My Poppy is 90 years old. He was born one of nine children, in Keels, NL. His hometown had 370 people when he was born. It had 46 people as of 2021. When he speaks of it so fondly, I think he knows he is one of so few people who can keep the memory of what it was alive. It's small, but it is loved, and anything that is loved is precious. And it isn't gone just yet. It is a beautiful place, and I've many good memories of it. With that said, here is one of Poppy's Christmas memories in Keels:

My name is Adrian Ducey. I am 90 years old now and I grew up in a little Newfoundland outport called Keels. It’s on the Bonavista Peninsula twenty-five miles above Bonavista.

Our family had a horse, Annie Baker, who was a big part of our family for 30 years. She was a hard working one horse power! In winter time, she hauled home all our firewood in order to heat our two-story home and keep us (Mom, Dad, and nine children) warm. Plus, taking us to the church in King’s Cove for Mass, which is a horse ride of five miles from our home in Keels.

One of the beautiful Christmas memories I have of my childhood in Keels is going to midnight mass with my father on the horse and sleigh to the church in King’s Cove.  The church had a white palen fence all around it. And to this fence my father, plus many others from the surrounding community, would tie on their horses for the period of time we were in Mass.

Now, the beautiful memories of the sound of the horse bells as every horse would have an oat bag on their head, which would be their lunch while we were in Mass. When the feed would get low in the bag, the horses would continually shake their heads to keep the feed close to their mouths and in turn would start the bells ringing which were on the horses’ back saddles.  When the church bells would stop ringing just before mass started, then all of the horse bells would soon start ringing! It was so beautiful to hear; a memory I will never forget!

And just a final note about Annie Baker… When she got too old to work, we could not let her be put down. So, my dad had to get another horse named Jack, in the meantime.  We loved Annie Baker so much, we kept her with Jack an extra two years as we could not see her go.

Submitted by:
Madeleine Moss (age 16)
Ballwin, Missouri, USA