They put me on a stretcher, gave me three needles, which took no effect. So they just held my arm and stitched it up. I was awake the whole time. I was in hospital sixteen days. On the third day, my father came through the hospital looking at everyone until he found me. He told me my brother Gabe was safe, but my friend Jim Ryan from Princeton, Bonavista Bay, had died in the fire. When I was discharged from hospital, I returned to Shamrock Field.

In 1943 I was shipped out overseas to Britain. At that time we were not Canadians, but under the British. At this time, I was unfortunate enough to be involved in another fire. A fire broke out in the basement of the barracks where we lived. We were in bed on the second floor and when the fire started, we never even had time to get our clothes on, just grab our gas masks and get out on the street. Another close call, but no injuries.

RIVER GUARDIAN

In 1956 I went to work as a River Guardian on Salmonier River. I was stationed at Butler's Falls where we stayed in a Fisheries' cabin three-four days at a time. It was usually pretty quiet, just reporting on the number of salmon in certain pools, the number caught and, of course, keeping an eye out for poachers.

One particular incident sticks in my mind. One day two guys came in fishing. One stayed in front of the cabin, fished all day and never got a fish. The other guy went up the river and when he came back and cast out, I noticed that his line landed too heavy for it to be a fly. So I went down to where he was fishing and asked him to show me what he was using. When he refused, I put my hand on his arm and said, "I'm seizing this rod. You're using lead weights."

Now this rod I had seized did not belong to this guy, but had been borrowed from his brother. It was a special rod given for 20 years work service. I did not know this at the time so the other warden and I were quite surprised the next evening when this strange guy shows up drunk at the cabin. He was carrying a tire lever and threatened to kill me if he didn't get the rod back. At first I said the rod had been turned over to the Fisheries' officer, but on second thought I told him the rod was there under the bed. He hauled it out and when he saw the weights he was surprised because they never told him they used weights. He apologised and I gave him a cup of tea.