Saturday, November 13, 2010

It's All Relative

My wife and I lived in Newfoundland, Canada for a period in the mid 1970s while I was engaged in coastal environmental research. I had the opportunity to meet and work with many local fisherman, including a wonderful character named Captain “Mac” Masters from Placentia Bay.  Mac related that during the 1930s depression, when Newfoundland was still a British protectorate and times were tough (people were "on the dole"), children from poor families brought lobster sandwiches to school, while the children of the better off families could afford peanut butter sandwiches. Lobster was an abundant local staple while peanut butter had to be imported to the island, making it costly.  Alas, even by the 1970s lobster and peanut butter had swapped positions.

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