Into its 25th year, Cape Breton's Magazine is devoted to the history, natural history and future of Cape Breton Island. There is no news. Each issue is born old - and built to last. Rooted in Scottish, Micmac, Acadian and Irish traditions, Cape Breton's Magazine is filled with oral history, traditional tales, music and lots of photographs. Subscribers are worldwide - anywhere you find people who love Cape Breton Island.
From a Talk with Ronald Caplan
Interview by Michael Taft
Ronald Caplan:: How did I come to Cape Breton? Well, I should tell you right away, I never even heard of Cape Breton. I had never even heard of Cape Breton. I had never heard of it at all. I was living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That's the place where I was born, and I had returned there I had been living there for I don't know how long, exactly, but I started a small business. Kind of a design business. And whether it was the period or the times or something like that, the joy of the sixties was already past, and I guess it was just about 1970. And I just wasn't happy. I was in Pittsburgh, married, a small business not doing very well. And not really wanting to pursue it. Not knowing what else to do with myself. And a friend came over I hadn't seen for a number of years and he was living in Canada, or going to live in Canada. But not Cape Breton or anything like that. Possibly he was living in Maine, or something like that, but he was going to go to Canada. We talked about it: "Why don't we get together in Canada? Why don't we try to start all over again?" He had a wife and one kid, and so did I. And somehow the idea was we were going to have just a farm down there. And he gave me a call, as I remember it and you know you tell a story so many times, you hope it's the truth, do you know?... It doesn't matter, it's folklore, but I hope it's the truth.
But as I remember yeah, he went to live in Prince Edward Island. And he said, "Listen, Prince Edward Island, that's the place." So he said, "This is where we're going to set up." I'd never heard of Prince Edward Island. And we sold what we had. I put everything in a Volkswagen bus, and we started heading for Prince Edward Island. And I think we were actually on the way when there was this phone call, and he said, "Prince Edward Island isn't the place. No," he said, "Cape Breton Island that's the place."
So to me it was just a little shift to the right. I didn't know either place, or where I was going. And then so I went to Cape Breton. And we met there. Well we weren't exactly going to stay there, he decided. The mainland of Nova Scotia that was the place."
Anyhow, we actually went up there with him for a very short time, but I knew very quickly that my man was never going to find "the place." And I didn't want to be there if he should happen to find "the place". And we very quickly parted, not on very good terms.
And all I knew was Cape Breton, you know. We did a little traveling around. Winter was coming on. And we took a trip to Newfoundland, first. Thought, well, we're this far, we better keep on going. Maybe that's our place. I was already quite confused. Well, it was a terrible trip across Newfoundland. Barely saw it. All I could think of spruce, spruce, spruce, and how am I ever going to make a living here? You know, I wanted to think of myself as someone who could cut a tree, but I just didn't think I was going to make a living that way. And we got all the way to ST. John's. I think we had one good meal. And really disappointed, really miserable. What are we going to do? And my daughter, who had just started to walk, stopped walking. She'd been in the car so long, she stopped walking! You know? Well that's all I needed.
Got in the car and I drove right across Newfoundland, back onto the ferry, came to Cape Breton, went to Baddeck. I guess we must have looked like hell. We came in the doors of the Telegraph House in Baddeck, and old Mrs. Dunlop was living then. And she saw us come through the door we had stayed there one or two nights before she knew we were in trouble, serious trouble. And she just called out to someone to bring tea, and instead of taking us in to where everyone else went, she just took us off to the side to this little room by the fireplace and brought tea and everything to us there. And then we went into a room they had a little motel-like room. And that night the kid started to walk again around the motel room. And I said, "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to spend the winter here in Cape Breton." And that's how I got to Cape Breton, and I haven't left yet.
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