by Lester Green
This story is based upon an interview conducted by me with Eldred Drodge on Jan 21, 2015 when he was the retirement home at Clarenville.
I remember buying the old Co-op store but now, I didn’t buy it from the Co-op, I bought it from Janes and Sons in Hants Harbour. They bought it from the Co-op and used it to collect and buy fish, mostly salted and dried fish. They sold it to me around 1956. I had to put shores under it because I bought a lot of dry fish back then. People use to salt their fish then. I use to have truck loads of salt brought in from H.P. Dawes, Cupids. I remember one year I bought 1000 quintals of cod. I use to keep the bags of salt down below and up on the loft I would keep the dry fish. I had a bridge from the bank going up to the loft and men would carry it up on fish barrows or a yaffle at a time in their arms, to the loft of the Co-op store. The two building were built by the Co-op.
The last fellow to run the Co-op store was Philip Marsh, he was from Hickman’s Harbour and he married to Pricilla Martin. He only had one arm. He lost the other one by shooting a gun for someone’s wedding in Hickman’s Harbour and the gun exploded and took his arm off.
I bought a lot fish over the years. I had ten/twelve small motor boats that sold their dry fish to me. The boats had small engines like four-six Atlantic and some boats had four to six Acadia.
I used to have Bill Jacobs on the wharf buying fish then.
I sold it to George Warren and his son Wilfred Warren in the early 70s.
I must say that although it was poor times, people had two ways to feed their families: fish in the summer and go away in the woods in the winter. They were poor but they were honest. I saw people come to the store that were literally starving not because they were too lazy to work but because there was no work. I did what I could do for them and I helped them out. When I sold my place and came up here to Clarenville, I was owed money but that was the past. I am still alive and am thankful that I did good for people, I am not bragging about it but I am saying that I am glad that I did it. I was able to help people that needed it at the time.