Page 76 - A Visit with Frank & Margaret MacRae

ISSUE : Issue 46

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/8/1

know, to go use the bathroom or something-- but you'd stay in bed. And they used to say it was very important to stay in bed, I think it was on the 9th day or something like that. That was the day that every? thing was supposed to go back into place inside. That's supposing you had been up the day before, then you should go back to bed that day. I think it was the 9th day. (What about preparation beforehand? Were there things you weren't supposed to do?) No. I was housecleaning. Sandy was born in May, and Kerr was born in May, and I was housecleaning--taking down curtains and putting up curtains and doing all those things. When Kerr was born, I guess it was, I'ntud'EtiedCliickeii CHICKEN CHALET LTD. FIVE LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU: SYDNEY SHOPPING MALL CB. SHOPPING PLAZA, SYDNEY RIVER STERLING MALL, GLACE BAY BLOWERS ST., NORTH SYDNEY PLUMMER AVE., NEW WATERFORD I made a wash in the morning, put it out on the line. Annie May (Margaret's sister) was going to come out and stay with me. So Frank went to get her that day, down to the Barachois. And there was so much snow on the Barachois that my brother came with a truck as far as the Barachois Bridge, but he couldn't get through the Barachois Mountain. And Frank went down with a horse and wagon and met him there, and took An? nie May out here. I had a wash out on the line, and I went out and took it in after Annie May came. I had set bread, and I was starting kneading the bread, and oh, by gosh, I started thinking something was going to happen. And I didn't say any? thing to them for a- while. Of course, if I'd dare mention it to him, he'd be off to get somebody right away. He wouldn't wait to see if it was real or not. So, anyway. Sure e- nough. Annie May wasn't here very long when I knew that, well, I guess we were going to have to get--I think it was Mrs. Fraser that came up. She was living down at the foot of the hill here, and she was sort of a practical nurse. So Frank went down and got her. I took the clothes in off the line. You had to have things ready for your bed and all that sort of thing. The doctor came here--he wasn't here more than an hour when the baby was delivered. He was saying to me, "You should have been having the ba? bies for all the wom? en around here!" Frank: I have a trap here, fox trap, and it's over 200 years old. My grandfather and my father were living at Middle Riv? er at the end of Lake o'Law. Now, that was before they came to North River. And my grandfather, he was very fond of trapping. Somebody told him there was a (76)

Cape Breton's Magazine