Now quickly before I dive into this article I should explain for all non Canadians readers what newfies are. Newfies are people from Newfoundland, the island province off the east coast of Canada. Now I should also point out that since my wife is a Newfie and since I was made an honorary Newfie by being Screeched in (an entire other story), I can write this article.

So here I am this past Friday night up in Northern Toronto with 5 newfies, my brother in law, his girlfriend, my wife's cousin, his girlfriend and my wife. Now these guys are all under 25 so we are hanging out and starting to put back a couple beers. The first thing about partying with newfies is you have to have a lot of beer. Not every newfie drinks like a fish, but the ones that do will drink you out of house and home.

So we sit down and decide we are going to start playing a drinking game. One of the great things about drnking games is that they really loosen up a group of people. And man when you have a bunch of already laid back east coasters, the laughs soon start to roll. Newfies have their own accent and dialect. It's sort of hard to explain, you've got some British and Irish in there, but they also have their own words for things, so it's pretty fun to have a conversation. Like when I heard them first talking about Nippers. "Oh, the nippers are getting me." Well in newfie speak that means mosquitoes, but you can see how things could easily misconstrued.

The other thing about my wife's family is that not only are they newfies, but they actually come from a smaller island off of the main island even more remote, and with its own share of quirks. For instance, I found out that not only did my wife's cousin and his girlfriend have the same last name. They also shared a niece, yet somehow aren't related. Freaky.

Newfies being an eclectic group of people also apparently have an eclectic musical taste. One moment the CD player was belting out Papa Roach, the next the traveling Wilburys. I swear last night there should be a show called NEWFIES and they could have a round table shot like in that 70's Show.

Newfie 1 "Aye, bay, she's a right slut fer shure. I don't cares what yas say. "

Newfie 2 "Aye, but yas can't blame her with raisin that kid'nall ever since that wee prick left her and took off with Missus."

Newfie 3 "Jaysus Christ am I fucked up!"

But all joking aside, they are a great bunch of people. I seriously recommend for everyone out there to sit back one day and have a pint or two with a newf. Listen to what it was like growing up out on the rock, basically its own frontier, beautiful and lush in the summer time, cold and unforgiving in the winter.

Here's To Yas!

Downs

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