Ruby (Martin) Vardy has been known to settle many an argument over the years.
She doesn’t turn to Google or other internet sites. Rather, the woman from Hickman’s Harbour, Random Island heads to the diaries she’s be writing in daily for the past three decades. Chances are, if the disagreement is about the weather, a local birth or death, a community gathering or a historic event that unfolded in another part of the world, Vardy has it written down.
Vardy married Ross Vardy in 1976. They lived in Mount Pearl for almost 25 years (their sons Martin and Mark were born in nearby St. John’s) before Ross’s work took the family to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. After living in the Big Land for 14 years, they moved back to Hickman’s Harbour in 2013 to enjoy their retirement.
Getting started
Ross Vardy started writing in a diary in 1990. When he decided, after a couple weeks, that it wasn’t for him, his wife began filling the pages.
On Jan. 4, 1991 she wrote about how Team Canada beat the Soviet Union 3-2 to win the World Junior Hockey Championships and how John Slaney of St. John’s scored the winning goal.
Vardy also wrote about how the Toronto Blue Jays became World Champions for the second straight year. The historic date was Oct. 23, 1993.
“(Joe) Carter got a three-run homer in the bottom of the 9th. We got to bed at 2 am,” she wrote.
Turn the pages of her 1997 diary and you’ll see an entry dated Aug. 31 about how Vardy and her husband were playing cards with friends when they learned that Princess Diana had been in a bad car crash and died a few hours later.
“So did her friend and chauffeur in Paris. It was really sad,” she wrote.
Vardy penned everything from the terrorists’ attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 to the crash of Cougar Flight 491 offshore Newfoundland on March 12, 2009.
It’s not unusual for her to include how she felt at the time she learned about specific events.
The Vardys were living in Labrador when Hurricane Igor struck in September 2010.
“Random Island has several roads washed out. I was talking to Laura and they can’t get to Clarenville. Our garden in Hickman’s Harbour is flooded up to the house. Wish we were home to look after it. E-mails are coming in and we can’t believe it,” Vardy wrote.
“(A diary is a good way) to look back on your past self, laugh at some of your teenage drama, reflect on how far you've come over time, what has changed or not in your life." — Dr. Janine Hubbard
Vardy takes her diary on vacations so she doesn’t miss anything that she might want to pen.
Over the years, she has written about the Boston Marathon bombing, John Kennedy’s plane crash, the Burton Winters Makkovik tragedy, Team Gushue’s Olympic win, the four RCMP officers shot and killed in Mayerthorpe, Alta., and, more recently, the mass shootings in Nova Scotia.
Posted by Keeping A Diary on Saturday, September 19, 2020
Importance of journals
Dr. Janine Hubbard is president of the Association of Psychology Newfoundland and Labrador.
There are well researched and documented benefits from keeping a journal or a diary, Hubbard said via email.
Doing so can have a calming effect, even from the simple routine of a daily entry, which could be part of a daily wind down/relaxation/reflection at the end of each day, she said.
Some people love the open-ended freedom of being able to write whatever they'd like, she said, while others prefer some structure.
Hubbard said, while there are great “feelings journals” that have prompts and suggestions and may include drawings and photo collages, some people may start with a simple list of things that made them happy that day or something that upset them or something for which they are grateful for.
As well, she said, some people keep a diary or journal just for fun, which is what Vardy has been doing for decades.
Doing so is a great way “to look back on your past self, laugh at some of your teenage drama, reflect on how far you've come over time, what has changed or not in your life,” Hubbard said.
Looking back
Vardy has a special diary that she started writing in a month after she turned 13.
The second youngest of 11 children, she and her siblings did their share of chores.
“Every Saturday, I’d scrub the floors, I’d hang out clothes and do all the ironing. In the night we’d go down to a little store here in Hickman’s Harbour where we’d play pool or listen to the jukebox.”
The young teen wrote about everything from drying grass for the horses to “skivvering on capelin” to get a few dollars spending money.
“Growing up, that was the big thing for us,” Vardy recalled about putting capelin on skivers to dry before giving them to the local fishermen.
“They would sell them for us. I got three dollars for sixty skivers of capelin,” Vardy said with a chuckle.
Vardy saved her capelin money for a much sought-after purchase, which cost her $8.40.
“I bought my first pair of long, white go-go boots out of my earnings from skivvering on capelin (on) July 21, 1972 … I can still recall the thrill of wearing them.”
“If I hear something during the day that I don’t want to forget I’ll go write it down right away. Other days, if I’m busy, at the end of the day I’ll take it out and write in it.” — Ruby Vardy
The young teen also wrote about performers she saw at the Clarenville stadium in October 1972. Harry Hibbs, Norma Gale and Doc Williams all took time to autograph her diary.
That diary “went by the wayside” she said after she finished Grade 8 and had to leave her home in Hickman’s Harbour to finish her schooling in Clarenville.
“It was dirt roads back then. We had to leave home on a Sunday night and come back on a Friday after school. We were only kids … I can’t image doing that to our kids these days.”
Vardy likes to start her day by recording the local temperature and weather conditions.
“If I hear something during the day that I don’t want to forget I’ll go write it down right away. Other days, if I’m busy, at the end of the day I’ll take it out and write in it.”
While her diary this past few months includes much about COVID-19, one of her recent entries is about how Andrew Furey won the Liberal leadership and would soon become the province’s premier.
“I write about the movie stars, the premiers, the prime ministers and the presidents. Pretty much, whatever happens goes in my diary. And, once you record it, it somehow stays in your brain,” she said.
