Rita Stamp, a great-grandchild of poor Irish immigrants, was born in St. Vincent’s – well, at least on the road between St. John’s and that community – shortly after the close of the Second World War. She was raised in the outport village of St. Vincent’s in a strictly disciplined and often impoverished family, and educated in much the same way, completing high school there before attending business school at the College of Trades & Technology (now renamed College of The North Atlantic) in St. John’s. Perhaps it was the rocky ride en route to her birth that gave her rebellious nature and wanderlust dreams. Or was it the combination of the rigid rituals and rites of a dogmatic Roman Catholic upbringing, combined with Irish superstition and belief in spirits that sparked her vivid imagination and memory. Likely it was a combination of those influences, but what is important is that it remained with her for nearly forty years before she embarked on a seven year venture to create and write this amazing memoir that chronicles life from the 1940s through the sixties in a remote outport village on the Irish Loop, followed by her journey through adulthood in the metropolis of Toronto. Rita, as with so many Newfoundlanders before and after her, left her home for both economic and personal reasons, initially to escape the harshness of her upbringing, but eventually discovering herself. However, one never really leaves one’s roots. Since learning who the real Rita was and is, she often returns to Newfoundland with a greater sense of the beauty and wonder of this ancient land, and its remarkable and durable people. She has raised two children, Deanna and Sean, and lives today with her husband Al Smith in East York, near the Danforth, with its village-like atmosphere. Some things never change, while others do!