Cape Breton's Magazine

way out of the way. I started living the city life. Because, being a country boy and going in the city, there were so many things to see and so many things to do. So, you might say I started partying. I went down the wrong track. Bill chuckles. 1 got tangled into drinking, boozing, and dope, and everything else you can think of. And when it got tough enough up there, in London, Ontario--I was married by then, I had married Linda, who is from there. I told her, I said, "I can't take the city .any more. I've got to go back home." Be? cause I thought, by coming down here, it's going to help me. You know, back home, and back around my surroundings. So, I came back home. And I tried to work around here. But I was having the same problem here. Didn't change anything, I was having the same problem here as in On? tario, I still couldn't hold a job, and I still wasn't satisfied. Till one day I told Linda, I said, "Look, I'm working on the wharves unloading boats," I said, "I'm being called in the middle of the night to go out, I'm spend? ing some days of 19 to 20 hours straight, and then coming home and sleeping two hours, and then go? ing back out to work again," I said, "I've been thinking of something. If I put that much time into what I like do? ing, I've got to be able to make as much as what I'm making on wharves." And that was the arts. That's when I decid? ed to take on the arts and try it out. And it was--so far, it's been the right thing to do. I kept at that, and worked sometimes till day- a&JSay; BUOY Seafood & Steak j RESTAURANT | Baddeck, N.S. 295-2581 ' 1' Environnrent Environnement Canada Canada Canadian Parks Service canadien light in the morning. And I didn't tire, you know. Like, on a job, you get tired. This year, I don't tire. I work till--till I've had enough. My heart's content, you know. And then I come in and sleep for awhile. And then, go back out. It's some? thing that seems to be part of me. It's natural, you know, I see now, because I haven't drank for years now--I quit every? thing at once. And the arts took--filled in everything I was missing. So, really, all the way along, when I really stop and think--sometimes in quiet I think: that's what was meant to be. And that's why I was so uneasy in the past. You know, couldn't hold jobs, turned to the booze, turned to this. Because I had an unsatisfied--I don't know what you'd call it--an unsatisfied soul or something. You know? But as soon as I got in the arts, it calmed me. It replaces all the things,,.. (When you decided you were going to go back into carving--you came home--how did you start making your decisions on what you were going to carve?) Oh. Chuckles. That wasn't hard, because I just--anything I've always wanted to carve.... Like for-- ART • HANDCRAFTS ANTIQUES • WOOLENS IMPORTED GOODS BOOKS • MUSIC "Purchases mailed/shipped to any destination" Located in the Centre of Baddeck /9yni4food 295-2950 • Bill Fraser MacAskiirs Funeral Home'*"' C. D. Dunlop & Sons Personalized service for over 80 years We encourage inquiries about prearranged funeral service Our office is iocated in Telegraph House & Motel Chebucto St., Baddeck 295-9988 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK No Admission Charge 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Year Round 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. July 1 to Sept. 30 Open 7 Days a Weel< BADDECK, N. S, 75 km. west of Sydney on Route 105 Children Can Build & Fly a Bell Kite Special Evening Presentations Inquire 295-2069 for Times BELL THE MAN * BELL THE EXPERIMENTER * HYDROFOIL HALL Beautiful, Intelligent and Peaceful Canada Baddeck: on Highway 105 and the Cabot Trail