Cape Breton's Magazine

during the war. About six months after the war, before I got out. I was a policeman. Shore Patrol you called it. (So, you wer? en't at sea?) No, I didn't go to sea with the Navy. I stayed ashore for five and a half years. I joined up in Halifax and they shipped me right down here on Shore Patrol. So, I got five and a half years home (in Cape Breton). (What was Shore Patrol?) That was a po? liceman, naval policeman. You had to be on duty, on your shift. (What was the job like?) Oh, good. Like everything else, you had to make it good for yourself. There were lots of fellas never got along with it. They were too strict, anyway. I always tried to give a cruy a break. Told them never to let me see them again, you know. Get them out of your way. That's the way I got along. A lot of fellas pick up a guy, take him in, bring him in front of the of? ficer, and then he landed over in Point Edward. You couldn't win a war by somebody locked up. That's what I believed in. after from 4 to 12 and backshift. That's where I'd end up, too, down the coke ovens chasing the fellas out of there. And up on the reserva? tion. Ah, mostly all the tough jobs got thrown at me. No sailors were allowed there. But still, you go up there, you'd be running everywhere'-you know, ( to) get clear of you. through the woods they'd be trying Nelga Beach • they had a big dance hall out there. A buddy of mine, he got killed out there. (They had) thrown him in the station wagon with a big bunch and he was under? neath. About twenty-five or thirty guys. When they got him in the dockyard he was dead. So many guys on top of him I guess.... (Who would you be picking up? Just drunken sailors?) Oh, yeah. Well, you had bounds. There were no sailors allowed down in the coke ovens them days. Down the Pier you could, but the coke ovens was out of bounds. And the Indian reservation was out of bounds. And all these dance halls in them days--certain ones were out of bounds, too. So this is what I was looking CHRYSLER Dodge vieep • Sales • Service • Parts • Leasing • Auto Body Repair 539-2280 TOLL FREE PARTS 1-800-665-5821 TOLL FREE SALES & SERVICE 1-888-388-2280 325 Welton Street • Sydney The Carpenters Hall was down on Dodd Street, there was always a dance down there. So we always had to take the wagon down there. At the Forum, they played hockey. We used to always go there. I al? ways got browned off {by "browned off" George seems to mean a combination of "chosen" and "angry") for all that stuff. I don't know why. There was the Army, and the Navy, and the Air Force, and when they'd get together they'd fight like dogs, them fellas. You had a hard job to keep them apart. The civilians--you always called the cops for them. A woman jumped me one time on the bus, called me all sorts of names. I put the cuffs on her and took her down the police station.... I always had a buddy. They put you out,... George Prosser Continues on Page 87 GOWRIE HOUSE • Country Inn QA'e a/te ??pen Jo/t tfce Season Fine Dining & Elegant Accommodation Reservations required/No minimum numbers 'inne/i Singk seating 7:30pm nig'i'y- '39.00 +Sfff3fp&tf;)moti 129 Sbite 92oaA fiudmu JAte (902) 544-1050 10