Cape Breton's Magazine

5 Strays from Our First 10 Years By "Strays," we mean little portions from conversations that did not make their way into an article, but are still of some in- terest and should be shared with our read- Mickey MacLean: I've been crossing on the ice for 25 or 30 years. There were one or two winters in the early '30s, we didn't have any ice--you couldn't cross the lake. But we've crossed the ice there and the wind has smashed it up the next day. I crossed over here on the 6th of January. And I was just within a couple of hundred feet from the other side, and I happened to look down the lake and I saw the gypsum boat coming--so I thought I'd better get back to this side. I got back. There was four inches of good ice--good hard ice--aw, the boat went through it like there was nothing there.'And there hasn't been any come since. That was this year, A year ago, I went over on the ice--I think it was on the 7th I walked over and on the 15th I went over with the car--just a week after? wards, I went over with the car. (Do a lot of people do that?) Not too many. None went last year but myself. There was one other car. The first time I came on the ice was 1917-18, time I came to Bad- deck with my father. They were hauling hay. And I don't think I missed too many win? ters since--not any that I know of, clear of the winter that we didn't have any. I put a truck through the ice out there once. I got in a pond and I couldn't get out of it. There was snow on it. It was a pond back of the island (Kidston's Island). A wheel hooked in the pond and it pulled me into the pond. I had no chains. Too slippery, I couldn't get out. I got out of her, let her go. She eventually sunk. But I got her out of there some days afterward. Cut a hole, some holes, and put down a ca? ble. Got a diver to go down, put a cable on her. Pulled her in on the island. Cleaned the motor out. They were all tel? ling me the motor would be ruined. (How was she?) All right. She was never-- she never had too much power in second gear. She was lazy. When she got that cleaning out, there wasn't a hill in Wash? abuck or lona but she'd fly over it. Cleaned her right out. For many years, Johnny Murphy kept an open house called the Museum of Musi? cal Instruments. Over the years we talked to him about working in the 1 umber woods (Issue 7, "In the North River Lumber Woods") and about his life (Issue 18, "Johnny Murphy, Northeast Marga? ree"). ThTs" Stray didn't fit into either of those and so we offer it here. Johnny Murphy: Here's how I tune the auto- harp. I take a tune like "Home on the Range," and I play it in the Key of C. So in the centre of it--I'd call it the mid? dle octave. Then I tune it and I go back and forth till I get all those strings in the Key of C--because you don't take in any black keys. But it takes in nearly all of what would be the white keys on the pi? ano. You know, you don't use the sharps or flats. And then I go to work and I take the same piece and I start to play it in the Key of F. And that takes in one black key, like a sharp, in the centre. That's one of the sharps I get. Then I tune it back and forth from that an octave higher and an octave lower. Then I play the same 18 th Century Dining at the Fortress of Louisbourg L'Epee Royal!e has been carefully recreated to portray the lifestyle of an 18th century Louisbourg inn, while L' Hotel de la Marine portrays lifestyle in an 18th centruy cabaret. The food prepared from authentic 18th century French recipes and served in the style and atmosphere of that period makes a visit an unforgetable experience. For more formal dining experience, eat at L'Epee Royalle and for nourishing fare at affordable prices try L' Hotel de la Marine. OPEN: JUNE TO SEPTEMBER Fortress of Louisbourg, Cape Breton (37)