By Roy Dwyer There was a time when dogs were plentiful in the harbour. Back then, families that didn’t have a horse usually had one or two dogs which, when harnessed to a hand-slide, were useful for hauling water and firewood during the winter months. Gunners found them useful as well. While most gunners used…
By Lester Green I spent many hours captivated by the ancestral history recorded in Mom’s collection of “snaps.” The photograph of a submarine fastened to the pier at St. John’s waterfront would cause my imagination to go into overdrive. Questions floated in my head. When and where was this taken? Who owned the submarine?…
By Nicola Ryan In 1944, when Harold and Margaret Tucker borrowed $2,000 from the NL Savings Company to purchase a piece of property in Topsail, they had big ideas. A little confectionary stood on the site, but Harold remodelled it into a successful family-run restaurant. The Dew Drop Inn served up the best fries in…
By Kim Ploughman The folklore around the French Shore is a colourful one, but one story is especially riveting. It involves a skipper, his worried wife, a sea trunk, a mystifying visitation and a riveting wake. In his 1986 book, Sea Stories from Newfoundland, Michael Harrington shares this strange story, which is still talked about today…
By Tom Rissesco, ATC I found Air Traffic Control (ATC) to be a very interesting and exciting job. It also had its moments of stress! A few years ago, I was remembering three exceedingly stressful emergencies I had in the Gander Tower back in the day, including the greatest human interest emergency I had ever…
By Joe Ryan In the early evening of September 6, 1922, a group of 16 long-distance runners stood near Octagon Pond on the outskirts of St. John’s, nervously awaiting the starter’s whistle. In the distance, about 10 miles away, lay the city and St. George’s field. These runners were about to participate in the first…
As we head into our 35th year at Downhome, we’re taking a trip down memory lane. Every month for the next 12 months we’ll unearth a little snippet of Downhome history to give you a glimpse into what was on our radar way back when. Here’s one of the stories we ran in June 1988,…
The unforgettable worldly experience of the 1956-57 Pee Wees. By Danny Corcoran, Quispamsis, NB When Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, the city of St. John’s only had two ice facilities: St. Bon’s Forum and St. John’s Curling Club. The old Prince’s Rink, home to the various hockey leagues, had burned in 1941 and was not…
Do you remember the first toy you ever cherished? A while back, a letter from a reader in Downhome about his first teddy bear launched a months long conversation with other readers who wrote in about their most beloved childhood things. My Last Surviving Teddy None of my childhood toys remain. However, I still have a vintage…
Robert Hunt shares his father’s firsthand account of being aboard the SS Kitty’s Brook when it was attacked during WWII. My father, Edward Hunt, an able seaman, was one many thousands of merchant marines who left St. John’s between 1939 and 1945 to battle the Germans on the Atlantic Ocean in the Second World War. On May…
