Skipper

She's a dory, not a taxi.

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A shared trip

Games

Come in. Pull up a chair.

Trivia

The Board

Them days you sent a youngster up the road to say there was a game on. Now you send the code, and if a chair's still empty when you deal, one of the regulars takes it.

Advertise here

Down the road

Well, Sunday after Mass we'd walk it. Start at the gate and go down, and every house along here I'll tell you who's in it.

Fort McAndrew, Argentia

The WWII army side of the Argentia base — barracks hill, ammo igloos and the coastal batteries that guarded Placentia Bay.

Fort McAndrew was the US Army base at Argentia, established in March 1942 to provide air defence and ground security for the naval air station; it passed to the US Air Force as McAndrew AFB in 1946-48 and was decommissioned in 1955 (Pursuit of Adventure). Its coastal batteries survive around the old base: Battery 282, about 100 metres from Charter Avenue (Highway 102), still mounts its two 6-inch guns and is a Registered Heritage Structure (2005), while Battery 281's guns were removed in 1994. An underground command bunker — long mis-called a hospital — sits near the Marquis Avenue/Charter Avenue intersection, and dozens of camouflaged ammunition 'igloos' are scattered through the hills. Neither battery was ever fired except in training.

How to get there

Argentia, at the end of Route 100 about 43 km south of Whitbourne and the Trans-Canada: the old base roads spread around the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal, with Battery 282 about 100 m off Highway 102 (Charter Avenue) and the command bunker near the Marquis/Charter intersection.

Mind yourself

Derelict military structures — unstable, unlit, fouled air underground. Underground access is no longer recommended (poor air quality); stay outside, respect fences, and keep clear of the working ferry terminal.

Fact

Where that comes from

On the go

Them days the garden party was the whole summer. Here's what's on the go now, and when.

The kitchen

Well, Sunday the pot was on before Mass and the smell of it met you at the gate. Here's what was in it, and how it's done.

The hall

Them days the hall had a dance Saturday and the kitchen had music the rest of the week. It's still playing. Come in and listen.

The yarns

He said, you know the one about the light on the water. I said, I do. That's a story, mind, and I'll tell you which parts.

Not the house

No, I said, that's not the house. It was down just below there. Go back up the road.

Back up the road