Thomas Linehan was born in the Tickles, St. Mary's Bay and lived there until 1947 when he moved to Colinet. When Mr. Linehan looks back at his younger years, he is amazed at how hard he worked for so little pay. He realizes his golden years are quite comfortable. But he says, "if I could only get around, I'd be top notch."

MY LIFE'S WORK

I am the youngest boy of the family. I had one younger sister. There was 15 of us in all, 10 of us lived. I left school when I was 12 years of age and went fishing with my father until I was nearly 18. Then I left home and went fishing in a schooner. We fished out of Argentia in Anthony Smith's schooner, "The Joan Smith". He belonged to Argentia and he hired local people. He also had another big vessel, twelve dories and a ship. There were seven of us. I spent my 18th birthday on the Grand Banks. I come home and went in the lumbering woods that winter. Myself and my brother Cyril were with Hughie Simmons'. We logged all the winter and went on the log drive in the spring. I went cook and I was making 25¢ an hour. That was good money, mind you, in those days. We had nothing but rough grub. No french fries or steaks to cook – just rough grub, like fish, potatoes, soup, beans and beef.

When the drive was over, I went in Hughie Simmons' lumber yard in Colinet for the same money. I worked there all the summer and went in the lumbering woods again in the winter. After a few summers fishing and winters spent logging, I left Hughie Simmons and got a job with the Federal Government on the Experimental Farm in Colinet. I worked for the next 25 years over there. Six of us were hired on the bog land. We would work from early Spring (April month) until late October and sometimes it would be up in December before we'd knock off. I started off with a $1.00 an hour and after 25 years I was up to $6.50 an hour. I was laid off that job as I turned 65 years of age that June. We experimented on all kinds of vegetables. We had our own cabbage, potato, carrot, turnip, broccoli, cauliflower, celery and on and on. After everything came out of the grounds, they did away with them. They destroyed them because it was only experimental. Now they gave them around to a few, but the rest were destroyed.