The Victoria Community Development Corporation
John Clarke

"I put the pole on a rock at the first pond I came to, and that was where I stayed."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My parents were Lina Marshall and Reuben Clarke. My grandparents were John and Sarah Clarke, and Edwin and Dora Marshall.

My father and Gordon Clarke's father, William, were brothers. They started a merchant business in 1909 and as the business grew they bought more land and added on to the buildings. In 1945, a shed was bought over in Hearts Content. This was owned by the railway when trains used to go through.

We then took the lumber from the shed when we tore it down and sold some of it to Archibald's Hotel in Harbour Grace. They built another shed out of it. We sold some more of it to Joe C. Ellis in St. John's and they built a building on the Southside of St. John's. Then we sold some more and took the rest of it to St. John's.

In 1931 we brought our first truck and this is when I took my first trip to Labrador with my father. We caught 800 quintals of fish and got $1.95 for it. A quintal was 112 pounds of fish. Now you can't buy a pound for two or three dollars. That's how things have advanced.

Then we started to buy more trucks and went in the wholesale business around "the Belt" and over in Trinity Bay. When they built the Prison Camp down here, we hauled the lumber in there. About sixty truck loads we hauled down there. We also hauled lumber to St. John's on a couple of trucks. Then, on the way out, we would bring out a load of freight. This ended our lumber career, but I still went on the road wholesaling two or three times a week. We were pretty busy.

We also had a gasoline station and the tank was located on the corner. I can remember when gasoline costed 12-and-a-half cents a litre. When they started to build the road we had to take it out of the corner. Then we expanded and I built a service station with Art Irving and Irving Oil in Carbonear. This burned down and we rebuilt it and we built a house beside it. This was for someone to stay there and look after it.

Then I bought some more land off Mr. Soper and built a snack bar. After I got it going, there was plenty of room left so I put ladies and men shoes there. Just as business was going good, the supermarket Gordon and myself were partners in burned down. So I said "I wouldn't have time to look after the shoes and everything else, so I brought the shoes into the store in Victoria."

I also had a place out by Al Powell's. This burned down. I built it again and later sold it. The I went to Bell Island with my cousin and we became partners and started a store there when the mines were going good. We were there for years, but I wasn't there all the time. Only to take stuff over to the store. We had nine employees at the time and I had to see to that, too.

After a while we bought a Harbour Grace called Quincy's. We renovated it and bought another store beside it and made one big store out of it. In the mean time before this we bought another place in Harbour Grace and added on again. This was called IGA and I also owned Home Hardware in Carbonear. Eventually I sold these and built ten small houses for the government. Besides going to St. John's, Bell Island, every now and then,and in Harbour Grace I sold out to Gordon and I got out of that. The land that I had there across from Irving, I had sold in March of this year.

I built my house 33 years ago. It took me two years to build it and on times after 6:00 p.m. when the boys finished work they would help me sheet the house. Then I renovated the store out there and I built a piece back in 1949 after Confederation. I stocked it with furniture, shoes, beds, whatever you mentioned, we had. At that time, there was six working in the store beside the crowd I had on the road. So I was pretty busy.

I would make two trips to St. John's a day and I didn't stop for a minute and I never wanted to go to bed because I had to much work to do.

Here is a story:
My wife's brother came home from the States on holidays and I was too busy to go off trouting with him. Then Nina (my wife) got after me so I said "I s'pose I'll have to go." So I picked up an old can,didn't get any worms and I found a pole with some line, but no hook. So I said " I'm ready". I got in the car and goes in. So the crowd took their poles and went down to the pond because I wouldn't go first because they would say you got neither hook. So they went on ahead and I put the pole on a rock at the first pond I came to and that's where I stayed until they came back. Then I said that's the first time and the last time that I'm going to do this sit on a rock and I with so much work to do home. That was 30 odd years ago and I never went since.

I went to St. John's one time and got a load of beef. Meanwhile a man had died in there from Victoria and there was no way to get him home. His brother's son caught me in St. John's and said, " You got to take out my uncle." So I said, "That's OK. There's lots of room on the beef." So I went to the morgue and got the casket out and put him up on the beef and came on home with him.

Another time I had to go to Buchans to pick up a woman who died in the hospital. Then I had to go to Whitbourne for another man and bring him out. I had to do this beside my work.

Click here for a PDF version of Victoria: Recalling Our Heritage.

Stories

Click Below for each story.
Power Plant | Victoria's Birth | Prison Camp | Midwifery

Special Memories

The Victoria Community Development Corporation John Clarke

Stories

Special Memories

The Victoria Community Development Corporation
John Clarke