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Vernon Petten talks in torrents, loud and fast, sprinkling his speech with “ehs” while making sure that I get the pronunciation right when he is pronouncing Port de Grave, Newfoundland. It is G-r-a-v-e, as in six-feet-under, not Graaaaaave, as in, rhymes with have.

Mr. Petten, in his torrents, divulges that he is 78, a retired fisherman and that he learned more about life working on a boat than he ever learned sitting inside a classroom. And what he learned most, and what everyone in this community of 800 or so souls knows to be true, is that when something needs to be done you get up and do it yourself and when somebody needs your help you get up and help them.

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“We are used to helping one another out around here,” Mr. Petten says. “Neighbours actually know their neighbours by their names, I can tell you that. We are a well-run community. We like our freedom.

“We like things here just the way they are.”