Page 4 - With Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald

ISSUE : Issue 46

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/8/1

night. So we had them just about every night. The girls would come out on the wharf in the evening. And somebody'd suggest, "Go and get the violin." So, I was the only player at that time there, at White Point. And I'd get the old violin out, and some other chap would get an accordion, and we'd play turnabout. (Turnabout?) We very seldom played together. They had their New? foundland tunes, and of course I had the Cape Breton tunes. (So the dances would go to your rhythm, and then to the Newfoundland rhythm.) Yes. But the Newfoundland fellows had jobs some? times converting our girls into_ Newfound? land women. You know, a different speed, and they were faster. But they got used to them. After awhile they could dance the Newfoundland dances as well as they could with us fellows. We'd have a square set of Newfoundlanders. Then maybe while they were resting and hav? ing a smoke or something. White Pointers would get up. And the Smelt Brook people used to come down in the evening. There was nothing up there in Smelt Brook. Two and a half mile. They'd walk down and join us, you know, for the night. Probably you'd get 50 or 75 people out on the wharf in the evening there. Telling The HIGH WHEELER ,'SS, Cafe . Dell • Bakery tZ 295-3006 * IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN BADDECK stories. (Getting along?) Oh yeah, got a- long--never--I never remember having any trouble with them at all, at all. Greatest people in the world. Mannerly people. (It wasn't wild fishermen taking advantage of a little community.) No way. I saw as many as 15 or 20 at our homes. At my home,' anyway, and they'd visit at other homes too. But I saw as many as, yes, 20 at our home. Many's and many's and many's and many's a party we had at my home. God, yeah. The old captains, you know, they knew my fa? ther, he was harbourmaster. And they would come in there. Lots of liquor. Of course every fellow had a bottle when he came in. "Uncle George--give it to Uncle George." That was my father. They called him Uncle George. He'd take the bottle, put it over on the little cupboard in the living room. Oh, nobody had a bottle and sneak outside, no such a thing. And there were a couple of old captains there: Capt. John Best, and Joe Cox, and Capt. Strickland, and some more of them. And one of them would be the boss. Old Capt. John Best would be the boss. When he got up and went over and filled the tray up with drinks, they got a drink. The oth? er fellows--we wouldn't have furniture e- nough for them--would be sitting on the floor. And every one of them could sing--and good singers. Good songs, and good singers. And they would stay there all night. And if I was on oath, I would never, never remember Perhaps we can help... The Nova Scotia Department of Social Services provides a number of programs and services aimed at improving the quahty of life for our province's seniors. HOME LIFE SUPPORTS SENIORS' SPECIAL ASSISTANCE HOMEMAKERS SERVICES PROPERTY TAX REBATE RENTAL ASSISTANCE X HOMES FOR SPECIAL CARE If you would like further details or more information, please contact the Social Services office in your area or write: Nova Scotia Department of Social Services P.O. Box 696, Halifax, N.S., B3J 2T7 :x: Department of Social Services

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