas a "time" or social was held in the school. Everybody attended, young and old alike. There were sandwiches, cookies and cake. plus tea and coffee. After the tables were cleared, out came the accordions and square dancing began. Oh how I loved to watch the adults go through the different sets and the schoolhouse floor nearly buckled under all the stamping and tapping. By the time it was over, most of the kids, especially the younger ones, could be found under a table or in a corner covered up in a coat...fast asleep. I believe my love of Newfoundland and Irish music and dancing was born and fostered in that little one room school house some 55-60 years ago. As Christmas neared, baking of fruit cakes, cookies and pies kept the house smelling of cinnamon, ginger and other spices. Molasses was boiled, left to harden and then two people with "buttered" fingers pulled and twisted it into "taffy." It was then cut into bite size pieces and put into a can with a lid and kept in a cool place. This was also the season for making home brew beer and moonshine. The brew was mixed and put in a huge wooden barrel, covered with a heavy quilt and left by the chimney to ferment. When it was ready, beer bottles were sterilized and filled with beer, a tsp of sugar was added and the bottles were capped and put away to "age." For moonshine, there was a big metal can with a curled up metal tubing attached. Beer was placed in the can, the can was placed on the old wood stove and after a period of time, a clear white liquid made its way through the tubing into a jar or bowl. This was bottled and known as moonshine...you weren't potent I know...100 % pure Alcohol...it would burn the guts right out of ya. Winters seemed very long then because once the bay froze over we were isolated until spring thaw unless the ice became thick enough to walk on. The men would walk out a few feet and chop a hole in the ice to see how thick the ice was. They would continue chopping every 6 feet or so until they assured themselves the ice was safe enough to walk to the next community. When the ice was really frozen solid, my uncle would harness the horse to the sled, follow a path through the marsh and across the ice to pick up supplies in the nearby community. Those sleigh rides were so much fun. We huddled in the sleigh covered by quilts while the frost in the air turned our faces a bright red and our fingers and toes stung from the cold temps. Of course us kids thoroughly enjoyed the deep snow drifts that gathered in our yards. Depending on the type of snow, we made snow forts, tunnels, snowmen and had snowball fights. When the snow had become hardened we used to slide down the big hill on sleds or toboggans, a piece of cardboard or canvas or whatever we could find that would send us flying over the snow amid squeals and shouts of delight. Then there was skating on the bay. One section was cleared off for the boys to play hockey and the remainder was a skating rink. Oh how we loved skating at night with the moon glistening on the snow. I guess I should mention that by the time we went home, our feet were frozen in our skates and our hands frozen in our mittens. Anyone who has lived this life knows how painful it is when the hands and feet start to thaw out. It didn't deter us though. The next evening or night we were out skating again. With the spring thaw a whole new adventure opened up for us kids. After school we donned our rubber boots and went copying pans of ice. (To jump from one floating pan of ice to another in a children's game or pastime of following or copying a leader when the ice is breaking up in spring in a cove.) It was both exciting and scary as the larger pans broke apart or started to sink as we jumped on them. We often went home with our feet soaking wet but apart from a slight scolding we were never prevented from playing that game, which in looking back, was both dangerous and foolhardy. In spring the adults prepared the gardens for planting and the fishing gear for fishing and the cycle started all over again.   Submitted By: Patricia Healey