Page 14 - A Visit with Nan Morrison, Baddeck

ISSUE : Issue 47

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/1/1

them) courted me a few times. And when I got married, my sister said to him, "I bet you can't guess who's married." He said, "No, I'm not going to try to guess." She said, "Nan got married." "Well, I don't be? lieve that man ever got near her--even af? ter she was married!" He said, "I spent one evening with her at your house," he said, "and she even pushed the couch away from the wall, and she went underneath it!" And he wouldn't believe I was married. But I guess I was kind of scared of getting preg? nant , all right. (Well, take me back to the trip out to the woods. A young woman, three attractive men --you go off to the woods with them, to their cabin. It never entered your mind that you were putting yourself in a compro- The HIGH WHEELER SA Cafe . Dell . Bakery 295-3006 Good Eating IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN BADDECK There's no first place in the human race. mised position?) Never, never, never, with any of the boys down there, when I was growing up. We got back at 6 o'clock that night. We left at 4 o'clock in the morning. We had our dinner out there. Oh, beautiful day. It was Thanksgiving week--not Thanksgiving day--but Thanksgiving week--we went to a prayer meeting that night, the 4 of us. The whole bunch of us, of course--there was more than us went. Everybody was there. I've never known of another woman that did it. (Went out to the trappers' cabin.) You were doing it for the first time. You were going into a different world altogether-- all woods, and no houses around. (You had never done that before?) No. (And it wasn't common for women to do it?) No. I've never known of another woman that did it. And there was no other woman crossed that drift ice, either, or ice, whatever it was. (You know if we say that in the magazine, we'll hear from the 6 other women that went across on their hands--!) I mean on two crutches. I'm safe enough there! And it was only life or death that would make a person do it, I guess. /km color shouldn't give you a head start and nobody should be penalized because of physical or mental disability nor the sex they were born with... nor the God they pray tr nor the country they come from. . .nor the beliefs they nold nor the age they've reached... nor their source of income. But they are. Human Rights legislation in Nova Scotia makes it an offence to discriminate on any of these grounds and the Human Rights Com? mission will enforce that legislation. But the best protection against discrimination is you. Your under? standing and your attitude are the best guarantees that everyone gets an equal chance in the Human Race. Nova Scotia 'P*]' Human Rights JSC HEAD OFFICE REGIONAL OFFICES Commission (What is it that you had that would make you want to go out?) Out to the woods? (Yes.) Well, I suppose when they asked me that night, when they were playing cards, to go along with them--I probably mentioned that I would like to go, try it, see if I could go. And I suppose they dared me. I went. And I was waiting for them when they came to the door in the morning. (Were you often like this? Were you often bold like that?) Well, the doctor told me--he told my daughter--when I had my operation two years ago, "Your mother is the most determined woman I have ever known in my life. In fact," he said, "the most determined .person I've ever known." (Were you always a determined person?) I guess I must have been. (You mentioned the young men that took the girls home af? ter Christian Endeavour. You came out of the woods after your day to the camp, and went to a prayer meeting. Just how big a role did your religion play in your life?) We had prayer meeting the middle of the week. We had church three times on Sunday

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