BY: Patrick F. Gushue October 10, 1988

An old school house in Newfoundland

My first exposure to a formal school was in the village of Bacon Cove, Conception Bay, Newfoundland in 1948. My aunt Jean Kelly was the teacher for all eight grammar school grades. The majority of the students were my first, second or third cousins .......... All named Kelly, Gushue, White, Lewis, Cole and Burke.

The schoolhouse building was not very large and contained only two rooms, a classroom and a room in back of the blackboard as a sort of cloak room and storage room. As a youth of five years seated on a wood desk chair facing the blackboard, a door to the right of the blackboard led to the storage room and exit to the dirt road (now called Gushue's Road). On the left side of the classroom was a set of windows with no view, for a rock curtain that a billygoat would find difficult climbing, blocked the view of the men in the village working at the age-old occupations of the sea, seafaring and the fishery. The rear another blackboard.

To the right, another wall could have existed, since for a young student to look out its windows would call attention to the day dreams of youth and adventure! The view to the South lay open to green hay fields and pasture, meadows and livestock, which rose in elevation up the valley toward the hills of grandparents for on three sides lay hills with a brook running down the middle of it toward the sea where the water was used for the fishery.

From the window with the view, across the fields I could see the smoke rising from the chimney of the Kelly house where my Mother and Grandmother would fuss over me for doing what I should not have. But, as the village hellion, my aunts Jean and Eleanor have me confined to a room full of other children to learn about numbers, alphabets and other mysteries of an unknown adult world. Thus, having me safely under view. Both student and teacher are being put to the test with my antics to the point of me being told to leave the classroom! This was a disgrace to others, but to a half savage five year old, the line between right and wrong is not clear when one is having "fun".

On a later occasion, I recall the village having a "Time" at the schoolhouse which was my first exposure to music. The music consisted of two "fiddlers" as they were called. Today I enjoy Irish music as the music of my youth, learned within the walls of the schoolhouse at Bacon Cove, Newfoundland. The schoolhouse stands today as a private residence of a former classmate.

From later research of historical records, the first school was opened during 1834 in the Village of Bacon Cove, Newfoundland and operated by a Mrs. Gushue. The last year the school remained open was 1971 and thus 137 years of education was transferred to both Conception Harbour and Avondale, Newfoundland.

 FEELING IRISH ON SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

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