Friday, June 12

Diane

Friday was our last full day in St. John’s, and we saw quite a bit of the city. We’ve been told by more than one person that we brought the nice weather. I think that means mostly that it wasn’t raining because a high of about 55 in June doesn’t seem all that nice. We decided to go to Signal Hill, which was a bit more up the hill from where we were staying. When we got out of the car, we all discovered that the wind was incredibly fierce. It took a bit of effort to stay on your feet and keep going in the direction you intended. At least, that’s how I felt. Marconi tried launching kites and balloons on the hill and discovered that his efforts to set up a wireless telegraph worked better a little farther down in the valley.

For lunch, we went to the Crow’s Nest Officers Club and met Margaret Morris, who gave us the history of the bar/restaurant. It was started during World War II and, in the beginning, opened its membership to only men in the Royal Navy as a place for them to kick back and enjoy themselves when in port. Eventually, they accepted members from all three services, then merchant marines, then women, then civilians. The walls were covered with painted panels representing members’ ships and their mottos. Think of illustrations painted on the fuselages of planes from the time. Margaret was full of stories about what happened to each of the ships and their crews during the war, both funny and heartbreakingly sad. She also told us that a tourist who told her he was a World War II history buff looked at a portrait of Winston Churchill and asked who that was. I think he needs a little more buffing.

In the afternoon, we went off to Cape Spear and walked more than 200 steps up a boardwalk to the lighthouse and on to the keeper’s cottage, which also had a lighthouse attached. It’s the eastern-most point in North America, and it certainly made you feel like you were on the edge. The wind, again, was amazing, and we were thrilled to stand in the lee of the cafe about 3/4 of the way up for a few minutes. The young woman from Parks Canada said there were seven whale oil lamps in the 1839 lighthouse. They needed multiple sets of chimneys for the lamps because as each one became too sooty for the light to be visible to ships, the keeper had to change out the chimney, let it cool in a wooden rack, and then wash it so it could be used again. The house was furnished for the period and looked good except that rope beds needed a mattress with some actual padding under the blankets. (My only curatorial complaint.)

Then on to The Rooms. That’s the archives, art gallery, and history museum. We all saw different parts of the place and enjoyed it. I especially liked the World War I exhibit where they tied everything to specific, real people so that you quickly got a sense of the hardships and costs of the war. Newfoundland sent off more than 5,000 soldiers to the fight, and only about half of them came back.

For the evening’s entertainment, we went to a concert by The Irish Descendants, who were singing songs by Stan Rogers. It was traditional Irish Newfoundland music with a frontman who’s been at this since the 1980s. We didn’t know the group, Rogers, or any of the songs, but the rest of the audience sure did. They sang along with some of them, and some of us joined in once we got the hang of it.

Our itinerary said we were supposed to go on to a bar, but we all went home and collapsed.