Page 90 - Estwood Davidson: Travels with Beattie and Winston

ISSUE : Issue 54

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1990/6/1

ferry) stopped at 12 o'clock. And we used to have to walk that frigging railroad bridge. And poor old Beattie used to go in her stocking feet, for to get across this railroad bridge. Of course, well, I'd have the amplifier, and Winston'd carry the gui? tar and the violin. And Beattie'd have something else. And that was a long bridge --that was a dangerous thing. And we'd get halfway across the bridge. And Winston and I'd have a few slugs. And we'd tell Beat- tie, by jumping, we'd believe we heard a train blowing way up around Boisdale or wherever the case may be. I said, "We'd better speed her up." Poor thing, she was going as fast as she could. But holy jimp- ing, the scrambling that we used to do to get across that frigging bridge. That was awful, when you come to think of it. I must tell you another one about--we were playing Glenville. And I was driving. And we had got a bottle in Sydney, and we opened it and took one drink. And there was a Mountie, I don't know--he was a kind of an evil type of fellow. So he laid for us behind the hall in Judique, you know. So, we went through there pretty fast. We would always be running a little bit late at night, on account of working all day ~ IHWBWFES Of LO'V'E ~ '.aa'.%. John D. Steele's Sons, Limited ROUGH stock, sawed AND POLISHED SLABS, FINISHED 32 William Street MONUMENTS 794-2713 NORTH SYDNEY, N. S. (after hours: 794-2002 & 794-3171) and then getting ready. But anyway, he came out and nailed us for speeding, and he found the bottle. I think we were the fastest thing that--the only other fast thing that went through Judique at that time would be Angus Beaton's horse! So, we weren't going that fast, but apparently he just wanted to nail us. So anyway, they caught us and that was it. And there was a magistrate in Port Hood-- holy jumping, he must have been 80 years old. So he said, "I'll let you fellows go in and plead here, so you won't have to come back way up here for this trial busi? ness." So we went in. And I pleaded guilty to the driving. Of course, I was driving, it was Winston's car. And Winston pleaded guilty to having the open liquor. So this fellow--holy jumping, he could hardly get around the hall. And after, he put the bottle on the table. And we were just about ready to go out, and I said to the old magistrate, I said, "How about selling us back that bottle?" I said, "We'll need it," I said, "at Glenville tonight." The Mountie said, "For God's sakes, get out of here," he said, "he'll put more charges against you!" What an awful thing to do, ask the magistrate!... (Tell me more about the audiences and how they'd react to you.) Well, I don't think we ever had a bad audience in our life. (Oh, come on--how can that be true?) What I mean--for to not give us hands, you mean? (Yes.) Oh, lord, we always seemed to please everybody, for some reason or oth? er. Oh, I suppose there'd be a few cranks who didn't like it. At the last of it, there used to be a lot of young people come up, wanting us to play rock-and-roll. And we said, "Oh, no, that's not our bag at all. We don't play that stuff." You know, things started to change. (Now, when you'd play, let's say, the Ve- netian Gardens....) Oh, beautiful place. WE HAVE INFORMATION ON YOUR PROPERTY - AND YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IT IS! We have over 20 pieces of information on every number you see on this map, and we have a number on every property in Cape Breton, Richmond, Victoria, and Inverness Counties. That means we have a number on every property in Cape Breton Island. " A SERVICE WORTH INVESTIGATING ~ Land Registration and Information Service Property Mapping and Records Division 66 Wentvwrth Street, Sydney, N. S. Bl P 6T4 CONTROL SYSTEM of concrete monuments for surveying BASE MAPS: Orthophoto for rural areas, Line Maps for cities, town, villages PROPERTY MAPS with boundary information and ownership information REGISTRY ASSISTANCE for govemment and private users Your Property Is Our Business • Ask Us About It TELEPHONE (902) 563-2280 or 563-2281 From BADDECK An Agency of the Council of Maritime Premiers

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