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The AIH Transcript for August 22, 2017

Hosts: Jim Brown and Karen Gordon

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

JIM BROWN: Hello. I'm Jim Brown, sitting in for Carol Off.

KAREN GORDON: Good evening. I'm Karen Gordon, sitting in for Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

RD: Tonight:

JB: Watch this space. In a small Kentucky town, thousands gathered to view the solar eclipse. But some will be scanning the skies all night because this is the anniversary of a day when aliens are said to have paid a visit.

KG: No man is an island, but he came close. Remembering Patrick O'Flaherty, who knew more and wrote more about the history of Newfoundland than anyone else. And his work was both inspired and inspiring.

JB: Home remedy. After being forced out by wildfires more than a month ago, our guest, a resort owner whose husband has been fighting the fires, tells us how relieved she is to return home.

KG: The king of comedy. Whether you saw him as a breath of fresh air or a blowhard, the late Jerry Lewis was a force of nature whose deliberately ridiculous antics were part of a serious showbiz strategy.

JB: United they kickstand. Cyclists in Utrecht, the Netherlands have peddled their influence to a big convenient breakthrough: the world's largest underground garage for bikes.

KG: And… taking its toll will take a toll. London's Big Ben clangs for the last time before four years of renovations. And a British MP believes that when the giant clock snoozes, his country loses. As It Happens, the Monday edition. Radio that guesses for some this is the way the world ends: first with a bong, then with a whimper.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Eclipse Kentucky, Loon Lake BC, Big Ben MP

Eclipse Kentucky

Guest: Joann Smithey

KG: The sky darkened across North America today, and millions looked up — with proper eye protection, we hope — to witness the total eclipse of the sun. And down in the Kentucky farm town of Kelly, the moment was even more special and perhaps cosmically significant. It turns out that the Eclipse came on the exact day of the Annual Little Green Men Days Festival, which celebrates the day in 1955 when a group of aliens allegedly visited the town. We reached festival organizer Joanne Smithey earlier today, just as the eclipse began.

JB: Hello, Joann Smithey.

JOANN SMITHEY Hang on! We got first bite.

JB: That was first bite, was it?

JS: That was first bite. The eclipse has officially started.

JB: You guys really celebrate first bite down there. I don't think I've ever heard it celebrated quite like that before.

JS: We’ve got thousands of people here on the fields. We’ve been celebrating our festival and the eclipse for four days. Right now, I’ve got thousands of people with solar glasses on looking up and they’re all just staring.

JB: Now do you think they're all looking at the eclipse? Or could some of them also be looking for some… maybe alien life forms?

JS: Well, they could be. But I think we have to wait for it to get a little bit darker for that.

JB: The aliens like the night, do they?

JS: Well, the first time they invaded, it was already dark and then it went on all night long. And once the sun came up again, they were gone.

JB: There you go.

JS: We’re just going to wait to see what happens during totality. Because then when it starts to getting light again, they could be gone.

JB: Now describe some of the costumes that the people around you are wearing?

JS: I see… who is that? That’s Jar Jar Binks Star Wars. I've got one of the aliens from the movie Alien vs. Predator. I see several Star Wars characters. I see a whole bunch of aliens: male, female, Princess aliens, our aliens, any type of friendly alien you can think of and a few monsters I don't recognize at all.

JB: And you're positive these are all costumes?

JS: Oh Yeah! I'm pretty sure. Our aliens were only three-and-a-half foot tall, some of these guys are taller than I am.

JB: Now I want you to tell our listeners what it is that was supposed to have happened in Kelly, Kentucky, on August 21^st, 1955?

JS: August 21^st, 1955, changed community forever. The Sutton family had just finished dinner and were planning cards. The children were sitting playing with toys in the living room. And they decided it was time to take a break and go out to the water well because there was still no indoor plumbing. They went out to the water well to get some cold water to bring in for everyone and they saw a flash go flying across the sky. They didn't know what it was. They ran inside. They started telling everyone about it and nobody believed them. Shortly after that, they decided OK, we're going to go outside and figure it out. They went outside and when they got towards the water well, they saw little beings. About three-and-a-half foot tall, kind of silver. They didn’t know what they were, but they definitely weren't human. So they ran back inside and the only thing that Kentucky folk know how to do to protect their family from the unknown: they grabbed shotguns. They tried shooting these little beings; they didn’t know who they were. They’d shoot them, they’d fall over, they’d roll a little bit, they’d get back up and they’d float away. They went outside to look for them and one reached down on the roof and pulled his hair. They saw another one in the oak tree in the yard. They saw a couple more along the wood line. The police department called the state police, the sheriff's department, the army — which is Fort Campbell military base — everyone went out there. They found shotgun shells and rifle shells and holes in everything from the inside of the house shot through to the outside, but they never found any aliens.

JB: No aliens!

JS: These are Kentucky boys that knew how to shoot by the time they could barely walk. So if they were going to shoot something they would have hit it.

JB: I have to ask you was the Sutton family known to be involved in the local corn mash whiskey industry at all?

JS: No. This was an extremely religious family. Granny Langford, the mom that was there, she did not allow alcohol on her property at all. They were very religious. They went to church twice a week. No cursing, no foul language, proper manners. And even the police report from that night says there was no sign of alcohol anywhere on the property. And that is written right in the police report.

JB: Now I have to ask you Ms. Smithey, do you believe that aliens paid your town a visit?

JS: I believe something happened that night to scare the family to death and I believe it is a huge universe and I've only seen a small thumbprint of it.

JB: What does it mean this year to have your Little Green Men Festival and the total solar eclipse both happening on the same day?

JS: And have us be the point of greatest eclipse. It’s creepy! It is honestly creepy. Some people think the aliens are coming back. Some people think that is an absolute sign just because of the date coincidence and all the other coincidences. And some people are just like well, it's an eclipse.

JB: Well, thank you so much for joining us. Enjoy the rest of the eclipse and enjoy the rest of the festival.

JS: Well, thank you. It was nice hearing from you guys.

JB: All the best.

JS: Alright. Bye bye.

JB: Bye bye.

KG: Joann Smithey is the organizer of the Little Green Men Days Festival. We've reached her in Kelly, Kentucky. If you'd like to see some pictures from the festival, go to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Jazz]

Loon Lake BC

Guest: Linda Lennox

KG: It has been more than a month since wildfires forced people from their properties by Loon Lake in British Columbia. Now, they've finally been able to return to their community northwest of Kamloops. Officials lifted an evacuation order on the area yesterday afternoon. That's when Linda Lennox returned. She's a resident, and the owner of the Marigold Fishing Resort on Loon Lake. her husband is also a volunteer firefighter. We reached her at her place on Loon Lake.

JB: Hello, Linda Lennox

LINDA LENNOX: Hi.

JB: How did it feel to wake up in your own home this morning?

LL: Amazing. I had the best night’s sleep I've had in a month-and-a-half. It was totally awesome. I was fast asleep by 9 o'clock last night and at 5:30, woke up feeling like a million bucks.

JB: I can only imagine. I can only imagine. Now, when you drove into your community yesterday for the first time in so long describe how it felt?

LL: You’re going to make me cry. It was devastating to drive in, especially when I saw some of our friends. I even saw the people who used to own the Marigold Resort and they're off the lake now. But they had a lot of structural damage and so to see you know the losses that have been sustained is quite devastating to drive by and watch. And even though we've seen the drone coverage and what have you. You know this doesn't prepare you. A photograph isn't the same as seeing it and feeling it and being here, you know? So it’s just so random. It's so bizarre, you know? it's like there's structure gone and then five feet away there's a structure standing, you know? It's like a burned-out patch here and then it's totally green like what fire, you know? And then suddenly, you see mass devastation in this one little pocket. It's just random and bizarre and surreal. It was hard to take in. I cried the whole way in.

JB: Now how much did you know about the condition of your property before you returned yesterday?

LL: Oh, I knew we were fine because my husband had been back up here firefighting.

JB: So has he been working this whole time while you've been out of town?

LL: That’s right.

JB: And I understand that one of the structures that was destroyed was the fire hall?

LL: Yes. It burned to the ground, but the community hall right next door is fine. It's one of those bizarre random things.

JB: So describe what your husband's been doing for the past several weeks?

LL: A lot of like clearing brush and stuff I think originally. Putting out a lot of spot fires, I guess a lot of spot fires kept flaring up and one thing and another just kind of random. And so they've just been on call and patrolling and sprinkling and hosing down places. And then as time has gone by and the fires have gotten less and less, they've been you know more in clean up kind of mode. Like, for example, right across from us on the hill was quite threatened. The forestry crews did a back burn and cut down a whole pile of trees and stuff and those are all dumped on our parking lot and stuff. So my husband was dealing with that for the past three or four days, you know? So the workload has changed as the requirements have. But you know initially, it was running around putting out fires.

JB: And how about you? Since July 7^th, when you left, where have you been and what have you been doing?

LL: I've been hopping around to see whoever would have me. Staying with friends a couple of days here and there. Staying with family a few days here and there. Just kind of moving on because you know it's hard. It's very hard to invade somebody's space. It's very hard on the hosts to have strangers, well not strangers, but anybody extra in their home, you know? Upsetting their routines and what have you and it's hard to be there and feel like an imposition. And you know so you know you just move on every few days and hope and pray that you’re going to get home soon and you just keep going like that. That's what I did it was like OK.

JB: And have you been able to communicate with your husband the whole time? Or have there been days when you're out of communication?

LL: The first three weeks, I could not communicate with him. There was no power, no phone lines, internet, nothing up here. And then after a little while, he was able to get a generator going once in a while and turn on the generator and then he was able to connect with me on Facebook chat. So we'd be able to do that for a little bit. And then finally when they got the phones up and stuff I was in more daily communication with him, so that made it a lot easier.

JB: So the Marigold Fishing Resort survived the fire…

LL: We survived.

JB: But you haven't had much business this summer.

LL: And now this summer is a write-off. No, we've lost all our income for the year. I mean we are open from May to October, but probably 90 per cent of our income for the years is gained in July and August. So that's gone. So you know insurance is going to help a little bit, but certainly not going to even begin to cover the losses. So you know we're just going to have to work twice as hard next year I guess. Hopefully people will start coming back and buying local and using our store and buying our gas and propane and renting our boats and whatnot soon. So right now, we're completely vacant and everybody that was booked to come in for the next couple of weeks have canceled already.

JB: Right.

LL: So I don't know. Hopefully we'll recover a little bit in September and October. And you know yeah.

JB: Well, you're still on evacuation alert there. You could be told by the district to leave at any time. How worried are you that you may have to leave home again?

LL: Well, I'm not worried today because it's nice and calm. It's not even smoky; it doesn't look like anything's going on. It's OK right now. It's calm and peaceful. The loons woke me up singing this morning. Life is coming back, you know? We have to go on, right? We have to go on. So I'm hopeful. I mean I'm concerned for others in other communities where this is still raging. I know it's not over yet. But for my little tiny piece of the world, it feels safe now.

JB: Thank you very much for joining us.

LL: You're welcome. Thank you.

KG: That was Linda Lennox by Loon Lake in British Columbia after being forced out by wildfires more than a month away, Ms. Lennox was able to return home yesterday.

[Music: Post rock]

Finland paramedic

KG: On Friday, we told you about the deadly stabbing attack that happened in the Finnish city of Turku. Two women were killed, and eight other people were injured. Since then, officials in Finland have said they're investigating the attack as terrorism. They have an 18-year-old Moroccan man as a suspect. He was previously known to Finish intelligence. Police have said that it appears the suspect was targeting women. Hassan Zubier witnesed last week's attack. He's a paramedic who tried to help one of the victims. He spoke with the BBC from his hospital bed, where he's recovering from multiple stab wounds. Here's part of that interview, in which he describes the attack. And a warning: the details are disturbing.

SOUNDCLIP

HASSAN ZUBIER: We walked by them and then I heard a scream — really loud heartbreaking scream. So I turned around and I saw one of the girls running away from the other girl and she fell on the pavement, got herself up and ran away. Then, I turned my head and I saw the other girl lying on the pavement. The first thing I thought of was OK, this is a terrorist attack. He ran away. Immediately, I ran to her. I saw the severe, severe injuries she had in her throat. I got hold of the artery, stopped the bleeding. The man came back. He tried to stab me, I kicked him off, he ran away, he came back and then I felt someone like hitting me in the back. People screamed and I was still trying to stop the bleeding. I had actually stopped the bleeding, but I was trying to save her life. B ut I noticed, even if I stopped the bleeding, the injury was too severe for her. I'm not a hero. I'm just a human being who cares for other human beings. Maybe it sounds silly, but that's me. I would do it again at any time because the world is such a dark place. If we don't help each other then who is going to help us? At the same time, she lost her life. I feel so upset that I couldn't save her. This is the world we are living in at this time.

KG: That was Hassan Zubier speaking with the BBC, following a stabbing attack in the Finnish city of Turku last Friday.

[Music: Cultural]

Big Ben MP:

Guest: Stephen Pound

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Big Ben chimes for the last time before repairs]

KG: That's how it sounded outside the Palace of Westminster today, as a crowd gathered to listen to the bells of Big Ben. It's the last time the bells will be played for four years. A long overdue renovation will silence Big Ben until 2021, making it the longest period of silence in the famous bell tower’s 157-year history. Stephen Pound is a British Labour Party Member of Parliament. He was there in protest this morning. We reached Mr. Pound in London.

JB: Hello, Stephen Pound.

STEPHEN POUND: Hi there, Jim.

JB: Now, our listeners have just heard a clip of Big Ben's final bongs for four years at least anyway. You were there this morning. How did it feel when you listened to that bell chime, knowing it was going silent?

SP: Well, it was it was actually rather a melancholic occasion. It was sort of melancholy in the key of “e” in many ways. There was about four or five hundred people gathered in New Carriage Yard, and they fell absolutely silent and listen to those last 12 glorious notes tolling out across Westminster. And then when the last one died away, and it does reverberate and sore hang heavy in the August air. When the last one had faded away, there were a few gasps and sobs and then a burst of applause as if we were clapping the clock. It was a bizarre thing. We’ve almost anthropomorphize it. We've given it a personality. We’ve given it a soul. As if Big Ben is actually a living creature, instead of you know great chunks of iron, brass and brickworks. But I think it just shows me the grip that this tower and this bell and this sound has on the nation. People are starting to miss it already. I'm getting some rather sad messages in already.

JB: But if it's a living creature surely it needs its regular checkup?

SP: I know, I know. But you don’t disassemble a human being if you want to take its heart rate. My problem is I mean I can understand the argument. It's been there since 1859. I haven't been here quite that long. But I mean if anything has been here since 1859, it’s going to be needing a bit of a wash and brush up and an oil and a new coat or whatever they're going to do for it. My problem is that suddenly, last Wednesday, we woke up to hear that the clock was going to fall silent for four years. None of us had heard anything about it. Then we heard there was going to be a lift and a toilet installed within the Elizabeth Tower. Perfectly reasonable, but nobody told us. What really annoys me is that for it to fall silent for four years means that somebody hasn't actually done their work. They haven't done due diligence. They haven't actually done anything other than exhibit a poverty of imagination because it looks like they just clutched this figure from the air. And why on earth — in this in the 21st century, this great technological century with all these amazing things — we can't work out the system of sound attenuation or decibel damping or anything, so that the workforce absolutely rightly they are able to work in a safe environment. But also the people who cherish the sound of those bells and who like to be summoned by bells was towards Westminster — to the heart of our democracy — are going to actually have a gap in the air, a silence, a vacuum suddenly there, which is going to worry us for the next four years. Surely we could have both, couldn't we?

JB: I should actually point out to our listeners it's not that the bell is being repaired. It's just that the workers who are repairing the rest of the tower can't obviously work next to a 13 ton bell ringing every quarter-hour.

SP: It rings about 118 decibels, which is pretty loud. But look, that's in the actual bell chamber underneath a light, which is a rather beautiful light that shines across the city so that the queen can see it from Buckingham Palace and she knows that we're actually hard at work because the light only shines when Parliament is sitting. I have to say it’s off more often than it's on at the moment, but that’s another matter.

JB: And then there's the whole equivalency between sitting and hard at work that you'd have to make the case for too.

SP: beautifully put if I may say.

JB: I want to get you to react to some of the people who are perhaps a little less upset about the silence of Big Ben. Jeremy Corbyn has said that this is not a national disaster and the Conservative MP Conor Burns told the BBC that these protests are, quote, “An enormous amount of nonsense.” How do you react?

SP: Well, I mean I'll take Conor outside and we always discuss that away from the prying eyes of the population. But, frankly, he needs a slap for being so insolent. I mean that's kind of all-over. But Jeremy is absolutely right. It isn’t the end of the world. Nobody died today. That's not the point. I think the reality is that we are in a very, very dangerous and dark and worrying world at the present time. Barcelona was just so awful last week and that's just one. But you know we got mudslides, we've got floods, we've got the nightmares in North Korea, we got the horrors of Berexit and dare I say it, your neighbor to the south who’s causing me a few sleepless nights. We've got things, but it doesn't mean that we have to drop everything and just concentrate on those issues. Big Ben and the sound of Big Ben is part of the democracy. It is part of our national tapestry. It's part of what makes us a nation and it's part of our history. And I think if you don't value your history. If you don't respect the past then you've got no right to expect anything from the future. And so I agree with Jeremy, but I think Conor’s being a little bit aggressive and a little bit unpleasant. But I shall find him in the peace and quiet of some Thames night spot and him sitting down. And we shall have what's called an interview without coffee.

JB: Now, I understand that at the House of Commons Commission is now saying they're going to review the time scale, and that perhaps the bells won't be silenced for as long. And perhaps will be allowed to chime to mark key occasions. What do you think of that compromise?

SP: In all honesty, if they can switch it back on Remembrance Day, and I entirely support that, if they can switch it on for New Year's Eve well haven’t we already kind of lost the argument that it can't be switched on and off? And haven’t we lost the argument about the about the work force? I'm prepared to comply. I'm a reasonable, pragmatic soul. I'm perfectly prepared to accept a pre-recording for it to be played out over the city. We all know how this can be done. Anyone who's ever agreed to a major pop concert and if you’ve got Nickelback or one of the other great Canadian bands blasting out. Bachman Turner Overdrive or something like that… probably not Celine Dion. You know there are ways of dealing with this. Let’s have a bit of imagination. I think the fact is that the Prime Minister Theresa May has finally decided to roll in on the side of sanity. I think she is now having a word with the House of Commons Commission.

JB: Now I have to ask you while I have you on the line I have to ask your reaction to this conspiracy theory that's been floating around that that this whole thing is just a sham to avoid Britain's exit from the European Union because Downing Street I guess back when it was asked when will the Brexit take effect? Some spokesman said when Big Ben chimes midnight on March 30^th, 2019, so what do you think about this conspiracy theory?

SP: I love it. I mean it is one of theories like you know the monarchy will fall when the ravens leave the Tower of London. I think it's a superb idea and I would do anything to actually stay within the European Union. However, I think that it's stretching almost beyond the grounds of sanity to even suggest that. It would require an awful lot of people to be privy to the conspiracy for that to be the case. And I rather doubt that Michel Barnier and the other people negotiating with us in Brussels are going to say well, as you were. The bell hasn't sounded therefore we're not going to let the Brits plow their lonely furrow away from the warmth and the strength and security of our European brothers and sisters. If only says I.

JB: We could always loan you Nickelback for four years…

SP: Are they still going?

JB: To play the quarter-hours. Oh yes, of course.

SP: There was Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks and The Band are a Canadian band, aren’t they?

JB: Your knowledge of Canadian rock n roll is very impressive.

SP: Well, let me get going on Gordon Lightfoot.

JB: Stephen Pound, it was great to talk to you. Thank you so much.

SP: Jim, my pleasure. Goodnight.

JB: Bye now.

SP: Stephen Pound is a British Labour Party Member of Parliament. We reached him in London, England.

Part 2: Patrick O’Flaherty obit, Utrecht bike garage

Patrick O’Flaherty obit

Guest: Shane O’Dea

KG: He wanted to track just how much Newfoundland was changing. And whether that change was for better or worse. Patrick O’Flaherty was a prolific historian, dispelling myths about Newfoundland, writing fiery columns and eventually writing stories of his own childhood in Conception Bay. Last week, Patrick O’Flaherty drowned while swimming in a pond in Keels, Newfoundland. He was 78-years-old. In 1980, Mr. O’Flaherty spoke to Don Harron, host of CBC's “Morningside” about his history book “The Rock Observed”. Here's part of what he said.

SOUNDCLIP

PATRICK O”FLAHERTY: Newfoundland it appears has been a hard place to write about well. Not too many writers have written about it in a convincing and truthful and appealing way. What Farley Mowat did was come down here and stay for a short period of time and strip-mine the place. What he saw or said he saw here was a people close to the elements — a primitive people — being hurried towards an industrial life by Smallwood. And that is the theme of Farley Mowat’s books about Newfoundland. Here is a simple people, an elemental people, a people out of time living close to the elements.

DON HARRON: And it’s not true?

PO: I don't think it's true at all. No, it's not true. It's a very, very oversimplified view of Newfoundland.

KG: That was Patrick O’Flaherty speaking to the CBC in 1980. Shane O'Dea was a former colleague of Patrick O’Flaherty. They both taught in Memorial University's English department. We reached Mr. O’dea in Trinity, Newfoundland.

JB: Hello, Shane O’Dea

SHANE O’DEA: Hello Jim Brown.

JB: What is it like to hear your friend and your former colleague defend his home like that back in 1980?

SO: You mean should I put myself in 1980, or do it retrospectively?

JB: It almost sounds like it could have been said last week.

SO: Yeah, but that was Pat. He was very intense about his view of condescension towards the Newfoundlander. And it’s a fairly spirited defense of what constitutes Newfoundland?

JB: And he was known for his spirited defense of Newfoundland.

SO: I think that was why you people used him so frequently.

JB: Yeah, he certainly appeared on CBC Radio quite a bit. He was still working and his death was so sudden and so unexpected. And he, as I say, was still busy writing, still working. What have Newfoundlanders’ lost with Patrick O’Flaherty's death?

SO: Well, they've lost a great commentator observer of the cultural scene in particular. I mean his work you know out of which that last comment comes from “The Rock Observed”, of Newfoundland literature was immensely important to Newfoundland. His three volume synoptic history of Newfoundland was I think sometimes even more important. So they've lost a historian and a literary critic.

JB: He did, as you say, write several volumes about the history of Newfoundland. And, at the same time, I think it's safe to say dispel myths about the history of Newfoundland. What do you think Patrick O’Flaherty wanted people to understand about Newfoundland?

SO: I think he wanted to people to understand that Newfoundland was much more of a stable, permanent place than some would believe about it. He wanted them to see that the place had grown at an earlier time than most thought. On the other hand, he was also prepared, as that little clip shows you was well, to be quite clear about the quality of much of the earlier work that was produced. I'm not talking about the history now, but rather about the type of literature that was produced in earlier ages. He didn't lack realism.

JB: And realism in his own work as well. I always got the sense reading that Patrick O’Flaherty sometimes that he himself was disappointed in in the actions of some of the people from history that he was chronicling.

SO: Oh yes, very clearly. I mean he takes a part in his history. You know not names that people would necessarily conjure with today, but they were very important figures at the turn of the century.

JB: Let's talk a little bit about Patrick O’Flaherty the man personally. What was he like to spend time with?

SO: I knew him as somebody who was very quick to come to an opinion, but very thoughtful when he did. He was strongly opinionated regarding colleagues, whether they were political colleagues or academic colleagues, but he was also a very clear thinking person and what he tried to do with the department in his time as head was to really advance it into another era from which it had not been previously. He came into a department that had been long administered by people who worked in an old-fashioned manner. Patrick tried to get the research agenda moved farther forward in the department. And to a certain degree, he did succeed in that.

JB: Now, he grew up in a Newfoundland that hadn't joined Canada. How did how did he feel about the Newfoundland of the 21st century?

SO: Certainly the 20th century was a bit alarmed by this business of the patronizing tone taken sometimes by people like Farley Mowat. In the 21st century I think he was interested in progression, but he did not see enough progression being put into place in the political parties that took over after Confederation. I think at one point, he did actually run for the Liberals — stood for the Liberals. He didn't get elected, but that was not in the Smallwood era. I do not think he was very keen on Joseph Smallwood.

JB: If you could sum up his work. How would you sum up the contribution that Patrick O’Flaherty made to Newfoundland and to Canada?

SO: He made Newfoundlanders much more aware of the dimensions of their culture and he was in part responsible for the flourishing of literature at the end of the 20th and into the 21st century.

JB: Shane O'Dea, we appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much for joining us.

SO: Thank you, Jim Brown. I'm sorry to lose Pat.

KG: That was Shane O’Dea, a former colleague of Patrick O’Flaherty at Memorial University. Mr. O’Flaherty, a renowned Newfoundland historian, died suddenly last week at the age of 78. Eventually, Mr. O’Flaherty moved from writing stories about Newfoundland's history to writing stories about his own childhood. In 2015, he read from his memoir “Paddy Boy” for the CBC. Here's an excerpt about families in Conception Bay fishing for cod in the summertime.

SOUNDCLIP

PO: Non-fishing families were entitled to get fresh cod in summer. A girl, say her name was Chloe, would appear on the beach in mid-morning holding an empty pan. And stand by the Dorian fishing table while fish was being guarded and made ready for salting. Amidst the hubbub on the beach, cod being landed, gutted, split and carted. old men passed their fishing years standing around grumbling. Gulls shrieking, lads throwing guts at one another, or squirting water from a cod’s stomach called the paddock. General fun making and laughter. She would stand there. My father would say after a while you want a fish for your dinner, Chloe. She'd nod. I'd pick out a good eating fish for you, he'd say. He knew the right one to get: medium-sized from the latest fish caught. Want the head left on, he’d ask? She'd nod again. He’d gut a fish, cut the gills out, wash it in the saltwater and put it in the offered pan. If she stayed where she was, he'd wait another one and say want another one, Chloe? Big families might need to fish for a proper meal. She'd nod a third time. A second fish was supplied and off she'd go. No money changed hands, for the fish were free. This exchange of words and nods and deeds, which I saw enacted often, was a very fine aspect of the outpoured of my childhood. Yet, I don't want to exaggerate. I suppose the value in money of a fresh fish then was about two cents a pound, if that. I might add that it made no difference if the girl was Catholic or Protestant. All were equal at this level of day-to-day life.

KG: That was Patrick O’Flaherty, reading an excerpt from his memoir “Paddy Boy”. Mr. O’Flaherty died suddenly last week at the age of 78.

[Music: Ambient]

Utrecht bike garage

Guest: Tatjana Stenfert Kroese

KG: Grand openings of underground parking garages usually don't make news. But they do in the Netherlands, when the garage is the world's largest for bicycles. Now, people are going to Utrecht’s train station can ride their bikes right into a huge, three-story underground parking lot, and pick up their bike on their return. That is if they can remember where they parked. Tatjana Stenfert Kroese is the project manager for Utrecht Station Square. And that's where we reached her.

JB: Hello, Ms. Stenfert Kroese.

TATJANA STENFERT KROESE: Hi.

JB: Let me start by asking you to describe the experience? If I'm a cyclist and I'm entering your new cyclist parking garage, what will I experience?

TSK: What is really special is that you can bike around, so you don't have to get off your bike. But you can bike around because it's really large. It's got three floors. You're get in on the main level and you can you can also go one level up or one level down. And you can park your bike on every different level.

JB: So I cycle in. And how do I know where to find an empty space for my bike?

TSK: That's also really special because we have a special system — that's not working already, but it's going to work after summer — where you can see where there is an empty area. So you can see how many places are empty at the lane you want to park in.

JB: Have you have you driven your bike there yet?

TSK: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I already did. It's really special because in other Dutch bicycle parking garages you cannot bike yourself. You always have to get off your bike and it's really space because it's so large and you can bike around and it's really a nice experience to bike because it's very light and it's very beautifully-made. It's never scary because there are no areas where nobody can see you. So it’s very secure. You feel very secure when you're in there.

JB: How many bikes will this garage handle?

TSK: At this moment, 6000. And when we are finished, at the end of 2018, it will be 12,500. So that's really much.

JB: That’s a lot of bikes!

TSK: But in the city of Utrecht this is necessary because a lot of people are coming to the station by bike.

JB: Well, anyone who's ever been to Holland and has seen what it looks like outside of a tram station. It's like a bird's nest of bicycles and I always wonder how people know which bike to take?

TSK: Their own because you have your own lock and you know where you place your bike. And when you're not placing your bike rightly, often it's removed or you have to go somewhere very, very outer space somehow to get your bike back. So that's why you have to put your bike in a good space. And this is also to facilitate that people are parking their bikes correctly and it's not a mess around the stations.

JB: How difficult is it for cyclists in your city to just keep track of their bike?

TSK: Yeah. And in Holland, also a lot of bikes are stolen. That's also really a problem, so people really get used to have special station bikes which are not really nice to see. And also then you put them with free locks or something. you put them somewhere. When you're used to going with your bike to the station, you always have almost the same place where you put your bike, so then you can easily find it back. People are very easily getting used to the things they always do. So also with the bicycle parking it is always they put it almost in the same place.

JB: People have kind of like a cheap bike for commuting and then they've got a nice bike they save for the weekends?

TSK: Yes, yes, yes. Often they do, yes.

JB: How many times have you lost a bicycle?

TSK: In my life?

JB: Yes.

TSK: A lot of times a lot of times, especially when I was a student. At this moment, I'm really good at taking care of my bike also because when I'm parking my bike, I live in an apartment and there's also a bike parking space where it's really secure to place your bike. And there it's almost because always everyone is looking over there and there are people to secure my bike. So that's no problem. But when you put your bike into a station and don't look after it then it's gone within a week or something.

JB: Now, here in Canada, we're kind of quite a bit behind you when it comes to like the cycling culture. We have a lot of cities building more bike lanes, but we are definitely a long way off from an entire parking garage for bicycles. What would you say to the city planners here in Canada about the benefits of really making cycling a priority?

TSK: Cycling a priority it's good to have a healthy city because cycling is really healthy to do and that`s also really good. And also you see when a city has a lot of biking lanes it's also a much nicer city to be in because not a lot of cars driving around and it's much safer with bicycles than when you have a lot of cars around.

JB: One of the problems here is that we get this battle — this war — between car drivers and bicyclists. It's like it's like you're either born one or the other, you know?

TSK: Yeah, Yeah.

JB: They forget everyone on a bike has also driven a car and everyone in a car, you know? So do you have that there do you get pushback from car drivers?

TSK: No. Because car drives in the Netherlands are really used to cyclists. And we have a lot of bicycle lanes next to streets. And there are also areas where you cannot come by car, only by bike.

JB: Well thank you so much for telling us about this new garage. We appreciate it very much.

TSK: Thank you. Bye bye.

KG: Tatjana Stenfert Kroese is the project manager for Utrecht station square. We reached her in the Netherlands. And we've posted a bunch of photos of the new bike parking garage on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

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August 21, 2017 episode transcript

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