Cape Breton's Magazine

when Grandma worried about me for two weeks straight, she didn't stop worrying about me and what was going to happen to me because I was an actress and I had just come down and visited. I spent a week back here not too long before she died--I felt that she was going to die and I was living in Holly? wood, actually, and I was working on a film and before the film started I came out here because I thought something might happen while I'm working on the film. I came. I spent a week with her which was really wonderful because I hadn't done that in a long time. Before that I spent a summer here when I was sixteen with my other grandmother, Libby Moraff, right here in Sydney, and I went to St. Francis Xavier, the junior college. I took an Eng? lish course for the summer. And that was great, too, because that was like reliving my childhood. In fact, one of my girl friends who lived down the street was in town and we hung out together again-- Gwennie Munn. Her father was Reverend Munn; he lived on Lorway Avenue. We went up to Keltic Lodge and, you know, I went to the college. So that was, again, like being back here. I mean, I don't know how much of my life was spent being at my grandparents' house, walking down to the one corner for popsi- cles when we were kids, and up to the store for comic books, and then up to the park to watch the ducks, and my grandmother's gar? den in the back yard, and so on. And then the trips to the Pier for bagels on Sunday Visit an Underground Coal l/line morning, you know. In fact when we drove here to find the Pier (again), I didn't know the Pier was more than that one strip of street where my relatives were. I think to tell you the truth, we were a very living family. In other words, it wasn't so much old family stories. In fact, my grandmother didn't even like to talk about the old country. They left it behind. Once she made that big journey across the ocean, that was enough of a trip for her. Florida, okay. But otherwise she never liked to go out of the house. You know, she had her family around her and she orches? trated things and she ran a tight ship and so on with the daughters-in-law and every? thing. But that was her life. And they had the bungalow out at Mira and it was a hot spot of activity, of people coming from everywhere and we all grew up with each other--being here or doing things always connected to people. It was all about people and the interrelationship between us and that we were a family. And everybody cared for everybody. (Was it more family, or was it more being Jewish, do you think? Was it oriented around the Jewish holidays?) Oh, no, it wasn't holiday-oriented. Sure there were things around the holidays and, you know, I certainly remember going to the shul here (in Sydney) and I remember the one in Glace Bay. But, honestly, we came every Christ? mas, Easter, and summer. So I don't remem? ber things in terms of the Jewish holidays so much as I remember them just in terms of being here and being at people's houses. (Family rather than religion.) Yeah. I mean, I knew we were Jewish and there was something wonderful about being Jewish in a small town. I mean, when we moved to To? ronto when I was twelve--and particularly Glace Bay, N.S. Onebf the Foremost l/luseums in Nova Scotia! Bring your family to enjoy the once-ln-a-lifetime adventure of touring an actual Coal Mine with a retired miner as your guide, and experience our "new" simulated mine ride. After touring Museum and Mine, visit the well-stocked Gift Shop and the Miners' Village Restaurant on the same 15- acre site located just one mile from downtown Glace Bay. The Miners' Museum Is Open Year Round and Welcomes Group Tours Inquire about our 'Men of the Deeps Concerts Education Nova Scotia Museum Complex For information about admission fees, school tours, group tours, or off-season hours, PHONE: (902) 849-4522 Mertz 24 HOUR SERVICE - 7 DAYS A WEEK 539-1538 539-5623 1430 George St. Sydney, N. S. Sydney Airport • FAST FRIENDLY SERVICE • FEATURING LATEST MODEL CARS, TRUCKS, & 4'WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLES fM??itri • LOCAL PICKUP and DELIVERY To Reserve a Car 2;''?''EE?* 1 -800-263-0600 The #1 way to rent a csar.