Ch. 7: Newfoundland, 1997

500th Anniversary of Canada’s Newfoundland, l997

Norma and I went on our second trip to Newfoundland (the first one was in l989 when we traveled to Stephenville via plane from Ottawa, through to Gros Morne Park, etc. but this one episode is concentrating on l997 when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip made their special journey and called in at opening port Bonavista to land on the actual 500th anniversary date, i.e. June 24th, l997.

The discovery of Newfoundland was made by John Cabot, June 24th, l497…Cabot had sailed from the port of Bristol, England, with a crew of just 18 men.

The weather for this momentus day in Newfoundland, June 24th, l997 was the worst one in the two week’s trip we’d planned…it was almost snowing, but a certain cold wind and rain for sure…it was awful. The ship was called The Matthew, and hand hewn and made in England to be exact replica of what had originally crossed the Atlantic those many years ago. Norma and I had rented a car in Gander where we had landed a few days prior, staying in Traytown a couple of nights, then up towards Bonavista, took some cabins, two nights, and then to Clarenville, where we traveled back from this date, June 24th. It was about 90 miles from that most easterly point in the province, Bonavista Bay..spectacular.

The total population of that village is about 1000, the estimated crowd that day was around 40,000…as this was almost predicted to happen their local papers said “no one was to travel into the village itself…it is only a one highway into the town, so everyone is to park their cars or vans about 5 miles away, where they would be loaded on to school buses to get into the town..the buses were all numbered…you were supposed to search out your number later when you were ready to return to your vehicle.

The Queen and Prince Philip were there to welcome the Matthew and put a wreath on their local memorial area for fallen soldiers. I’d say we were fortunate enough to have belonged to a legion (The Arnprior one, in our area), so searched out their legion hall in Bonavista….as you can imagine the few hot dog, chip wagons set out on a miserable day were lined up a mile long…’fortunate’ and unfortunate…we did manage about one drink and a simple sandwich in their legion, when all at once the bartender said ‘sorry, sir, we’re closing for a couple of hours…all of us are going over en masse to the cenotaph and see the Queen’….we had this little respite, though. The Queen and Philip were a bit late that trip, and when we were close enough to her (very close) to do the honours at the cenotaph, the Matthew ship which had been held at bay out a piece on the horizon to time their arrival, was in at the same time, and everybody on rooftops were shouting “The Matthew is coming, The Matthew is coming”…..it was almost an about-face from the Queen to the Matthew…thinking about this it was actually a funny sight….later on we all got as close as we could to see this ship. We’d seen Nelson’s “The Victory’ while in England earlier and it flooded back to the old old days for sure…

Another incident: crowds trying to get into local little grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations just to try to avoid the horrible weather..the sights of trying to look for your numbered bus were impossible….after a long wait, Norma spotted a small car going back the way we would have left our car, the driver was alone, had to come to a halt for few officers around, and Norma ‘hitch-hiked’ her sign, and he opened the door and said …’get in, you two’…which we did. Doug sat in the front, me in the back, still at a stand-still, but he piped up in definite “Newfie’ talk…’how do you like that ‘…I live around here, and I got a fat fine on my window’….well, Norma said ‘we read the papers yesterday and they said everyone was not supposed to travel into Bonavista, drop your vehicle and take the bus”….I think she added ‘oh…I better shut up, you were kind enough to take us in, and I HOPE back to our vehicle!” …He did, of course, being a polite Newfie.

Actually, Norma picked up some bug around that Clarenville area, and we went to the Emergency at their local hospital and she was on some antibiotics for a few days. While at the Bed and Breakfast their, the owners told us that in their own village the All Male Choir (about 50 0f them) who had come from Bristol,England, also were performing for the Queen and the Prince the next day and their complete rehearsal was in a large nearby church right in Clarenville….so we walked over that night, and we were thrilled with the whole performance. They did have one lady soloist with special numbers..and Norma even saw this same lady in a little shop in St. John’s a couple of days later, told her so, and got her autograph. Small world again.

On the way to Bonavista Bay a couple of days before this happened, Norma and I drove up to the area and she saw a little sign that said “Tickle Cove”…a few miles to the north east of the highway….just wanted to see such a place, as she loved all the different names they had. An iceberg about a mile off shore was in view…took some photos of this sight.

Another fond memory was visiting a small town of Bucans, which had a famous incident for having a pet caribou, named Clarence, that name seemingly being a small male species, actually they said it was a female caribou which used to come into Buchans quite unexpectedly each day….we, unfortunately, didn’t see “Clarence” the day we were there…only seeing the picture in the local paper, but nearby town where we stayed a couple of nights, Millertown, owned by a Mrs. Hoffe, she served ‘partridge-berry pie’ a delicacy for sure. How kind this lady was…she had left the first evening we were there as she was meeting her daughter (from Alberta) about 80 miles away where she used to take her daughter when she was living there when younger…well, Mrs. Hoffe made a phone call back to her bed-&-breakfast place …(a dedicated tourist home owner, we’d say)….and said she wanted to tell the folks looking after us ‘to tell the cooks to make sure Mr. Dixon gets his partridgeberry pie tonight”.

That evening, a young lad (maybe her grandson) about 5 – 6 years old was talking it up with me…and I asked him ‘what’s your favourite food around here?” he replied ‘pizza —-don’t give me any fish or moose-meat’.

Thinking back of ‘Badger’, I bought a wonderful pair of double knit handmade pure wool mitts. I still have them, use them every year and they are still like they were just knit. Newfoundland is famous for its handknitting..and boy oh boy for its large population of moose and speckled trout.

Next Chapter: Animal Research