We're two weather-beaten old Newfoundland fishermen,
Sometimes we smiles and sometimes we frowns;
But you will agree from what you can see,
A fisherman's life has its ups and its downs.
But now we are facing a wonderful future,
Gone are the winters we've always endured;
For our unemployment is now for enjoyment,
Come April the first we will all be insured.
The Fisheries Council of Canada said,
They'd make all our hardships a thing of the past;
The Insurance Commission has improved our condition,
It's taken them years, but they've done it at last.
We fishermen now have a newly found hobby,
Makes us feel just like two juvenile scamps;
For though we're not schooboys, we bow to the rule, boys,
So we've begun our collection of stamps.
We're paid by the rating of our weekly catch,
And with twenty weeks work we'll be in the clear;
Our benefit starts and we'll be men of tarts,
Sit back and do nothing for the rest of the year.
For semi-dry codfish we don't get good rating,
But extra hard dry ones bring more increment;
So, though we're defaulting, we're giving up salting,
Curing our fish now with North Star cement.
Now we'll be able to fish at our leisure,
One good haul a week and that will be that;
So, when fish start playing, to them we'll be saying,
Stay where you're to till I comes where you're at.
Now if in the future, you should go a-squiddin',
You'll find a queer spectacle there, I'll be bound;
They'll sit by their jiggers, all addin' up figures,
Licking their stamps on the squid jiggin' ground.
Licking their stamps on the squid jiggin' ground.
