SCRUNCHINS

A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

Scrunchins begins this week in No Name Cove, which I so christen because I haven’t a clue where it is, and the lovely old Nan who hangs wash on the line. By wash, I don’t mean unmentionables — holey knickers, knit socks and the like — but homemade quilts of the finest outport design. Nan holds down the line with one hand, with a clothespin raised in the other. The attention to detail is high-end, if a tad cliché: an unseen sun caresses Nan’s cheek as an Atlantic breeze sweeps the bottom of her dress. The clothesline stretches over a field of long, green grass with golden highlights.

The scene is rural Newfoundland and Labrador in all its glory — and gloss. The picture is printed on thousands of tourism pamphlets distributed this week by the provincial government through The Globe and Mail. And a wicked pamphlet it is; a fine, if somewhat thick in spots, promotion of the “very edge of the world.”

Keeping in mind journalists are bred to be critical, as a parent I would have a problem with the two little girls, Nan’s granddaughters I s’pose, who chase each other so close to the cliff, which is scary — the edge of the world has a wicked drop. Nan even smiles at them, meaning there’s a slight chance she might be mental …



Watery bones

The glossy pamphlet actually folds out like a map. On the other side, across from Nan and the edge, is a picture of a fiord — a deep, glacial cut to our watery bone. Two hikers venture near the edge, which I wouldn’t do without a parachute, or at the very least one of Nan’s quilts to grip onto for dear life like a parachute …



Glider over slider

But then I’m overly critical and having fun. If I lived on the mainland I’d rush over here once I saw the pictures, which explains why so many of us never leave. There’s a toll-free telephone number in the corner of the pamphlet to call and find out more about how to get here. The guy who answers the phone greets me in French and English, and says he lives in Town. He says the line is manned 24 hours a day, and offers me a map, along with a free copy of the Traveller’s Guide. “Yes,” he says, when asked if he’s getting many calls. “Tons,” he says. The website address is also included — newfoundlandlabrador.com. One of the homepage pictures is of two men standing, helmets in hand, beside a snowmobile parked on the edge of the cliff, staring at the magnificence that surrounds us. If it were me, I’d trade in the snowmobile for a glider …



Droves and droves

News broke in December about how this place has been named a top-30 destination for 2008 by Lonely Planet Publications, one of the planet’s most respected travel guidebook publications. Tourists should be flocking here in droves, which is good news for business. In 1983, there were an estimated 150 accommodation properties in NL — including hotels, B and Bs, cabins, and cottages. Today, there are about 650, fuelling an $840-million industry and employing 40,000 people. How many more jobs, I wonder, could we get out of a parachute plant …



$143 a pop

Forbes.com reported recently about how wine bars are cropping up everywhere, “even in remote corners of Newfoundland,” like a restaurant in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s where a bottle of Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 2004 goes for $143. The story questions what exactly fuels “the excitement over the grape?” In our case, the story reads, it’s the sudden infusion of “ridiculous amounts” of oil money that has created a huge demand for luxury goods. Maybe our potholes aren’t caused by wear and tear so much as people chipping away at the gold that lines the streets …



On Broadway …

There’s no more ruggedly handsome city in all of Newfoundland than Corner Brook. St. John’s is prettier, like a picture, and Mount Pearl is clean and tidy, like a kitchen floor, a home away from the bay, but Corner Brook has a unique appeal. A trip to the west coast city wouldn’t be complete without dropping by the Newfoundland Emporium on Broadway, the nightclub strip. And how did Broadway get its name? Why from none other than Joey Smallwood, our former leader and one-time New York City reporter. The Emporium’s collection of Newfoundland and Labrador books is second to none I’ve ever come across, with many editions stuffed with newspaper clippings from long ago. Joey raised the name Broadway in the May 26, 1928 edition (Vol. 1, No. 1) of The Humber Herald. And I quote: “There seems to be no name to that part of Corner Brook Curling Highroad which runs west through Corner Brook West. We suggest that it be named ‘Broadway.’” The Herald went for two cents a copy in those days, and Smallwood did most of the work himself, from writing to typesetting. “We are acutely aware of the imperfections in this issue of The Humber Herald,” Joey wrote. “We ask for our readers’ indulgence. Our excuse is the severe pressure under which the issue has been got out.”

Cry me a Humber River …



Horse trader

Joey also made it black and white that his paper supported the Liberal Party, led at the time by Sir Richard Squires. A scant four years after that first edition of the Herald went to press, rioters chased Sir Richard, the prime minister, out of the Colonial Building in Town and nearly strung him up. It seems Joey had a habit of backing the wrong horses …



Bible stories

The oldest book for sale in the Emporium is a 1733 Stackhouse Bible. Dave LeDrew, who owns the shop, has no idea where he picked it up. “Old people die and someone brings it in,” he says. Another book is signed by the hand of little Rosemary Squires, Sir Richard’s daughter, with a 1950 Smallwood polka dot bowtie framed in a nearby glass case. “It’s not for sale,” says LeDrew when asked the price. (As if I’d buy it.) A 1965 copy of Maclean’s rests on a table. The magazine has a picture of Joey on the cover, above the headline Joey Smallwood’s New New New Newfoundland. Joey was off by a few decades — the new NL is only happening today …



Porthole pleasure

LeDrew’s most treasured books are a three-volume set of the Songs of the Newfoundland Outports by Kenneth Peacock. My favourite song titles include The Blueberry Ball and A Leg of Mutton went over to France. LeDrew went to Toronto recently and picked up a rare copy of Sir Wilfred Grenfell’s 1908 book, A man’s faith. LeDrew says he threw the book on the counter of the used-book store, saying, “You want $15 for that?” He ended up buying the book for $7.50. It sells for a hell of a lot more on LeDrew’s shelf. He also has a window frame from a house that he claims made it through the Great Fire of St. John’s in 1892. He had a porthole from the smoking room on the Kyle that he picked up from some guy who retrieved it from the basement of the late premier Frank Moores’ home in Harbour Grace. LeDrew says he later gave the porthole to a museum around the bay. Maybe government can use it for its next set of tourism ads. What a window back in time that would be …

ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

 

1	Public Notice (7/21/2008)
2	Oil versus electric (7/2/2008)
3	‘Musical miracle’ (7/19/2008)
4	Spark re-ignited (7/12/2008)
5	Biker chic (7/12/2008)
6	‘When the Rondo’s rockin’, don’t bother knockin’ (7/19/2008)
7	The lazy, hazy days of cub camp (7/5/2008)
8	What are Newfoundlanders smoking? (7/19/2008)
9	The flying Fisheries ministers (7/12/2008)
10	Onward and upward (7/12/2008)
	view the complete news list »

1	Public Notice (7/21/2008)
2	‘Musical miracle’ (7/19/2008)
3	‘When the Rondo’s rockin’, don’t bother knockin’ (7/19/2008)
4	What are Newfoundlanders smoking? (7/19/2008)
5	Pogey paranoia (7/19/2008)
6	Greek surgeon says seals may be harvested for organs (7/19/2008)
7	Signing off … again (7/19/2008)
8	Jonesing for ... (7/19/2008)
9	Rocket man (7/17/2008)
10	Jump, dive and whale (7/17/2008)
	view the complete news list »