Cape Breton's Magazine

my family are missing: we lost a little girl, and my husband is gone. But he wasn't home half the time. He had asthma very very bad. And he worked away a lot. He'd be away 6 months at a time. So I was here alone with the two kids. I kept boarders: schoolteachers, children go? ing to high school. It was a hard life. It was a hard life. (NAN PAUSES.) You'd better shut that off. (What did you want to be?) I don't know. I always had somebody to look after, it seems to me. From the time I left my mother, when I went to Boston. I was only there a short time when I had to come back home. Perhaps three years. And ever since then there's been a.... Looking after my two brothers. Working on the Aspy.... (Has no one ever said to you, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" What did you want to be when you were very little?) I don't know. I don't know: I think my life has always been unplanned. Things happened. Just happened. (Did your parents have a goal for you? Did your mother have a wish for you?) No. We were poor people. And I don't think.... We weren't poor, now' in one way--we were rich, in blessings. But I mean, my father worked hard all his life, and my mother worked hard, to bring up all the children. She had 10 children, and shfe had a few miscarriages. So she didn't have an easy life. (As far as food, then, was there plenty?) Oh, plenty of food. My father--well, they fished all summer--lobster fished. And they never got a cent of money for the lobsters. And then they'd get a big sheet with every? thing cramped in it, that was charged. Not saying how much it was, but--just a price stuffed in there with brackets on it, after every item. So those men never knew what they were making, or what they were losing. Never saw--oh, it was all trade in the store. And they'd haul everything home in the fall. Flour came in by the barrel. And we had a lovely barn that we kept every? thing in, before we used it. The flour and rolled oats came in by the bag, the sugar came in by the bag. The tea came in in a big box. Everything came in for the year. Until lobster fishing time again. Then ev? erything would be charged, you know. Oh, I should have been living those years. (You were living those years.) Yeah, I should have been older. (Why?) People were putting it all over people those years. (Oh, this idea of not knowing the price.) Not getting any money, not knowing what you were making, or what you were selling, or what you were buying. (Do you think you could have made a change in that?) Oh, I could have. A fellow up here says I should have been either a clergy or a lawyer! I'm telling you: nobody can put anything over me today. (So, tell me this: has anybody been chasing you here?) Oh, yes. But oh, I'm awful fussy today. I said to my daughter one day. She said, "Would you marry again?" I said, "Yes. If I got a nice, smart man, that would take me out to dance." The dancing-- I'd like to have a man take me out. And es? pecially to dance. I danced in Boston until I retired. And I was down to the ceilidh here the oth? er night. On my 80th birthday, I went down to the ceilidh at half-past 10. And just because I was 80 years old, every young fellow in the hall asked me to dance. I never got off the floor for 2 1/2 hours. My grandson took me down. He said, "We'll pick you up when you're through." They picked me up at 1:30 in the morning. And I was just getting off the floor. (Have you been dancing all your life?) All my life. I love dancing. We were dancing, you know, when we were 13 and 14, at the Bay Natural Foods ' ''Tor Your Health's Sake Buy Natural Foods" /' H O M E ' Qpgg' Selection of Vitamins and Minerals 'B A KIN GJ Beer- and Wine-Making Supplies Bulk Herbs and Spices by the Ounce or Pound C.O.D. Orders Accepted by Mail or Phone Glace Bay 35 Comnnercial Street 849-4387 Sydney Across from K-Mart, toward Schwartz 539-6767 THE HARVEST BIN 222 Charlotte St., Sydney 564-8461 UPTOWN & PRIVATE ;apri Members & Guests Only 235 Charlotte Street ONE FLIGHT UP THE it FLEET Briands Cabs Ltd. Operators of Cape BretOD Tours (' Discover the Beauty of Cape Breton ' Limousine Service Taxi Fleet 564-6200 24 Kings Road, Sydney Airport Service Parcel Pickups