Honeycomb

Back in the good ole days when there was still a dozen or so more people in the Drum than the present population, and hunting was a way of life, the fishermen (and others as well) would make a lot of trips to the Western Shore ( of Country Harbour) for deer, in October, and later in December for rabbits.

I remember well the day in ' 57, when a crowd of us piled aboard " Helen and Linda " and headed up the bay, well before daylight. I believe there was fourteen of us, all told.

Ian had picked up a halibut dory the previous summer.........he found her adrift somewhere outside the buoy, full of water and well grown with seaweed and barnacles. He was proud of his find and after a long period of drying out he scraped and painted her in tradional dory buff, with dark green trim. She looked like new, but alas, her bottom and garboard planks were riddled with Teredoes, (shipworm) to a point were she was more a liability than an asset.

On this particular day Ian decided that he would make the trip, not to hunt rabbits, but to cut hardwood on the Mount, so armed with a bucksaw and axe he boarded, tied the dory astern; Victor clutched in the 366 GM and we were away, up the Bay.

The run up the Bay to Lower Mount Cove took about thirty five minutes, and the fo'castle of the " Helen and Linda" was crowded to the point where it couldn't hold another body, and everyone smoking, except Walter Farrell and he was chewing Club.

We reached the Cove just as dawn was breaking, anchored the boat and run a buoy line ashore to both sides of the Cove, as was the practice, for the holding bottom wasn' t the best, should the wind haul in from the southeast. When the dory got back from these tasks, we commenced throwing our packsacks down into her and with rifles in hand followed the packs, containing lunches and brew kettles. All were anxious to hit the woods.

I think it was ' 56 when Jimmy F. Rodgers came out with his big hit " Honey Comb"and it was the words of this song that Ian quoted to us that morning; " Boys" said Ian, " Don't jump too hard, this dory ain't nothin' but a walkin, talkin' honey comb!"

I remember the laughter as if it was yesterday.

Good times, good friends.

I wish we could relive some of those happy days.