Reprinted with permission from The Packet, January 15, 2009
by Gavin Simms
Bringing them back
(L-R) Mary Lambert, Joyce Avery and Norma Spurrell get together in Clarenville for tea and reunion talk. The three of them work together as a sub-committee, but the full group gathers once a month in Southport. Gavin Simms photo
The idea sparked to life around a fire pit.
It was Joyce Avery’s annual summertime cookout, in Southport. There was a crowd of folks home from away and it just struck them – “why not have a reunion?”
The idea stayed fairly quiet for a while after that, but sure enough, soon word started to get around Southport was having a reunion.
That was two summers ago. Now there is a dedicated committee of 16 working to make the event a memorable one. There are 150 attendees confirmed and many more expected to raise their hands in the coming months.
What will be two years in the making is finally on the short stretch to becoming a reality when Southport hosts its reunion Jul. 31 to Aug. 2.
“To me it’s the ultimate – to see everybody back; to walk the old trails and the wharf, and to hang with old friends and have fires and listen to music. Everyone’s so excited. I can’t wait, I honestly can’t wait,” Avery smiles.
Southport sits at the tip of the arm beyond Gooseberry Cove and Little Heart’s Ease.
Like so many other outport fishing communities its size, Southport has seen its share of decline in recent years. The town’s population is down to a little over 50 or 60 people. The fish plant is shut and there are no businesses remaining.
Joyce and her sister, Norma Spurrell, think it’s the right time to bring people back to their roots. They both grew up in Southport and, to their knowledge, the town has never hosted anything quite like this.
“Southport has wicked strong roots. And you don’t realize what you’re missing ’til you’ve moved away,” Avery says.
“Some of the feedback we’ve been getting is ‘it’s long overdue’, ‘can’t wait’ and ‘haven’t been home in 35 years’.”
Southport’s elders are elated. To them it’ll be a great pleasure to see the community alive again. There will be family and friends they haven’t seen in decades and relatives they’ve never even met.
People are expected to return home from as far away as California.
“You don’t realize how much family and friends we have spread out and how far away they are until you get talking to them,” Avery points out.
The plan
“We’re hoping for everybody to come together and just have a good ol’ Newfoundland time,” Spurrell says with a grin.
She’s the president of the reunion committee. Although it’s hard to keep her sister, Joyce, quiet, she doesn’t want to spill the details on everything the group is cooking up just yet.
The theme will be traditional. They want to pay tribute to the old days.
A few of the activities confirmed include punt races, a family photo booth and a screeching in ceremony. And of course there’ll be music.
“There are many talented people, especially down the arm. So we’re going to tap into that talent for our entertainment to be local based,” Spurrell says proudly.
They already have a number of performers lined up to play.
They plan to build a temporary platform enclosure they’ve already branded “the room,” around which most everything will be centered.
Most activities are planned for the outside. Avery says she’s already put in an order for the weather.
“One of my favorite memories as a child is in the summertime when everybody used to get together for games. Red Rover, kick the rock… we used to have skipping competitions.
“You walked the beaches, rolled up your pants and waded in the waves. To see some of the kids come home with their parents at this reunion and have the freedom to do what we did, it would be all worth it for me,” she says.
They simply want the young ones to get a picture of what used to be – to open their minds to what it was like to live in Southport.
By luring its people back, they hope to ensure a lasting future for the town. They’re certainly not opposed to making it a yearly sort of affair, but if they can just get families to reconnect their roots and to return more often than once every 10 years, that’s all they ask.
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Transcribed by Lester Green, February 2015
These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these as you would any other source material.