Page 8 - Dan Alex MacLeod: a Working Life

ISSUE : Issue 41

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1986/1/1

It didn't bother me. I guess I didn't have brains enough to bother me. I always fig? ure, when you're bom, your life is slated. You're supposed to be sitting there right now. The day you're going to die is there, too. I really believe that. I'm sure there's an answer to prayers. I'm certain of that. When I was in Terra Nova one time, I took 3 loads of lumber into Sydney, and I had double chains on the truck. To come up the mountain, I had to put the chains on. So I put them on the first two times. And then it was about 9 or 10 o'clock at night and I was getting tired, I started praying up at East Bay- that I wouldn't have to put the chains"on, that I'd get up the mountain--you know, it was all ice. I came up that mountain the same as if it was July, That's when I was sure there was an answer for prayer. Another time when I was sure there was an answer for prayers, that's when I moved to Loch Lomond. The winter of '41. It was, oh, terrible snow. And I had got a new truck. I had the boys cutting, and I had 7 loads of wood ready for to send to Sydney. And there was no way I could get out, And there was a bulldozer up on the mountain. I made 5 trips up there, snow up to here, to see if I could get him down. Terrible going up the mountain. And I finally got him, the 5th day, he said he'd come. $5,05 an hour. Can you imagine? Today a bulldoz? er like that's around $80 an hour. So, I got 7 loads into Sydney right slap bang, as soon as he opened the road. Without drawing any money. Then I got the cheque. I went up and cashed it, and I paid every? thing. And I came back and paid the boys. ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE OF CAPE BRETON Joe's Vferehouse The Food Emporium Cape Breton's Newest and Largest Restaurant SPECIALIZING IN AGED PRIME CUTS OF ROAST BEEF & STEAKS Se ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE SALAD BARS IN THE MARITIMES! (cabaretI OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 'TIL 3 A.M. Live Entertainment Nigiitly 424 Charlotte Street 539-6686 539-0408 RESTAURANT CABARET BANQUET FACILITIES ARE AVAILABLE (8) I had dinner in Sydney, which would only be maybe a dollar-something at that time. I had $2.60 left, but I could thumb my nose to anybody in Cape Breton as far as my credit was concerned. (You had prayed for that?) Oh yeah. Yeah. I prayed for that bulldozer, to get that road open. Night after night. My wife was saying, "You're crazy. You're killing your? self walking up over that snow, and it won't come," I said, "It's coming, don't you worry," (And you feel it's your prayers that did it?) Oh, I'm sure it was. (When you pray like that, do you do it pri? vately?) Oh, privately. I think that if you're out in your truck or walking the road or something and you pray, that's a lot more important than praying where some? body else is hearing you. It tells you right in the Bible to pray in private, (Was your family always like that, or is it just yourself that has that kind of feeling about prayer?) My parents before me, oh, definitely. My father died when I was a year old. But my grandfather--oh. I was brought up with my uncle and my grand? father. We were so poor, my mother had to go to the States to work, to send money home. Even if it was a fine hay day, and it was going to rain, my grandfather would have to pray and read the Book at dinner time and at breakfast time and at supper time. This is weekdays, that I'm talking a- bout reading the Bible. On Sunday, you couldn't clean the barn--I think that was a sin. It used to freeze up, and it was terrible to clean it on Monday. You couldn't haul water from the spring, nor you couldn't wash potatoes or herring, or read a paper--oh, that was a terrible thing, to read a paper, if you had one. Another thing. I used to walk from here to church, you know. When I got married first, I walked every Sunday to church. If you had a cent in the house, you put it in the collection, Monday you'd get it twofold, or Tuesday for sure. It never failed. QUALITY SOFT DRINKS SINCE 1905 AT THE PRICE THAT REFRESHES Pbp Factory irzuri McKinlay &Sons; Ltd. A COMPLETE partTsuphjes 262 BROOKSIDE 849-6644 GLACE BAY Eastern Hobbies &Craf; ts Good Selection of Yams, Including Patons Beehive, Jaeger, Lopi * Knitting Accessories Grumbacher Oil Painting Supplies Craft Supplies * Wedding 6e Anniversary Supplies Stamped Goods * Handcrafted Gift Items Renwick Place, 17 Commercial St. Glace Bay 849-5152 3471 Plummer Ave. New Waterford 862-8867

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