Christmas at Shirley's Haven

Perched on top a hill like a Christmas decoration on a treetop, Shirley's Haven overlooks St. Anthony Harbour. It is home to 57 residents, and with Christmas Day not far off, everybody is busy preparing for the season. Christmas is for young and old alike, but for the young at heart it is a time for making crafts, wrapping gifts, and family visits.

"Each Christmas, different groups bring gifts, sing hymns or carols, or perform little skits," says Betty Decker, manager at Shirley's Haven. "As well, staff and residents trim the tree together. We write each person's name and the date of their arrival on an ornament and hang it on the tree."

Each resident will also draw the name of another resident and buy him or her a gift.

"Christmas Day is special, too," she adds, "because we have a nice Christmas dinner - the works. Also, it's a chance for families to get together."

***

Vera Richards, one of the newcomers at Shirley's Haven, recollects that as a child growing up in Brehat, Christmas was an exciting time.

"We didn't know nothing about Christmas like it is now," she says. "I was a Noble. I had four brothers and two sisters and we were often in bed before the Christmas tree would go up. We'd hang up our stockings Christmas Eve, and next morning there'd be a few candies wrapped in brown paper, or a little bit of cake. Perhaps we'd get a full apple if we were lucky, or maybe half of one. Back then we had to wait till Christmas if we needed a pair of boots, or a pair of stockings, or something special."

As for Christmas dinner, Mrs. Richards says, "Well, my dear, don't go talking! My mom used to steam the Christmas puddings in bags and she'd have them done perhaps a month before Christmas. She'd hang them up in what we called the storeroom and they were frozen until Christmas Day, when she'd bring them in and get them warmed up in the pot. We had turr, duck, rabbit or fresh meat for dinner. We always had plenty of fresh meat because my dad was a gunner. He loved hunting."

Mrs. Richards' face lights up as she says, "The biggest go-round was jannying. We used to dress up and go around to every house. Back then, I enjoyed Christmas to the full."

***

Elizabeth Simmonds sits in her rocking chair by the window, knitting a throw. Her memories of Christmas are like the patchwork piece she is creating - a handful of memories from childhood, brief recollections from her teen years, and a happy memory of the 12 days of Christmas when she was a young wife.

"I was a Ward from Goose Cove," she says. "I was the only girl. I had three brothers, one adopted. I went to live with my aunt in Conche when I was eight years old. There was no school in Goose Cove then, so my earliest memories of Christmas are mostly in Conche. Christmas was very quiet. You couldn't buy gifts to put on the tree then. You were lucky if you got a few peppermint candies and things like that. We used to get little gifts from the Grenfell Mission, of course. That's the only gifts we knew anything about."

As a child growing up in Conche, Elizabeth and her friends would borrow a komatik and go sliding together. She recalls that some children went sledding on barrel staves. Later, she enjoyed jannying and mixing up with the boys.

"We'd get out in the night time. When 12 o'clock came on Saturday night, everybody was gone to bed, except for the Catholics," she laughs. "We stayed out later."

"Weather was a lot stormier then. Winter came earlier. Even after I got married, the harbour ice would be frozen over by Christmas."

"Mick, my husband, never drank a stain of alcohol or smoked, but he loved a party," she says.

Mrs. Simmonds recalls that the 12 days of Christmas were fully celebrated back then, and as a young couple they went from house to house every evening, and oft-times the house was jam-packed, "as many as could get in."

"Having a scoff when a group showed up at your house was common. One evening when a group came to our house, they already had a rooster plucked, cleaned and ready for the oven. They brought it to me and asked me to cook it. At that time I didn't know it was my own rooster. Next day when I went to the henhouse, my rooster was gone," she laughs.

"My, we used to have some good times!"

***

Frank Smith, like many people born in those days, came from a big family. "I was raised in Cook's Harbour," he says. "I had one sister and eight brothers and I was in the middle."

"There was no big lot at Christmas," says Mr. Smith. "We always had a tree. It was usually up on Christmas Eve, sometimes earlier. We'd wake up Christmas morning and there'd be a few gifts. Decorations were handmade. The highlight of the day would be dinner, which usually included turr, duck or partridge.

"Not too often you'd have chicken," he laughs. "We needed them for eggs."

In later years, Frank enjoyed visiting with his friends. "We used to go in the Straits to Shoal Cove. I was 17 or 18 years old then and me and a couple of friends would go around the little communities visiting. We used to have some good times."

Frank, who has been in residence at Shirley's Haven for the past five years, has a hobby. Strung along a clothesline in his room is a fine collection of snowshoes, but not the kind you strap onto your feet. In fact, they might fit your cat, if you had a mind to try, and your cat had a mind to let you.

"This is my hobby," smiles Mr. Smith. "I take paper clips and twist them into the shape of a snowshoe, then wrap tape around the paper clips and shape them into a snowshoe frame. Then I string them."

The end result is a variety of different coloured pairs of tiny snowshoes - great for hanging on Christmas trees or dressing up a Christmas gift.

The spirit and life of Christmas is evident in the colourful, hands-on crafts that Mr. Smith has created, and in the child-like enthusiasm that shines out of his eyes when he displays them.

***

Jessie Colbourne sits in her easy chair, flanked on all sides by pictures of family and friends. Photo albums share space with overflowing baskets of placemats, embroidered with care and vibrant with colour. Aunt Jessie Colbourne is preparing for Christmas.

She's making crocheted placemats out of 60 lb. and 100 lb. flour sacks, and they're so nicely ironed, sewn and crocheted I'm half hoping my name is on her gift list.

She tells a story about the old days, when some folks didn't have much money, and made some of their clothing from flour sacks. Most people washed the flour sacks and bleached them and scrubbed them until the names Robin Hood and Cream of the West were nothing but a memory, but Aunt Jessie remembers an incident, long ago, at Pomeroy's Wharf. A woman wearing bloomers was seen climbing out of a boat and up onto the wharf, and one leg of her bloomers said Robin Hood and the other said Cream of the West.

"I guess she never had time to bleach the names out of it," she laughs.

"We didn't use bleach," says Aunt Jessie. "There was no such thing as Javex back then. We used lye - it was stronger."

"We'd get ashes out of the stove and make our own lye. We'd put the ashes in a bucket, add water and soak them; then you'd have the real lye. We used to get real fine wire and make our own strainers. We'd strain out the ashes and use the liquid to bleach the flour sacks. We'd put a pot on the stove and the lye would boil the names right out of the flour sacks."

She smoothes the wrinkles out of an immaculate rectangle of white sacking, her mind fixed on the past. "In those days, big families would buy perhaps a dozen sacks of flour at a time. That kind of material was never wasted."

"Christmas Day, we'd have a nice cooked dinner, bird or rabbit; we'd have one put away so there'd be something for Christmas dinner. On Christmas morning there were apples and a few peppermint knobs, or 'common candy'."

"If we had two or three coppers, we'd go to Uncle Luke Biles' store. That's years ago, brother, when I was a youngster. He used to give us more candy than the other store. We'd all go to Uncle Luke's for common candy in small, brown paper bags. Uncle Luke gave us the best deal!"

Nowadays, Mrs. Colbourne enjoys singing hymns and Christmas carols, and attends the Salvation Army church in St. Anthony whenever she has the opportunity.

***

Betty Decker says Christmas at Shirley's Haven is a happy and busy time. There are plenty of things to do if residents want to get involved. Yvonne Pilgrim, entertainment co-ordinator, makes sure of that, says Mrs. Decker, and adds fondly, "Yvonne is as funny as two odd socks."

One of the big attractions during the holidays, enjoyed to the fullest by everyone at Shirley's Haven, are the Pumper Boys. Musicians Will-Joe Simmonds, Maurice Simmonds, John Sexton, Ron Cull, Will Wyatt, Jerry Kean and Norm Cull all contribute to the joy of the season by playing voluntarily.

Says Ms. Decker, "I think they enjoy entertaining even more than the residents enjoy being entertained, especially at Christmas."