MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS
It
may well seem a cliche but these were the best and the worst of times. I had
gone into the orphanage in 1952 and met an old Irish Christian brother from my
former school. His name was T.I. Murphy, he was a very grand fatherly type.
This was a little re-assuring but not a lot. The other brothers at that time
were all called Irish Christian Brothers but the ones I had contact with were
American. One was Brother Kernan. a negro man from
For a little kid it was very confusing but when Brother Clancy another American bust both of my cheeks at eleven years of age I did think if I was born a Newfoundlander, a person in his own country and now was a Canadian while still a British subject how come these yanks could bust up my face and terrorize me from morning to night. These thoughts were not my own, these were ideas explained to me by the older guys.
Hopalong Cassidy was American, so was Lash Larue and Gene Autry, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, all were my childhood heroes. Up till then I identified as do most kids foreign or American with the good guys and the good guys were always American. That was what the movies told you again and again. Americans showed up and things got better but not with this lot, no the real Americans showed up later and pulled these guys out. Sadly the damage had been done. Unrelenting physical and sexual and emotional abuse. Forty to fifty years later they were hauled into court and many were convicted of unbelievable crimes against children, several were proven not guilty or the crown felt there wasn't sufficient evidence to proceed or the victims were too damaged all these years later to stand up to the rigors of the defense lawyers tactics and attacks for the Irish Christian Brothers.
However I was talking about Christmas, the best one I ever had. When I was in grade seven, a year after my introduction to these other brutes, some Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogues were passed around in class and we were told we could pick any article of clothing or toy or piece of sports equipment even a record player...it was suggested that we keep it around twenty five bucks so that every kid would get something special.
Now
with the boys at Mount Cashel Catholic orphanage and the Belvedare Catholic
girls orphanage and the boys and girls orphanages for non Catholics, sick kids
in the hospitals and other venues this had to have been around about one
thousand kids. Our benefacters were young
These
young people were making about eighty five dollars a month but they willingly
offered two or three dollars per month from their pay as service men and women
to these kids they didn't know. I don't recall anything from the Canadian
service men or for that matter from the locals in St. John's, the capital
city.\par\par
That winter we dressed like we were regular children,as the kids say /we were styling', we played hockey with real skates that actually fit and played some tunes on our individual musical apparatus. And as a plus some of us worked at the raffle. We would be selling tickets for the Christmas draws: the locals in the city could win a Christmas turkey or a pair of nylons or a couple of dollars but the raffle helped keep us a little more self sufficient. Meanwhile the rest of the kids were out in the country, so we felt free for a little while selling those tickets down town in the heart of the city.
Mount Cashel Raffle Building
The main drag down town was lit up with Christmas lights and we were being fed junk food like all kids love, hamburgers, fish and chips, fried chicken and of course soda pop, Christmas music, fresh snow, happy pleasant people wishing Merry Christmas. For children with out parents, kids who never had a birthday celebration let alone being told when their birthday was and never having received a Christmas gift in the case of many of us children, it was wonderful.
These
Americans who donated those gifts were the Hopalongs, the Lash Larues and Gene
Autry's the heroes of my childhood. The men who came to town and drove the bad
guys out and those Americans tried in that fashion at least for the next five
of my years in attendance to give these little kids a Christmas more in the
spirit of Jesus than the perverts who spouted rhe words of Christ but seemed to
really adore at the feet of Satan. They just couldn't drive out the bad
Americans, Newfoundlanders and brothers from mainland Canada.
These young service people didn't know about torture, buggery, emotional abuse, they didn't know some of the children never got their gifts sometimes because some Christian Brother said "they were bad, no good, not deserving of these fine young service peoples efforts to make a nice Christmas.
This never did happen to me, I was lucky. I also had the benefit of some of these young men having taken me out on Father's day and bringing me to the PX and allowing me to have anything I liked, taking me to the mess hall on the base and again letting me have anything available and surrounding me with their buddies, who maybe for a moment remembered their dads. For taking us to the base bowling alley, base movies.
Thank
you all, you fine American people, thank you from one lonely little kid. You
helped us understand these "Irish Christian Brothers" although they
might be from America weren't what America was about and the ordinary American
people weren't what these men portrayed Americans as being...ordinary Americans
were and are the most generous of people this world has ever seen...many of
these American Irish Christian brothers were of the age to have gone to Korea but
supposedly opted to serve God. I don't remember ever reading where God or Jesus
ever said "That this was our lot in life because of our birth
circumstances".
The Americans I remember were the hundreds of young men running around St. John's on shore leave with the weather either freezing cold, snow up to their behinds slipping and sliding in their dress shoes and skimpy garb or dodging the pelting rain but there they were wearing slight colorful squall or poplin jackets, tightly pegged pants and on occasion crowded into an old car, always searching to meet some girls. Dancing at all the clubs, stimulating clubs to employ dance bands and kicking up their heels on the dance floor with all these girls. Everyone dressed to the nines. It was a win win situation for all. Newfoundland men learned they had to treat women with respect, develop more gentlemanly habits and manners.
Thousands of these young American men met and married these women and started new chapters in American Newfoundland relations. I remember when there would be a parade or remberance ceremony seeing those same young people in full dress navy, army, air force, the bands playing; the color parties showing the individual pride of each branch of the service. The acceptance by my people and yours of all races and ethnic groups and religious beliefs without exception.
So
again thank you I've longed to have this opportunity for fifty years, If you
had a mom or dad or relative who served in Newfoundland during the late 1940's,
1950's and sixties at Fort Pepperall, Argentia naval base, or Harmon air
force base; or maybe some of these young people were your children if so they
did you proud, thank you too. I hope someone will read it and maybe remember
another less publicized time when you were again wonderful. God Bless you all,
Patrick Williams Toronto, Ontario Canada
Christmas in Mount Cashel
Orphanage 1953 slideshow
http://www.slidelicious.com/view.html?slideid=86587
This lovely couple is Sgt.
Earl Chilton Jr. and his lovely wife
Sgt. Chilton was in charge
of the service club for Fort Pepperell AFB
During the time that the
“Favorite Christmas” described above was being
put together in 1953-1954
and years beyond he was the man who started it for us.
The Mount Cashel Catholic
Orphanage for Boys, the Belvedere Catholic Girls
Orphanage and the Orphanages
for Church of England Boys and Girls.
Figure 1 Sgt. Chilton and his wife
The Mount Cashel Raffle
In old St. John's town,
I'd love to go down
Every Christmas, on the west end,
To their Water Street store,
Where a hand bell rang out,
And the young lads would shout,
Hey, Mister, buy a ticket.
Help the poor orphans out!
Hey, Mister, buy a raffle
For the boys in Mount Cashel!
Merry Christmas!
Could you buy just one please?
You may be lucky and win your Missus a turkey.
Come on now and buy one from me!
Some years there I went,
And spent every cent
That I had in my pocket at the time;
And how good you would feel,
When they'd spin the big wheel,
And you'd win,
But you wouldn't cash in!
In old St. John's town,
I still love to go down,
But it's just not the same any more,
And I sure miss the roar
In that Water Street store,
When the crowds
Would come tramplin' in.
What a pity and shame,
Our loss, no one's gain,
Those lads and Mount Cashel are gone;
But a warm glowing ember,
I'll always remember,
Those orphans to Christmas belong.
####.... Arch Doody of O'Kannagan (The
Leaving, 1997) ....####
See more
Newfoundland and Labrador Christmas songs.
Historical Note:
The Mount Cashel orphanage was run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic
order. The order had been respected in the community for many years, but
reports of physical and sexual abuse began in the 1980s.
Eventually more than 300 former students alleged they had been abused
physically and sexually at the orphanage, and some of them claimed that the
government and church tried to cover up the problems. After the allegations
were publicized, the school was closed. In 1996, a court in Ontario ordered the
Christian Brothers to cease operation in Canada and pay the equivalent of about
$46 million to the victims.
On 28 May, 2004, CNews reported that John Evangelist Murphy, 75, who was
convicted of four counts of indecent assault on boys who lived at the Mount
Cashel Orphanage in the 1950s, was given a 20-month conditional sentence at
Supreme Court in St. John's.
Police said that Murphy's trial is the last known case involving sexual abuse
at the hands of the Christian Brothers, the lay order which ran the orphanage
in St. John's for 115 years
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By
Wayne Pittman
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