Cape Breton's Magazine

wonderful language go?" Now that was the last time I've heard the men? tion of the fall-away of what was the crux of the Waipu settlement, the Gaelic language.... And I think for a long time the whole thing nearly fell away. Jessie McKenzie. Daughter of AS a matter of fact, you know, I have to say it's the young people, and not necessarily the rel- ' ,' • ,..,.,. atives of the descen- ru?Tr;wnHr''''--l??ts (cf those Who fol- l'jller. lowed Rev. Norman McLeod), the direct de? scendants, who had resurrected the Scot? tish tradition. And they've done a wonder? ful job. Because many of the people who maintained a lot of the interest were scattered away. And then the Reunion in 1953 (celebrating 100 years since the Ga? zelle brought the first party of Nova Sco- '' A'edar House Bakery ''"' BA??v m and Restaurant 674-2929 RESTAURANT OPEN DAILY FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER bread • scones • oatcakes • cookies • pies ' TRANS-CANADA HWY NEAR SEAL ISLAND BRIDGE tia emigrants across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand), that started things. It generated the interest. Reacti? vated the interest again. But of course the preparation for the Re? union was a wonderful thing. The prepara? tions allowed for the first good compiling of the clans and their descendants. We all had to fill in, was a bit of kerfuffle • if you had any grandparent that came, or great-grandparent on either side • you know, that had to be recorded. And the building of the House of Memories. A chap that lived nearby us, a stonemason, came up and did the physical work. So I think again it got going with the reunion. 1953 saw a big revival.... (What would the Gaelic stories have been like here? Would they have been a mytho? logical type or would they have been real life situations?) Real life situations, and not even of life in the Highlands, but life in Cape Breton. The thirty years there made all the dif? ference.... In our case, I probably dwell a bit much on this, because it's obvious that the Mclnneses were officially bowmen. That is, it was their role in the centu? ries past. And the bowmen always walked behind the minister of the church. From our point of view, they carried that over to Nova Scotia, and to Cape Breton, I mean--in the form of being Normanites. The Mclnnneses definitely worked for nothing, but they were always with him. Now, we always understood that Mrs. Norman McLeod did not come with her husband to Pictou, but she was with the family of Markland coastal resort A small and beautiful resort right on the sandy ocean beach and back bay. Dunes, sea meadow, eagles, whales. Straddling the National Park. v-.ome for the beauty, stay for the service! Reservations: 1-800-872-6084 Voice (902) 383-2246 Fax (902) 383-2092 Winter Voice (902) 224-1840 Fax (902) 383-2324 Visit our WEB site http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/markland.resort Email: [email protected] Cabot Trail, P.O. Box 62, Dingwall, NS BOC IGO Canada