The Brighter Side

By Alison O'Brien, No. 585

The poster in the dryhouse
Carried quite a punch.
Today we talked it over,
As we sat around for lunch.

We talked about the thirties,
When things were moving slow.
Engineers were mighty scarce,
And old timers ran the show.

Dosco then had full control,
And we got a squarer deal,
When we overflowed the market
With Dominion iron and steel.

Stockpiles grew like mountains
When the market failed before.
But we all stayed on the payroll
And the wolf stayed from the door.

We got two shifts in Number Six,
And some bonus from the drags,
When tycoons committed suicide,
And millionaires wore rags.

With lunches wrapped in paper bags,
And Haig bottles filled with tea,
We kept the big car rolling
Up the slopes of Number Three.

We tapped our boots with belting,
And from flour bags made our jeans.
With canvas caps and carbide lamps,
We drove down the submarines.

With heavy socks and pit boots,
The miners fished from coves,
And cut wood along the "Wack Road"
To heat our kitchen stoves.

We fenced in company gardens,
From Thirty-five to Number Four.
"Blackblues" and "Irish Cobblers"
Sprang up from seams of ore.

Paydays were not very much,
But we spread our butter thin.
And when the game got going,
We were still sitting in.

But now the game is over;
They're not playing any more.
We must wander like the Nomads,
Off to Galt and Labrador.

I have an application form,
Which I doubt that I can fill.
The highest grade I ever made
Was up the "Dog's Hole Hill".

I will find myself some felt nails,
When my shoes behind to wear.
There's a belt that spans the Island
Straight to the Scotia Pier.

"The Brighter Side" was written by Miner 585, Alison O'Brien, as the mines closed for good on June 30, 1966. He died circa 1975. It has been printed numerous times in newspapers and magazines.

Some terms used in the poem:

• Dryhouse - The dryhouse was located on the surface near the mine opening where the men changed from their street clothes to their mine gear.
  
• Dosco - Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation
  
• Number Six - Number Six Mine
• drags - The drag was a piece of machinery operated by four men. It used a large open bucket or scoop that by means of a series of cables and blocks dragged the ore from the face of the room in the mine to a loading ramp at the mouth of the room.
  
• Haig bottles - Haig Ale was a very popular drink among the miners. They used to say that it cut the dust off their lungs.
  
• "We tapped our boots with belting" - put pieces of conveyor belt on their boots to replace their worn-out soles.
  
• carbide lamps - The compound carbide gives off acetylene when it contacts water. Carbide lamps dripped water onto carbide. Burning the resulting acetylene produced light. The carbide lamp came to Bell Island in 1912 and replaced the seal oil lamp.
• submarines - Submarines were mine slopes that went out under the ocean.
• "Wack Road" - The real name for Wack Road is Middleton Avenue. It was built during the Depression years as a make-work project when many families where on the dole or "wack". Men were paid one dollar per day and their horses 50 cents per day.
  
• "Blackblues" and "Irish Cobblers" - potatoes that grow well in the harsh soil and weather of Newfoundland
  
• Galt - a city in Ontario
  
• "Dog's Hole Hill" - The Dog's Hole Hill was a steep incline of about 45 degrees in No.3 Mine.
  
• Scotia Pier - The conveyor belt ran five kilometres from the bottom of No. 3 Mine to the surface and then three kilometres across to the loading dock at the Scotia Pier on the eastern side of the island.
  

An interpretation of the poem:

In the first stanza, O'Brien tells of the shock of receiving the news that the mines will close.

In the next nine stanzas, he tells of the hard times of the Depression and how the miners and Dosco both bore the burden of the Depression and survived it by working together.

In the next stanza he tells of Dosco's different attitude, and how workers would have to leave to find work elsewhere.

The second last stanza tells of the poor education that many men had and the poor prospects that that meant.

In the first two lines of the final stanza, O'Brien is saying that with his poor education he will have to live as he did in the Depression. In the final two lines he is referring to the accomplishments of the miners during the long years that the mines were open, and how they were coming to a sudden and final end, just as the conveyor belt ended suddenly at the Scotia Pier.

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