Page 77 - With Archie Neil Chisholm or Margaree Forks

ISSUE : Issue 42

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1986/6/1

I coming to the point where we were getting drunk. I had around here the reputation of playing when I was very full, and they couldn't tell the difference. But Angus could not do that. He was more of an art? ist and was more sensitive, and after a few drinks, it got so that it was affect? ing his playing. But unless I was extreme? ly drunk, I could still play for a square set and get away with it, too. (But I don't quite understand. What did it do for you, supposing you couldn't dance? It wasn't going to give you legs to dance.) No. But that feeling of good fellowship. That feeling of being able to communicate, I was using it as a crutch at the time. Now I realize that I was thinking to my? self, Now I'm just as good as anybody, e- ven if I am crippled. I was asked by Fr. Webb to go down to Tal? bot House and tell my story. I went down. And the Sunday that I got down there, he told me, "I have quite a crowd in," he said, "and you're not going to probably en? joy talking to them, because a lot of them are badly hung over and in bad shape." I figured that my subject, at my age, could be: You can always make a comeback. Be? cause I was almost 60 when I graduated from college, 1967. After we married, I was teaching at Margaree Forks, without a degree. I had just my Grade 12, some sum? mer schools, and a year at Teachers Col? lege. But I was able to handle the high school subjects--that's what I was doing, and doing studying on my own. There was a fellow by the name of Al Casey. He's now supervisor of the Sackville schools in Halifax. I was teaching under Al Casey that year--he was principal. Al got coaxing me. He said, "I'm going to start taking Saturday classes at St.F.X." I went every Saturday for 5 years. I drove from here to Antigonish. And I spent all my summers there, all summer. And I got both degrees the same day--B.Ed., Bachelor of Education, and B.A. They made quite a fuss about it at the time, I was the old? est one that graduated and all that sort of thing. Even Time magazine had an arti? cle about it. So this was the subject that I was sup? posed to tell them at Talbot House. But I-- they were just sitting down, very dour, and all this sort of thing. I told them, "You people figure that you're feeling very miserable. And you are. I know it. I went through it all. There's not one of 24 HOURS A DAY If you're having trouble with drugs or alcohol, and you need help, please call: 539-7800 If You're Having Trouble with DRUGS or ALCOHOL, We're Here to Help! We Can Help with Detoxification, Short Term Treatment, Intensive Therapy, Outpatient Services, and Educational Awareness Programs, Right Across the Island Cape Breton Addiction Rehabilitation Centre A Service of the NOVA SCOTIA COMMISSION ON DRUG DEPENDENCY P. 0. Box 64, Sydney, Nova Scotia BIP 6H7 7 DAYS A WEEK If you need information about drugs or alcohol, please call: 539-7800 nlSllCG SI walUG ilOlllG llCICISiyj I A ' CAPE BRETON SHOPPING PLAZA - SYDNEY RIVER [['jQ'y'Q'j'Q 3 MAYFLOWE-R MALL - GRAND LAKE ROAD, SYDNEY The moreyoHloolL.. 'umoreyousave PORT HAWKESBURY SHOPPING CENTRE - PORT HAWKESBURY 'W??

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