Cape Breton's Magazine

roadwork. Well then I'd shower up and then go to bed. Then I'd get up after dinner sometime--2 o'clock or something like that. Well, there's supper at 4. After supper, into the gym I'd go. I was playing go up to the gear in a bag the ballgame, streetclothes boxing gear, over to town. Then I got a the Pier, and It was about ball that time, too. So I'd Pier playground with my ball with my boxing gear. After I just switched into my put my ball gear in with my jumped on a bus and I went over to Sydney. Worked out. bus back to Broadway, down to I walked home from Broadway. 2,2 1/2 miles I'd walk home. Get home, and then right back out to work. Before midnight I'd have to go to work. That's before I had a car. Then when I got a car. made it a little easier. You'd drive, and never lost so much time. But then eventually I had to give that up be? cause you were burning the candle at both ends, as they say then, you know. Starting to take its toll. So, you know, you couldn't give your all to it. I remember one time I fought Saturday night in Glace Bay. (Gordie was fighting Alfie Grant from Halifax in the Glace Bay Forum, the semi-final.) And this fellow butted me in--I don't know--second or third round or something. Broke my nose. Gee whiz, I knocked him out in 5 or 6. But by that time I could hardly see out of both eyes. So I went home, on a Saturday night. And I woke up Sunday morning. I couldn't open an eye. My eyes were closed tight as a drum. So I had to get my mother to bring me up some ice in a towel. And one eye I could get open with my fingers, you know. So I put the ice on that eye. I EXCITING NEW LOCAL BOOKS FROM LANCELOT PRESS - Memory Is My Diary by Angus James MacQueen Angus MacQueen grew up in a coal miner's family in Cape Breton and went on to become Moderator of the United Church of Canada. Many memorable experiences are recounted in this absorbing autobiography. 227 pp, illustrated, softcover $13.86 includes GST Bill Fraser, Mountie by R.A. MacLean Whether matching wits -- and often fists -- with a variety of lawbreakers or escorting royalty on tours to distant outposts. Bill Fraser enjoyed his work. His duties ranged from pursuing rumrunners in Cape Breton to breeding sled dogs in the Arctic to serving as body-guard to Winston Churchill. 157 pp, illus., softcover $11.72 includes GST Both books available from Lancelot Press, P.O. Box 425, Hantsport, N.S. BOP 1P0 or in leading Nova Scotia bookstores. got a slit in that eye open, you know. And at 1 o'clock the bus came for me--I was playing Junior Base- ball--I was pitching then. So they came and picked me up for ball; we were playing ball in Wa? terford. So I went down and I pitched, and won a game 4-3 that day, only looking through one eye. I've got a write- up in there, in my scrap- book, about that. Within 24 hours I won a fight and also won a ballgame. Just through one eye, just looking through one eye. Left: Jackie Burke, New Brunswick, Ban? tamweight Champion of Canada, with Cape Breton's "Rocky" IVIacDougall, Feather? weight Champion of Canada Like I said, you know, you were clean- living at that time. You weren't running around spending all hours of the night; you weren't out all hours of the night. You just never had time for that. Dances-- if you went--a girl or something like that--you went out Saturday night, that's all--Saturday and Sunday, that's all. Be? cause the rest of the nights you were working or you were in the gym.... So that's the way it was. It all worked out. So I gave her a good shot for--like I said--about 7 years I gave her a real good shot. Then I had disappointments. Between promoters and Boxing Commission. (What SERVING ALL OF CAPE BRETON COMMERCIAL • INDUSTRIAL • RESIDENTIAL ?? STORE FRONTS & WINDOWS ?? MIRRORS ?? TABLE TOPS ?? ALUM-SASH & SCREEN ?? INDUSTRIAL SAFETY GLASS ?? PLEXIGLASS & LEXAN ?? AUTOMATIC ENTRANCE ?? THERMO INSULATED UNITS RON MAY PONTIAC COMMERCIAL EMERGENCY SERVICE • 24 HOURS- PERCY LUSH 539-9199 KEN KEOUGH 564-6680 /// CAPE BRETON GLASS 19 MITCHELL PL. SYDNEY f- CAPE BRETON GLASS 562-2817 I CENTRE 200 FAX • 564-9889 LOCALLY OWNED WITH OVER 100 YEARS EXPERIENCE