Frank Linehan from Colinet Island met Betty Critch from Newbridge. They began married life on Colinet Island, but resettled to Admiral's Beach. They have been married for 44 years and raised five children.

TIMES WERE AS YOU MADE THEM

Frank Linehan and Betty Critch were married at St. Joseph's, St. Mary's Bay on December 26, 1956. Frank was born on Colinet Island on February 2, 1926 to Alban and Margaret Linehan. Betty was born on August 23, 1926 to Patrick and Mary Critch of Newbridge.

They lived the first few years of married life on Colinet Island. When resettlement came, they moved to the virtually uninhabited town of Admiral's Beach. At the time of the move in December 1958, they already had one son, Ralph, and were soon to be delivered of another son, Patrick. Through the next decade or so they had three more children, two sons, Alban and Leo and a daughter, Margaret. The house that was built on Colinet Island came over with the move and still stands today overlooking the ocean and facing the Island, where it all began.

Times were not easy – hard would be an understatement. Luxuries such as running water, electricity and TV were far in the future. Clothes were washed by hand on a scrubbing board with water carried from over the hill – a well dug by Frank. That water was heated on a wood stove for everything from washing dishes to scrubbing floors to the ritual of bathing. By today's standards, bathrooms left something to be desired. Indoor toilets were not yet in fashion as water was not hooked directly to houses for ease in flushing. Buckets, chamber pots and outhouses were the norm. Bread, made by hand had to be made in vast quantities as it was a staple on every table. There was minimum store-bought food. Most food was produced in your own garden and supplemented by meat such as moose, wild birds and fish. Fish, back then, was in abundance and fed everyone for years. People raised their own animals such as cows for their milk, pigs for bacon and ham, chickens for their eggs and many others. All this required hard, backbreaking work. From sunup to sundown noone stopped. It had to be done, and children had to be tended to – families had to be raised. No one said it was easy! Everyone did their part. Everyone had a job to do and they did it gladly. Families stuck together in work and play. They made do with what they had. Times were as they made them!