Page 14 - Dr. Austin MacDonald: How We Got the Hospital Down North

ISSUE : Issue 40

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1985/8/1

Leod. They sold him their fish, bought his products. If they needed stuff that he didn't have in his store, they could order it from Eaton's or Simpsons', or stores in Sydney--he would pay for it, and debit the books on their account, to that amount. Then they'd pay for it out of next year's fish. And that's the way it worked. When we went there in 1942, there were probably 40 families in the Cove, I had been to a lot of those houses to visit sick people, and had given them a good bit of medication and treatment out of the of? fice, and sent them the bills at the end of the month, and never saw a cent. I thought this was queer. One day in Septem? ber, I came in MacLeod's store--I was get? ting kind of poor by that time--lots of work, and no pay. Jack said, "Oh, I have a bunch of money for you here." He said, "The people here all have accounts in this store. When they need medical care, they get the doctor. They don't have to ask me, they get the doctor. When the doctor sends them the bill, they bring it to me, I deb? it their account with that amount, and I pay the doctor in cash." And he said, "I have $700 here for you." Or $730, or some fantastic sum like that, that I'd never heard of in my life before. So he paid me, and that's the way it went then. Until after the war, when the young men came back from overseas, they wanted to get rid of this system. And I think Mac? Leod was getting tired of it, too. So it came to an end about 1948, that is, the feudal system, and everybody went current from that time on. (You were telling me about the '30s.) Oh, I didn't finish that one. MacLeod happened to have some creditors who were very anx? ious to see him continue in business. And his brother, who was a doctor in Whycoco? magh, and I suppose fairly prosperous, as country doctors went. They got together, a group of them, and they refinanced him. And they put in a business manager with him until the store began, or the business started, to produce profit again. (But he did really go down in the '30s.) Yes. And that's what baled him out, was this group, of men--each one put up credit for him, you see, to get him started again. He had to quit giving out more than he took in. The business,manager saw to that. He didn't have the heart to do it himself, to the people that he considered dependent on him. So the business was saved. He couldn't save it. But his brother and this group of wholesalers did save it for him. Buchanan by that time was into politics. He had been a Liberal M.L.A. in the early 1920s, and he couldn't get that kind of consideration from these wholesalers. I don't know why. It probably had some polit? ical implications, but I don't know why. But he couldn't, anyway, so he went broke. He went out of business. And in 1937 the national park was established down there. That was established under a Liberal gov? ernment in Ottawa. And Gladdie, having been always a potent Liberal worker, he ?? was given the job of chief park warden in the new park. And it turned out he did a very creditable job in that thing over the years. So that's what he did for the rest of his working life. He was a warden in East Coast Kitchens "THE KITCHEN PROFESSIONALS' If you're building or buying a Settle packaged home, or remodelling your kitchen, don't settle for fOr 'lU' unfinished cabinets when you Qor'/'nH /'<' can have factory-built, factory- OtJUUr lU /' ' finished cabinets for the same Dpqf H price; or very little extra. LJtJot.. We specialize in quality lines of cabinets & vanities. At East Coast Kitchens you don't have to look close... the quality and beauty stand out! Drop in your plans or make an appointment for FREE DESIGNS AND ESTIMATES. HURRY NOW • NO COST OR OBLIGATION EAST COAST KITCHENS 87 Industrial Dr., Sydney 539-9682 (14) ' FESTIVALS AND EVENTS 1985 C Aug. 1-4 Harbour Fest '85, D'Escousse Aug. 4-11 St. Peters Come Home Week Aug. 7-11 Petit-de-Grat Acadian Festival Aug. 10-11 Hydroplane Races, St. Peters Marina Aug. 18 Family Sun-Day, St. Peters Battery Park Aug. 23 Johnstown Milling Frolic AuQ 29 -Sen 1 * River Bourgeois Annual Community Days Sep. 29 Louisdale Fall Fair RICHMOND COUNTY Located in southwestern Cape Breton, Richmond County offers its visitors 400 years of recorded history, miles of ocean shoreline, numerous lakes and rivers for fishing and canoeing, spectacular hiking trails, and country roads ideal for bicyclers. For hiking and day trip maps, contact: The Municipality of Richmond County, P. 0. Box 120, Arichat, N. S. BOE lAO

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