My new roommate in St John’s had just moved from a boarding house in the ‘70’s.  A very pleasant girl , she told me she knew very little about cooking and had an incident at her boarding house.  She and her landlady were watching tv when my friend became hungry due to missing her supper.  Her landlady suggested that Gail go to the kitchen and boil an egg.  Timidly she managed to put the egg in a pot and turned on the burner  then went back to watching tv with her landlady.  Half an hour passed and Gail went back and forth checking on her boiling egg.  After more time passed Gail’s landlady said to Gail, “why are you still going back and forth to the kitchen?”  Gail said the egg still wasn’t done and the shell was still hard.  Her landlady then told her that it only takes 4 minutes to boil an egg and that the shell does not soften up.  Gail was astounded to learn this because, as she told me, her mother always boiled her eggs and when her mother gave Gail her plate the egg was always soft.  What Gail didnt know was that her mother had always removed the shell so Gail assumed you boil the egg until the shell evaporates.  She told that story many times after and laughed just as hard every time she told it