Cape Breton's Magazine

I got a few more hairy ones, but I never thought I was going to drown or anything. But I've got a son that was drowned here. Right here alongside of the shore. A storm, that big gale we had, 115 miles an hour. October storm. (Is that the one that took the roof off the school?) Yeah, that's the same. Stripped the whole works around here, all right. We were fixing up a wharf down here. And we had all kinds of logs on the beach. It was on Sunday morning. He had gone to church, came back. And he was just getting ready to go across, at the beach, with this friend. They were going to pick up the logs that were going adrift. So they left the shore, and he had an out? board motor on her--it was working Number One. He went and he got a couple of logs. I didn't want him to go and get it, be? cause it was too dirty, too windy. So he went, and they got it. And he threw it a- bout, oh, about 10 or 15 feet ahead. And then his motor broke down. I think, myself, he had run out of gas. 'Cause the motor was working Number One. And we had a big boat anchored there. So he cut the rest of the log, left it adrift, and he tried to catch up with that boat, in order to hold himself. And it was blowing so hard, he couldn't make it. They couldn't make it. He just was far enough he couldn't reach the boat, and that's all. It was something that had to be done, as far as I can under? stand. He couldn't fetch the boat, so he went. And when he went, I said, "Goodbye. I'll never see him again." So, sure enough, we never saw them after that. He reached for the boat, but he couldn't get ahold of it. Couldn't reach far enough to hold it. He was in a skiff. But he was trying to get ahold of the big boat. (And he fell over?) No, he didn't We Buy and We Sell and We're as Near as Your Telephone Sid s Used Furniture Phone 564-6123 436 Charlotte Street, Sydney (' NEED A MUFFLER SHOCKS? BRAKES? D I FAST, QUALin SERVICE BY EXPERTS FOR YOUR CAR, TRUCK OR VAN NATIONALLY GUARANTEED FREE INSPECTION & ESTIMATES COMPETITIVE PRICES ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT PARTS FOR ALL DOMESTIC & FOREIGN VEHICLES MUFFLERS • SHOCKS ~ BRAKES Master Muffler & Brake Centre PHONE 539-6691 349 GEORGE ST., DOWNTOWN SYDNEY, N.S.> fall over. He just missed--to get ahold of it, see--he just missed. And then he went adrift. He couldn't go close enough in or? der to get ahold of it. He couldn't go close enough. He tried his best. He was drowned off here, from here to the island here. There was no boat that could go out that day in order to get them. Both drowned. I was looking at them until I couldn't see them in the fog, in the water, that was splashing. I was watching them go? ing, but I knew it was the end of it. (After your own good fortune in a storm., ..) Yeah.,., well, not so much wind, but just as hard as that, and I saved myself. But this one, I think it's something that had to happen.... I was in quite a few breezes, things like that. But not enough to hurt too much. The only one when it was too rough for us to HOURS: 7 A.M. - 11 P.M. * OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Bonnie Jean Restaurant Home-Cooked Meals and a Friendly Atmosphere Full Family Meals Snacks Lunches or Teas On Highway 105 near the Seal Island Bridge UPTOWN & PRIVATE CLUB CAPRI Members & Guests Only 283 Charlotte Street (79)