Cape Breton's Magazine

child was a girl--she was married. The last one was a girl, and she was only 4 years old. All the others were boys. When my mother died. So, my uncle invited me if I wanted to go and stay with them. So I was living in the harbour, it was easier for me to go to school and everything. That's what I did. That's why I have a special link with him. W modi'/UJork lUeorhou/e SYDNEY SHOPPING CENTRE - PRINCE STREET - SYDNEY 'Hj'' More than Just Wi 1'3 Great Workwear We carry a complete line to fit your needs. It all comes together... at the Sydport connection If you're looking for the Ideal spot to locate your business, you should know about the Sydport connection. Strategically located, Sydport is accessible by road or by rail, by air and by sea, on transportation lines to everywhere. The Sydport connection offers: • serviced land available for lease or sale • buildings available for lease • year-round harbour access • 768 metres of useable wharf - water depth 6 m.-ll m. • new all-weather highway access to Trans Canada Highway • railway and common user sidings available • advantageous government assistance programs The choice is obvious. The Sydport connection. a: {i;vj;T;M;v4 Sydport Industrial Park P.O. Box 154, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada BIP 6H1 -2' Operated by Enterprise J|P CapeBreton Corporation (Did your father have dreams for you...?) Not my father. I don't think so, no. But he was happy. (Did he want you to be a fisherman? Did he expect you...?) No, I don't think so. No, because I was going to school. No, I'm sure he did not. See, well, my oldest brother was working in a bank; he had gone to school--but not at the convent in Cheticamp--Petit Etang School. And he was working in a bank. And I was going to school. I was in 9th grade --10th grade--so it was easy to see that I wouldn't be a fisherman. But he was not the same kind as my mother. He was a good man, and he was religious, but.... My mother was a Boudreau; my moth? er was a sister of Anselme. I think she was brighter. She insisted more, send us to school, than my father. And my father was glad I became a priest. But before I went away he told me, "If you want to be a priest, okay. But don't do it because you feel that we want you to do it. You're free." It was intelligent, from him. (The idea of collecting the stories and tradi? tions from your area-- where does that come from? What made you de? sire to do that?) Well, when I was a child, I heard so much, so much of it. The old persons-- my grandfather, my un? cles, my aunts, my two grandfathers. My Grand? father Boudreau was com? ing from the head of the harbour to our home. Then, all the old per? sons around were coming to our home at night, in the evening. And they were talking of the old times. Of the deporta? tion of the Acadians. Of so many things about the Acadians--the way they lived in the old times-- how they hunted, how they fished, all their behaviour v/ith the Indi? ans. All kinds of things like that. More than that--about the sorcer? er- -sorcier? Legends, and everything like that. So I--j'ai pris 1'amour de toutes les choses-lA, see. I loved that so much. And especially they were talking about the history of Cheti? camp: all the first set-