Additional information
by Mercedes Benoit-Penney (Author)
REVISED EDITION Back of the Pond is a phrase that referred to Stephenville Pond before 1941, the year of the friendly arrival of the Americans, to the Stephenville area, during WWII. Previous to 1941, the area behind Stephenville Pond (not to be confused with Noel's Pond) was inhabited by the founding families of Stephenville; a healthy mixture of French Acadian and Mi'kmaq cultures (often referred to as jackatars, on the island's west coast). For many who lived there, this pastoral fishing community was a little piece of paradise. After their land was expropriated to make room for the American base, liviers endearingly remembered, but would never see again, the life they were forced to leave behind. All that remains of this former landscape are the memories recaptured in this book. AUTHOR NOTE: The Stephenville in this book pertains to Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada; a west coast frontier of the French Acadian people who originally settled on the island of Sandy Point, located in Bay St. George, the haven for pirates in the 1800s. The author's maternal LeBlanc line goes back to Étienne LeBlanc and Anne Marie Cormier; they were married on June 23, 1817 at St. Michael's Parish in Margaree, Inverness County, Nova Scotia. Having moved to Sandy Point in Bay St. George, a pioneering community and commercial centre on the west coast of Newfoundland, both had an identical genetic defect in their genes, the combination of which we all know today as the Allderdice Syndrome.
Author Biography
Mercedes Benoit-Penney was born, raised and educated in Stephenville. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts/Education Degree from Memorial University. As a teacher and mother she advocated for educational standards in the local school system and wrote editorials for newspapers and magazines. Mercedes began writing during her school years for therapeutic reasons, which developed into a passion in later years to record the ancestry of her Acadian background. She is now retired and devoting more time to her music as well as researching the diverse culture of the area.
