Cape Breton's Magazine

front of Dan J. Campbell's, up near Strath? lorne. And we were playing in Glenville that night, so somebody took us up. We were terribly lucky. Of course, there wasn't the traffic on the road those days as there is now. It's a damn good job there wasn't. Probably we would have been killed four other times I We'd always get there by hook or by crook. That's one thing--I guess everybody fig? ured that we were real dependable players. At least if they hired us, we were going ' to be there, supposing we had to crawl. Yes, sir. It was a hard life, and a good life. There's a lot of good memories it left, you know. Probably a lot of sad ones, too. Poor old Beattie died of heart trouble. She died playing, you might as well say. Took a heart attack at Valley Mills, and they took her to Baddeck. Sent her on to Sydney; she only lasted a couple of days. (During the dance.) Yeah. I think (before that) she had a little twinge of a heart attack, but nothing ever to stop or anything. Probably she should have tried to take more care of herself after that, but no. Beattie was only 62 when she died. Your Nova Scotia Government Bookstore Outlet in Cape Breton Cape Breton Booi(S First-Rate Literature A Wide Range of Bool(S from Popular to Scholarly 361 Charlotte St. Sydney B1P1E1 539-8551 BOOKS ARE A GREA T GIFT ANY TIME OF THE YEAR and Lewis Parker Cards; PORTRAIT OF CAPE BRETON fflSTORY But she was a great old competitor, I'm telling you, boy. I never travelled with a finer person. Always agreeable. A wonder she didn't get so fed up with us, tell us to go jump.... We were pretty heavy drink? ers , you know.... But she took a shine to us. You know, we seemed to click like that. (And you were both single at the time, or no?) Well, I was married, but on the verge of not living with my wife, 'cause while I was overseas-- went to hell, you know. (And Winston, was he married at the time?) Oh, yeah. He was getting along good. Geez, I think Winston was only married in 1943. He got married in Halifax; he was in the Anny then. (So, it wasn't a question of Beattie tak? ing you under her wing like a mother or feeding you, or anything like that.) Not a bit, no, no, no, no. We were just three people. And as far as being an object of sex or anything--never crossed our--she was more like a sister, you know. Nobody ever molested her or--be drunk or sober or anything. If she was living today--many a time she said, "Two of the finest gentle? men." She said, "They were gentlemen." Still get "bandits," "outlaws"--that. "Travelled with them all night, that was it. Nothing ever--all they'd do was have a few drinks and mind their own business. That was it." And that really was it. And that's the reason I think, probably, she liked us so good. There was nothing foolish about us in that respect.... The Great Nova Scotia Coverup Discover Undercover • Thousands of Interesting Facts • Recipes • Historical Accounts • Maps • Lithographs These and many more exciting stories are undercover at Pages, The Downtown Bookstore, 361 Charlotte Street, Sydney, 839-8881 A free catalogue listing govemment titles available from the Nova Scotia Govemment Bookstore, P.O. Box 637, Halifax, NJ3. B3 J 8T3 or hy phone toU free 1-484-7880 Nova Scotia 'r'' Information ''' Services (What were you doing for food on the road? Did you take a lunch with you?) No. Stop at some store and get, prob? ably baloney, and pop, or something like that. That was our staple diet-- baloney. Holy jumping, I ate more baloney and played for the frigging dances than I think the baloney company made! Of course, maybe if we'd get to a dance a little early-- especially in Inver? ness- -we'd always go into that spaghetti-- they had a spaghetti shop then, in those years. Nick the Greek used to run it. We'd always get something to eat there. And oh, we spent some hungry nights on the road, too, no doubt. What we should have done is taken lunches with us. Some of those long hauls. (Did you continue to