Cape Breton's Magazine

A Visit with Frank Landry, 91, of Isle Madame You know, they asic me things. There was a fellow this summer that came from (away) and his grandfather was born in D'Escousse. Well, he wanted to find out where he was born. I says, "I'm going to show you the house, your grandfather's house, and your great- great- grandmother's house." Well, they were kind of amazed that I knew all that, see. I was only about that high but I (remember). You know, the first thing that appears to you when you're young, you can't forget that. It's almost like a fel? low that's self- employed. The fellow that's self-employed-- he can go to school, he can go to college. I have four kids, the four of them (went) to college. I didn't go, I didn't have time. There were 13 in the family. We were a big family. And I had to work since I was 17, and raise the rest of the family on small wag? es. Forty-three dollars a month as a lighthouse keeper. So, you know, I've got memories. Now, self-employment--you know, you start by yourself and you work and you learn something that you'll never forget-- when you're self-employed. You go to school, sometimes you'll forget it. (But not) when you're self-employed. You know, years ago my father, if we'd take a piece of board, he wouldn't leave us work on a piece of board because-- "You'll spoil the damned thing"--see. He wouldn't want to lose a piece of board. Oh, no. So he died, he was only 58. I was only 17. And I was interested in boats all the time. So I thought to myself. Well, I'd like to build a boat. I'm going over River Bourgeois where they used to build boats. I used to have a look to see how a boat was made, you see. Because there's nothing square in a boat. Nothing square. Frank Landry and his second wife, Cecile. They have been married for over 30 years. You know, good carpenters can't make a boat. That doesn't go that way. There's nothing on the square. You've got to have the vision of the boat floating so that you can make a mold for that. Well, I came home and I went in the woods. I was only 17. Well, I got 3 or 4 logs cut, I got it sawed and planed, and I started a boat. Only about 12 feet long, that's all, a rowboat. It was pretty crooked. Oh, as crooked as.... I learned enough on that darn boat that I made five or six boats after that. And every boat was made better. And the last six boats that I made, I still say the damned thing could be remedied. I made my own motor boat. I was fishing right in the Atlantic with it. (What happened to the first boat?) The first boat--I set it adrift. It was too crooked. But I learned a lot on that one. (Is that the truth? Is that what you really Cape Breton's MAGAZINE • Number Seventy Wreck Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia BOC IHO Publications Mail Registration Number 3014