GAMES IN MERASHEEN
  by Ernie Walsh

We always had a lot of games and toys passed on to us from our older brothers, sisters and parents. When we tired of these, we invented our own fun. The summer of 1954, my brother Denis had completed his first year at St. Paul's Seminary in Ottawa. Monsignor Fyme had asked him to spend the summer as a sort of recreational director for the youth of Merasheen, helping to organize and run the
Lady Day Garden Party and other operations.

Denis introduced basketball. We played inside on the first floor of the Parish Hall and outside behind the Co-op Store with regulation height nets on large poles.

Volleyball was played between the Parish Hall and the Parish Storage Shed across the road. Softball was played first on Soldier's Point in front of the Elementary School, but it wasn't a great site. A ball hit in the air between first and second base usually hit the side of the concrete block school house or landed on the roof and rolled down. From home plate and first base, you couldn't see second base, as it was down on the next level of ground as was third base. Down the third base line, there was wet mud and a bridge over a drain. A good smack down third might go over the bank and down into the salt water or into Mr. Martin Connor’s hay meadow.

Later, the softball field was relocated to a meadow over in front of Bill and Fergus Fulford's and Lar Pitcher's old property. The rectangular field, short on the right field line and long on the left field line, was marshy and bumpy. Again, we moved for a third time, to the Parish meadow between the Parish Hall and Uncle Amelius Best's fence and the fence along by beach roadway. The first base line was about six feet away from the Parish Hall and against the Hall there were ten or twelve wharf logs piled - good for our fans for sitting on but difficult to catch foul balls. About ten feet back from and parallel to the first and second base line was a drainage ditch covered with a wooden bridge about eighty feet long. The left field area was wetter than the rest of the field. Between second and third base, there was a large pole carrying the electrical lighting wire from the delco house over by Mr. Joe Connors‘. Many a line drive would bang off the light pole. Behind home plate was only enough space for the catcher and umpire. Denis was the umpire the first year and Jose Ennis was kind and sport enough to give up playing softball and train to be our umpire for later years. We had the Canadian Softball League Official Rule Book and took our games seriously.

The younger boys would be on the field every fine day playing softball and knockouts. The official games between the Tigers and the Wildcats were played after supper. The pitchers were -the older teenagers: Dick Pittman, Donald Wilson, Leonard Cochrane, and Paddy Moore. As some of these fellows fished with their fathers, they could not always be there for some of the games and their absence had a large impact on the play of the game and the final outcome. I remember Dick Pittman could, on an infield grounder, run all around the bases and home because as we would throw around the ball and tag Dick, he would be running so fast he most always knocked the ball out of our small hands. You see, most of us played with our bare hands. Kevin Pomroy was strong and muscular and could hit the ball over the fence, but he struck out a lot. In our age group, Kevin Fulford, I feel, developed into the best player and home run hitter. On good days, there was a game before school, during recess, after dinner, and some played after school. We would get the most fan support on Saturday evenings, as we played before the weekly movie in the Parish Hall. The grown-ups could see our play and progress. Monsignor Fyme could
always be seen looking out through his study window or out on the veranda smoking one of his many pipes. Donald Wilson liked basketball the most, it seemed. A dozen or more favored volleyball, but softball became the most popular by the majority.

The older teenagers and young men, led by Raymond and Gerald Leonard, Neddy Fitzgerald and Bill Houlihan played baseball. It was the game to play or watch on Big Merasheen field.

In 1954, our Elementary School Teacher from Red Island introduced to us the game of "Rounders." It had four bases the same as softball and a pitcher and catcher and was played with a soft sponge or rubber ball. We played it at school on the East End of the school, which included the road next to Mr. Martin Connors’ fence.
Everyone, girls and boys, who wanted to play, could play as long as the team numbers were even or one odd. You tried to hit the ball as hard and as far as you could and tried to run all the way around the bases and to home plate without being put out. Only home runs counted as one run. You could be put out if the ball was thrown to a base and caught before you got there. A caught fly ball was out. Those in the field could also throw a ball at a runner and if it hit him between bases, he was out. Many a hopeful home run hitter was struck by a long thrown ball from the outfield just before their foot was to touch home plate. Some of the girls could throw more accurately than the boys.

Monsignor Fyme wrote Denis at St. Paul's Seminary in Ottawa around Easter 1955 and asked if, when he came home to Merasheen in June, he would bring home "A New Play." When Denis came home in June and walked down from the Government Wharf and the M.V. Burin, there would be a dozen or more of us carrying his bags and listening to his many new ‘Moron Jokes’ they were called then. Here's an example: Why did the moron bring a ladder to the church? Answer: He heard the drinks were on the house (no, that was for a tavern.) He heard there was going to be a high Mass. Why did the moron sneak by the medicine cabinet? Answer: He didn’t want to wake the sleeping pills, etc. etc.

Denis then showed us a new white pigskin or American/Canadian football for Grey Cup/Super Bowl play, saying, "We're going to learn football this year" Or "a new play." Next day, Denis told Monsignor Fyme about his new play or game he was planning. Monsignor broke into a smile and said, "Denis, boy, I said a Play - a new Three Act Play that adults can practice and perform for the Christmas Concert."

Denis gave the football to me, but I'd only allow throwing and catching and tag football, as I soon learned we didn't know how to kick it, and it bounced every which way and onto sharp rocks. Loyola Pomroy, Bill Wilson, and I finally wore the ball out down behind the Sir Humphrey Gilbert Building in St. John's about ten years later when tennis became our new game.