Cape Breton's Magazine

'Mi ,1 • ? Above left, and photo on right: Mendel Yazer, founder and president of Yazer Brothers. Above right: a view inside the Sydney store, around the time of the Second World War. made it a point--a Jew. And then, I always said my prayers in the morning and night, with my skullcap on.... To this day. Morn? ing and night, before I go to bed. (You would do this in the homes of Catholics.) Didn't make any difference. (Protestants.) Like, I wouldn't eat pork. They knew, you know--and I would say, "I can't eat pork." See, I learned to speak a lot of English. We used to have the silent movies here. And they used to have the captions under? neath. And to go to the movie that time was 250. So I used to go to the movies. And in between (peddling) seasons I worked for Mason's Wholesale. I used to get, like, $6 a week. And $5 a week I paid for board and room. The other dollar, I used to go to silent movies. (How did you learn to speak English from the silent movie?) Well, see, I could read. I had enough edu? cation home. You know, put together the alphabet. And then you try to put words together, what they were saying--in the captions, from English. So that helped me a lot.... (Now, when you were peddling, were you able to keep the Jewish Sabbath?) No, I didn't keep the Sabbath. (But did you work on Sun? day?) No, they didn't--no. (So you'd go door-to-door on Saturday.) Yeah. (But on Sunday....) I would rest. And if they would come in, if they wanted something, you know, I'd sell it to them. But it was up to them. If they say fine, you'd sell it to them. But you didn't dare (peddle).... Talking about Sunday, I remember I tipped over the horse-and-wagon, I smashed my wagon in Tarbot. Then I went to Petrie Beach in Cape North and they made me a new box, you know, wood? work. But I had to go to a blacksmith to do the old iron? works . So I went to that fellow, it was around the last of July or Au? gust some? time. And his name was Angus MacDonald--he used to be the black? smith in Cape North. But he was also--when they had no minister--he used to be the elder, he used to do the preaching and all that stuff. So I went to him and I asked him to do it. He said, "Go away. Jack, go away." He said, "We've got to work in the hay. The weather is fine, we've got to finish the hay first." And I said, "Mr. MacDonald, what about tomorrow?" And he said, "Tomorrow, if it's a fine day," he said, "we're going to have to do the hay." I said, "Mr. MacDo? nald, if it rains tomorrow, will you do the wagon?" He said, "Yeah." "Well," I said, "I'm going home and pray that it'll rain." Next morning, it rained. I came down. There was a bunch of people in the forge. He looked at me, he said, "Here I am, a good PIPER'S TRAILER COURT Featuring: Fully Licensed Dining Room Laundromat Mini-Mart Ocean-Side Campsites Swimming Pool 929-2233 929-2067 Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail (Halfway between Baddecltand Ingonish) From either direction on the Cabot Trail, plan for comfort and welcome Piper's Old Manse GUEST HOUSE with Bed and Brealtfast . OPEN YEAR ROUND , 89