Weldon Dunphy was born in Mt. Carmel in 1919 and has lived there ever since. He was always self-employed at various occupations and was a noted sawmill and equipment operator. He likes to tell stories that are both factual and humerous.

Mr. Dunphy was a wonderful storyteller and a very pleasant and humerous man. He passed away in January before this book was published.

IT WAS A WONDERFUL LIFE

I started the mill and tractor business in Mitchell's Brook in 1972. I spent time clearing off lots for cabins and houses and lawns. By the time the equipment got wore out, I was pretty much wore out myself. I'm 82 now.

My father had a blacksmith shop and he made car wheels and everything else under the sun and I was at it too. He was engineer on the first train to cross the Island. He came to Newfoundland in 1902 from Ireland. He lived in Holyrood. He came in here from Holyrood in a horse and carriage and they had to lift the chopping blocks(1) off the road for him to get along. He bought a big business off Hector Fraser. There was a great big store and stagehead (wharf). The boats would land to that. It was a big business. Hector Fraser's father was an undertaker too and he gave the whole business to him for either a wedding or birthday present. I often sits here during the day and wonders how people ever did it, with eight and ten youngsters and scrubbing boards and the like. I wonders, "How did they feed them?" I know it was a wonderful life – I enjoyed it.

One day there was a bunch of people down behind the mill, fighting and arguing about how much they made... "$20.00 an hour driving a pickup". I let them go on...and ravel(2) away. I said to them, "Now, how would you like to walk out in the morning and get in a truck with no windows. You'd have to put on a suit of oil clothes to sit down in the seat. You'd have to have on a set of hip rubbers to get out. You wouldn't go to sleep in the shack. When you went out to work for 11 hours, you worked and they passed you $5.50 in the evening. Would you feel good? 50 cents an hour." That was big money then.