Cape Breton's Magazine

sea afterwards. I stayed ashore then. I got back on the Steel Plant. I got down the docks where I was a rigger. I hung on? to the job there, unloading ships. I ended up there till I was sixty-five, then they pensioned me. But I don't get no pension off the Plant. A hundred and eighty dol? lars. Twenty-six years and that's what I earned at the Steel Plant. I've been off twenty-seven years. I come off the Steel Plant when I was sixty-five and I went with the Commissionaires over in Point Edward, at the Coast Guard Col? lege. I was a Commissionaire till I was seventy-five. Adeline: Didn't something happen down at the coal piers, about a boat down there and you went down to fix it? George; Oh, yeah. That was the Toronto Light down the coal piers. My old man died, I had my old man over here. He's buried up East Broadway. He died, so I took a vacation. While I was on vacation, there was a watchman--he let the bloody boat sink. He was supposed to punch a clock there. It sunk. And they called me at the graveyard. I was at the funeral and they called me to go down to see what was up. It was sunk on the bottom. They took a pump out of her, and the big valve was froze. So that's what sunk the boat. The watchman was punching clocks there, but he was sleeping and punching clocks. He wasn't going around doing the job. They called me and I had to go down. I walked down twelve feet under water on a ladder to shut off the valve. We pumped her out then, once I got the valve shut off. Then I started up the pump and got out of there. Adeline: That's twelve feet under water. George: In them days that was big money. The chief engineer on the Steel Plant gave me twenty dollars to go walking down a ladder, twelve feet under the wa? ter. That was in April. Oh, that was cold. {George laughs.) That was cold. W. J. DOOLEY FUNERAL SERVICE LTD. • Peter V. Walsh • Joseph A. Walsh • Daniel P. Campbell 107 Pleasant Street, North Sydney, N.S. Telephone: (902) 794-3418 • Over a Century of Service • Great festivals and THE Guides that will GET YOU TO THEM. This year there'll be hundreds of festivals and events for you to experience and enjoy. And you won't want to miss any of them. The Stan Rogers Folk Festival returns to Canso, July 2-4. Nova Scotia's largest and oldest Acadian cultural festival. Festival Acadian de Clare, will be celebrated across the Municipality of Clare, July 7-11. And 1,500 living history enthusiasts will descend on the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site during Encampment '99, July 23-25. This year also marks Halifax's 250th birthday, join the celebration June 12 -July 4. Everything you need to be a part of the many festivals and events this summer, from I accommodations to ticket information, can be " found in your free Nova Scotia Vacation Planning Kit. Call for yours today. 1-800-565-0000 Ask for Operator#479 exploreNS.com