Branch Come Home Year

August 9-19, 2007

A True Branch Man—A Tribute to Poppy

Submitted By: Mallary McGrath

 

 

"Now you can mark it down," a statement made by my grandfather, Mr. John McGrath, that lives on the "lower road," in Branch. He makes that statement about every point that he makes so what better way to start off my point about him, which is what an intelligent, wise, funny, good man he really is.

Now that he is well into his eighties, and a recent widower, his face is longer and his clothes are looser, but that smile still lights up the room when he talks of days gone by. Whether it is about his dancing, or a story about the many adventures of him and his very good buddy, Do lf. I have heard more than one story about pop and Dolf, all the work they done, and the "scatter" drinks that they would have.

One of my favourite stories that poppy tells me is about the time he was working to the gut with Gus Roche and Nick Power. Pop was always first to the gut in the mornings and one morning he was late, because had slept in by mistake. So Gus and Nick knew how strange it was that John was late for work. Nick asked Gus did he hear about John dying last night, and when Gus looked up Pop was coming down over the gut path. Gus later told pop that he had got the ‘biggest fright,’ when Nick said that he had died.

Pops memory is pretty good, for an eight four year old, according to all those stories that he can riddle off. Ones like how Ned Quigley got the first dog that came to Branch, he had got it from Jimmy Corcoran from St. Brides, and Mr. Joe Nash had the first car.

Also, pop was the first person to go on the ambulance from Branch. He had cut his hand out the road at wood, and ended up with eight stitches.

He has more than one scar from all the things that he has done "in his time." One scar that is not visible is the one about losing two brothers in the Second World War; Austin and Milton McGrath. Every time Pop talks about them his eyes sparkle and his voice rings with pride. His parents, Mary-Joe and Albert McGrath had seven children; Austin, Milton, Hannah, Agnes, Lena, Theresa, and John. The news of his both his brother’s deaths meant that he was now the young man of the house. He told me the storey of how one year, his father got three pigs and they didn’t have any feed. He had this trolley that he put wheels on, and he would take it to the gut and collect fish heads that he would bring home for his mother to boil for feed. He has done queer things in his time, and he doesn’t mind talking about it either. Eighty-four years of living in rural Newfoundland results in a whole lot of fishing, cutting wood, and a lot of parties. Anyone that knew John McGrath in his younger years knows that he was a great dancer that didn’t mind getting out on the floor when the music started. It really is a shame that I will never get to see that vibrant young man that would light up the floor with just two feet.

Besides from dancing, he did a lot of fishing in his time as well. Him and Neddy Frank from Point Lance were out on Peter and Paul’s day off of Point Lance in 1946. They did get in before it got too severe, and he came home to Branch on the horses back.

He went to Maggie Frank’s, and when he went into the house she was praying. She said that Austin and James Willy were out in all that weather and that there was no sign of them. When Pop looked out through the window he saw the both of them coming through the yard in their oil clothes.

So, I’ve heard a lot of stories from Pop, about everything really. You can be sure that whenever you go in for a visit he has a storey or two to tell you. I guess that is one of his favourite things to do, tell stories about the past. It gets his mind off his illness and aches and pains that go with his age. It brings him back to the day when he was a healthy, active man, son, brother, husband, and father. Now to me he is grandfather, that I adore and I think that an hour spent with Pop is more educating that an entire school day. It is with him that I learned my culture, not from a history book. No book shows you how to put in wood, or how to quickly heal a cut with some salty water. He is a true Branch Man that has lived there his entire life, and can tell you a thing or two about any person that was ever brought up in Branch. As I previously stated, he is an intelligent, wise, funny, good man, and you can mark that down.