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Gordon & Alice Drake
3 January 2003
Rushoon, Newfoundland, Canada


Credits:
Kaitlyn Murphy

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Alice and Gordon Drake say that resettlement was a hard time in their lives, but in the end their family turned out better moving from Oderin, especially education wise, and if it hadn't of happened back then there would be no one there now anyways. They moved in 1965 at the time Alice was 30 years old and Gordon was 37.

They say its never easy when you have to uproot from where you started off, Oderin was the home they had known and it wasn't easy leaving it behind. Both Gordon and Alice hold very similar views on Resettlement he says he don't think it was the worst thing that ever happened, not for his family at least, but maybe for the older people at the time. Alice agrees that their were a lot of older people greatly affected, for many Oderin was the only home that they had ever known and they were moved to areas where they weren't happy and it practically killed them. They moved to Rushoon because Alice was born there, and it was like moving back home. So, it wasn't so bad for her, and Gordon didn't mind it either because they had been back and forth between Oderin and Rushoon before they moved. They would take the children every year and they would go to school in Rushoon. They had been moving back and forth for at least 3 or 4 years prior to resettlement.

The government began taking everything away, the priest, the school, the post office and eventually there was nothing left and you had no choice. It's like the old saying goes, " fore its put was no man's choice"

Life was good in Oderin, it's what their family was used to and they loved it. Alice said she lived there for 7 years and absolutely loved it their, and doesn't think she could have asked for a better life then they had in Oderin. Gordon agrees that they had a good life there and he as well loved it there but he would not want to go back and live there now. The lifestyle they had then was what they were used to at the time, there were no cars or anything like that and it didn't bother them, now several years later they have adapted their lifestyle and they like the way they are living now. Now that they have moved they see a major difference mainly the fact that "you got to have money for everything", you have lights now, and a car, furnaces and there is everything else that you got to have money for, there wasn't any of that on the island. If you made anything during the fishing season you were okay for the winter, sometimes you just wound up square.

Gordon was a fisherman and Alice a housewife with lots of work to do, gardens, fish, hay and whatever else you might have to do each day. She would get up at 4 AM when Gordon would go fishing and start her work. She cooked numerous meals a day for 6 hungry fishermen who fished with Gordon, looked after the family, and did the house and garden work.

Alice left Oderin and went to Burin to have their children. When their daughter Annemarie was born the midwife was sick, they waited for the CN Boat to arrive and then went to Rushoon where the baby was delivered at Alice's moms house by the Bay L'Argent doctor.

Each year there was a Garden Party on August 15th which was Lady Day. The Lady Day Garden Party was a major event in all of Oderin Parish. Throughout the year there were always dances and there would always be a Christmas Concert.

At first they returned to Oderin on a regular basis, but not so much anymore. They say there is nothing to go back there for now but when they do go back you feel worse when your leaving then when you went there. Each departure brings about memories of the day they left.

There has never been and they don't think there will ever be a reunion in Oderin, because to many of the people from Oderin have since passed on. It was talked about years ago but never amounted to anything, personally they do not think that they would go back to a reunion.

There are plenty of legends about Oderin since it was fortified by the pirates and the French. The cannons are still on the hill in Oderin, and legend has it that there is buried treasure on the island. There is a bond down on the beach which is planched with black oak, it is said that the pirates and the french hid their treasures under the oak planching in the pond. People have tried to pump the pond on a few ocassions but they have not been able to complete it, the pond is surrounded with French headstones and some believe that the ghost of the french pirates protect their treasures from ever being discovered.

They both remember the day they left well, and it's a memory that will stick with them forever. It was not a good day, but they managed. Alice says when she went to Rushoon she knew she had to start over and she knew in her own heart that she was finished with Oderin, and they had to make a go of it in Rushoon, regardless of what their feelings were. She misses the quiet times the most and as for Gordon he says friends and all the get togethers they had. You had your friends and your close friends. Alice says when they were married 55 years ago she became very close with Bill and Mary Lake even though they moved to St. John's and she and Gordon moved to Rushoon, they have never lost touch.