This book represents the eleventh volume of what will ultimately be 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 1965.
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.
The first four volumes in this series together constituted a serialised version of Howard's life story in four parts. The current volume is more similar to volumes 5. The diary that volume transcribed was more of a traditional daily diary, with day by day observations on current events, the weather, the fishery, births, marriages and deaths, and normal and unusual occurrences. But it also included some reminiscences of Howard's earlier life and stories he had told to him by his elders concerning significant historical events and life in Ferryland in the years before his birth.
Now in this eleventh volume we see Howard following the same methodology in his diary writing, but his subject matter is quite different. The diary covers a relatively length period, as was the case for Volume 5, between January 30 1950 and June 21 1954, a period during which Howard was now more of a village elder and no longer in charge of the Morry fish business in Ferryland, though he kept his hand in by provisioning his own cod trap crew each year and personally managing his own salmon nets. He also continued his roles, though to a lesser extent than previously, as a small scale farmer and livestock owner. He turned 65 the month after he started writing this diary and was over 69 when it was completed, so there is only so much physical work a man of those years can be expected to do.
Howard's eldest son, Bill, has taken on the lion's share of responsibility for the Morry fish business, having taken over and improved the fish plant which was begun by his brother Reg just after the war. In addition, he is now taking on the kinds of quasi-governmental perks and duties that Howard himself had previously enjoyed.
For reasons sometimes explained by Howard, and sometimes not, there are several short term and long term (in some cases for almost a year) lapses in the writing of this diary. In addition, some entries are made in empty spaces in the diary and not in strict chronological sequence. These can lead to some confusion at times.
The two largest gaps are from August 17, 1951 to June 1, 1952 and September 8, 1953 to March 5, 1954. These periods were more than likely covered in other diaries that have since been lost.
By far the most important element of this diary comes toward the end, when Howard becomes contemplative and tells stories and anecdotes of his and Ferryland's past.
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.