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I made sure that people did not take for granted that I knew everything about the
Labmdor fishery. e\'cn though I am the daughter and granddaughter of Labrador
fishcnnen. My father had retired from the Labrodor fishery three years before I was born.
and for the sixteen years I lived at home he was usually away working. We wcre a typical
Nc\\ foundland "single" family. being raised b) the mother and grandmother. 1O while the
father worked in various places around the island and in Labrador. From my father's
point ofview. it was unacceptable to be receiving Unemployment Insurance benefits if
there was any work to be had anywhere in Nc\\foundland or Labrador.
Even ifmy father had been at home. he \\ould havc been more likely to talk to my
brothers than to me. a girl. I simply knew, grO\\ing up. that my fathcr had fished on the
Labmdor. I knew that my grandmother had been there. because she once mentioned that
the Eskimos loved the colour red. That was the only statement I remember her making
about being on the Labrador. but my mother and aunt rcculted that she oOen spoke about
the Labrador. It seems strange to have comc from a Iishing family and to know little of
that life. HI Men I interviewed also commented Ihat Ihey wished thaI they had paid more
attention to what was being said when they were growing up. We were too busy with our
own expericnces to spend time studying the livcs ofthosc around us.
10 My father had moved in with my mother and her parents aOcr they married in 1943.
My grandfather died in 1951. As mentioned in the introduction, mcn oOen worked away
from home. Therefore, despite having two parents. the children were usually raised by the
mother and grandmother.
I. For similar observations from the daughter ofa miner. sec Gail Weir, n,e Wabana Iron
Orr A!b,ers ofBell Island. Conception Bo)'. Newfoundland' Their Occupational Folklife
and Oral Folk History. M.A. thesis. MUN 1986. Many ofthe Labrador fishennen worked
at the mines in the fall and winter.
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