Cape Breton's Magazine

Is Your Father Dead Yet • ? with Allan MacDougall of "Hughie & Allan" From Conversations with Ian E. McNeil, Southwest Margaree, and Cape Breton's Magazine Allan MacDougall: I think it was the first thing we said when we went on television--"Is your father dead yet?" We had just heard it--I heard it or Hughie heard it. And we walked out on the set of the television station, and Hughie came from over there and I came from here. "Well, Hughie, how are you, boy? I haven't seen you for so long." "Well, my gosh, it's a long time, Al? lan," he said. "And you know, I was often won? dering," he said, "I often think of your fa? ther. Is your father dead yet?" "Yes, he's dead yet." Well, I thought the fellow on the camera was--he fell to his knees! He quit trying to hang on. And the producer and all the rest of them were there, they just doubled up. I think they said to themselves right there and then, "This is going to be something!" You know? This is the feeling we got from it. And that just perked us right up. It was just a saying that Hughie had. Probably we'd walk out on the stage and he used this, he got a kick out of it him? self, and I did, and the audience did. He'd say, "Allan, I was thinkin' of ya' all day. I often wondered," he said, "I wondered, once in awhile I'd think about it. Is your father dead yet?" And I'd say, "Yes, he's dead yet." Well, he got more bang out of that than any story I think we ever told. I often think of it, you know, so simple and he'd just laugh to kill him? self . Funny how one story will hit you or strike you, you know. Oh, but he was a fabulous guy. He was so alive, you know. It's so hard to believe that I'm still here talking to you and he's gone long ago. He was so alive. I'd go down to Swift's to tell him about someone who called and wanted to know if we could go somewhere tonight or tomorrow night or something, and I'd run down before I'd call them back, say, "Free tomorrow night?" or Cape Breton's MAGAZINE • Number Sixty-Three Wreck Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia BOC IHO Publications MaU Registration Number 3014 Hughie MacKenzie & Allan MacDougall