Claim OwnershipDown to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel
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© 2024 Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel
Description
“DOWN TO SALLY’S COVE” is a collection of stories about Newfoundland and Labrador by Ella Manuel (1911-1985) and read by me, Antony Berger. I’m the editor of my mother’s writings about the history and rich culture of the places she lived, and the people she knew and loved. New episodes will be uploaded every week until mid-January 2021.
In 1945, after years in England and the USA, Ella returned to Newfoundland to live, a single mother with two small boys. Using her maiden name, she began to write for newspapers and magazines and to read for radio stories about the places and people she met, recapturing some of the forgotten men and women of Newfoundland’s past. Over the next three decades, her voice became known across Canada through her many broadcasts on the CBC. When she died, she left behind a confused mass of undated manuscripts and notes, which I have now arranged and edited. Only a few recordings of her marvellous voice still exist, so I have decided to read her stories myself, notwithstanding the challenge of a male voice substituting for hers.The stories are arranged in five groups. Season 1 is entitled Around Bonne Bay; Season 2 - Friends and Neighbours; Season 3 - Beyond the Bay; Season 4 - Medics, Missionaries and Military Men; Season 5 - Tough Times at Sea; Season 6 - Ghosts and Dirty Tricks
A biography of my mother, together with a selection of her writings and broadcasts, including many of these podcast episodes, has been published under the title “No Place for a Woman. The Life and Newfoundland Stories of Ella Manuel” (Breakwater Books, St. John’s NL, 2020).46 Episodes
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Growing up in Lewisporte in northeastern Newfoundland, Ella Manuel acquired a love of fishing that stayed with her for the rest of her life. In this story she tells of days on the rivers of western Newfoundland and of her encounters with men who could not accept the idea of a woman fishing expertly. On the Lomond River she glories in the thrill of fly fishing, and first hears about the remarkable Emma Tapper, who was completely at home on any river. Send us a text
In the 1940s, as Ella Manuel was thinking of how to earn a living in Western Newfoundland, she met some disgruntled fly-fishermen from the southern United States. This may have led to the sports-fishing venture she later developed at Killdevil Lodge. Send us a text
Ella Manuel returned in the mid-1940s to Newfoundland, a divorced mother of two small boys. Chatting with American sportsman Lee Wulff about the need for fly-fishing camps in north-western Newfoundland, she suddenly decided to start a sports-fishing venture. In Lomond, the once busy logging town in Bonne Bay, she set up a summer-time operation at Killdevil Lodge. Though it did not prosper, Ella gloried in the beauty of her surroundings. Send us a text
A few years after her Lomond venture, having sold Killdevil Lodge to the Anglican Church, Ella Manuel returned to Bonne Bay. She rented a house for the summer in Woody Point, made many new friends, and began to think of settling down. Send us a text
Having discovered the beauty of Woody Point and its friendly people, Ella Manuel decided to build a house for herself. Little did she know the challenges and frustrations that awaited her as she befuddled the builders with her plans. Send us a text
Here Ella Manuel faces frustration as she challenges power company regulations, but finally succeeds in connecting her new house on the hill in Woody Point to electric power. Send us a text
In the next 4 episodes, Ella Manuel describes the goings on of a typical year in mid-twentieth century Bonne Bay, now the heart of Gros Morne National Park of western Newfoundland. The events she relates might well have taken place in many another outport, for they illustrate something of the traditions and culture of rural Newfoundland and Labrador. This episode begins as Ella returns to Woody Point after a winter on the Mainland, rants about the protests over the seal fishery, meets old f...
In this second episode of a typical year in mid-century Bonne Bay, Ella Manuel tells of watching a house being moved, launching her new rodney, entertaining the Rockefellers, and joining a grand party in the old Orange Lodge. Send us a text
Ella Manuel visits the Woody Point clinic, where she hears about jannying, the old yuletide tradition of visiting homes in disguise. She recounts the story of John Charles Roberts’ seed potatoes and their connection with the Scots of Cape Breton. As winter approaches, the weather turns rough. Send us a text
With wind and snow every day, Ella Manuel crosses Bonne Bay on the ice, prepares for Christmas, and hosts a New Year’s Eve party. By the way, all across Canada the community with the highest average annual snowfall is none other than Woody Point, where over six meters or nearly 21 feet can drop over a three-month period. Send us a text
ORIGINAL BROADCAST In this rare recording, originally broadcast on the CBC on September 24, 1964, Ella Manuel tells her listeners of the changes, both good and not so, that the newly built road down (up) the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland have brought to the people who live along it. Send us a text
Appearing in many of Ella Manuel’s stories, Em Tapper was one of her closest friends in Bonne Bay. At home in the woods, on the river or in a boat, she guided for Ella during the Killdevil days. Here is the story of how they first met, and something of Em’s upbringing. Send us a text
Here Ella Manuel visits an old lady from a long-established family down in the bottom of the South Arm of Bonne Bay, who tells about her life in days of old. A girl's duties - curing the fish, rug hooking, making sealskin boots, spinning and knitting, preparing Christmas dinners, and enjoying life in general. Send us a text
Ella Manuel learns about a well-known Norris Point family and their connections with the late 19th century history of Bonne Bay, including the British naval fleet and that "muscular Christian", the Rev. Joseph Curling.. Send us a text
Here Ella Manuel talks about one of the splendid older men she came to know in Bonne Bay. This was “Uncle” George, well-known in Woody Point many years ago, an argumentative old man who made life difficult for his son by insisting on doing what he wanted to and not what he should. Send us a text
Among the first to settle in the outer part of Bonne Bay in Rocky Harbour was the Shears family, well-known for their amazing ingenuity, as Ella Manuel describes in this story. Send us a text
Brief vignettes of some of the colourful older men around Bonne Bay, whom Ella Manuel called her uncles. Send us a text
In Woody Point, Ella acquired her first cats. She was drawn into the feline world through her friends, the Campbells of Black Duck. Here is the tale of her first two cats, and their remarkable ancestor. Send us a text
As the road north from Rocky Harbour was being built in 1953, Ella Manuel walked the old coastal trail from Baker's Brook. In Sally's Cove she met three old Roberts brothers, all born in Bonne Bay in the 19th century. Here is the scene as she picked her way north. Send us a text
With Uncle Eli and Em Tapper, Ella Manuel heads north on Orangeman’s Day, fishes Western Brook, visits Sally's Cove and Portland Creek, and watches Hib repair an airplane. Send us a text
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