MEMORIES
   by John B. Walsh

I often wonder why, when after 50 years and miles away from my home at Merasheen, I am so very much still attached. Is it loneliness for the good and bad times stored in my long-term memories? Surely it is for the friendships of buddies and gals, but most of all, it must be because of the close community we had on our own isolated island. There we knew everyone and depended on all to make our then hardened lives worth living from year to year.

The pillars of family, of school, church and friends were very important in moulding us for life in later years. In our village everyone pulled together to help, and doors to our favourite homes were always open for evening chats and sharing. For certain, it was not for the weather.

We worked side by side to improve the roads to build the schools, church and hall, to decorate the church, and to plan a dance, card party or soup supper. We looked ahead to winter's work at home and summer to fish from dawn to dusk. The reward of a trip to St. John's, a garden party on Lady Day, or a game of Kat and goals on Sunday afternoon was our dream.

We didn't know back then, but it has been reinforced so many ways during my life, that we had something special at Merasheen that groomed us to stand out in our chosen place and field of work. An uncle once told me that our exposure to the unsheltered elements of nature on the wind swept land, and especially our mastery of the unpredictable sea, conditioned and trained us individually to accept, challenge, and to lead when others lacked the know how or sense of adventure to do what needed to be done. No doubt, it is a continuation of all that Merasheen drive, that gathers us from more and more distant places at the call for togetherness again each come home anniversary.

Let us make the year 2000 get together something that the children of Merasheen will remember vividly as we older folks do now - something to be proud of another 50 years down the road of life.