Cape Breton's Magazine

people today) changed it a little bit. And they shouldn't have changed that. They changed the words, you know. It's not good. Because the old generation made the songs. They should put the same thing like they made it. (I find that the Gaelic-speaking people often feel the same way. They feel you should keep the exact words, sung the old way, and when someone says, "Oh, we made them better....") It's not better. (Am I correct--you try to keep your songs the way the old people gave them to you?) Oh, yeah. The song I know here. (In your head.) Some people changed it a little bit. (And a little bit is not good.) It's not a little bit--it's too much.... (Did you ever have a desire to learn sto? ries too?) No. No. Just the songs. That was my hobby. (When you would work in the woods, would you sing there?) (At) a couple of camps, I was singing. But after that, no. No, there were too many--it's not because the Eng? lish people are not better--are not worse than the Frenchmen--they're all the same. But if there were English people, you wouldn't bother to sing--they didn't un? derstand anything. You know, it wasn't the same. We were getting along okay with them. But. Sometimes some people were ask? ing me to sing. Well, if they asked me, I would sing a couple. In the evening. Some of them maybe were not interested. And I don't blame them. When you work hard all day, and then--if you sing, it was on Sat? urday night and Sunday. The only thing--the only thing--for two weeks in 1939--you heard about Harvey in Baddeck. Well, they were loading boats at Murray--pit props. We were travelling back and forth at night. With a big truck. We were maybe 30 or 40 behind the big truck. And then, I was singing too, and there were a couple of guys from down home, they • LOCAL • LONG DISTANCE • OVERSEAS LARGE OR SMALL - WE MOVE IT ALL MOFFATT Moving & Storage SAFELY, EFFICIENTLY & INSURED CALL THE PROFESSIONALS • OVER 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE Financing Available O. A. C. 30- to 90-Day Interest Free VISA I Mastercard on Long Distance FREE ESTIMATES 562-0222 80 MARINE DR., SYDPORT '' Atios Weekends & After Hours VAN LINES / AGENT 564-0963/562-1978 were pretty good singers. One was a Dou? cette. There were English people in it, and they used to ask us to sing. We were back in the truck. Maybe sometimes we were 40 back in the truck--big truck. And after the work, maybe 5 or 6 o'clock in the eve? ning, we had to come back and sleep at Baddeck. Because it was only for two weeks. And we used to sing all the way from Murray to (Baddeck)--do this when we were young. I was 16--16 1/2. I started making those (song)books in 1951. I worked all winter at Gillis Lake. And then I had all those songs here. And I had a lot of songs from Joseph Larade--he wrote me. And I had that, and I put it in my book. After supper. And especially on Friday night. The English people used to go home. And we used to stay--I and anoth? er guy, one of my cousins--for the week? end. The two of us, we used to write those songs. That's where I started. All the songs that Joseph Larade wrote me. It wasn't in a book; it was here and there. And I saved it. And I started writing that in a book in 1950, January 8th--I've got that marked in my book. And then one after the other, one after the other. So. (You liked to have a good time.) Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I liked to sing. It's not eve? rybody- -it's not every day you like to sing. It's just like a violin player. A violin player, he told me, it's not every day you like to play. And me, you're going to come at my place and you're going to EYKING farms Growing QuaUty Farm Products for Generations! NOW OPEN EYKIN& I under glass • A MODERN MARVEL • Hydroponic Greenhouse Facility providing Tomatoes d' English Cucumbers Tour '"' Extraordinary State-of-the-Art GREENHOUSE Saturdays from 2 to 4 PM • JUNE to SEPTEMBER Millville, Cape Breton (on Boularderie Island) 9 mi. from Seal Island Bridge 3 mi. from Bras d'Or PHONE (902) 674-2675