Imelda Philpott was born in North Harbour, St. Mary's Bay. She has lived there all her life; however, she did work as a cook at the Old Colony Club in St. John's. She enjoys quilting, knitting and sewing.

GETTING AROUND

In the early thirties at North Harbour there were no roads. School was on the south side of North Harbour for three months and then on the north side for three more. Most of the population lived on the south side. People had large families, lots of children. The only means of transportation from the north side was by boat. You would go to St. Joseph's and from there to St. John's, or you could walk to John's Pond and get a boat to Colinet and to Whitbourne to get the train. We had mail once a week. The mailman walked to Colinet and back with the mail, winter and summer. As a matter of fact, one poor fellow got lost coming from Colinet, walking down the ice in a bad storm. This man was Peter Singleton from North Harbour, and the date was March 2, 1940. There were no stores or shops in North Harbour. Everyone had to go by boat to Gough's in St. Joseph's for their supplies or walk to Colinet. If you forgot to get something you just did without it.

I remember when I first went to St. John's to work. I walked to John's Pond with a pair of rubber boots on because the road was so bad. My father was with me. We got the boat then to Colinet. I was sixteen years old at the time. The next trip home for me was Christmas. I came to Whitbourne on the train and from there to Colinet on a horse and sleigh. I walked down the shore with a man who was going to John's Pond at the same time.

Some of the people in North Harbour had schooners, which they used for summer fishing. They brought their dried fish to St. John's in the fall and sold it to get supplies (staples like flour, sugar) for the winter. Probably one or two schooners would go off with the fish and bring back the supplies and it would be distributed to those who had sent out their fish. The price for fish was low, but there were lots of fish. In winter the men worked at logging in Colinet country. Mr. Simmons' had a business and sawmill at Colinet.