Kingwell

This is a question that many of us ask and are asked several times each day and most have a standard response of “just fine”, but are we really just fine?

The story of my two cats Cuddles and Yammy and how it happened that I came to adopt them.

When I was growing up any talk of religion simply meant discussing the teachings of the various denominations within Christianity. Today our next door neighbour might be a Jew or a Muslim or a member of any of the many world religions. For the first time we are seeing that there is li...

The second Sunday in May is observed as Mothers Day. Whether our mother is here in physical form or just a beautiful memory, let us honor her with love.

An eighty year old woman is left homeless and alone in a small Newfoundland community in the 1930's. In desperation she appeals to my parents, as my father's first wife had been her daughter and she was the grandmother of my four oldest siblings.

Remembering those in-between years when one is not sure if he/she wants to be an adult or remain a child.

Sir Wilfred Grenfell, a medical missionary in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador from 1892 to 1938, would have been familiar with such place names as “Savage Cove”, “Davis Inlet”, “Ragged Islands” and “Chimney Tickle” but you may be sure that he would not have heard of...

If you were visiting Newfoundland and Labrador and you overheard someone say, "Da arse is gone right out of er", You might be forgiven for not knowing that he meant that the economy was facing hard times! But such is the language of the true born Newfie. Read on!

Although a visitor to Newfoundland today would not encounter the customs or sayings that could be found here sixty years ago, there are still those who continue the old ways. The Queen’s English might in some cases, remind one more of the days of the first Queen Elizabeth, than that...

With the exception of the discovery of vast amounts of Iron ore in the Labrador City area in the 1950’s and 60’s, two monumental events of the past thirty years have changed the way of life in Newfoundland and Labrador as nothing before or since.

When Newfoundland entered [b]Confederation with Canada in 1949[/b], conditions in the outports, as the coastal communities were called, have sometimes been described as like that found in many third world countries. Fresh fruit was almost unheard off, [b]tuberculosis [/b]was rampant a...

Rain, drizzle and fog, is a common sight on an early spring morning in St. John’s Newfoundland and it was no different on April 1,1949, its first morning as the seat of a provincial Canadian government. Over some homes of the city’s anti-confederates fluttered black banners, over...

The date for the referendum that would decide how Newfoundland and Labrador would be governed in the future was set for June 3, 1948, and every Newfoundlander and Labradorian, 21 years of age and older were eligible to vote. This is the story of the campaign leading up to the referend...

On Sept. 11, 1946 a national convention, consisting of 45 members representing 38 districts was convened in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Its mandate was to examine conditions in the country and make recommendations to the British government as to how The Dominion of Newfou...

Newfoundland and Labrador was governed by a commission appointed by the Government of Great Britain from 1934 to 1949. These were not bad years for the colony but most residents longed for a return to some form of self-government.

Here we take a break for the most part, from the actual history of Newfoundland and Labrador, and focus instead on the harshness of a system that kept the fishermen of the colony forever indebted to the Fish Merchant.

Although fishermen came to Newfoundland from other nations, notably Spain and Portugal, The French were the only real rivals of the English, especially when it came to settlement.

The Cromwell years bring a welcome change and good government to the colony but with the return of the monarchy the English merchants seek revenge on the settlers.

“What can the world yield to the sustentation of man which is not to be gotten there? Desire you wholesome air, the very food of life? It is there…. What seas so abounding in fish? What shores so replenished with fresh and sweet waters and likewise those delightful, large, and ine...

The earliest European settlers and how they fared in the New - Found - Land.

In this chapter I write about the arrival of the first Europeans in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this Chapter I go into more detail about the natives of the island of Newfoundland and of the attempts to befriend them and why it failed. I also touch on the lifestyle of the Inuit of Labrador at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans.

Now known as the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the colony, nation and now province was for most of its history known simply as Newfoundland. The triangular shaped, island part of the province stretches far out into the Atlantic and is the most easterly part of North America a...

As every true Newfoundlander knows, winter is not over until Sheila has brushed the last remnants of the season away!

A rather humorous look at my life-long search for the meaning of life.