Cape Breton's Magazine

THE A THE Ceilidh XL Cabot Trail ''Trail WILL YE NO COME BACK AOAINI No matter where you stay in the county of Inverness you will enjoy spectacularly beautiful ''?' '''' countless little coves to | countryside con>plemented by explore, the warmest beaches in a rugged dramatic coastline, ''e Maritimes. hiking trails up to rocky mountain glens. Ask for the day trip brochures at any provincial tourist booth. "CXir beadles have th' vyarmest >A/aters, our people have the kindest hearts." THE INVERNESS COUNTY MUNICIPAL TOURIST COMMITTEE BOX 179 PORT HOOD, NOVA SCOTIA like her. We were doing all the housework, making the beds and scrubbing the floors. Well, my uncle made a washing machine for us. You put that across your washtub. Pick the clothes up and put it between this big roller and two little ones. Crank this a- round, and if you pull the clothes through, down the water on this side, rub the soap on it and put it back up, and down like that, till you wash it. Then dxaap that wa? ter out and put fresh water in, do the same thing and take the soap out of it. (And before he made that....) Just with a washboard. But we were too small to reach the washboard down in the tub. We'd have to have the tub on the floor. And we were too small to reach down in the washtub. So he made this for us so we could crank it a- round, and we wouldn't have to go up and down in the tub. (Who carried in the, water?) We did. ("We" is you and your sister....) And my two brothers. The well wasn't very deep, about 9 feet. And we used to bail the bucket down and hold onto the bucket, and get a stick, put the stick through and pry it up to the top. And one would go ahead with the stick on his shoulder, and the other one behind with the stick on his shoulder, carry it home like that. The pail of water between you. Because if you take it in your hand, we were too small, and it would hit the ground, and it would spill. Then when we got stronger, we used to take two buckets on the stick. But when we were smaller, we used to use the one. There was a little hill going down to the well. We'd have to get one of the boys to take the bucket up to there so we could get the stick through it. We were responsible just the same as the big ones are today. And when our two un? cles would be working--one in the granite quarry and one at the silicate, at the dol? omite quarry--the 4 of us would be home. (Alone?) Yeah. (No babysitter.) No, well, I guess not. We'd have to get up in the morning, and get the cows, milk the cows and do all that, get ready and go to school. Come back from school at lunchtime. We'd have to run home from school, get our meal ready and eat it, and clean up the dishes and get back to school. And then come home again in the evening, and we'd have to--the girls would have to bake some? thing for tomorrow and get the supper ready, and the boys would have to get the cows, milk the cows. Well, if we had e- nough baked, we wouldn't have to do any baking. We'd have to go and help the boys with the cows, get the cows and milk the cows and separate the milk and feed the calves and feed the hens and chickens and the pigs. Get all this done. And then get our homework done. And be up again at 4 o'clock in the morning, because we'd have to see our uncle off to work, and go and get the cows and milk the cows, and get all this done before we'd go to school at 9 o'clock. We were responsible for the whole house, and for the farm. Well, our uncles would put the potatoes and vegetables and all (77)