I attended this program after my probation officer recommended it to me. We did hands-on projects around the city of St. John’s. We did basic electrical, masonry and carpentry. We would do in those programs in our building on O’Leary Avenue as well as different city-owned properties in the city. At one point we actually tore a house down (to make way for the highway around Major’s Path, the mindset was what better way to learn how to build a house, then by tearing one down?
We could choose which career we wanted to pursue from those three trades. I chose carpentry. Took a job working on the Log House on Freshwater Road. I believe I was getting paid a whopping $4.25 an hour!
So after about a year, it was time to go to trades college (Cabot Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences, now CONA Price Phillip Drive). As I dropped out of school, grade 5 to be exact, I had to write the GED. I bought the study guide, and opened it up in the middle and immediately closed it, never studied one bit, went ahead and wrote the exam, passed with a 72? or higher, can’t remember exactly. Went to Cabot Institute for the next 3 blocks until I received my red seal. Funny thing is, after working on 3 log houses, I never worked in the trade again.
