Interview: Robert Howlett

Robert Howlett on No Medicare, Only Home Remedies:

"You had to pay for everything. And it was completely, way different than it is now, there was no Medicare, so it was really tough, right? So obviously, you didn't go to hospital unless you were half dying. They put a poultice on your hand if you cut it, and the Turpentine of the wood, they wrapped Turprntine and that was used to stick it together. And if you scald yourself, there were leaves out in the garden. We used to call them Docky-leaves. You put Docky-leaves on your arm and hands if you scald it, or if you got burned with sting-nettles and that used to heal them. Take the pain away and heal the burn. To make a poultice, they get the bread and sometimes heal, and they'd put it in hot water and then they'd put it on a cloth and put a bandage on your arm with the bread inside and if there was any infection - or if you have splinters, say in your arm, the bread would draw it right out. Yeah it worked anyway. We're still alive."

Robert Howlett on Fun Times in Petty Harbour:

The fisherman had Rodneys for hauling their traps, and we spent a lot of time out rowing around the Rodneys. And in the spring when the ice would come in and the ice pans would come in, we'd be down on the ice pans, and down out in the water shoving around the ice pans and copying from one to the other. Jumping from one pan of ice to the other pan of ice. You spend a lot of time doing that in the spring, yeah."