Dream from Grandfather Tom’s Hill

Tonight I fell asleep and while I slept I had a dream that I was standing on grandfather Toms hill gazing out over the sea and saw the fishing boats coming in between the islands loaded with fish some of them with two and three thousand lbs.

I have a dream that I looked up the bay and saw the little white caps dancing on the sea the sun going down with a flaming ray, over the spruce clad hills of the western shore, with John Angus Burke making his way home with the evenings salmon catch..

I had a dream that I looked over the glades back of Drumhead and saw a winter scene that would cause the greatest of artists to rush to their canvas and capture the view while it lasted .Seldon and Stirling coming across the bog with one of their majestic loads of hardwood from the famous square hill choppings. The beauty of these horses with the tassled harness and bells ringing are something now seen only on a post card or calendar.

I had a dream that i saw an old van called Adeline which was operated by Austin Henderson on her way to the Seal Harbour mines loaded with local men and Bob Worth from country harbour .Before they started off the hymn singing started and with Bob Worth leading on some of those old hymns if the Tabernacle Choir could have heard them they would most certainly have invited old Adeline and her singers to join them.

I had a dream that I saw men gathering in Wilfreds store and sitting on nail kegs and relating the days events, as a teenager I felt selfconscious among such experience. Here was a generation much older than I men who had mastered the sea and the art of catching fish at various levels. Today I cannot describe the admiration I had and still do for these men.

I had a dream that I saw a community where people were genuinely concerned for their neighbours well being, where men used to stand by their gates and invite a wayfaring stranger to a dinner and in many a case give him a gift to take with him.

I am happy in my old age ,to know that I had the unique privilege of knowing these people, of being able to look back and say I was blessed by living in a place with open doors and open hearts,

Abraham Lincoln once said. I Like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives and I like to see a man live so that his place may be proud of him.