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What’s
?
Vol 31 • No 04
$4.99
September 2018
HOMESTEAD-A-PALOOZA p.74
Gambo’s 9/11 story Be a Lunchbox Hero Turning Cancer into Comedy
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life is better Published monthly in St. John’s by Downhome Publishing Inc. 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 Tel: 709-726-5113 • Fax: 709-726-2135 • Toll Free: 1-888-588-6353 E-mail: mail@downhomelife.com Website: www.downhomelife.com Editorial Editor-in-Chief Janice Stuckless Associate Editor Ashley Miller Assistant Editor Elizabeth Whitten Special Publications Editor Tobias Romaniuk Art and Production Art Director Vince Marsh Graphic and Web Designer Cory Way Graphic Designer Jeff Cave Illustrator Mel D’Souza Illustrator Snowden Walters Advertising Sales Senior Account Manager Robert Saunders Account Manager Barbara Young Marketing Director Tiffany Boone Finance and Administration Senior Accountant Karen Critch Junior Accountant Marlena Grant Operations Manager Alicia Brennan Operations Manager, Twillingate Nicole Mehaney
Warehouse Operations Warehouse Operator Josephine Leyte Distribution Sales & Merchandising Joseph Reddy Sr. Customer Service Associate Sharon Muise Inventory Control Clerk Heather Lane Warehouse Associate Anthony Sparrow Retail Operations Retail Floor Manager, Water Street Jackie Rice Retail Floor Manager, Avalon Mall Carol Howell Retail Floor Manager, Twillingate Donna Keefe Retail Sales Associates Crystal Rose, Emma Goodyear, Ciara Hodge, Lauren Courage, Jonathon Organ, Megan Thomey, Nicole French, Elizabeth Gleason, Janet Watkins, Melissa Wheeler, Drew Ennis, Rebecca Ford, Darlene Burton, Natalie Engram
Subscriptions Sr. Administrative Assistant Amanda Ricks Customer Service Associate Michelle O’Toole Founding Editor Ron Young Chief Executive Officer / Publisher Grant Young President Todd Goodyear Chief Financial Officer Tina Bromley
To subscribe, renew or change address use the contact information above. Subscriptions total inc. taxes, postage and handling: for residents in NL $39; AB, BC, MB, NU, NT, QC, SK, YT $40.95; ON $44.07; NB, NS, PE $44.85. US and International mailing price for a 1-year term is $49.00.
Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement #40062919 The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by the portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error is due to the negligence of the servants or otherwise, and there shall be no liability beyond the amount of such advertisement. The Letters to the Editor section is open to all letter writers providing the letters are in good taste, not libelous, and can be verified as true, correct and written by the person signing the letter. Pen names and anonymous letters will not be published. The publisher reserves the right to edit, revise, classify, or reject any advertisement or letter. © Downhome Publishing Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.
Printed in Canada Official onboard magazine of
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west coast reunion
Contents
SEPTEMBER 2018
42 Jump, Don’t Lean Why Girls Who Fish wants to get more women out in boats. Elizabeth Whitten
46 Here & Now After facing the toughest battle of his life, comedian Steve Coombs (with perspective and good humour) is taking his story to the stage. Linda Browne
52 The Golden Boys Reminiscing with Ralph O’Brien as Sons of Erin celebrates 50 years of making music and memories. Dennis Flynn
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80 Mark Your Calendars Corner Brook is hosting Come Home Year 2019 and everyone’s invited. Jennifer Thornhill Verma
a musical legacy www.downhomelife.com
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Contents
SEPTEMBER 2018
homefront 10 I Dare Say A note from the editor 11 Contributors Meet the people behind the magazine
12 Letters from Our Readers Getting mileage from your magazine, flashback to a ’40s wedding, a woman’s search for her grandfather’s accordions and memories of a mechanical bovine
22 Downhome Tours Explore Portugal
12 old hat
with Downhome
24 That’s Amazing Wild news from around the world
26 Life’s Funny Feeling Peckish Cindy Sheppard Gidge 27 Say What A contest that puts words in someone else’s mouth
28 Lil Charmers Mini Magazine Readers
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dog’s day out
30 Pets of the Month On the Trail 32 Blast from the Past Remember the strap?
33 Poetic Licence The Rugged Newfoundlander Bill Temple 34 Iceberg Photo Context 36 Reviewed Denise Flint interviews Ursula A. Kelly and reviews the book she co-wrote, The Music of Our Burnished Axes. 4
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the perfect shot
38 What Odds Paul Warford and the cross-gift
40 In Your Words The Plane People in Gambo Charles Beckett
features 58 Portrait of a Photographer Getting to know Dave Howells Tobias Romaniuk
66 Meet the One-Kidney Family How they came to share a surprising bond Ashley Miller
explore 72 What’s on the Go Exciting events
74 life on the homestead
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happening in Atlantic Canada
74 Home Sweet Homestead This month’s “Homestead-a-palooza” offers tips on everything from beekeeping to making sea salt. Dennis Flynn September 2018
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Contents
SEPTEMBER 2018
86 NL explorer
86 Exploring New Territory
reminiscing
Meet Dr. Latonia Hartery, the first NL female fellow of the famed Explorers Club. Elizabeth Whitten
118 Flashback Classic photos of people and places
90 Growing on Tradition Three
119 This Month in History
Mile Ridge farm is taking Jiggs’ dinner to a whole new level – and you’re invited to dig in. Ashley Miller
NL’s first Rhodes Scholar
96 Got Yer Goat! An unplanned adventure on the Burin Peninsula Paula Hurley
food and leisure 100 Everyday Gourmet Be a Lunch Box Hero Andrea Maunder
104 Everyday Recipes 8 delicious apple-inspired treats
112 Stuff About What do a Greek god, the Canadian Armed Forces and the Nesquik Bunny have in common?
114 Down to Earth Plucking, Planting and Picking Ross Traverse 6
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100 lunchtime treat
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120 a hearty send-off
120 Amelia Earhart in Newfoundland A hearty send-off into history from Harbour Grace Heather Stemp
126 Amelia’s Medal The day I held a piece of history in my hand Burton K. Janes About the cover Alexandria Fisher’s parents made sure she learned local traditions from a young age. She is pictured on this month’s cover, showing off her prize catch at age nine. Turn to page 42 to learn about a new program that aims to get more girls and women of all ages out on the water.
Cover Index What’s Homestead-A-Palooza? • 74 Sons of Erin Turns 50 • 52 League of Her Own • 86 Girls Who Fish • 42 Gambo’s 9/11 Story • 40 Be a Lunchbox Hero • 100 Turning Cancer into Comedy • 46 www.downhomelife.com
130 Can You Imagine? Knocking on doors and singing songs in Old St. John’s Andrea McGuire 132 Between the Boulevard and the Bay The Prime Minister from PEI Ron Young
136 Mail Order 142 Real Estate 143 Marketplace 148 Puzzles 160 Photo Finish September 2018
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homefront lil charmers
Mini
Magazine Readers Charmer Looking for Pets
Eva’s flipping through an issue of Downhome looking for pictures of dogs. Michelle McDonald Shilo, MB
Good to Go This little guy knows what makes a long road trip pass quickly! Joanne Biddle Port Hope Simpson, NL
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Little Librarian Emma Budden is going through Poppy and Nanny Mclean’s Downhome magazine collection. Krista Gillard Roddickton, NL
Storytime Poppy Calvin Pretty is teaching Violet to read during her first visit to Corner Brook, NL. Mike Pretty Mount Pearl, NL
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homefront
pets of the month
Blown Away by the Wind Violet and Charlie let the wind blow through their fur during a trek on the East Coast Trail. (Photo by Nicole Locke) Erica Pittman St. John’s, NL
On the
Trail Pooch Portrait Port de Grave harbour provides the backdrop for this pet pic. Michael Petten Clarenville, NL
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Top Dog This picture is proof that this pooch conquered Gros Morne’s Tableland Trail. Mikaela Gulliver Pasadena, NL
Double the Fun Tuukka and Bruin stick out their tongues for a photo in Spillars Cove, Bonavista Bay, NL. Rexene Lockyer Gander, NL
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“Find the one thing you’re good at and run with it, basically. You find your passion and you do it.” And that was the way my conversation with Dave Howells, international award-winning, globe-travelling photographer, ended. We had been sitting in a booth at Piatto in St. John’s, NL, drinking coffee, eating soup and pizza, and talking. He’s the sort of guy you really enjoy hanging out with, a guy who seems generally interested in people and wants to hear their story. But this is his story, and it all starts with actor Nick Nolte.
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Dave was in England at boarding school – his father’s alma mater – after having grown up in Africa and the Caribbean. He’s 50 now, so this school experience of his teenage years was way before the internet or digital photography or computers. To keep teenage boys occupied, and preferably out of trouble, the school had movie nights. It was on one of these nights that Dave found his calling. He was going to be Nick Nolte. But he didn’t want to be an actor. He wanted to be a photojournalist, working in exotic locales, like Nicaragua. Specifically, he wanted to be Nick Nolte’s character, Russell Price, in the 1983 movie Under Fire. Using his father’s old camera, Dave became known around school as the guy who took pictures. When he went to university, he took pictures for the school paper. The classroom portion 60
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didn’t go so well, though – as Dave tells it, he flunked out. He didn’t have much desire to be a university graduate. But he still wanted to be a photojournalist. “I was unemployed for a couple of years pretending to be a photographer,” says Dave of the days after university. “You know, the whole ‘fake it till you make it’ type thing.” His mother, finally realizing he was serious about this camera thing, called a friend in the business who agreed to see Dave. That friend, well known in British photojournalist circles of the time, explained that news1-888-588-6353
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papers don’t just hire people off the street. Call Paul Delmar at the National Council for the Training of Journalists, said the friend. The school was full, but stop by tomorrow and we’ll chat, said Paul. So Dave jumped in his car, drove through the night to the northern end of the island, slept in the carpark and walked into Paul’s office the next morning. “Oh, I didn’t expect you,” was the response, followed by a chat and a thank you for stopping by. Unsure of his future, Dave drove 62
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home to a message waiting for him. It turned out that the attitude and enthusiasm shown by driving through the night for a meeting was exactly what the school was looking for. Dave was enrolled in photography school. He didn’t drop out. One night, he was on a school exchange and Paul was telling him, in a bar in Portugal at 3 a.m., that he would never make it as a photographer. “Dave, you’re talented, probably the most talented photographer we’ve ever had through the school, but you think everything will just come to you. It won’t. You have to want it more than anybody else and that’s the only way your talent will see fruition,” is how Dave recalls the conversation. “I woke up the next morning and I was literally a changed man,” he says. He started working that day and never stopped. Straight out of school he was given
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a job at a photo agency (think Getty, Corbis, Reuters and the like, but smaller – places that provide images to all the major daily newspapers) after being selected as the best in his class. He spent a couple of years there before moving on to South West News Service, where he worked up to 16 hours a day, 12 days on and two days off, while getting to know the people at the photo desks of the nation’s daily newspapers. You have to remember this was back in the 1990s, before the internet ruined newspaper advertising and when people still read newspapers in England. The country is the geographic size of the island of Newfoundland, but with a population of some 48 million people in the mid1990s. There were a lot of big-name daily newspapers to serve those people, like the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Times, the Daily Mail, and each one had a lot of advertising
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dollars to spend. Facebook wasn’t a thing yet and Google hadn’t devoured advertising spending. The newspaper business was healthy. Times were good. Dave worked. And after that level of intense work, a South West News Service photographer could have his pick of any job he wanted. Dave chose to go to New York, using those contacts back in England to keep working. A lot. He went to all 50 states, logged a million flight miles, got to know the airport gate staff, spent some time in Miami, worked throughout the Caribbean, then back to New York. Along the way, Dave had met and married a Newfoundland gal. They had a daughter and bought a house here in St. John’s, back before the 64
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boom. But they weren’t ready to move home yet. Dave still had Nick Nolte-esque things to do, he explains. While the newspaper industry was wheezing to a crash, Newfoundland and Labrador was crescendoing to a boom – the sound of oil money coming to town. That oil activity, and the desire of large corporations to have imagery reflecting their new activity, allowed Dave and his family to move to Newfoundland and Labrador. He’s now shooting advertising, not editorial work. It’s both completely different and still the same, Dave explains. Instead of photographing American presidents, he’s now photographing company CEOs. Dave’s working harder now than he 1-888-588-6353
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ever has. He’s up all night, headphones on, foot tapping, zoning out to Prince as he edits photographs with his Wacom tablet. He’s out the door some days early enough to be at a location before sunrise to get that spectacular shot. Some nights, he’s sitting in the cold and the dark, waiting for the earth to spin around and line up a point of land with the Milky Way to create a photo that gives the viewer a transcendent experience. When you get good enough at www.downhomelife.com
something, people want you to talk about it. And Dave is a pretty good photographer. Excellent, even. He gives quite a few talks, he says, and has noticed something – a nodding of heads in agreement as he admits to being useless in school and flunking out, before going on to say that you can do well after dropping out of school if you have passion. He has figured out the secret to success, and that secret still keeps him going, because after all these years he still loves photography. “That’s why I still get up every morning and do it, because I’m still passionate about it…I get to wander around with my camouflage jacket, my sunglasses and a camera on my shoulder. It’s the goal. I won.” September 2018
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Some families have more in common than others. Some are the spitting image of one another; others share the same interests or hobbies. This family, however, has an especially rare bond. Danny Benoit of Black Duck Brook, NL, and his four grown children each have only one functioning kidney. But none of them were born that way. Since childhood, two of Danny’s children – Chris and Angela – have both suffered from diabetes, a disease strongly linked to kidney problems. (According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, up to half of people with diabetes will demonstrate signs of kidney damage in their lifetime.)
The Benoit family, from left: Chris, Danny, Yvonne, Billy and Angela www.downhomelife.com
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By 2008, Chris (then 38), had already endured kidney dialysis for nearly two years and was advised by doctors to seek a transplant. As luck would have it, both Danny and Chris’ brother, Billy, were matches. In the end, doctors deemed the brothers a better match and the pair underwent surgery – a decision that would later prove wise. “He’s my brother,” says Billy. “He needed the help, I was there. I was the perfect match.” The procedure was a success, and Chris felt the benefit of his new kidney almost immediately. Although that hurdle was behind them, more lay ahead. Eight years on, in 2016, their father fell ill. Doctors soon made a troubling diagnosis: Danny was suffering from cancer – of the kidney. The diseased organ was removed, and the Benoit family patriarch is cancer-free today. “We talk about that sometimes. If Dad would have given me a kidney, then it would have gone either way for him; either he gave me the bad one or he gave me the good one and winds up with none,” shares Chris.
History Repeats Itself This year marks the 10th anniversary of the brothers’ transplant procedures, a milestone they wound up marking in a most unusual way. Just a few months ago, Chris and Billy found themselves back in hospital. This time, though, they were in the waiting room. After three years of dialysis, Angela was now in need of a new kidney – and her younger sister, Yvonne, stepped up to the plate. “She didn’t want me to do it. She 68
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was bent on getting a deceased donor. It seems ridiculous, really, but she didn’t want to hurt me. She didn’t want to change my quality of life,” says Yvonne. “But eventually, in time, her health wasn’t getting any better, and we decided that it was the best way. I finally convinced her to do it.” They cried during the phone conversation when Yvonne revealed the good news: she was a match. As they headed into surgery in May, Yvonne says they were nervous but surprisingly upbeat. After all, having watched their brothers come through the same procedure a decade earlier, they had living, breathing examples of what a successful kidney transplant can look like. And just like their brothers, they came through it with flying colours. “[Yvonne] had never been in hospital, she’d never had a surgery, so it was physically and a little bit mentally hard on her. I’m an old pro, right? I’ve been doing this for a long time,” says Angela. “She’s my hero.” Today, the Benoit siblings (who all live in Ontario) are back to living life as usual, finally free of machines doing the work of failing organs. Going forward with their new leases on life, Chris and Angela will require anti-rejection medication and careful management of their diabetes. Little has changed for Billy and Yvonne. “You can live a pretty normal life with one kidney,” says Yvonne. As for Danny, he’s basking in the relief that his children are finally enjoying good health. And he’s truly moved by the sacrifices they’ve made for each other. “I couldn’t be more proud of the 1-888-588-6353
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The World’s First Transplant Kidneys were the first vital human organs to be successfully transplanted, and an operation that took place in Massachusetts in 1954 is widely considered to be the world’s first truly successful transplantation. Led by surgeon and Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Joseph Murray, a team at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston performed the ground-breaking procedure, though the medical establishment of the day declared them fools for attempting the surgery. At stake were the lives of twin brothers: 23-yearolds Richard and Ronald Herrick. Richard, in the end stages of kidney disease, reportedly had second thoughts about the operation. On the eve of the procedure, he penned a desperate note to his brother: “Get out of here and go home,” he wrote. Ronald’s reply read, “I am here and I am going to stay.” It turned out to be a wise decision. Despite the absence of anti-rejection drugs (which hadn’t yet been developed), the transplant was a success. Richard’s new kidney earned him another eight years of life, while Ronald passed away at age 79. In 1984, Murray received the Nobel Prize for his work, which helped usher in a new era of medicine.
bond they share,” he beams. However, his children aren’t necessarily patting themselves on the back. Neither Yvonne nor Billy say they see their actions as extraordinary. “I felt like it was something nobody else could do for him,” says Billy. “But I don’t take pride in it. I don’t let pride get in the way of anything.” There is one thing the Benoits do take pride in, however, and that’s how close their family is. When they’re together, no fancy plans are required. All they need is a kitchen table to sit around, some food to share, and minwww.downhomelife.com
utes turn into hours as they laugh, swap stories and reminisce. “We’ve always considered ourselves to be very lucky because our family bond is very tight,” says Yvonne. “I guess those values were just instilled in us as children. Our mother and our father just made us realize that family, they’re your forever friends. And they are: my brothers and my sister are my best friends. They’re the people that I can turn to for anything, and I know they will always be there for me. And I want to do the same for them.” September 2018
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explore
This month’s “Homestead-a-palooza” offers tips on everything from beekeeping to making sea salt. STORY & PHOTOS BY DENNIS FLYNN
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THE LATE EVENING SUN glistens on the ancient metal tines of the horse-drawn hay rake as seagulls glide in from the nearby harbour, swooping low to investigate. There rises the perfume of freshly mown grass as wooden-handled scythes are swung by strong men in unison. Soon the pony pulls at her harness; head down, pawing the ground, she is eager to go, and before long iron wheels roll across the meadow. When a pook of hay of sufficient size is gathered behind the rake, the driver lifts the rake to drop the load. They turn and repeat the process anew until the meadow is laid clean and closely shorn. It is a fashion of farming almost as old as agriculture itself, and while you may think I’m describing a centuries-old scene, it was actually observed during a stop to photograph Newfoundland ponies at work in Bay Roberts in 2006. Stopping to chat with Kevin Dawson that day, he explained to me the significance of continuing to work this way in modern times. “This is the hay meadow on our late father’s small farm. They used to call
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him ‘Farmer’ Jack Dawson, since he raised some sheep, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, a few cows, grew his own vegetables and, of course, he always had a special place in his heart for the Newfoundland ponies…So we like to hook them up and do this particular meadow the traditional way when we can,” he said. “It is great exercise for both the ponies and us; we get to take care of the supply of hay for our animals knowing what they are eating is good, natural stuff; plus it lets us all
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Steve and Lisa McBride left their corporate careers to become homesteaders, growing their own food and raising livestock.
feel close to our father and the land. If you don’t mind a bit of hard work, it is not a bad way to live.” That desire to control the security and quality of our own food supply has enjoyed a resurgence in the province in recent years, with a boom in the do-it-yourself homesteading movement. Recently, I travelled to Mobile on the beautiful Irish Loop to chat with two people who are local leaders in that movement: Steve and Lisa McBride. Steve is originally from Vancouver, 76
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British Columbia, but has been living in St. John’s for the past 10 years. He is best known (along with his partner, Lisa) as the owner of what he refers to with a laugh as the “Mobile Goats.” (Townies may remember the McBrides and their goats from their days living in the downtown area of St. John’s.) “We homestead, which basically means we are concerned with the entirety of our food network. We are not quite there yet, but we take an active hand in growing our own 1-888-588-6353
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Lisa tends to the goats on their Mobile homestead.
vegetables, foraging for our own fruits, collecting salt water from the ocean to make sea salt, keeping ducks for eggs, raising heritage turkeys, keeping rabbits, keeping goats for milk – from which we make yogurt, cheese, and even ice cream – keeping bees for honey and mead [a type of honey-based wine], and in the winter making our own maple syrup,” he shares. But the couple didn’t start out as homesteaders – far from it. Not so long ago, they were working in corporate careers and admit they’d never grown anything or had any hand in their own food supply. “It has been a voyage, learning things along the way,” says Steve. Walking around their property, it’s evident how far they’ve come. I tell them the place is a “hive” of activity. www.downhomelife.com
Steve and Lisa tolerate my bad joke, a reference to the bees buzzing around us. They figure there are roughly two million bees on their land, providing not just honey and wax, but also an invaluable service as pollinators of plants. “Some studies say you will get about 20 per cent more yield on plants where there are beehives nearby,” explains Steve. “That is significant for harvesters, and of course the bees love bakeapple, blueberry and cranberry blossoms, so Newfoundland is prime territory for this in some ways.” And the McBrides don’t just reap rewards from the land around them, they also find good things in the sea. “We gather the water, filter it to get any minor imperfections out, and then allow it to evaporate in pans in September 2018
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the greenhouse in the summer or on the woodstove in the winter. It leaves behind this really nice sea salt we harvest for all our recipes and cooking,” says Steve. A five-gallon bucket of seawater yields about a pound of salt, adds Steve, and because of its superior quality and the way it crystallizes, you can generally use about 30 per cent less in your seasoning than regular table salt.
HOMESTEADING HELP
Of course, a lot of hard work goes into procuring honey and salt (and a myriad of other foodstuffs) the way the McBrides do, and Steve admits there’s a lot involved with the lifestyle they lead. He says when a particular task becomes boring or tiring, they simply shift gears and tackle a simpler job for a while. “But it is all productive work and you can see the good in what you are doing, which makes it all enjoyable and appealing to certain people,” he says. That appeal is evident in the increasing requests the McBrides see for workshops and information on homesteading. After learning a few tricks on their own, the McBrides created the Facebook group “Backyard Farming & Homesteading NL,” a place where people who share their interests can exchange knowledge. As of July 2018, the group had grown to 11,000 members. This month, to further address the demand for homesteading help, they are teaming up with some 20 presenters to offer “Homestead-a-palooza,” set for September 16. The full-day event will take place at the Colony of Avalon in nearby Ferryland and will include introductory workshops 78
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Lisa holds some sea salt they collected from evaporated seawater. covering a diverse range of topics – everything from foraging for food to keeping bees and making honey, cheese, mead, sea salt etc. Folks can also learn about raising backyard chickens, growing fruit trees, and dying and working with leathers and sealskins, plus lessons in a host of other traditional crafts and food skills. (Stay tuned to the Facebook group for pricing and additional details.) “When you consider the fact that Newfoundland imports approximately 90 per cent of its food, then that is an astonishing number. Also, when you think about what is happening to food prices, anything we can do to improve our food security has to help,” says Steve. For the McBrides, it’s been an 1-888-588-6353
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The McBrides have a fun rule that everyone pays rent on their property: the ducks pay in eggs, the bees in honey.
amazing journey, though it hasn’t been without challenges. They are pleased to see the amount of food that can be grown here. Near the end of my tour, I ask if there is anything missing from their homestead. Lisa says with a grin, “We have a fun rule on the farm that everything here pays a rent of some sort; the bees give us honey, the goats give us milk, and the ducks give us eggs and so on. The only thing that does not give rent is the cat, but the cat was with us before we started, so www.downhomelife.com
that makes the cat exempt. We are missing a horse, but we are not quite ready for one yet. We would both love to have a horse to work the ground and do some general chores. Maybe someday.� I smile, thinking to myself of Farmer Jack Dawson, long departed from his days of plowing his pastures. And I imagine the deal he would have given the young homesteaders on a Newfoundland pony if they ever decided to see a man about a horse. September 2018
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