By Kim Ploughman When Elizabeth and Michael Hackett set out in a schooner in late May 1900, to venture from English Harbour East to the Bay of Islands, it was simply a matter of moving for employment. A decline in the herring fishery in Fortune Bay in the early 1900s launched the Hacketts, whose ancestors…
By Dennis Flynn The sale of a very old cap in an online auction might not seem to be terribly exciting news. But it wasn’t sold for a song, and it wasn’t just any old cap. It was an identifying piece of aviation history, and its record-setting sale sent ripples of nostalgia all the way…
Get to know comedian, actor, host Jonny Harris When you get back to Newfoundland, what is something you make sure you fit in? Going for a walk down on the East Coast Trail. It passes through my mom’s backyard in Pouch Cove, and I like to go for a hike down there and down through…
By Janice Stuckless, Editor-in-chief It’s not every day that you find yourself in the front row of history. But that’s where I was, and it was amazing. I believe I was in Grade 7 of J.M. Olds Collegiate in Twillingate. The whole school had assembled in the gym for a concert. Our class being the youngest,…
By Dennis Flynn As the November dusk closes in, I stand on the front step of a home in Mount Pearl, NL, ring the doorbell and wait for the approach of an unlikely superhero of sorts, one who has the coolest nickname I’ve heard in a very long time: “The Rubinator.”When the door opens, I’m…
Amid the wreckage from an historic storm, survivors find gratitude, grace, even good humour to help them carry on.By Pam Pardy The devastation caused by post-tropical storm Fiona on Newfoundland and Labrador’s southwest coast this fall was numbing. When the sun rose over Port aux Basques, the hardest hit community, on September 25, where boulders…
How one rig worker is advocating for mental health support in offshore workplaces.By Nicola Ryan Life offshore is not for the faint of heart – it’s a tough industry for workers and their families. Steve Tizzard has worked in a communications, weather and ice management role on Hibernia for nearly 25 years, and he is…
By Nicola RyanIn the spring of 2022, Downhome launched our first Pet of the Year Contest, asking for stories of current pets who’ve changed the lives of their owners. We received a wide range of entries and read inspiring stories of cats, dogs, horses, even a cow and a dove! These beautiful animals offered emotional…
by Nicola Ryan Once upon a time, in the quiet community of Parker’s Cove on Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula, stood a little two-storey house. Just a stone’s throw from the sparkling waters of the cove, it was built nail by nail and board by board by a widower named Peter Murphy. In 1961, Peter was remarried…
By Dennis Flynn Believe it or not, I’ve been privy to more than a few very interesting proposals. From a ring hidden in a giant Christmas present or inside a champagne glass at a fancy restaurant, to a proposal on the stadium big screen or on George Street, I’ve seen them all. One of my…
