Page 19 - A Visit with Max Basque, Whycocomagh

ISSUE : Issue 51

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/2/1

were short about that much. They had to be right level, for that $2. Then, 1920 we moved back. But 1921, we were in Malagawatch. Until these dead wa? ters froze over so they couldn't rake oys? ters any more. In the fall of 1921. We went back to Whycocomagh. And around Why? cocomagh there was a mission there. And I remember reading, Sam Glode mentioning Polycarp Martin. (See "Sam Glode: Travels of a Micmac" in Issue 35 of CAPE BRETON'S MAGAZINE.) Well, this father--a mission? ary, priest. He wore sandles, and a rope for a belt, and a long brown coat or what? ever. And he talked some Indian. But not as good as the one that used to be around here before, and he was still around here in 1923, Fr. Pacifique. This priest's name was Fr. Pelletier. Indians called him Kut- jinu Pelasi. And he couldn't talk Indian well enough, so he had this Polycarp Mar? tin as the interpreter. And I was 8 years of age then, and my broth? er was 10. And we studied catechism and our prayers in Micmac, so we could go to con? fession and receive our first Holy Commun? ion. So that's when we received our first Holy Communion, me and my brother Richard. Then we came back to Shubenacadie before Christmas. I remember my father and a storekeeper--we had a little store there, just one little old house there as you go into Whycocomagh. The first store you come into, coming from Hawkesbury, after th't road turns off to Orangedale. Well, there was quite a store there, and a shed. Dan Allan--Dan Allan MacDonald, I think it was--the storekeeper. But I remember we used to go to that store. It was just a little handier than going all the way to the village. And he was butchering a lot of sheep, and my father was helping him. And me and my brother Richard, we were helping too. They'd point out the sheep in this little yard: "Get that one." And me and my brother, we though it was great fun to go and jump in there and get this sheep. Had a good handhold on it; we'd pick it up. At least we had a lot of mut? ton, anyway. I suppose we'd get that. And the heads, we were skinning the heads. iviax's grandmother Anne Cope Sack, with her daughter Catherine Sacl(, circa 1905 And, at least my father made enough to-- time to come back to Shubenacadie. Because he had a job. And all this time we had a horse, but it was either out and somebody else was keeping it. 'Cause it was in Shu? benacadie- -I suppose my grandfather was looking after it. By that time we only had one horse. When we left Shubenacadie in 1919 to go to Lake Williams, had had a team up till then. And he sold one of them to Jimmy McGuire, back of Shubenacadie. what we call this Indian Road. So we just had that one horse, a mare. Some call it a Cape Breton pony. It was a great little mare. And we came back to Shubenacadie, and my father had a job cutting wood for the [|??-Tr(Q)WM BUILDING SUPPLIES 21 McKeen Street, Glace Bay Our Carpet & Paint Displays are all set up... Waiting For You! Our Hardware and Building Supplies are arriving daily. Come and visit us in our bright new surroundings. HARDWARE, BUILDING SUPPUES. CARPETS & VINYL FLOORING BENJAMIN MOORE PAINT, BONNEVILLE WINDOWS 'i9TsS:t?p • ,. 849-0047 849-1100 Funeral Home (In Business Since 1908) Three Generations of Service J. Michael Curiy - Mgr. 140 Main Street - Glace Bay Phone 849-7617 AMBULANCE SERVICE 849-2222

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