Newfie June - Don't "Wine" About It

Goose Bay, Labrador is on the "mainland portion" of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. As cold as it can get in the winter months, it can be blistering hot in the summer.

My husband, Steve, was in the military back in 1980 and was posted to "The Goose" in June of that year. I was seven months pregnant at the time and was…delicately put…quite large with child. In plain English…I had already gained a good 25 of the 38 pounds I would eventually gain during this eventful time in my life and summer time heat was wearing quite thin on me.

Goose Bay was hot and dry when we arrived. The whole place looked like it was sitting on a huge sand dune. The black flies were murderous and the heat unbearable. We had been in The Goose for about three weeks, when the boxes of items we had packed to bring with us, finally arrived. It was rather like Christmas; I had packed them so many weeks before, that I could no longer remember exactly what I had put in them. The first crate we unpacked had extra clothing. I pulled out my honeymoon negligee (which I had brought along for sentimental reasons…not that I thought I would be able to wear it any time soon). It was hard work unloading all of our "stuff" and I was sweating in my maternity smock…so, I decided that I would pull on the negligee. It was styled with an "empire waist" so it had plenty of room in the front for my bulging belly. At least it had to be cooler than that heavy cotton smock I had on! Off I teetered and donned the flimsy number and back to the living room I went to open up the next crate. It was filled with towels and linens with thirty bottles of white wine packed in between the cushioning folds of fabric.

I feel I must back up a little to explain our thought processes that led to us having transported a cache of wine with us. You see, we had been warned by some other folks at the base in Edmonton (who had previously been in Labrador), that Goose Bay had one liquor store that stocked very limited supplies of white wine, and what they did have was horrendously expensive. Of course, I was not drinking alcohol in my condition but I was near the end of my pregnancy and we liked a glass of white wine with meals when we had friends over for dinner. We thought that if we were going to be in such an isolated posting for at least a year, we would probably be hosting/attending a lot of dinner parties as there would likely be precious little else to do once winter came.

So, back to the scene in the little living room in Goose Bay. I was just extracting the last of the wine bottles and setting them on the coffee table when the doorbell rang. We didn't know who it could be as we hadn't met many people in Goose Bay yet. A hallway ran from the living room straight out to the front door. Steve went out and opened the door… and there stood the base padre to make his initial "Welcome to Goose Bay" visit. My husband…bless his little male, scatter-brained soul…did not hesitate to ask the padre in and proceeded to try to introduce me to him. Imagine the scene! First of all, I had been sitting on the floor and was not about to get up as I knew how see-through the negligee was. I was afraid that I might kneel on the hem or something equally clumsy (in an attempt to maneuver my whale-like carcass off the floor) and pull the darn neckline down over my breasts! So, I just sat there, feeling my face flame in embarrassment and I think I managed to mutter something inane and stupid. Steve could have just gotten it over with and said, "Oh, and by the way, padre, I'd like you to meet my wife. She's the pregnant tart with her breasts spilling out over the top of her frightfully transparent negligee…and lining up thirty bottles of wine in front of her (you get thirsty when you work in this heat).

The minister actually realized he had called at a bad time and made his excuses to depart with a promise to return again when we were "less busy". Yeah, right!

It turns out the padre ran the local chapter of AA and he must have thought he would have to sign us up for meetings right away. To his benefit, gossip is usually ripe in such a small community but I didn't hear one word of feedback about the incident. We never did see the padre at out door again, either, I must admit.

The coming winter in The Goose was long and cold. It hit minus 25 by October and didn't get over zero until well into April. That wine actually came in quite handy, as it turned out. We met some great people during our year, some we correspond with to this day. I must say that I was not unhappy to leave it behind at the end of the year, but I would not have missed the experience for the world.

Cheers,

© Newfie June




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