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    On the peninsula, life was less influenced by the American base than was Stephenville, quite simply because of its isolation. But the American presence nonetheless made itself felt. Many men and women found employment on the base, contributing thereby to a rupture in their traditional life style. Men left the fishery and all found themselves subject to the pressures of a vibrant culture, access to which required a good knowledge of the English language. If the Church and the schools had been unable to impose the use of English, the economic prosperity surrounding the American presence almost succeeded in doing so. Between 1940 and the 1960s, many families turned their backs on their language, believing that adoption of English language and culture would enable them to bestow a brighter future on their children. It is for this reason that some visitors to villages on the peninsula in the late sixties concluded that within twenty years the use of French would have died out there.

    Factors other than the American presence helped accelerate the process of assimilation during this period. By the end of the war, passable roads served all the peninsula's communities, and even if most of these were not paved until the 1970s, they helped bring out of isolation any who were ready to travel in search of work. On the other hand, it should be noted that French communities on the peninsula remain badly serviced. In 1985, Mainland, Winterhouses and Black Duck Brook were still waiting for paved roads. Apart from Cape St. George, these communities form the nucleus of the French population on the peninsula, and it is not difficult to recognize, behind excuses of an economic nature, a certain lack of concern for the welfare of the French villages. This at least is the feeling of the French themselves, who publicly protested the state of their roads.