| You Can Take the Boy Out of the Bay: The Memoirs of Thomas Graham Morry of Ferryland Contributor(s): Morry, Christopher J. a. (Editor), Morry, Thomas Graham (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1775353524 ISBN-13: 9781775353522 Publisher: Avalonia and Hibernia Enterprises OUR PRICE: $14.20 Product Type: Paperback Published: May 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General - History | Canada - Post-confederation (1867-) - Humor | Form - Anecdotes & Quotations |
| Physical Information: 0.34" H x 5.51" W x 8.5" (0.42 lbs) 160 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Canadian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "You Can Take the Boy Out of the Bay..." is a collection of anecdotes recalling people and events in the life of Thomas Graham Morry. These mini short stories were written by him with the intention to amuse but, when examined carefully, they also contain underlying compassion, empathy and pathos. Tom Morry was born and raised in Ferryland, a tiny outport community on the Southern Shore of Newfoundland. The book focusses first and foremost on his experiences in that part of his life, and gives a bittersweet account of life in outport Newfoundland during the Depression Years, when poverty was an underlying theme in the lives of virtually everyone in the village - a theme they chose to ignore in order that they could live life to the fullest, despite the hardships.But the story goes well beyond that, recounting the experiences he had, and the odd selection of characters that he encountered, during his years that followed, in the United States in the Dirty Thirties, and back in Newfoundland, in St. John's this time, during and after WWII, and before and after Confederation. The story finishes up with a brief exposure to life in Ottawa for an ex-patriate Newfoundlander in the early 1950s and 60s, where he found characters as delightfully eccentric as he had encountered during his earlier life experiences, proving, once again, that we humans are more alike than we are different. |
Contributor Bio(s): Morry, Christopher J. a.: - Christopher (Chris, CJ) Morry, was the second son of Tom and Evelyn Morry, born in St. John's on May 25, 1949. Having been born just after Canada joined Newfoundland, he has suffered from a lifelong inferiority complex, because he was not born a "true" Newfoundlander. He has tried to console himself that at least he was conceived when Newfoundland was a Dominion! After completing a B.A. and an M.Sc. in the arcane field of Limnology (the science of freshwater ecosystems), and stints in Australia and New Zealand, he accepted an offer to come work for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in his home town. In the following years, he worked on projects related to human impacts on both marine and freshwater environments across Newfoundland, in Labrador and in the offshore, in the early days of oil and gas exploration. The rest of his career was spent essentially touring the country from coast, to coast to coast, as we say nowadays, offering advice in his chosen field, finishing off after a full career in the Public Service, with a five-year stint as a consultant, earning twice what he made in his best year working for government. Such is life!Morry, Thomas Graham: - Tom Morry was born in Newfoundland in 1919 when it was still an independent Dominion in the British Empire. He grew up there during the Depression Years in a somewhat isolated outport community 80 km from St. John's. After completing High School, he travelled to the Eastern US to further his education during the Dirty Thirties, though, to be honest, most of that education took place in the boxing gyms, the jazz clubs, the bowling alleys and the back-room card games of Pittsburgh and South Boston. He returned to Newfoundland when war broke out, worked for the Commission of Government there until Confederation, and then became a Canadian Public Servant. Despite this questionable formal education, he rose to the highest ranks of the Canadian Public Service and lived a full life in the Nation's Capital, Ottawa. But he never forgot or lost his love for his homeland and, before he died, he penned the notes for this book, leaving it to his son and executor, Christopher J. A. Morry, to see to it that it was published after his death. |