A fish plant full of faces

BY CARLA ALLEN

The Coast Guard

NovaNewsNow.com

“You can tell which people haven’t been here before, by the length of time they take coming up the stairs,” laughs Myrna Gorham.

It takes a long time to examine the picture-plastered stairwell at Hopkins & Devine Fisheries Ltd. in Woods Harbour.

That’s not the only gallery that features customers, friends, relatives and places connected with the life of fishplant owner Clive Hopkins.

Swing open the door to the office at the top of the stairs and there are hundreds more pictures covering the walls - a total of around 500 - mostly 8 x 10 inch enlargements… and more in a drawer.

“If people have to wait for anything, they don’t mind,” said Gorham.

Hopkins snapped many of the photos with a scuffed up Olympus, taking the film to develop in Barrington.

There are images of early-life in Woods Harbour: fishermen, and churches burnt decades ago, Hopkins at 16 and one of his father picking colours for the young lad’s first car, an Edsel. (There’s also a photo of that same vehicle in the ditch).

If walls could talk is not an idle concept here. These walls do. They tell of hard working folk and sunny days by the ocean, hours that have slipped away and loved ones long buried.

Hopkins informal gallery is a hit with all who visit and many have sat in the Chair of Honour.

“Everybody who comes in wants to know where their picture is,” he said with a grin.