Page 15 - Isabel Bartlett Remembers George

ISSUE : Issue 43

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1986/8/1

house then. My sister owned the Inverary Inn then, and they'd send us up some over? flow. And they'd be coming around 5 and 6, and I'd have to be carrying suitcases. And I said, "I'm not putting my name in the tourist book this year, if you won't ask to get off at least at 6 o'clock!" So he finally did. And he only got one Sunday a month off for I don't know how many years. He worked 7 days. (Why did he stay at the job for 20 years?) He loved meeting people. He'd work for nothing if he could be meeting people, and coming home and telling me who he met, and what they said, all this sort of stuff. And he said, where would somebody like him? self get a chance to meet people that were significant in the life of the world? He met Dr. Spock, the fellow who wrote the baby books. We both met him. We were up to Sight Point and had an evening up there with him and his first wife. I liked him a lot. And somebody that I liked terrifically-- this activist--this Saul Alinsky. He came in our store one night. And I called George, I said, "George, that's Saul Alin? sky." "Oh, don't be foolish." He looked at him. I said, "Yeah, I've seen him on tele? vision, I'm sure that's Saul Alinsky." So George of course went and asked him, and it was. And he had been down to Keltic Lodge, and they wouldn't serve him because he didn't have a tie on, and all that. And then he wouldn't go to the coffee shop. So we had a lovely talk with him. (And why did George leave the gas station?) Well, George P. Fraser, he used to go to the garage and talk to George a lot, and told him he should be out on his own, work? ing. He should have a store or something like that. And there was somebody had a little dairy where our store is now, but it was separate from the other building, it was just a little narrow place. And it burned. So George P. said to George, "Why don't you start a store there?" So without talking to me or anything, George went and made arrangements to get that store. He told George P., "Ask Isabel how she wants it laid out"--be- cause I was always making plans--I thought another time I'd be an architect. I was always on graph pa? per. So I did it all out. He never did a dam thing that I wanted! And we rented it, up until we bought our part. We started because there was no other place open on Sunday, and there was no other place open on Wed? nesday afternoon, either here or in Whycocomagh. And they had the camp? ground up in Whycocomagh. My father had a little store in his house up here, up on the hill. And the people'd come from Whycocomagh Wednesday af? ternoon that would be desperate to gee something to eat. Everything was closed. They used to open two hours in the after? noon and two in the evening on Sunday • So, when we opened up, I knew the wholesal? ers because I had been doing the buying for my father up here. And then when my fa? ther died, my mother was there • I used to go up every day and run the store. So the wholesalers knew they could give me credit. But George cashed in his life insurance. And we bought a few things, and they gave us a bit of stock. But we had the shelves only on one side, and one can on the front of each shelf--nothing behind! And we went to work in the morning at 8, and we didn't get home till after 10. Not at all • I'd get up and perhaps make a stew in the pres? sure cooker and take it to work, and we'd have it down there around noon. That's why George hated to eat there • You know, some- GOOD PEOPLE SEA AND SHORE SERVICES INC. SHIPYARD SINCE 1840 At the crossroads to the gulf of St. Lawrence and the transatlantic shipping route SERVICES, REPAIRS, AND SUPPLIES TO FISHING TRAWLERS. IVIARINE AND OFFSHORE INDUSTRY. NORTH SYDNEY • CAPE BRETON ISLAND • NOVA SCOTIA • CANADA TELEPHONE: (902) 794-4741 TELEX: 019-35109

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