Cape Breton's Magazine

Eddie: Just a little path from there to Cheticamp. Snowshoe run from Pleasant Bay way into Cheticamp. We were born at Pol? lett's Cove but we had moved up to Pleas? ant Bay. My father was the last family to move out of Pollett's Cove. Used to walk over the Big Barrens. Walked to the North Shore. We walked everywhere. Didn't think nothing of it at the time, nothing. Simon: There's a MacKinnon--he's living today--he left Black Point and started walking up to Pleasant Bay. Walked over the mountain okay--got along good over the mountain. When he got as far as Pollett's Cove, he went out on the drift ice there-- and started up on the drift ice toward Pleasant Bay. Boy, he got about halfway up, the wind came southeast off the land, started to blow the ice out. So he had to climb the bank there--haIf way up, I guess--and there was just a rock out in the side of the bank, like a shelf, he called it, big enough just for him to lay there anyway. He lay there all night long. And that was in February. And it was a real cold night that night too, I remember. He came to our house the next morning. And I know it was 10 below or more. And he said when he came to the house • aw, he was shivering like a leaf--he said when he tried to get up after staying there all night, in the morning, no way • he couldn't get up with the coat on. He had to open the coat off, pull one sleeve out and then the other--then get ahold of the coat. And he had a hard time pulling it out of the ice where it froze. Eddie: You know what happened to me one time? I was over the Cabot Trail--over Cape North way--there was no road there or anything, just the trees were blazed. And it got dark on me, I couldn't see the blaze in the trees. I stayed there all night. There was some snow on the ground and I finally made a place there. I had no matches or anything. I had no lunch. I stayed out all night and before I'd freeze, I had to jump up and walk around all night. God almighty, I'd jump around, keep myself warm, before I'd freeze to death. I was all right--but for three days I was feel? ing cold in my bones. And one fellow told me, "You're liable to get a cold out of that, Eddie." I said, "I don't think so." I didn't get a cold out of it. (You were out there in the dark. Did you see anything?) Nothing. Oh...you mean ghosts or something. No, I never saw a ghost. But I have seen a forerunner of a living person. I was living at Ingonish. Used to play cards at a place. And Janet MacKay was her name, she used to come up there playing cards. And I was sitting in the kitchen, waiting for them to come up. You know, three or four of us--everybody used to play cards. And I was in the kit? chen and I saw her coming in the door. And she started laughing, smiled, laughing. I didn't think anything of it. I thought she'd stay in the kitchen, but she went into the living room. So I went in, asked Eddie Fraser Murdoch Dan • "Did Janet MacKay come in here?" He said, "No." And I had seen her coming in the door, smiling, laughed at me. That was a forerunner. I told her a- bout it later. She told me, that's noth? ing. And nothing ever came of it. Nothing. (Was it a forerunner of something that was going to happen?) Well, the only thing I ever heard of that was, if you see the forerunner of a living person • if he's coming towards you, he'd have a long life. If he was going away from you, he wasn't going to live a long life. If they were going away,, they were going to die soon. (Did they ever frighten you?) No, never scared me. (Simon, did you ever see any? thing like that?) Simon: Well, yes. I've actually seen--well, I've heard it. This is a true story. We were living in Pleasant Bay, way down at what they'd call the Lower End at that time. And there was a bunch of us came to our house that night, to play cards. Eddie: It was .on a Sunday, wasn't it? Simon: Well, it was on a Sunday night, yes. And oh, it must have been about 12 o'clock when they all left. So we got ready and we all went to bed. And after we went to bed--well, we had been playing in the kitchen. We had taken the chairs away from the table after we were through. And after we went to bed we heard the chairs, someone dragging them over to the table, and they started dealing the cards, fancy dealing. Eddie: I remember that.... We all got up, every one of us. Simon: This was going on for awhile. Some- thing's going on there, someone's playing cards. We got up and looked aroimd. The (15)