vol. 10, no.5, october 1981 - Memorial University of Newfoundland

22-0ECKS AWASH
went over to Point Leamington
to visit Eph Rowsell and court a
girl there at the same time. We
were silting in the kitchen and
the girls were signing a new
Pentecostal hymn, singing right I••••••
loud. I could see that Eph. who II
was about 80 years old, was
getting angry. Suddenly he ups
with the big size 13 boot and
stamps down on the floor, letting
out a big roar, 'I wants to be
talkin', he says, and puts the run
on the women. He wanted to talk
to me and find out how many of
the old guys had survived the
winter, and how they were
doing."
In recent years. Johnny Stride
has been masterminding
government grants to improve
the community of Phillips Head,
given the fact that they are
unincorporated and have no
tow n council. Since 1971, he has
handled over $150,000, employing
local people to cut a
firebreak around the town. build
bus shelters, paint the school,
build a slipway. install a
waterline, and other things.
"The boys dug two and a quarter
miles of ditch by hand." he
claims. "to bring water from
Dogberry Brook. That was some
work."
But the biggest project was
restoration of the World War II
artillery station on Phillips
Head. John Stride has a special
fondness for it because he was
Looking down on the community from atop Phillips Head .
the labour foreman when the
station was originally built back
in the early 19405. "In January
of 1975." he relates. "we started
to clean up the site with a $20.000
LIP grant and six men employed.
The money was gone by
April, but then $5000 came
through from the provincial
government. By the time that
money was gone, the place was
all cleaned up and ready for
church. We had dug out the
underground passage, rebuilt
the booby-trap section, painted
all the concrete, fenced the site,
built trails and picnic tables.
For four or five years after that
we got a lot of tourists out this
A commanding view, right out the Bay 01 Exploits, from the artillery station at
Phillips Head. One 01 the two guns was mounted on the iron stud plate seen
just inside the concrete wall .
way on bus tours from as far as
Georgia and California. There
have even been some retired
men come back who served here
in the war. We had good camping
sites here that got a lot of
use until the place began to
deteriorate. Fences got broken
down, and things were looking
shabby; and we had no money to
fix it up. Our worst problem was
that we would get all the vandalism
from Point of Bay,
Botwood, and Bishop's Falls." It
would be too bad if the tourism
potential of this site were lost.
These days, Johnny still
strides around Phillips Head.
unofficial mayor' of the place.
with evident concern for the
people and the changes occurring.
One of these changes is
that rocks are growing up
everywhere. "Yes, rocks grows.
my son," says Johnny with
mock conviction. "just like Jack
King of Laurencetcn once told
me. He said. 'Bury a rock when
you're 10, then dig'n up when
you're 70, and you won't be able
to handle him'. Look at my
meadow there. It used to be
right smooth and green with no
rocks in sight. Now see all 'the
rocks coming up through it.
there's hardly a snack for a
horse."
Geologists would call the
change "solifluction," but
Johnny Stride's got a better way
of putting it. Rocks grows. "