Cape Breton's Magazine

public body name, own the land. So of course, I had to take the proposition to a meeting of the council one day in Port Hood. So I said, "If you will more or less sponsor this thing, a grant can be got to pave it. We'll give you the land." So we gave them the land. And the guy that lived in that house right at the end of the air? port, George Crowdis, he was the fellow that owned the land. And we were going to buy it from him and give it, and he says, "Well look, boys, you fellows spent a lot of money already on what you done there." He says, "How'd it be if I give you the land?" So that sounded good, so we took it and we gave it to the county. And now they can't even have a fellow there to look af? ter it, for God's sake! I used to look after it all the time when I was able to. Till this thing hit me. I got in snowplowing in the winter, and you got to keep little trees down on the side so trees don't grow up to be a problem on the sides, you know. So I used to hire a couple of young fellows from up the road. They were always good, agreeable little fellows, willing to work. I used to hire them every spring, before all the little trees be barely this high. We'd pull them out and throw them away. (Two inches.) Yeah. That's the best way. Because a few years before that, we were cutting them with power saws, but every time you cut them, the stump would be left. Then a limb would grow out Enjoy your home away froji'home at... (J'f'f' Q''' Summer Vitlaae HOUSEKEEPING COTTAGES ' Modern l&2-Bedroom Housekeeping Cottages Spectacular View: Gulf of St. Lawrence Sunsets CBTV • Fully-Equipped Kitchen with Microwave Porches • Laundromat • Sandy Beach • Play Area MARGAREE HARBOUR Inverness Co., NS BOE 2B0 Tel (902) 235-2202 Fax (902) 235-2564 Specializing in Celtic Music from .. • Cape Breton • Atlantic Provinces • Ireland • British Isles Ojiil i;] UJi VV Excellent Selection of USED CDs (over 5,000 titles) from COUNTRY to the CLASSICS COLLECTABLE VINYL FROM EVERY GENRE on-line catalogue updated monthly at www.chatsubo.com/cddepot/ TOLL FREE from anywhere in North America Monday-Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM (Atlantic time) at 1-888-562-45CD NEW LOCATION: 386 Charlotte St., Sydney (902) 562-55CD (across from the YMCA) the side of the stump and the next year there'd be a tree. So that was no good. Pulling them was the only way to keep them down without anything coming back in its place. So that's the way I used to do it. (Was it mostly you that used this airport or....) No. Everything used it. People come in.... They take passengers back and forth from here to the Madeleine Islands. (So it's still in use.) It's in use all the time. Anytime anybody wants to use it, it's there. Once the airport was established and paved and everything, and licensed, then some? body had to be there to look after it nearly all the time. Have to keep track of the amount of planes that come in and go out, and what the registration numbers are on them and so on, so you can know who they are and where they were from. I did that for about thirty years. Plus snow? plowing in the winter. There was 2400 movements one year. A move? ment is a takeoff or a landing. That's a pretty fair amount. And Search and Rescue comes in and out of here every now and again. In fact, there was a little kid from down East Margaree down here or some? thing that fell out of an upstairs window or something, was it? Or something like that. Got hurt pretty bad. And they picked him up here and took him out, flew him to Halifax from here. So it's come in handy a few times like that. And the time they had the big fire on Smokey, they did the waterbombing from here, off of this strip. 'Cause there was a brook down, just not too far beyond the other end of the runway. And they had a pump set up there. So they pumped it up, and we filled airplanes there with water. Of course, they had gas there in barrels, so we fueled them up there too. Then they had lunches there for the pilots that were flying them. So they did all the water- 'UBuinv' 4 Great Locations to Serve 1102 King's Rd. SYDNEY RIVER 567-1499 You 403 Charlotte St. SYDNEY 539-SUBS 326 Commercial St. NORTH SYDNEY 794-SUBS 130 Commercial St. GLACE BAY 849-SUBS 539-2945 • help for BATTERED WOMEN • transition house