This book represents the twenty-fifth and final volume of twenty-five volumes in a series of verbatim transcripts of the diaries of Howard Leopold Morry, written by him starting in 1939 and concluding with the last known volume in 1966.
Howard was a raconteur and oral historian cast in the same mould as dozens of other men and women in Newfoundland in those days who carried forward the history of the small outport villages in which they lived. In many cases, their knowledge, gained by word of mouth from generation to generation, is our only record of the events that took place in these tiny villages for many decades and even centuries.
In his diaries, he spoke of his own personal experiences, at home in his youth and in his later years, his adventures in western Canada as a young man, and overseas with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in WWI. But he also recorded observations on the significant and insignificant (to most historians) events of daily life in a small outport village on the Southern Shore of Newfoundland in the early to mid-1900s. And he also recounted events from the history of his village as passed down to him by earlier generations of oral historians.
The current volume is almost exclusively of the type in which reminiscences of the past take the forefront.
In this twenty-fifth volume, the diary transcribed nominally covers the very brief period from January 31,1965 to February 18,1965. But in reality, these dates simply represent the start and the finish of the writing and there are almost no details given of what was happening in the present time between those two dates.
The lion's share of the diary that constitute reflections on the past, is largely repetitive of thoughts recorded in earlier diaries. This is useful as it serves to pick up accidental errors in dates and names that have entered into some of these accounts and also on occasion provides additional detail on the subject matter.
This diary is also unique in one unfortunate respect. It exists only in the form of a photocopy of the handwritten original and an anonymous typed transcript of that original, both of which appear to have been made soon after the diary was written. The handwritten diary itself is missing or, if it still exists, its location is unknown.
Upon first reading this diary, it seemed strangely familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere previously. Then it dawned on me. This was the memoir that someone gave to Stewart McLean as background material when he wrote a chapter on Ferryland in his 10th anniversary edition of the book "Welcome Home". Several of the tracts published in that chapter are taken word for word from this memoir.
Finally, it is important to note that this diary was written following about five years of research by Howard and his daughter Jean on the Morry family history. The truths revealed by Jean in her research, primarily conducted by using the encyclopaedic resources available from the Church of the Latter Day Saints - Mormon, in many cases did not conform with Howard's long-held and cherished views of the family history, which came down to him via oral history from previous generations of the family. Howard clearly was conflicted in this regard and tended to hold on tenaciously in is writings to those old beliefs, in many cases, even though the documentary evidence had either proven that they were wrong or could not be used to give them support.
As in previous volumes, in order to provide readers not familiar with the "cast of characters" or the local and international historical events mentioned in the pages of the diary a clue to their identity, an extensive set of endnotes has been provided as an assistance in reading and fully understanding the context of the diary