Hey Everyone, welcome back to Coffee Talk Saturday.
Thursday we arrived in Deer Lake, Newfoundland during the wee hours of the morning as our plane was late leaving the big city of Toronto. Thank goodness the wonderful people of Newfoundland stayed up to greet us and have our rental car waiting and ready to go. After a good sleep we headed down the road to Stephenville Crossing where my nephew is getting married today.
Kimm, my nephew’s fiancée, grew up here and so her family had us all over for a boil-up, aka a fish fry. We had a huge variety from lobster to cod to eel – delicious it all was. Thank you Kathy & Reg for a wonderful feast. After dinner came the screeching in ceremony – screech is a Newfoundland rum.
If you are not born here on the Rock then you can become an honorary Newfie by participating in a screeching. It is a very serious affair and not optional.
We all lined up in a row, dressed with toques, plaid shirts, gum boots and rain slickers – quite a sight we were. Then of course there were all the Newfies sitting in the audience watching us.
We were all given a shot glass of screech and then the ceremony began with the master of ceremonies asking us if:
Do ye all want to be Newfoundlanders?
and we replied:
Indeed we do me old cock and long may your big jib draw.
If you have ever heard a Newfie talk you know that it is real fast and no one can understand a word they say. This had to be repeated to us a couple of times and then we got it.
What does it mean:
Indeed we do means indeed we do
Me old cock is an old English cockney term meaning dear friend
And long may your big jib draw is a mariners term meaning may you always have favourable winds and a safe voyage.
For those of you who do not know a jib is the big sail on a schooner.
So once this was all said we had our shot of rum and then we all had to kiss a cod fish – yep that’s right a cod fish. Right on the lips!
Now I be an honorary Newfoundlander – woohoo. And I have a certificate to prove it – and apparently, if I don’t produce my certificate the next time I visit Newfoundland, I’ll have to go through it all again.
Happy Quilting
