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reminiscing
By Dennis Flynn
Chats with my father, Tony Flynn of Colliers, often lead to interesting stories. This one day it led to a chilling ghost story about his own father, Jack (John) Flynn, when he was working in what was once known as the lumbering woods of Nichols Pond. It happened sometime between 1900 and 1920, when my grandfather was still a teenager. “He was working in a remote woods camp that he said had to do with the Reid Newfoundland Railway,” Dad begins. “He was travelling from Colliers well ahead of the main gang this particular trip. They usually all went up together or met at what they called Mahers Siding [near Brigus Junction]. Father was a day early, so rather than wait he proceeded on foot by himself up towards the tiny camp that was 112
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at the far end of Nichols Pond, where the crew would be doing the actual harvesting of timber. It was a long spell to travel and a very lonely place to go, but Father was the type, like most rural men and women of that era, that walked everywhere and he always had a good nerve. Folks needed a strong constitution and a bit of courage since jobs were very hard to come by in those days.”. 1-888-588-6353
