Cape Breton's Magazine

didn't see the thing coming that everyone else, saw.) No. (And when you call it a "thing--) Peggy--well, she said it was a white horse coming towards them. Tommy knew that, Christine knows that. (And what hap? pened with the horse?) Well, they didn't know.... It just disappeared. (But your mother never got off that road.) No. (What does that tell you, if she's the only one who doesn't see it?) Well, she was the one that died. She wasn't afraid. She wasn't conscious. She didn't see what was there, that they saw. (Is that usually the case?) I don't know how it works, I really don't. (But it works.) But it works. I don't believe you hear it of your own folks, anyway. I don't think a ghost comes to you, with your own people. (Like your mother--not seeing the horse.) Yeah. It's a - funny set-up, whatever it is. (But Nan, in your heart--it is a set-up. It is real, then.) It is real. It is real. I've witnessed it two or three times, with my mother. But not on account of her. It was my grandmother that died. And the other time it was just a message coming to the house of somebody that died.... (Was there any other, that you know of, that your husband foresaw?) Well, not by name. You know, I didn't know those people then. (His people.) The first years of my, marriage--we never talked about ghosts. Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't have time to be listening to him anyway. We lived in this house. There wasn't a roof on it, there wasn't a floor in it, there wasn't a wall in it, there was nothing in it. And there was no lights and no water in it. You can imagine, it wasn't ghosts that were bothering me those days! I worked in the Hood Rubber Factory, in the States there, when I first went up, I guess. After I was through doing housework. My brother worked there. Goodrich Tire. (What were you doing there?) Cementing ten? nis boots. Before the sole went on it, I was putting that strip on it. And I did nursing. And I worked in a bindery. I worked at Hone3rwell, soldering radios, parts. See, I had to get a new job (each year). I had to leave every spring to come home here (Baddeck) to open up the tourist home. And go back in the fall. I had a tourist home here. Right here in this house. I had 9 bedrooms in this house. (Would you close this up for the winter?) Yes. Close it up and go away. (Your hus- band, too?) Oh, my husband was away all the time. He was on the Great Lakes all summer. And he'd come to Boston in the fall. That's what we did. (When you came here to Baddeck, you had 17 boarders, and no water and no electricity.) I had lamps for every room, and hauled the water. (From where?) Up above there. I have a 22-foot well. I didn't haul it. Unless I had to; unless there was nobody around. I worked in lumber camps when I first moved into this house. (Which lumber camps?) Mr. Gordon Harvey's. (As a cook?) Yeah. Wood stove. One camp I had 37 men for dinner, 37 men for supper. And then the rest of them stayed in the house. Mr. Harvey was the one who bought our house for us and we paid him by the month; he was the one who sent boarders to me. He was very good to my hus? band and me. There was stuff put over hay, in the loft. We didn't have one single stick of furni? ture. The tables were made, the benches were made to sit on. We had old potato bags, we made a mattress out of them with felt. Pull the stuff together to make a mattress. You know, pieces of felt, and put twine through it to make a mattress. For our own bed. And we made a mattress for the baby's crib. My father made the crib. Nobody can talk hard times to me, 'cause I've been up and (to the) bottom of it. I'm still going strong. This is why I am enjoy- ing this kind of a life I have now. I know Suppliers of Commercial Recreational Fencing 0. Box 98, King St., North Sydney, N. S. B2A 3M1 794-4773 W world's greatest PIZZA nncEL "Have our auger truck dig your holes." INGREDIENTS: pepperoni mozzarella cheese green pepper olives onions anchovies ham bacon salami pineapple... Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. -Midnight Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. -1 a.m. Sunday 1 p.m. - Midnight 562-8880 472 Charlotte Street, Sydney EXTRA TOPPINGS NO EXTRA CHARGE!